organised. The society was founded by students of the first Dutch medical school at the instance of their senior Wahidin Sudirohusodo. The idea was that the native intellectuals should take the lead in working for the educational advancement of the country. It turned out to be a cultural body, consisting mainly of civil servants and students from Java.
Boedi Oetomo soon became defunct and a more popular political society Sarekat Islam (Muslim Union) emerged. Sarekat Islam was formed mainly to fight against the economic power of the Chinese. But it gradually became a socialist and nationalist body. In it passed a resolution demanding self-government.
In two years its membership increased from , to two and a half million. Encouraged by the Russian Revolution of the communists within Sarekat Islam Outbreak of World War II and its Impact in Colonies attempted to gain control of the movement. As they failed, they left and formed the Indonesian Communist Party in . Party Politics Efforts at delegating powers to the local governments had already been initiated with the passage of a Decentralisation Law in .
Provincial councils were established in the following year. But the Indonesians played no part in the government. In view of the growing nationalist agitation the Dutch government created a People’s Parliament, Volksraad ( ) in Weltevreden, Batavia (Jakarta), Java, and this continued to function until . During the 1920s, the Communists and Sarekat Islam vied with each other in dominating the nationalist movement.
In this rivalry for leadership the communists were successful. They organised strikes which culminated in a big uprising in – in western Java and Sumatra. This was immediately crushed. Thousands were imprisoned and this caused a temporary setback to the Communist Party.
Around this time a young engineer named Sukarno organised the Indonesian Nationalist Party. This third party in the country was supported by westernised secular middle class. But in the police raided the headquarters of this party. Sukarno was imprisoned and the party he founded was dissolved.
Dutch Repression and Japanese