The Maria Hertogh Riots

11 December 1950
When I Benadict was in Singapore touring , I witnessed a riot, the Maria Hertogh Riots. The riots broke out over the custody battle of a 13-year old girl , Maria Hertogh. Maria was born in Java in 1937 to Dutch Catholic parents. Maria’s parents were imprisoned during the Japanese Occupation, when she came under the care of a malay women, Che Aminah and her husband. They raised her as a muslim and named her Nadra.

In 1949, Maria’s mother, Adeline Hertogh came to claim her daughter back, but Che Aminah was not in Singapore and few days later when she heard that Che Aminah was back , she went and ask for her daughter but Che aminah refused to give them their daughter back as she did not have her own children and treated Maria as her own daughter. Hence, this case was brought up to the High Court.

Till then Maria was placed under the care of the social Welfare Department. In May 1950 court ruled that Maria should e returned to her biological parents . Che Aminah was not happy and she appealed . Two months later court ruled that Maria to be returned to Che Aminah. Maria then went through marriage ceremony with a malay teacher. November 1950 battle for custody continued and this time again court rule was to return Maria to her biological parents. This news was spread through newspapers . Reportes and photographers entered the convent where Maria was and took pictures of her. The court announced that Dutch law did not recognize the marriage as Maria was underage. Furthermore her natural father’s consent was not obtained.

This upset the Muslim community as they felt that Muslim law was not respected. Aminah appeals again and gets rejected . Supporters of Aminah that the British were taking sides of the Dutch . They started a riot , any Europeans and Eurasian in sight were attacked , cars were overturned and burnt. The riots went on for three days . A curfew was imposed . This came under control on the third day , about 18 people were killed and 173 injured.


In my opinion I think that everyone was equally at fault and should be accountable for the riot , but the main people who should be blamed are the Muslim community and the Japanese . The Japanese are the ones who have created these problems firstly by arresting Maria’s parents . This made Adeline having to leave her daughter with Che Aminah as she could not have possibly raised Maria in the jail . when the judge ruled that Maria was to be returned to her natural parents and did not accept the marriage there was no reason for the Muslim to feel bad in this as Maria was underage to be married. For this they felt disrespected and started riots killing many innocent people who had no relation with this matter. So they are responsible for this riot.