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AL-ALBAB Volume 7 Number 2 December 2018

BOOK REVIEW

Resistance and Change in West Kalimantan
THE KINGDOM OF SINTANG (1822-1942)
Yogyakarta: Penerbit Ombak, 2015.

By Helius Sjamsuddin

Reviewed By 
Bibi Suprianto
(Pontianak State Institute of Islamic Studies)

The presence of the book written by Helius Sjamsuddin shows the important 
of the studies of history in the academic atmosphere, not only global history 
but also local history in the studies of global history. By publishing the book 
entitled Resistance and Change in West Kalimantan THE KINGDOM OF 
SINTANG (1822-1942 the author tries to tell the world that such a remote 
area in the middle of the Borneo jungle has something very important to learn 
and share, the history of the Kingdom of Sintang in the context of Indonesian 
history of colonial time. The support by the Toyota Founation that the author 
got for the very important research project also indicates that the history of 
the Kingdom of Sintang has a significant influence in the Indonesian history, 
especially on the issue of resistance to the colonialism and social change within 
the Indonesian society. The author has provided a very interesting analysis 
and data collection supporting the book publication.

As mentioned by the author in Chapter One page 3, the book is intended 
to provide studies on understanding social and political changes happening 
in the long history of the Kingdom of Sintang.  It is important to provide 
the history of the Kingdom of Sintang without neglecting the existence of the 
neighboring kingdoms in the area since they must have had very important 
influences of the social and political changes. The author also mention in his 
book that the book is intended to get a more visible historiography of the 
Kingdom of Sintang based on a serious research project. The author tries to 
employ the descriptive-narrative approach in collecting the data and providing 
historical analysis.     

This 467 page book, despite its richness with historical data, is a very readable 
book for those who have interests in history studies in relation with the 
struggle of people who have religious background in doing struggle for their 
independent. This book is also based on socio-political perspective research 



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project that emphasizes on the participation of local people to the dynamics of 
political movement in Indonesia. As an important note, tThis book is part of a 
writer’s perspective (Helius Sjamsuddin), a scholar who as a strong interest in 
local history in Indonesia from the perspective of political sciences.