Perhimpoenan Indonesia

Perhimpoenan Indonesia was established in 1908 under the name of Indische Vereeniging and was initially a social club, providing a sociable environment for students from the Netherlands East Indies in the Netherlands. After the First World War the association politicized and changed its name to Indonesische Vereeniging in 1922 and Perhimpoenan Indonesia in 1925. From that moment onwards, it was an explicitly anti-colonial, nationalist organization with a strong anti-capitalist outlook. This was clearly visible in its journal Indonesia Merdeka ('Independent Indonesia').

The new principles of 1925 were:

1. 'Only a united Indonesia putting aside particularistic differences, can break the power of the oppressors. The common aim – the creation of a free Indonesia – demands the building of nationalism based on a conscious self-reliant mass action. [...]
2. An essential condition for the achievement of this aim is the participation of all layers of the Indonesian people in a unified struggle for Independence.
3. The essential and dominant element in every colonial political problem is the conflict of interest between the rulers and the ruled. The tendency of the ruling side to blur and mask this must be countered by a sharpening and accentuation of this conflict of interests.'^[2]

Important students in the first half of the 1920s were Soetomo, Nazir Pamontjak, Mohammad Hatta, and Achmad Soebardjo. In the end of the 1920s and the 1930s Soetan Sjahrir, Abdulmadjid Djojoadhiningrat, and Roestam Effendi gained in prominence. Via the return of its members, the PI was influential in the forging of a nationalist non-cooperationist movement in the Netherlands Indies. (Former) PI-members stood at the basis of the establishment of the Indonesian nationalist organizations PNI and PPPKI.

After the nationalist turn, the PI saw it as one of its principle tasks to seek support from anti-colonial and anti-imperialist organizations and movements in other parts of Europe. It also wanted to demonstrate the crimes and horrors of Dutch colonialism in the Netherlands Indies to the outside world. By sending informal 'ambassadors' to Paris, Brussels, and Berlin the Indonesian students established contact with prominent activists and anti-colonial movements, among whom Jawaharlal Nehru of the Indian National Congress, Messali Hadj of the Algerian Étoile Nord-Africaine, and activists of the Chinese Kuomintang. Indonesian students were also present at the pacifist Congrès Democratique International in August 1926 in the French town of Bierville, and at several meetings of the League against Imperialism from February 1927 onwards. Mohammad Hatta, who was the chair and most important of the Indonesian students, was appointed in the executive committee of the LAI, and thus acquired much prominence and an extensive international network.^[3]

Troubled by the foreign activities of Perhimpoenan Indonesia and the contacts with the communist Comintern, the Dutch authorities decided to crack down on the students in 1927, and to charge the students with sedition in Indonesia Merdeka. On 10 June 1927 house raids took place in Leiden and The Hague, in which large quantities of documents were seized. On 23 September, Mohammad Hatta, Ali Sastroamidjojo, Abdoelmadjid Djojoadhiningrat and Nazir Pamontjak were arrested and put under charge. The court case, which took place in March 1928, led to the release of all the students. The PI and Hatta gained much publicity in the Netherlands and the Netherlands Indies. The brochure Independent Indonesia which Hatta wrote in jail became a widely read document among Indonesian nationalists.

Nonetheless, the confrontation with the authorities also implied that many of the most active students refrained from further activities, and that the membership of the PI dwindled. Largely inactive, the leadership of the association was finally taken up by a group of communist Indonesian students under Abdulmadjid Djojoadhiningrat. Prominent nationalists, among whom Hatta and Sjahrir, were expelled from the association, and de facto the PI changed into a front organization of the Communist Party of the Netherlands.

In 1933 the PI-chair Roestam Effendi was elected as the first Indonesian in the Dutch Parliament as part of the CPH.

Resistance against Nazi occupation

During the Second World War, the Netherlands were occupied by the Nazis. Amidst this, students and members of the Perhimpunan Indonesia were stranded and unable to return to the Dutch East Indies.

Being the nucleus of the inception for idea of 'Indonesia', members of the Perhimpunan Indonesia believed that fascism could bring an end to the idea of a future Indonesian state and independence struggle.^[4] During this time the PI's motto was, "First liberate the Netherlands then Indonesia."^[5] Thus, between 60 and 110 PI-members participated in the resistance against fascism,^[6] regardless of political, cultural, and religious conviction. What remains of the members of the Perhimpoenan Indonesia would side with members of the Dutch resistance and take active participation in printing papers, saboteur, organizing rallies amongst Indonesian university students (Mahasiswa), and even hiding people persecuted from the Nazis in Leiden; Jews and others.^[7][8]

In June 1941, the Sicherheitsdienst raided Indonesian student residences looking for leading members of the Indonesian resistance group around Perhimpunan Indonesia. Students were captured by the Nazis and sent to concentration camps.^[7][8] Notably that of R.M. Sidartawan who died in Dachau concentration camp.^[9]

Members of the Perhimpoenan Indonesia opened its cause to everyday Indonesians stuck in the Netherlands, including sailors, news reporters, and others in attempt to deny collaboration. The group would later stockpile weapons seized from Germans with the help of Dutch resistance and collected at Leiden. Members of the PI would then create a resistance detatchment under the Dutch Resistance with the name 'Groep Irawan Soejono',^[10] in honor of PI member and son of Adipati Soejono, Irawan Soejono, who was shot by german soldiers during a raid whilst carrying parts of a stencil machine on a bicycle for the PI's underground newspaper.^[7][11]

The Perhimpoenan Indonesia and Indonesian members of the Binnenlandsche Strijdkrachte was amongst the few Indonesians who helped the Dutch in the liberation of Leiden.^[12] Among the 800 Indonesians stranded in the netherlands, it is estimated that at least 86 to 100 Indonesians died; a 10% mortality rate. With a vast majority perishing due to tuberculosis, severe malnutrition, and freezing conditions during the harsh winters. Between 1940‒1944 alone, 12 of the 39 Indonesian students at Leiden University died, largely from tuberculosis. Eight other Indonesians died fighting for the Indonesian independence struggle in the Netherlands against Nazi Germany.^[13]

After the war, the Perhimpoenan Indonesia organization was thought to be inactive. However the Perhimpunan Pelajar Indonesia, formed in 1952, claimed direct lineage to the group.^[14]