Sarekat Islam, formerly Sarekat Dagang Islam, was a Javanese batik traders's cooperative in Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

.

Sarekat Dagang Islam was founded by Haji Samanhudi

Samanhoedi

Hadji Samanhoedi was founder of Sarekat Dagang Islam, a mass organization in Indonesia that was previously an association for batik traders in Surakarta....

, a businessman in Surakarta

Surakarta

Surakarta, also called Solo or Sala, is a city in Central Java, Indonesia of more than 520,061 people with a population density of 11,811.5 people/km2. The 44 km2 city adjoins Karanganyar Regency and Boyolali Regency to the north, Karanganyar Regency and Sukoharjo Regency to the east and...

, in 1905 or 1912. His business was trading in batik

Batik

Batik is a cloth that traditionally uses a manual wax-resist dyeing technique. Batik or fabrics with the traditional batik patterns are found in Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, China, Azerbaijan, India, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, and Singapore.Javanese traditional batik, especially from...

, the traditional cloth made in Java. Sarekat Dagang Islam, or Union of Islamic Traders, had as its goal the empowerment of local merchants, especially in the batik industry.

As Sarekat Dagang Islam grew, it was reorganized under the name Sarekat Islam. Sarekat Islam's general office was in Surabaya

Surabaya

Surabaya is Indonesia's second-largest city with a population of over 2.7 million , and the capital of the province of East Java...

. Early prominent figures of Sarekat Islam included H.O.S. Cokroaminoto

Tjokroaminoto

Hadji Oemar Said Tjokroaminoto was a nationalist, the first leader of Sarekat Dagang Islam in Indonesia.-Early life:...

 and Haji Agus Salim

Agus Salim

Haji Agus Salim was one of Indonesia's founding fathers and prominent diplomats. He played a leading role in the creation of the Indonesian constitution in 1945 and served as Indonesia's Foreign Minister between 1947 and 1949.-Early life:...

. H.O.S. Cokroaminoto had three famous students, who went on to play a dominant role in Indonesian politics: Soekarno the nationalist, Semaun

Semaun

Semaun was the first chairman of the Communist Party of Indonesia .-Early life:Semaun was born in Curahmalang, Jombang, East Java. In 1915 at the age of sixteen, he was elected as one of the first Indonesian members of the Union of Train and Tramway Personnel , soon quitting his job as a railway...

 the socialist and Islamist Kartosoewiryo. Haji Agus Salim joined Sarekat Islam in 1915 and promoted Islamic modernism. Some of Salim's students such as Kasman Singodimedjo, Mohammad Roem

Mohammad Roem

Mohammad Roem was a diplomat and one of Indonesia's leaders in the Indonesian war for independence. During Sukarno presidency, he served as Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, and later Minister of Home Affairs....

 and Mohammad Natsir

Muhammad Natsir

Mohammad Natsir was a Islamic scholar and politician. He was Indonesia's fifth prime minister.After moving to Bandung from his hometown Solok, West Sumatra for senior high school, Natsir studied Islamic doctrine extensively. His first articles were published in 1929, and during the 1930s he wrote...

later became promintent Islamic and Nationalist leaders.

External links

• Peter Lowensteyn, "Indonesia between 1908 and 1928: The Sarekat Islam" http://www.lowensteyn.com/indonesia/sarekat.html