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ABSTRACT
Despite numerous works of Kartini as Indonesia’s most famous feminist icon, hardly any deep study investigated how Kartini was remembered in the first years of Indonesia’s independence. This study aims to examine how Indonesians celebrated Kartini Day during the Indonesian Revolution (1946–1949), by using print media in Indonesian, Dutch and English from that period. This study argues that for Indonesian nationalists at that time, commemorating Kartini Day was of paramount importance to encourage women empowerment based on the Indonesian nation-state concept. The commemorations were held in many places in Indonesia and were attended by numerous people from different walks of life. During the commemorations, Indonesian women were persuaded to adopt new roles in that era, namely as devoted Indonesian citizens who should contribute to the new country, especially in the field of women empowerment, community service, political participation and war effort. However, Indonesian women were criticised for still being Dutch-oriented and interpreting their freedom way too far. These findings indicate that during the Revolution, the commemorations of Kartini Day was urgently needed by the Indonesian nation-state as a momentum to promote Indonesian nationalism among women and encourage women’s participation in the nation-state building process and in the Dutch-Indonesian conflict.
Acknowledgement
I would like to express my thanks to the Deputy Editor and two anonymous reviewers of the original version of this paper for their constructive comments and suggestions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Some of them are: Joost Coté, Letters from Kartini: An Indonesian Feminist, 1900–1904 (Melbourne: Hyland House and Monash Asia Institute, Monash University, 1992); Joost Coté, On Feminism and Nationalism: Kartini’s Letters to Stella Zeehandelaar, 1899–1903 (Clayton: Monash Asia Institute, 2005); Joost Coté, Kartini: The Complete Writings, 1898–1904 (Clayton: Monash University Publishing, 2014); Michael Hawkins, ‘Exploring Colonial Boundaries: An Examination of the Kartini-Zehandelaar Correspondence’, Asia-Pasific Social Science Review 7, no. 1 (2007): 1–14.
2 Jean Stewart Taylor, ‘Raden Ajeng Kartini’, Signs 1, no. 3 (1976): 639–61; Jean Gelman Taylor, ‘Kartini in Her Historical Context’, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 145, no. 2/3 (1989): 295–307.
3 Michael Hawkins, ‘Life and Times: The Temporal Habitations of R.A. Kartini’, Kronoscope 14 (2014): 35–50.
4 Grace V.S. Chin, ‘Ambivalet Narration: Kartini’s Silence and the Other Woman’, in Appropriating Kartini: Colonial, National and Transnational Memories of an Indonesian Icon, eds. (Singapore: ISEAS Publishing, 2020), 73–102; Danilyn Rutherford, ‘Unpacking a National Heroine: Two Kartinis and Their People’, in Appropriating Kartini, 103–130; Silvia Mayasari-Hoffert, ‘R.A. Kartini and the Many Faces of Colonial Female Subject: Domestic Cosmopolitanism in Colonial Indonesia’, in A Space of Their Own: Women, Writing and Place 1850-1950, eds. Katie Baker and Naomi Walker (New York and London: Routledge, 2023), 143–57.
5 Yuda B. Tangkilisan, ‘Sekilas tentang Representasi Raden Ajeng Kartini dalam Ranah Persepsi, Pemahaman dan Pemaknaan dari Perspektif Mancanegara’, in Sisi Lain Kartini, ed. Djoko Marihandono (Jakarta: Museum Kebangkitan Nasional, 2016), 217–63; Jean Gelman Taylor, ‘Afterword’, in Appropriating Kartini, 175–90.
6 Petra Mahy, ‘Being Kartini: Ceremony and Print Media in the Commemoration of Indonesia’s First Feminist’, Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific 28 (2012) (http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue28/mahy.htm), accessed November 18, 2023; Kathryn Robinson, ‘Call me Kartini? Kartini as a Floating Signifier in Indonesian History’, in Appropriating Kartini, 131–56.
