10.47313 CLUB AND POLITICS: THE TRANSFORMATION OF COLONIAL PUBLIC SPHERE IN THE COLONIAL CITY OF SURABAYA

CLUB AND POLITICS: THE TRANSFORMATION OF COLONIAL PUBLIC SPHERE IN THE COLONIAL CITY OF SURABAYA

Abstract

The historiography of early-twentieth-century Indonesia assigns great importance to
Batavia, the center of the Dutch colonial administration, for its role as the birthplace of
the Indonesian national awakening with the formation of Boedi Oetomo (BO, Lofty Intent)
on May 20, 1908. This paper argues that instead of progressing in a single direction from
Batavia onward, the early nationalist movement in fact occurred simultaneously in many
places at once, all over Java. An interesting and unique characteristic of Surabaya in this
context was the appearance of a club, the Panti Harsojo, which became a hub for social
and political activity among the native educated elite. Restricting its analysis to
developments in Surabaya and the formation of the Panti Harsojo, this paper offers an
account of political developments in Surabaya that are true to the unique character of
political development. The native awakening in Indonesia was thus a diverse movement,
giving rise to a range of phenomena in various locations