Local History & Heritage
Vol. 6 No. 1 (2026)

Resistance, Identity, and Colonial Perspectives: Reinterpreting Saminism as a Movement for Justice and Freedom in Colonial Java

Siska Nurazizah Lestari (Institut Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan Persatuan Guru Republik Indonesia Wates)
Indra Fibiona (Balai Pelestarian Kebudayaan Jawa Tengah)
Bambang Rakhmanto (Universitas Negeri Semarang)



Article Info

Publish Date
20 Jun 2026

Abstract

This article re-examines Saminism, a social movement founded by Samin Surosentiko (1859–1914) in Blora, Central Java, within the broader context of Dutch colonial domination and indigenous resistance in colonial Indonesia. The study addresses the question of how Saminism has been represented in colonial discourse and to what extent its practices can be understood as forms of anti-colonial resistance. Using a historical research method with an interpretive qualitative approach, the study analyzes colonial archives, Dutch administrative reports, colonial newspapers, ethnographic accounts, and relevant scholarly literature through the stages of heuristics, source criticism, interpretation, and historiography. The findings demonstrate that colonial authorities systematically portrayed the Samin community as backward, irrational, and resistant to progress in order to justify colonial intervention and control. However, a critical reading of the sources reveals that tax refusal, rejection of colonial regulations, egalitarian communication practices, communal economic relations, and moral reciprocity constituted deliberate and coherent strategies of resistance rooted in Javanese ethical values. The study concludes that Saminism was not merely a passive peasant movement but an alternative socio-political vision that embodied cultural sovereignty, social justice, and community autonomy, thereby highlighting the significance of everyday resistance and subaltern agency in colonial historiography.

Copyrights © 2026






Journal Info

Abbrev

LHH

Publisher

Subject

Arts Humanities

Description

Local History & Heritage is a peer-reviewed journal published by Medan Resource Center. This journal publishes articles in the scope of local history and cultural heritage about society, traditions, local wisdom, arts, music, culinary, education, intellectual figures, conflict, myth, spirituality, ...