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Mohammad Misbach

Indonesian politician

Mohammad Misbach (c. 1876–1926), commonly known as Haji Misbach, was a communist and Islamic activist from Surakarta, Dutch East Indies.^[1][2][3] He was a leading member of the left wing of the Sarekat Islam organization in the 1910s and famously advocated for the compatibility of Islam and communism.

Biography[edit]

Misbach was born AchmadinKauman, Surakarta, Dutch East Indies in around 1876.^[1][2] He was the son of a wealthy Batik trader and received a traditional Islamic education in a Pesantren, as well as a brief eight-month period in a government school.^[1] He entered the Batik trade and became fairly wealthy, owning his own workshop.^[1] When he got married he changed his name to Darmodiprono; however, after making the Hajj he changed his name once again to Hadji Mohammad Misbach.^[1]

When the Sarekat Islam was founded in Surakarta in 1912, he joined, although he was initially not prominent.^[1] Misbach started to become well-known among the reformist generation in Surakarta (called kaum muda or young group); he became more active in 1914 when he joined Marco Kartodikromo's League of Native Journalists (Dutch: Inlandsche Journalisten Bond).^[1] In 1915 he became even better known after he acted as leader of local people in Surakarta who were opposed to the Dutch "anti-plague" policies which involved the partial demolition of native homes.^[2] He refused to have alterations made to his own house until he was ordered to by a magistrate.^[2]

In 1915 Misbach helped cofound a left-wing Islamic monthly magazine named Medan Moeslimin (Muslim forum) as a response to increasing Christian missionary publications in Java.^[4][5]

In 1917 he launched a new daily newspaper called Islam Bergerak (Islam in Motion).^[1] He also opened a hotel, the Hotel Islam, along with a bookstore and religious school.^[1] During this time he was a close ally of Muhammadiyah, its founder Ahmad Dahlan and his protege Hadji Fachrodin.^[1] He also continued to be active in campaigning against the Dutch "anti-plague" policies; in 1918 the Insulinde party appointed him as local investigator of the matter and allowed him to found new local branches outside Surakarta to expand the campaign.^[2]

In 1918, Misbach and some of his more Islamically-minded allies (including Oemar Said Tjokroaminoto) entered into a dispute with some parts of the nationalist movement over the publications of content in the Surakarta newspaper Djawi-Hisworo which they deemed disrespectful to Muhammad.^[1][2] They founded a counter-organization named Sidik Amanat Tableg Vatonah (TKNM, "To confirm, convey, and propagate goodness").^[1] They held immense protest rallies, some of which had twenty thousand people in attendance.^[1] The main activity of the group was to send letters of complaint to the colonial government; it eventually fell apart over disputes about fundraising.^[1]

After that he began to campaign in the countryside, moving beyond local influence in Surakarta for the first time.^[2] He became a propagandist in the countryside against the regressive Corvée forced labour system through which peasants had to do unpaid work or risk being expelled from their land.^[2]

He was released from prison in August 1922.^[6]

With the 1923 split of the Sarekat Islam into left and right wings, he followed most of the left wing into the PKI (Indonesian Communist Party). After a bombing in Surakarta, Haji Misbach was blamed and exiled to New Guinea.^[7]

References[edit]