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| 2. Indonesia (Netherlands East Indies) |
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(See 1912)| |
| 1910s and 1920s |
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| A battle raged over religious reformism. Traditionalists (santri) founded modern Islamic schools and modern organizations, especially the Nahdatul Ulama (founded 1926), to be used against the modernists. Modernists pulled back from more extreme secularist and Islamic reformist positions. | 1 |
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| 1916–18 |
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| A legislative council (Volksraad) was created and met, finally, in 1918. Composed of 24 nominated and 24 elected members, the latter were chosen by local councils. Ethnically there were 30 Dutchmen, 25 “East Indians,” and five members of other groups (Chinese, et al.). This body was given advisory powers in budgetary, military, and other matters. | 2 |
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| 1921 |
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| Two movements created that were internationalist in orientation: the PKI, or Indies Communist Party (Perserikatan Komunis di India), joined the Comintern. At much the same time, Muslim socialists gained control of the Sarekat Islam Party (SI), forcing the PKI out, and, as a counterweight to the Communist movement, they supported the pan-Islamic movement of the time, focusing on restoration of the Ottoman caliph as leader of all Islam. (This movement was thus connected to the Khilafat movement under way in India.) | 3 |
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| 1922 |
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| The Volksraad became a genuinely legislative body when its assent was made obligatory for all government ordinances. | 4 |
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| 1925 |
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| The entire administrative system was overhauled, and in 1929 it was decreed that in the future the Volksraad should have 30 “East Indians” (out of the total 60). | 5 |
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| 1926 |
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| A revolt emerged in scattered areas, led generally by local PKI members. The government repression that followed broke the PKI for the next generation, and left the SI with only the lost cause of the caliphate. | 6 |
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| 1927–28 |
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| A new idea of Indonesia emerged out of this wreckage. Small groups led by Achmed Sukarno founded the PNI, the Indonesian National Party (Partai Nasional Indonesia). In Oct. 1928, the congress of youth organizations created an ideological slogan that showed the tenor of this great leap of the imagination: “One nation—Indonesia, one people—Indonesian, one language—Indonesian.” | 7 |
| Connected to these developments was the emergence of a national language and its own literature. “Revolutionary Malay” was the home language of only a few scattered peoples, thus giving it the political advantage of belonging to no one. Since this language had served as the argot of both commerce and Islam for centuries across the entire archipelago, it also belonged to everyone. It possessed flexibility, a “democratic” character (because it lacked elaborate status distinctions), and a simplicity that made it possible to introduce modern terms and concepts. This language was renamed “Indonesian,” and literary works in the language began to appear in the 1920s. Writers, especially those connected to the government-run publishing house Balai Pustaka and to the literary journal Pudjang Baru, actively developed literary Indonesian. Most of these writers, however, were Sumatran; Javanese and others found it more difficult to write creatively in the national language. | 8 |
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| 1930s |
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| The National Indonesian Party emerged in this period; in 1937 the Volksraad unanimously petitioned the Dutch government to grant dominion status within ten years. | 9 |
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| 1940, April 15 |
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| Japan announced that should hostilities in Europe be extended to the Netherlands, Japan wished to see the status quo in the Netherlands East Indies preserved. | 10 |
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| 1941, June 18 |
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| Japan broke off negotiations with the Netherlands East Indies for an economic accord. | 11 |
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| Dec. 8 |
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| The Netherlands government in exile and the Netherlands East Indies declared war on Japan. | 12 |
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