image source: kyotoreview.org
According to the Oxford Dictionary, the origin of Indonesia is from Indo- + Greek nēsos ‘island’. It refers to a South-East Asian country consisting of many islands in the Malay Archipelago. Indonesia has more than 17,000 islands, 300 ethnic groups, and over 700 living local languages.
The term ‘Indonesia’ was firstly introduced by a Scottish, James Richardson Logan in the Journal of Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia in 1850. It was used by other Western writers to designate a cultural zone in the islands or “Indian archipelago”, which included the Philippines.
The country was called Dutch East Indies until 1949. The Dutch named their colonial possessions Indië (the Indies). Europeans recognized two kinds of the Indies: Dutch West Indies which refers to Dutch Caribbean islands, and Dutch East Indies or Indonesia.
Initially, the Indies meant Java and a few ports scattered across the archipelago. Between 1850 and 1914 Dutch power engulfed over three hundred separate sultanates and communities and welded them into a single administrative unit called the “Netherlands Indies.” Subjects were called “Natives,” a legal category alongside “Europeans” and “Foreign Orientals” (local Chinese and Arabs), replacing the terms “Moor,” “Christian,” and “Heathen” used in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
‘Indonesia’ has become a political identity since Douwes Dekker, Ki Hajar Dewantara (Soewardi Soerjaningrat), and dr Tjipto Mangunkusumo came up with the idea of modern politic in Indische Partij (Indies Party). This idea then raised the political awareness and being united among Indonesians and Indonesian born Europeans, no matter their race, believes, or tribes.
Associations in the early years of the twentieth century identified themselves by geography and generation, such as “League of Sumatran Youth” and “Ambonese Youth.” As ideological identities developed, parties took the colonial unit as their geographic marker but opted for Logan’s “Indonesia” instead of the Dutch “Indies.” The first to do so was the Communist Party of Indonesia, founded in 1921. Opponents of the Dutch understood “Indonesia” as both a political and a cultural entity; they adopted as a common language a variant of Malay spoken in Sumatra, already widely used as a lingua franca, and called it the “Indonesian language” (Bahasa Indonesia).
The spirits of being united in the term of ‘Indonesia’ was successfully sustained. WR Supratman and Yo Kim Tjan, the owner of Populair music store in Pasar Baru, were collaborated to record ‘Indonesia Raya’ in 1927. The song was reduplicated in the UK.
A year later, a number of representatives of youth organizations opened The Second Youth Congress in the headquarter of Jong Katoliek Bond (Catholic Youth) in a cathedral complex. The congress was closed in Sie Kong Liong’s house in Jalan Kramat Raya 106. On Oct. 28, 1928, they issued the historic Youth Pledge (Sumpah Pemuda), whereby they vowed to recognize only one Indonesian motherland, one Indonesian people, and one Indonesian language. It was a landmark event in the country’s history and also is considered the founding moment of the Indonesian language. Sie Kong Liong’s house is now the Museum of Youth Pledge.
Following independence Indonesian place-names were substituted for the Dutch. Batavia became Djakarta; Buitenzorg, Bogor; and Borneo, Kalimantan. Indonesia designates the state established by Sukarno on 17 August 1945; for the period before 1945, it is used as a shorthand for the islands constituting today’s Republic. Since then, the term of ‘Indonesia’ was officially used. The Indonesian Language is designated as the national language and the ‘Indonesia Raya’ song has become the national anthem.
sources:
- Indonesia – definition of Indonesia in English | Oxford Dictionaries
- Asal-usul Nama Indonesia – Kompas.com
- Origin of the Name “Indonesia”
- Indonesia | Facts, People, and Points of Interest