History of Indonesian Names
History of Indonesian Names
History of Indonesian Names - In ancient times, the archipelago was called by various names. In the records of the Chinese, the archipelago area of the homeland is named Nan-hai (South Sea Islands). Various ancient records of the Indonesians named these islands Dwipantara (Tanah Seberang Islands), a name derived from the Sanskrit words dwipa (island) and between (outside, opposite). The Ramayana story by the poet Walmiki tells of the search for Sinta, Rama's wife who was kidnapped by Ravana, to Suwarnadwipa (Golden Island, which is Sumatra now) located in the Dwipantara Islands.
The Arabs call our homeland Jaza'ir al-Jawi (Javanese Islands). The Latin name for frankincense is benzoe, derived from the Arabic luban jawi (Javanese frankincense), because Arab traders obtained frankincense from the trunk of the Styrax sumatrana tree, which previously only grew in Sumatra. To this day our pilgrims are still often called "Javanese" by the Arabs. Even Indonesians outside Java though. In Arabic it is also known as Samathrah (Sumatra), Sholibis (Sulawesi), Sundah (Sunda), all the islands are known as kulluh Jawi (all Javanese).
The Europeans who first came thought that Asia only consisted of Arabs, Persians, Indians and Chinese. To them, the vast area that stretched between Persia and China was all "India". The South Asian peninsula they call the "Front Indies" and the mainland of Southeast Asia they call the "Rear India". While the homeland received the name "Indian Archipelago" (Indische Archipel, Indian Archipelago, l'Archipel Indien) or "East Indies" (Oost Indie, East Indies, Indes Orientales). Another name used is "Malay Archipelago" (Maleische Archipel, Malay Archipelago, l'Archipel Malais).
During the Dutch colonial era, the official name used was Nederlandsch-Indie (Dutch Indies), while the Japanese occupation government from 1942-1945 used the term To-Indo (East Indies).
Eduard Douwes Dekker (1820 – 1887), known by the pseudonym Multatuli, once proposed a specific name for the islands of our homeland, namely Insulinde, which also means "Indian Archipelago" (Latin insula means island). The name Insulinde is less popular.
Archipelago
In 1920, Ernest Francois Eugene Douwes Dekker (1879 – 1950), known as Dr. Setiabudi (grandson of Multatuli's younger brother), introduced a name for our homeland that did not contain the word "India". That name is none other than Nusantara, a term that has been sunk for centuries. Setiabudi took the name from Pararaton, an ancient manuscript of the Majapahit era found in Bali at the end of the 19th century and then translated by JLA. Brandes and published by Nicholaas Johannes Krom in 1920.
The definition of Nusantara proposed by Setiabudi is much different from the understanding of the archipelago in the Majapahit era. During the Majapahit era, Nusantara was used to refer to islands outside Java (antara in Sanskrit means outside, across) as opposed to Jawadwipa (Java Island). The Palapa oath from Gajah Mada reads, "Season huwus loses to the archipelago, isun amukti palapa" (If I have lost to the other islands, then I can enjoy a break).
by Dr. Setiabudi, the word archipelago in the Majapahit era, which connotes ignorance, was given a nationalistic meaning. By taking the original Malay word between, then Nusantara now has a new meaning, namely "homeland between two continents and two oceans", so that Java is also included in the modern definition of archipelago. The term Nusantara from Setiabudi quickly became popular as an alternative to the name of the Dutch East Indies.
To this day, the term archipelago is still used to describe the territory of the homeland from Sabang to Merauke.
In 1847, Singapore published an annual scientific magazine, Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia (JIAEA), which was managed by James Richardson Logan (1819 – 1869), a Scotsman who earned a law degree from the University of Edinburgh. Then in 1849 an English ethnologist, George Samuel Windsor Earl (1813 – 1865), joined as editor of the JIAEA magazine.
In JIAEA Volume IV 1850, pages 66-74, Earl wrote the article On the Leading Characteristics of the Papuan, Australian and Malay-Polynesian Nations. In his article, Earl emphasized that the time had come for the inhabitants of the Indian Archipelago or the Malay Archipelago to have a distinctive name, because the name Indies was incorrect and often confused with other Indian names. Earl proposed two choices of names: Indunesia or Malayunesia (nesos in Greek means island). On page 71 of the article it reads:
"… the inhabitants of the Indian Archipelago or Malayan Archipelago would become respectively Indunesians or Malayunesians".