7 Paul Bijl, ‘Colonial and Postcolonial Silence: Listening to Kartini in the Netherlands’, in Beyond Memory: Silence and the Aesthetics of Remembrance, eds. Alexandre Dessingué and Jay M. Winter (New York: Routledge, 2015), 15–30 (this chapter was reprinted as ‘Kartini and the Politics of European Multiculturalism’, in Appropriating Kartini, 157–74); Joost Coté, ‘Crafting Reform: Kartini and the Imperial Imagination, 1898-1911’, in Appropriating Kartini, 17–45; Paul Bijl, ‘Hierarchies of Humanity: Kartini in America and at UNESCO’, in Appropriating Kartini, 46–72.
8 See for example Jean Gelman Taylor, ‘Kartini in Her Historical Context’, 295–6. The latest book about Kartini edited by Paul Bijl & Grace V.S. Chin, Appropriating Kartini, beyond its importance as a carrier of new perspectives to see Kartini, received criticism from Howard M. Federspiel, in his review of the book. He stated that most of the authors in the edited volume were women and regretted the absence of Indonesian authors in the book. See Howard M. Federspiel, ‘Appropriating Kartini: Colonial, National and Transnational Memories of an Indonesian Icon ed. by Paul Bijl and Grace V.C. Chin’, Indonesia 110 (2020), 107–10 (Review).
9 See for example Paul Bijl &; Grace V.S. Chin, ‘Introduction’, in Appropriating Kartini, 2; Petra Mahy, ‘Being Kartini’; Silvia Mayasari-Hoffert, ‘R.A. Kartini and the Many Faces’, 143. Yuda Tangkilisan, in discussing the representations of Kartini in Indonesian history, jumped from Armijn Pane’s translation (1938) to Pramodya Ananta Toer’s in 1962, and thus ignored the period in between, including 1945-1949. See Yuda B. Tangkilisan, ‘Sekilas tentang Representasi’, 235. Petra Mahy provides a brief discussion of the history of Kartini Day celebrations from the colonial period, independence period, Soekarno period, New Order period, and post-Reformation period. However, she only writes a short paragraph about Kartini Day during Indonesia’s independence (between 1945-1949), focusing briefly only on speeches and celebration activities at the commemoration of Kartini Day in 1946 and 1947, thus ignoring the complexity of the issue of Kartini Day commemorations in 1946–1947 and disregarding the commemorations in 1948-1949. See: Petra Mahy, ‘Being Kartini’. Barbara Molony even emphasises that it was the celebration of Kartini Day during the Soeharto era (1966-1998) that made Kartini considered as the ‘mother’ of the Indonesian nation. See: Barbara Molony, ‘Feminism and Gender Construction in Modern Asia’, in A Companion to Global Gender History. Second Edition, eds. Teresa A. Meade and Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks (NJ: Wiley Blackwell, 2021), 532.
10 Nira Yuval-Davis, ‘Gender and Nation’, Ethnic and Racial Studies 16, no. 4 (1993): 621–32.
11 Cynthia H. Enloe, ‘The Politics of Constructing the American Women Soldier’, in Women Soldiers: Images and Realities, eds. Elisabetta Addis, Valeria E. Russo and Lorenza Sebesta (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1994), 81–110.
12 Anne McClintock, ‘No Longer in a Future Heaven: Women and Nationalism in South Africa’, Transition 51 (1991): 104–23.
13 Ida Blom, ‘Feminism and Nationalism in the Early Twentieth Century: A Cross-Cultural Perspective’, Journal of Women’s History 7, no. 4 (1995): 82–94.
14 Partha Chatterjee, The Nations and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), especially Chapter 6; Partha Chatterjee, ‘Colonialism, Nationalism, and Colonialized Women: The Contest in India’, American Ethnologist 16, no. 4 (1989): 622–33.
