“Wait a minute, isn’t that India?” You can be forgiven for thinking it is the wrong country, and, in truth, a number of countries of Southeast Asia and the Indian Subcontinent use a variation of this word in reference to their currency, from the Indian and Pakistani rupee through the Maldivian rufiyaa to today’s subject – the Indonesian rupiah.
Naturally, each country’s currency has its own individual story, but first, let’s look at what ties them all together: the name.
While Indonesians have the rupiah, there is virtually nothing Indonesian about the word itself. Though it has been used as a national currency for 70 years and a variation, the rupee, has been minted locally since the 1700’s, the word itself has been, like with the other aforementioned regional currencies, imported from Hindi (rūpaya).
Originating as the Sanskrit rūpya, the word literally means ‘wrought silver,’ with a connotation of being stamped or pressed with an image or likeness, suggesting a coin.
As for why and how the rupiah became the national currency, that is the result of the Dutch and the Japanese. Arriving in Indonesia in 1600, the Dutch, among other currencies used, introduced a notional currency for the area, which became the Netherlands Indies Guilder (guilder is the English translation of the Dutch gulden currency, which itself is shortened from the Middle High German guldin pfenninc ‘gold penny.’) However, as is shown in a 1914 quote by Arthur Walcott from Java & Her Neighbours, there has been some link in the languages: “Drivers, porters, and coolies generally speak of the guilder as a ‘rupiah’ and of a half-guilder as a ‘stengah.’”
By the beginning of World War 2, the guilder was widely accepted in Indonesia, so, when the Japanese invaded and sought to establish themselves on Indonesia, guilder banknotes were issued under the sovereignty of the Japanese government.
As the tide turned in the Pacific in 1944, the Japanese, attempting to stir nationalistic sentiment (and gain local allies in Indonesia), introduced a currency in Indonesia using, instead of the Dutch guilder banknote written in Dutch, the “roepiah,” written in the Indonesian language.
Though the Dutch eventually regained Indonesia from Japan, the damage to the Dutch colonial economy and presence had already been done, culminating in the first issue of the independent Indonesian rupiah in 1946. And the next year’s Encyclopedia Britannica Book of the Year recorded the value of the currency: “The new Indonesian republic on Oct. 30 [1946] began the issue of its own currency, the rupiah, and on Dec. 1 declared its value to the U.S. Dollar. “
