Conservative corporatist: Nationalist thoughts of aristocrats: The ideas of Soetatmo Soeriokoesoemo and Noto Soeroto

Abstract

Javanese nationalism was one of the earliest nationalist thoughts to have arisen in the colony. It later bifurcated into two discourses: a leftist-inspired, revolutionary minded nationalism and a conservative, aristocratic-based Javanese nationalism based on the idea of cultural rejuvenation. Indonesian nationalism was a composite of a variety of nationalist discourses that appeared in the early twentieth century, yet present day nationalist historiography dismisses and camouflaged the influence of the conservative, feudal-minded discourse of Javanese aristocratic nationalists. The paper looks into the thoughts of two aristocratic conservative, Soetatmo Soeriokoesoemo and Noto Soeroto, and highlight the major thoughts within the conservative discourse. It points to the possible conservative origin of some of the components that represent present-day Indonesian nationalism and stress the need to understand further the intertwined and trans-ideological nature of Indonesian nationalism.