Suwardi Surjaningrat

(from 1923 known as Ki Hadjar Devantara). Born May 2, 1889, in Jogjakarta; died there Apr. 26,1959. Leading figure of the Indonesian national movement.

Suwardi Surjaningrat helped found the Indies Party, which in 1912 and 1913 was the first group to demand the independence of Indonesia. From 1919 to 1923 he headed the National Indies Party, which also demanded national independence. The Taman Siswa organization, which he founded in 1922, established national schools to educate Indonesians in the spirit of patriotism and anticolonialism. Suwardi Surjaningrat was repeatedly persecuted by the authorities. In 1945, after the founding of the Republic of Indonesia, he became the new country’s first minister of public education. He was active in public life, primarily in cultural affairs.