At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the pilgrimage to Mecca became of great interest to Dutch colonial authorities, who used all means to prevent it, or at least minimize its significance and reduce the number of Muslims traveling to Mecca each year to perform Hajj. In the second half of the nineteenth century, the pilgrimage of Indonesian Muslims to Mecca became a problem for the Dutch colonial authorities, particularly after the influence that a visit to Mecca had on the thinking and behavior of Indonesian pilgrims, who would go on to launch nationalist uprisings. This study begins by looking at the stature of Hajj for Muslims in Indonesia and the factors that gave it particular extra-religious significance. The author provides some statistics which demonstrate the great enthusiasm of Indonesian Muslims for Hajj, and the concomitant religious motivations for the pilgrims, in addition to the enhanced social prestige of those who completed the journey. The author then moves on to explore the hostility of the Dutch colonial authorities to the Hajj, and the measures which they took against Muslims in Indonesia to prevent them going to Muslim holy sites in the Hejaz.