INCULCATE NATIONAL PRIDE, ENCOUNTERING THE SOCIAL DISCRIMINATION: THE STRUGGLE OF URBAN NOBLE CLASS OF MALANG 1903-1941

This Article presented at International Conference “Contribution of History for Social Sciences and Humanities” Department History, Faculty of Social Sciences, Universitas Negeri Malang. Hotel Savana Malang, September 2015

First decade of twentieth century has been a watershed on the search for national identity. The glories of capitalism which has reached its peak in the beginning of twentieth centuries was marked by Diasporas of European and Chinese society in the major cities in Java. The flourished of colonial economy at that time has been represented by increased number of modern objects such as shops, bank, insurance, school, market, sport-centre, theater, hotel and entertained placed. City has turn to be node of capital, men, transportation and ideas. But in the other hand as centre of European interest, city also figured out social discrimination. This character gave impact on social dynamics and boosting the spirit of nationalism among the indigenous young people.

This short article tried to describe the social circumstances behind the movement of Young Noble in Malang for fifty years since the Ethical Policy has been issued in 1903 up to the 1940. Most part of this article based on the colonial period published newspapers. The result of this research showed that there were strong relation between urban space and the changing of political orientation among Young priyayi. The emphasized of discrimination, segregation, division of space in the city enhanced critical way of thinking amongst priyayi. In case of Malang, Nationalism would not have roused if they were no colonization.