Indonesian Culture in the World Cultural Traffic

Paper Abstract:
The interaction of Indonesian culture with the great civilisations of the world has long taken place, and this encounter has become the foundation in the formation of local and national culture. Colonialism and the expansion of Dutch power not only placed the archipelago (Indonesia today) as a colony, but also became a medium for local and national cultures to meet in the traffic of Dutch culture and world culture.



After independence, Indonesia experienced political turmoil. From the beginning of independence until the 1960s, political turmoil continued to occur in succession, from the Round Table Conference that required Indonesia to pay debts to the Netherlands, the establishment of the Federal State, the outbreak of the Indonesian Islamic State movement, the eruption of rebellion in Aceh, Kahar Muzakkar in South Sulawesi, the strengthening of communist influence, regional rebellions, the fall of Constitutional Democracy to the establishment of the Guided Democracy, political systemcausing political instability and national disintegration.



While the young republic was dealing with political turmoil, national culture was never free from the confluence of world cultural traffic. In the midst of this political turmoil, intellectuals, cultural thinkers, writers and literati wrote their thoughts not only about the place of national culture in world cultural traffic, but also visited and received invitations to America, China and the Middle East. The cultural political journals  “Siasat dan Konfrontasi” became the dissemination of pro-Western ideas and thoughts on national culture. Meanwhile, the leftist circle established the People's Cultural Institute (Lekra).