Earl himself stated that he chose the name Malayunesia (Malay Archipelago) over Indunesia (Indian Archipelago), because Malayunesia is very appropriate for the Malay race, while Indunesia can also be used for Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and the Maldives. Earl also argues that the Malay language is used throughout the archipelago. In his writings, Earl did use the term Malayunesia and did not use the term Indunesia.
Also in JIAEA Volume IV, pages 252-347, James Richardson Logan wrote the article The Ethnology of the Indian Archipelago. At the beginning of his writing, Logan also stated the need for a distinctive name for the archipelago of our homeland, because the term "Indian Archipelago" was too long and confusing. Logan picked up the Indonesian name Earl had discarded, and replaced the letter u with the letter o to make his speech better. So the term Indonesian was born.
For the first time the word Indonesia appeared in the world printed on page 254 in Logan's writing:
"Mr. Earl suggests the ethnographical term Indunesian, but rejects it in favor of Malayunesian. I prefer the purely geographical term Indonesia, which is merely a shorter synonym for the Indian Islands or the Indian Archipelago".
When proposing the name "Indonesia" it seems that Logan did not realize that in the future it would become an official name. Since then Logan has consistently used the name "Indonesia" in his scientific writings, and gradually the use of this term spread among scientists in the fields of ethnology and geography.
In 1884 a professor of ethnology at the University of Berlin named Adolf Bastian (1826-1905) published a five-volume book Indonesien oder die Inseln des Malayischen Archipel, which contained the results of his research while traveling to the country from 1864 to 1880. popularized the term "Indonesia" among Dutch scholars, so that it was thought that the term "Indonesia" was created by Bastian. This incorrect opinion was stated among others in the Encyclopedie van Nederlandsch-Indie in 1918. In fact, Bastian took the term "Indonesia" from Logan's writings.
The native who first used the term "Indonesia" was Suwardi Suryaningrat (Ki Hajar Dewantara). When exiled to the Netherlands in 1913 he founded a press bureau under the name Indonesische Pers-bureau.
The name indonesisch (Indonesia) was also introduced as a substitute for indisch (India) by Prof. Cornelis van Vollenhoven (1917). Accordingly, inlander (indigenous) was replaced with indonesiër (Indonesian people).
Political Identity
In the 1920s, the name "Indonesia" which is a scientific term in ethnology and geography was taken over by figures in the independence movement of our homeland, so that the name "Indonesia" finally has a political meaning, namely the identity of a nation fighting for independence. As a result, the Dutch government began to be suspicious and wary of the use of the word Logan coined.
In 1922 at the initiative of Mohammad Hatta, a student of the Handels Hoogeschool (High School of Economics) in Rotterdam, an organization of students and students of the Indies in the Netherlands (which was formed in 1908 under the name Indische Vereeniging changed its name to Indonesische Vereeniging or Perhimpoenan Indonesia. Their magazine, Indies Poetra, changed its name to Indonesia Merdeka.
Moh. Hatta emphasized in his writings,:
"The future Independent State of Indonesia (de toekomstige vrije Indonesische staat) cannot be called "Dutch Indies". Nor can it just be "Indies", because it can lead to confusion with the original India. For us the name Indonesia expresses a political goal (een politiek doel) , because it symbolizes and aspires to a homeland in the future, and to make it happen every Indonesian (Indonesier) will try with all his strength and ability."
In the homeland of Dr. Sutomo founded the Indonesische Study Club in 1924). In 1925, Jong Islamieten Bond formed the scouting National Indonesische Padvinderij (Natipij). Those are the three organizations in the country that initially used the name "Indonesia". Finally, the name "Indonesia" was named as the name of the homeland, nation and language at the Indonesian Pemoeda-Pemoedi Meeting on October 28, 1928, which is now known as the Youth Pledge.
In August 1939 three members of the Volksraad (People's Council; Dutch East Indies parliament), Muhammad Husni Thamrin, Wiwoho Purbohadidjojo and Sutardjo Kartohadikusumo, submitted a motion to the Government of the Netherlands Indies for the name "Indonesia" to be adopted instead of the name "Nederlandsch-Indie". But the Netherlands rejected this motion.
With the fall of the homeland to the Japanese on March 8, 1942, the name "Dutch East Indies" disappeared. Then on August 17, 1945, the Republic of Indonesia was born.