The great national awakening....

Arts & Culture History
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Today is the Independance day of Indonesia.

The story of the great Indonesian revolution is an epic struggle and one that is important as an example to many people of the courage and determination of the Indonesian people to be free. It was one of the greatest revolutions of the 20th Century and one cant help but compare the actions of the East Indians to our own Subcontinentals.

In 1945 Japan surrendered on August the 15, the World celebrated peace and the end of the second world war, for Indonesia its struggle was just begining.

In the 18th and 19th Century the East Indies were as they are today, a mass of Islands over 5000 in number scattered across the South China and Pacific waters. These Islands were part of the colonial settlements of several Western powers, the three biggest being the British, the Dutch and the Portugese. However by the late 19th Century the Dutch East India company was the most powerfull of the three and controlled most of what is today the Indonesian archapeligo.

With the onset of World War two the Dutch lost thier colonies to the ferocity of the Japanese empire and thier homeland fell under the Nazi yoke… for a nation to suffer such loss of freedom one would have expected better from them, but as fate would have it after the War the status of Indonesian Islands was handed back to the Dutch as part of thier “Empire”.

This enraged the citizens of the Archapeligo and thus began the great struggle for freedom, in the next posts I will discuss the revolution and its important and key role players.

Its history makes an interesting parrellel to our own India and Pakistan post war scenario but unlike the Subcontinent, Indonesia did not break up, it did not simply accept the decisions of the foriegn powers and more interestingly the Indonesian people fought back, and won a superb campaign.

A campaign in which Muslims, Hindus, Christians and other faiths fought side by side to create a unique secular nation that had Islamic values and principles at its heart and which became in the early years a shining example of an Asian nation that had defeated several of the best Western powers including Britian, France, Portugal and the Dutch empire.

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Re: The great national awakening…

Great nation. May be they could achieve all that because they follow the true spirit of Islam instead of self praising them with title like ‘Fort of Islam’ and all that :bummer:

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Re: The great national awakening....

interesting, will wait for your posts on this topic.

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Re: The great national awakening....

@ Muqawwee123, your right Indonesia is truly a great nation and I reccomend everyone tries to visit there at some point becuase its heartbreakingly beautifull country and the people are so friendly and respectfull.

@ Ali_Syed, thankyou for you interest.

Now to continue with the stoy of Indonesian independance.

In 1945 the Japanese surrendered and signalled an end to the Second World War. In Indonesia at that time there was a very interesting political climate as hundreds of different national, racial and religous parties and groups operated and vied for support of the people. Since the Japanese rule had been largely one of autonomy for the Islands the Indonesian people as a whole enjoyed a lot of freedom during the War years, Japan had siezed the Archapeligo from European colonists in an almost Blitzkrieg fashion with the British and Dutch empires defeated within days.

But with the end of the War the European colonial powers returned and the Japanese were forced to ship back home and accept defeat, they would no longer play an active role in the future of the Islands they had temporarily held. However crucially many Japanese commanders and senior officials left some crucial assets behind which would later greatly help the native people of the Indonesian Archapeligo achieve freedom.

The Indonesian people were at that time looking forward to a possibility that they would be able to choose thier own future and many allready began selecting thier candidates for potential election. There were many hopefulls and all walks of life were trying to take power through the democratic process. There was the Communists and Marxists groups like Merah party (red Party), the Islamic parties like the Muhammadiya group and Muslim league and Serakat Islam as well as various local rulers "Rajah's" and many foriegn educated middle and upper class political figures.

As it was the first Indonesian democratically elected Council was made up of three main groups. The largest group was Serakat Islam. Indonesia has one of the largest if not the largest Muslim Population of any Country and Islam has been present since at least mediaval times. Islam is the dominant religion in 3 of the 4 main Indonesian Islands. The Second group was the Indonesian Communist party who enjoyed a lot of support from the Peasant masses and whos largely secular and left wing messages had appeal to a lot of people from different castes and creeds. The third group was of Dutch Educated middle and upper class citizens who wanted self rule and had been adminstrators during the Japanese occupation.

The Japanese during the war had allready promised the Indonesians would be free and the Japanese prime Minister Kioso even garunteed Indonesian freedom if the nationalists supported the Japanese cause, the Japanese were defeated before they could organise any serious collective force. Also the Japanese never got a chance to set a date for Indonesian freedom and as it was the British were the first to land on Java and accept the Japanese surrender.

Japan surrendered on August the 15th and on the 17th the Indonesians declared thier independance. The newly elected President Ahmed Sukarno and vice president Mohammed Hatta gave this proclamation.

                                                                           "We the People of Indonesia, hereby declare the independance of Indonesia. 
                                                                            Matters which concern the transfer of power and other things will be executed 
                                                                            by carefull means and in the shortest possible time.

                                                                            Djarkata, 17 August 1945

                                                                            In the name of the people of Indonesia."

(translation by the ministry of foriegn affairs 1948)

The British however did not accept this declaration and the Dutch also rejected it which naturally angered the people of Indonesia and so a clash was innevitable.

The British empire was the first to arrive on the scene as it were, and they were also the first to face the full onslaught of the Indonesian Nationalist forces. The Indonesians had no formal army at the time but in the weeks running up to the confrontation both sides geared themselves up for war and in the next post I will detail that struggle.

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Re: The great national awakening....

Interesting. As Indonesia got Rupee currency, there was also a Muslim League there

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Re: The great national awakening…

Iske baad kia huwa :hmmm:

I’m hooked

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Re: The great national awakening....

The simmilarities between Indonesia and our own Subcontinent are startling.

Fact is the Subcontinent was a single land mass, all the people were living on the same country as it were, and still they could not stick together and division ultimately ruined everyone as one nation was cut up into many pieces.

Indonesia consists of several Islands of which the four main ones were Java, Sumatra, Bali and Sulawesi at that time. Despite the differences in education, belief and culture between each of the Islands the people fought and operated as one nation and one unit.

During the War Indonesia suffered terribly and was forced to fight a long and bitter guerilla war but still the people stuck together and ultimately triumphed.

Indonesia today has almost doubled in size since it was first created on the World map and its people continue to live together and while there are divisive issues the country has largely remained intact despite all its had to face.

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Re: The great national awakening....

But Faris.. What do you think were the factors that divided sub-continent into pieces (partitioned), when every one was fighting for freedom together till 1920s?

Some people say that India was never united even before British Government. How do you see this argument and was the situation was same in India before foreign interference. I mean how were different islands were ruled before foreigners?

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Re: The great national awakening…

I agree with the bit in bold, India was divided before the British came but the British made gaps into canyons. :cb:

As for Indonesia they too were divided before the Colonials came, for example some Islands had completely different religious and ethnic groups… but the Western powers went too far and as I will detail in later posts it was the actions of the Westerners that caused the Indonesians to rally and fight together.

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Finger crossed to see how foreign interference lead to local unity. People give example of Jaliyanwala Bagh for unity of Muslim-Non-Muslim unity in Indian freedom movement, but all of sudden things changed at demands came for separate state for Muslims. I think British were successful in creating trust deficit in sub-continent