The history of Indonesia has been shaped by its geographic position, natural resources, a series of human migrations and contacts, wars and conquests, as well as by trade, economics and politics. Indonesia is an archipelagic country of 17,000 to 18,000 islands stretching along the equator in Southeast Asia. The country's strategic sea-lane position fostered inter-island and international trade; trade has since fundamentally shaped Indonesian history. The area of Indonesia is populated by peoples of various migrations, creating a diversity of cultures, ethnicities, and languages. The archipelago's landforms and climate significantly influenced agriculture and trade, and the formation of states. The boundaries of the state of Indonesia match the 20th-century borders of the Dutch East Indies.
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence of nations and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, especially with the aim of gaining and maintaining its sovereignty (self-governance) over its perceived homeland to create a nation-state. It holds that each nation should govern itself, free from outside interference (self-determination), that a nation is a natural and ideal basis for a polity, and that the nation is the only rightful source of political power. It further aims to build and maintain a single national identity, based on a combination of shared social characteristics such as culture, ethnicity, geographic location, language, politics, religion, traditions and belief in a shared singular history, and to promote national unity or solidarity. Nationalism, therefore, seeks to preserve and foster a nation's traditional culture. There are various definitions of a "nation", which leads to different types of nationalism. The two main divergent forms identified by scholars are ethnic nationalism and civic nationalism.
Hindutva is a political ideology encompassing the cultural justification of Hindu nationalism and the belief in establishing Hindu hegemony within India. The political ideology was formulated by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1922. It is used by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other organisations, collectively called the Sangh Parivar.
Religious nationalism can be understood in a number of ways, such as nationalism as a religion itself, a position articulated by Carlton Hayes in his text Nationalism: A Religion, or as the relationship of nationalism to a particular religious belief, dogma, ideology, or affiliation. This relationship can be broken down into two aspects: the politicisation of religion and the influence of religion on politics.
Sukarno was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967.
Priyayi was the Dutch-era class of the nobles of the robe, as opposed to royal nobility or ningrat (Javanese), in Java, Indonesia. Priyayi is a Javanese word originally denoting the descendants of the adipati or governors, the first of whom were appointed in the 17th century by the Sultan Agung of Mataram to administer the principalities he had conquered. Initially court officials in pre-colonial kingdoms, the priyayi moved into the colonial civil service and then on to administrators of the modern Indonesian republic.
Indian nationalism is an instance of territorial nationalism, which is inclusive of all of the people of India, despite their diverse ethnic, linguistic and religious backgrounds. Indian nationalism can trace roots to pre-colonial India, but was fully developed during the Indian independence movement which campaigned for independence from British rule. Indian nationalism quickly rose to popularity in India through these united anti-colonial coalitions and movements. Independence movement figures like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru spearheaded the Indian nationalist movement. After Indian Independence, Nehru and his successors continued to campaign on Indian nationalism in face of border wars with both China and Pakistan. After the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971 and the Bangladesh Liberation War, Indian nationalism reached its post-independence peak. However by the 1980s, religious tensions reached a melting point and Indian nationalism sluggishly collapsed. Despite its decline and the rise of religious nationalism; Indian nationalism and its historic figures continue to strongly influence the politics of India and reflect an opposition to the sectarian strands of Hindu nationalism and Muslim nationalism.
Indonesians are citizens or people who are identified with the country of Indonesia, regardless of their ethnic or religious background. There are more than 1,300 ethnicities in Indonesia, making it a multicultural archipelagic country with a diversity of languages, culture and religious beliefs. The population of Indonesia according to the 2020 national census was 270.2 million. 56% live on the island of Java, the world's most populous island. Around 95% of Indonesians are Native Indonesians, with 40% Javanese and 15% Sundanese forming the majority, while the other 5% are Indonesians with ancestry from foreign origin, such as Arab Indonesians, Chinese Indonesians, Indian Indonesians, and Indos.
The Investigating Committee for Preparatory Work for Independence, sometimes referred to as the Investigating Committee for Preparatory Work for Indonesian Independence, was an organization set up in March 1945 by the Japanese military authority in Java during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies as the initial stage of the establishment of independence for the area under the control of the Japanese 16th Army. The BPUPK held two plenary meetings; the first was from 28 May to 1 June 1945 and the second was between 10 and 17 July 1945.
