Mohammad Misbach

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Mohammad Misbach (c. 1876–1926), commonly known as Haji Misbach, was a communist and Islamic activist from Surakarta in the Dutch East Indies. He is remembered for promoting the idea that Islam and communism could go together and for his role in the Sarekat Islam movement’s left wing in the 1910s.

Misbach was born Achmad in Kauman, Surakarta, around 1876. He was the son of a wealthy batik trader and received a traditional Islamic education at a pesantren, along with a brief spell at a government school. He worked in the batik trade, becoming fairly wealthy and even owning his own workshop. After marriage, he changed his name to Darmodiprono, and later, after completing the Hajj, to Hadji Mohammad Misbach.

When Sarekat Islam was founded in Surakarta in 1912, Misbach joined the movement, though he was not initially a leading figure. He gained prominence among the reform-minded youth of Surakarta and became more active in 1914 after joining Marco Kartodikromo’s League of Native Journalists. In 1915 he led local residents in Surakarta who opposed Dutch anti-plague policies, which affected native homes and neighborhoods.

In 1915 Misbach helped found Medan Moeslimin, a left-wing Islamic monthly magazine, in response to Christian missionary efforts. In 1917 he started a daily newspaper, Islam Bergerak (Islam in Motion). He also opened the Hotel Islam, a bookstore, and a religious school. He was closely aligned with Muhammadiyah and its founder Ahmad Dahlan, as well as Dahlan’s associate Hadji Fachrodin. He continued to campaign against the Dutch anti-plague policies, and in 1918 the Insulinde party appointed him as a local investigator and allowed him to create new local branches to broaden the campaign.

In 1918 Misbach and fellow Islamist reformers (including Oemar Said Tjokroaminoto) clashed with parts of the nationalist movement over content in the Surakarta newspaper Djawi-Hisworo, which they felt disrespected Muhammad. They formed a counter-organization, Sidik Amanat Tableg Vatonah (TKNM), to promote their views. They organized large protest rallies, sometimes drawing up to twenty thousand people. The group eventually dissolved because of fundraising disputes.

Afterwards Misbach began campaigning in the countryside, expanding his influence beyond Surakarta. He became a prominent propagandist against the forced labor system (corvée), helping peasants resist unpaid work and the threat of losing their land. He was imprisoned at one point but was released in August 1922.

In 1923 Sarekat Islam split into left and right wings, and Misbach joined the left wing, moving to the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). Following a bombing in Surakarta, he was blamed and exiled to New Guinea, where he died in 1926.