Budi Utomo

Budi Utomo (also Boedi Oetomo; "Pure Endeavor") was the first native political society in the Dutch East Indies. The founder was a pensioned government doctor who felt that native intellectuals should take the lead. The society held its first congress in May 1908.[1] The congress was a gathering of students in a government-run schools on Java. The first leader was Dr. Wahidin Soedirohoesodo, but by the organization's first major gathering in Yogyakarta in October 1908, he stepped aside for younger organizers.

The membership was a very high class of natives, government officials and intellectuals, confined very largely in Java and the Javanese. The furtherance of popular education became the main activity. Few branches expanded the activity into native commerce and industry. Tjipto Mangunkusumo, who would later found the more radical Indische Partij, expanded the scope of the society to include more working classes, and also the rest of the Indïes outside of Java.[2] The organization enjoyed a rapid growth; in 1910 the society had 10,000 members enrolled in 40 branches.[1] At the same time, it received official recognition form the colonial government.

Budi Utomo's primary aim was first not political. However, it gradually shifted toward political aims with representatives in the Volksraad (the People's Council) and in the provincial councils in Java. Budi Utomo officially dissolved in 1935, but it has marked the first nationalist movement in the early Twentieth century. After dissolution, some of the members joined the more moderate political party of the Greater Indonesian Party (Parindra).

Notes

^ a b cf. Vandenbosch (1931).
^ Indïes was the popular term coined by the Dutch East Indies government to indicate the inhabitants of the Netherlands East Indïes.

References

Kahin, George M. 1952. Nationalism and revolution in Indonesia. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Amry Vandenbosch (1931). "Nationalism in Netherlands East India". Pacific Affairs 4 (12): 1051–1069. doi:10.2307/2750579.

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