15 Kumari Jayawerdana, Feminism and Nationalism in Third World (London and New Jersey: Zed Books Ltd, 1994).
16 For a discussion of the relationship between the nationalist press and the Indonesian government during the Revolution, see Muhammad Yuanda Zara, ‘Voluntary Participation, State Involvement: Indonesian Propaganda in the Struggle for Maintaining Independence, 1945-1949’, PhD Dissertation, 2016, University of Amsterdam.
17 For the course of Indonesian Revolution, see George McTurnan Kahin, Nationalism and Revolution in Indonesia (New York: Cornell University Press, 1952).
18 For Kartini’s life, see Hildred Geertz, Letters of a Javanese Princess, Raden Adjeng Kartini (Lanham: University Press of America), especially ‘Introduction’; Paul Bijl and Grace V.S. Chin, ‘Introduction’, in Appropriating Kartini.
19 Hildred Geertz, Letters of a Javanese Princess; Paul Bijl and Grace V.S. Chin, ‘Introduction’, in Appropriating Kartini.
20 Frances Gouda, ‘Teaching Indonesian Girls in Java and Bali, 1900-1942: Dutch Progressives, the Infatuation with “Oriental” Refinement, and “Western” Ideas about Proper Womanhood’, Women’s History Review 4, no. 1 (1995): 25–62.
21 Bambang Sularto, Wage Rudolf Supratman (Jakarta: Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, 2012), 158–63.
22 Galuh Ambar Sasi, ‘The Meaning of Independence for Women in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 1945-1946’, in Revolutionary Worlds: Local Perspectives and Dynamics during the Indonesian Independence War, eds. Bambang Purwanto and Roel Frakking (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2023), 36.
23 Galuh Ambar Sasi, ‘The Meaning of Independence’: 37.
24 Galuh Ambar Sasi, ‘The Meaning of Independence’: 36–7; Mutiah Amini, Sejarah organisasi perempuan Indonesia (1928-1998) (Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada University Press, 2021), 69–71.
25 Elizabeth Martyn, The Women’s Movement in Post-colonial Indonesia: Gender and Nation in a New Democracy (London & New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2005), 30.
26 ‘Seven Days History: April 21’, The Voice of Free Indonesia, April 27, 1946: 15.
27 ‘Hari Kartini Dizaman Indonesia Merdeka’, Kedaulatan Rakjat, April 22, 1946: 1.
28 no title. Kedaulatan Rakjat, April 22, 1946: 2.
29 ‘R.A. Kartini: 21 April 1879–17 September 1904’, Gelora Rakjat, April 20, 1946: 2.
30 ‘R.A. Kartini: 21 April 1879–17 September 1904’: 2.
31 ‘Hari R.A. Kartini’, Gelora Rakjat, April 23, 1946: 1.
32 ‘Raden Adjeng Kartini’, The Voice of Free Indonesia, April 27, 1946: 5. On the Voice of Free Indonesia, see Muhammad Yuanda Zara, ‘Indonesian English-Language Magazine Reports on the British Occupation of Indonesia’, Media History 29, no. 3 (2023): 353–67.
33 ‘Raden Adjeng Kartini’, 6.
34 ‘Raden Adjeng Kartini’: 6.
35 S.K. Tri, ‘Kartini dan Pergerakan Wanita Diwaktoe Ini’, Kedaulatan Rakjat, 19 April 1947.
36 ‘Hari Adjeng Kartini di Bogor’, Merdeka, 23 April 1948: 2.
37 ‘Kota: Peringatan Hari Lahir R.A. Kartini’, Merdeka, April 22, 1949: 2.
38 ‘P.M.I.D. Memperingati R.A. Kartini’, Merdeka, April 22, 1949: 2.
39 ‘P.M.I.D. Memperingati R.A. Kartini’: 2.
40 ‘Peringatan Hari Kartini’, Penghela Rakjat, April 23, 1946: 2.
41 ‘Balai penolong dan penerangan oentoek wanita’, Gelora Rakjat, April 20, 1946: 2.
42 ‘Kegiatan Perwari Tjiwaringin’, Gelora Rakjat, April 20, 1946: 2.
43 ‘Hari R.A. Kartini’: 1.