Greater Indonesia also Known as Indonesian Irredentism was a political concept that sought to bring the so-called Malay race together by uniting the territories of Dutch East Indies with the British Malaya and British Borneo. It was espoused by students and graduates of Sultan Idris Training College for Malay Teachers in the late 1920s, and individuals from Sumatra and Java, including Mohammad Natsir and Sukarno, on September 28, 1950. Indonesia Raya was adopted as the name of what later became the Indonesian national anthem in 1924. While the definition of Greater Indonesia is consistent, the definition of Greater Malay and related concept of Malay world and realm are varied from the synonym of Greater Indonesia to Peninsular-focused dominance.
The Indonesian National Awakening is a term for the period in the first half of the 20th century, during which people from many parts of the archipelago of Indonesia first began to develop a national consciousness as "Indonesians".
Bangladeshi nationalism is an ideology that promotes the territorial identity of Bangladeshis. The ideology emerged during the late 1970s, popularized by former Bangladesh President Ziaur Rahman. The history of nationalism in the country dates back to the colonial era, when the region started witnessing anti-colonial movements against the British Empire. Soon, a sense of religious nationalism began to emerge which was later revolutionised into ethnolinguistic nationalism. Following independence of Bangladesh in 1971, leaders like Ziaur Rahman began to promote Bangladeshi nationalism which was based on territorial attachment of Bangladeshis. Politically, Bangladeshi nationalism is mainly professed by the center-right and rightist political parties in Bangladesh, led by Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies, was a Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which declared independence on 17 August 1945. Following the Indonesian War of Independence, Indonesia and the Netherlands made peace in 1949. In the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, the Dutch ceded the governorate of Dutch Malacca to Britain, leading to its eventual incorporation into Malacca (state) of modern Malaysia.
The Indonesian Political Federation was an umbrella organization of various nationalist organizations in the Dutch East Indies which existed from 1939 to 1942. Founded to unite the nationalist movement, GAPI championed the creation of an Indonesian parliament in exchange for cooperation with the Dutch colonial government. The federation consisted of eight political parties. GAPI was dissolved shortly after the invasion of the colony by the Empire of Japan in 1942.
The Volksraad was an advisory, and later semi-legislative institution for the Dutch East Indies, provided for by law in 1916 but only established with the actual installation of the Council in 1918. It was a hesitant and slow attempt at democratisation of the Dutch East Indies as part of the "ethical policy" adopted by the Dutch government. The power of the Volksraad was limited as it only had advisory powers. Although part of the council was elected, only a small proportion of the population had voting rights.
The East Sumatra revolution, also known as the East Sumatra social revolution, began on 3 March 1946. Across 25 "native states", many sultanates were overthrown and mass killing of members of the aristocratic families were performed by armed pergerakan groups. To the opportunistic pergerakan militants, the revolutionary movement was seen as one of the means for East Sumatra to be freed from colonial overlordship and to join the larger Indonesian National Revolution. Participants of the revolution were believed to be provoked by leaders to kill aristocrats and create violence. These belligerents had three prime objectives: to eliminate the sultans and aristocrats, to seize their wealth and to eliminate the region's feudal social structure. The revolution brought about the formation of the State of East Sumatra, which was dissolved when the region became part of the Indonesian republic.
Persatuan Muslim Indonesia, also abbreviated as PERMI, was a political party espoused Islamic-nationalism based in Padang Panjang, founded in 1930. The party was dissolved due to the crackdown by the Dutch East Indies colonial government in 1937. PERMI is regarded as a political party active against the colonial repression by the Dutch. Unlike other political parties, PERMI was unique in its embracing of both political Islam and nationalism and placed them two in a parallel position.
The Indonesian People's Movement, better known as Gerindo, was a left-wing and nationalist political party in the Dutch East Indies which existed from 1937 to 1942. It had modest goals and was largely cooperative to the colonial administration. More strongly anti-fascist than anti-colonialist, the party sought to support the colonial government in opposing fascism, especially Japanese fascism.
Pancasila is the official, foundational philosophical theory of Indonesia. The name is made from two words originally derived from Sanskrit: "pañca" ("five") and "śīla".
Nasakom was a political concept coined by President Sukarno. This concept prevailed in Indonesia from 1959 during the Guided Democracy Era until the New Order, in 1966. Sukarno's idea of Nasakom was an attempt to unify various political ideologies. Nasakom attempted to unite the nationalist, religious, and communist groups that at that time had the most power in Indonesian politics.
