In What Ways Are Indonesian Nationalism and the Development of the Indonesian Language Related to Each Other?
Lin Fang-Ning 599987
Language and Power in Asian Societies ASIA10001
In what ways are Indonesian nationalism and the development of the Indonesian language related to each other? You can choose to look at this from a combination of different historical, political and/or social perspectives.
The Indonesian language had been used as an important symbol of unity during the expansion of the Indonesian nationalist movement. As Indonesia is famous for its great diversity of more than 200 major ethnic groups (Vickers 2005: 1) and 600 languages (Paauw 2009: 1), it was hard for the people of Indonesia to find an element that they all shared as ‘Indonesian’. The Indonesian language, or Bahasa Indonesia, the official national language of Indonesia, is a standardized version of Malay, and the choice of Malay as the national language to present the spirit of Indonesian has a variety of reasons. The link between the Indonesian nationalism and Indonesian language will be discussed in this essay in a combination of political, social, and historical perspectives from 1900 to 1949, which will be separated into three eras: the rise of Indonesian nationalism during the Dutch colonization period 1900 to 1942, the Japanese colonization period from 1942 to1945 when the desire of independence grew rapidly, and the Indonesian National Revolution period from 1945 to the final recognition of Indonesian independence by the United Nations in 1949. The idea of uniting the East Indian Archipelagos as one nation ofIndonesia did not appear till the middle of the twentieth century (Vickers 2005: 2), which explains why the choice of Malay as the national language has such significant meaning to Indonesian nationalism due to the lack of common tradition or cultural identities among the diverse Indonesian ethnic groups. The geographic boundaries of Indonesia nowadays were first set up by the Dutch as they combined the islands they conquered together as a single colony of ‘the Netherlands
Language and Power in Asian Societies ASIA10001
In what ways are Indonesian nationalism and the development of the Indonesian language related to each other? You can choose to look at this from a combination of different historical, political and/or social perspectives.
The Indonesian language had been used as an important symbol of unity during the expansion of the Indonesian nationalist movement. As Indonesia is famous for its great diversity of more than 200 major ethnic groups (Vickers 2005: 1) and 600 languages (Paauw 2009: 1), it was hard for the people of Indonesia to find an element that they all shared as ‘Indonesian’. The Indonesian language, or Bahasa Indonesia, the official national language of Indonesia, is a standardized version of Malay, and the choice of Malay as the national language to present the spirit of Indonesian has a variety of reasons. The link between the Indonesian nationalism and Indonesian language will be discussed in this essay in a combination of political, social, and historical perspectives from 1900 to 1949, which will be separated into three eras: the rise of Indonesian nationalism during the Dutch colonization period 1900 to 1942, the Japanese colonization period from 1942 to1945 when the desire of independence grew rapidly, and the Indonesian National Revolution period from 1945 to the final recognition of Indonesian independence by the United Nations in 1949. The idea of uniting the East Indian Archipelagos as one nation ofIndonesia did not appear till the middle of the twentieth century (Vickers 2005: 2), which explains why the choice of Malay as the national language has such significant meaning to Indonesian nationalism due to the lack of common tradition or cultural identities among the diverse Indonesian ethnic groups. The geographic boundaries of Indonesia nowadays were first set up by the Dutch as they combined the islands they conquered together as a single colony of ‘the Netherlands
Bibliography: Penders, C (Ed.) 1977, Indonesia: Selected documents on colonialism and nationalism, 1830-1942, University of Queensland Press, Queensland.