44 ‘Hari R.A. Kartini’: 1.
45 ‘Hari R.A. Kartini’: 1.
46 ‘Hari Kartini di Bandung’, Merdeka, April 23, 1949: 1.
47 ‘Pembentoekan Gerakan Kesehatan’, Kedaulatan Rakjat, April 22, 1946: 2.
48 S.K. Tri, ‘Kartini dan Pergerakan Wanita Diwaktoe Ini’.
49 S.K. Tri, ‘Kartini dan Pergerakan Wanita Diwaktoe Ini’.
50 S.K. Tri, ‘Kartini dan Pergerakan Wanita Diwaktoe Ini’.
51 On Het Inzicht’s role in in persuading the Indo-Europeans to become Indonesian citizens, see Muhammad Yuanda Zara, ‘Attracting and Educating “New Citizens”: Indonesian Public Discourse on the Integration of Indo-Europeans Into Indonesian Society During the Dutch-Indonesian War (1945-1947)’, Advances in Southeast Asian Studies 15, no. 1 (2022): 61–85.
52 ‘Raden Adjeng Kartini … ..en haar idealen’, Het Inzicht, April 23, 1947: 3–4.
53 ‘Raden Adjeng Kartini … ..en haar idealen’: 4.
54 ‘Persatoean Tenaga Ekonomi Wanita Indonesia’, Gelora Rakjat, April 20, 1946: 2.
55 ‘Malam Kartini di Gedung Komedi’, Merdeka, April 26, 1949: 2.
56 ‘Hari Kartini di Malaya’, Merdeka, April 26, 1949: 2.
57 ‘Indonesia’s First Woman Minister’, The Voice of Free Indonesia, April 20, 1946: 3–4.
58 ‘Indonesia’s First Woman Minister’: 3–4.
59 ‘Indonesia’s First Woman Minister’: 3.
60 ‘Indonesia’s First Woman Minister’: 4.
61 ‘Indonesia’s First Woman Minister’: 3–4.
62 Soekanti Soerjotjondro, ‘Raden Adjeng Kartini’, The Voice of Free Indonesia, April 27, 1946: 5.
63 Soekanti Soerjotjondro, ‘Raden Adjeng Kartini’: 6.
64 S.K. Tri, ‘Kartini dan Pergerakan Wanita Diwaktoe Ini’.
65 ‘Hari R.A. Kartini’: 1.
66 ‘Wanita beloem merdeka!’, Kedaulatan Rakjat, April 22, 1946: 2.
67 ‘Wanita beloem merdeka!’: 2.
68 ‘Wanita beloem merdeka!’: 2.
69 ‘Mengenangkan R.A. Kartini’, Merdeka, April 21, 1948.
70 ‘Notes Dr. Clenik’, April 21, 1948: 2.
71 ‘Notes Dr. Clenik’: 2.
72 S. Munar, ‘Wanita Indonesia dengan bahasa’, Merdeka, April 22, 1948: 3.
73 S. Munar, ‘Wanita Indonesia dengan bahasa’: 3.
74 Maria Amin, ‘Siapa jang gelap dan siapa jang terang’, Merdeka, April 26, 1949: 3.
75 Maria Amin, ‘Siapa jang gelap dan siapa jang terang’: 3.
76 Maria Amin, ‘Siapa jang gelap dan siapa jang terang’: 3.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Muhammad Yuanda Zara
Muhammad Yuanda Zara is a lecturer in the History Study Programme at Yogyakarta State University, Indonesia. Born in Padang, he obtained his PhD from the University of Amsterdam (2016). In 2010–2014 he was a PhD researcher at the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies. His works were published in journals such as Media History; BMGN – Low Countries Historical Review; Pacific Affairs; Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde; Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis; Indonesia and the Malay World (with co-authors); Advances in Southeast Asian Studies; Southeast Asian Studies; Wacana; Studia Islamika; Al-Jami’ah: Journal of Islamic Studies, and Journal of Indonesian Islam.