Pendidikan, Filantropi, dan Emansipasi: Gerakan Pengasuhan Anak Yatim Muhammadiyah di Hindia Belanda (1921–1930-an)

Annisaa Khansa Labibah

doi:10.17509/historia.v9i1.90349

Pendidikan, Filantropi, dan Emansipasi: Gerakan Pengasuhan Anak Yatim Muhammadiyah di Hindia Belanda (1921–1930-an)

Annisaa Khansa Labibah

Abstract

This study investigates the development of child care and education for orphans and abandoned children in the Dutch East Indies, focusing on Muhammadiyah and its women’s wing, Aisyiyah, since 1921. Positioned within the frameworks of Islamic philanthropy, colonial child policy, and transnational humanitarianism, the research examines how colonial welfare systems constructed racialized and exclusionary practices, particularly toward Eurasian and Indigenous children. This study employs historical methods, including heuristics, source criticism, interpretation, and historiography, using primary sources such as colonial archives, contemporary newspapers, and Muhammadiyah organizational documents, complemented by secondary literature. The findings show that Muhammadiyah developed a community-based and faith-driven model of social welfare that emphasized education, moral formation, and social responsibility. Moreover, its engagement with international actors such as Pro Juventute reflects an emerging transnational awareness in child welfare practices. Drawing on Freirean and Fanonian perspectives, this study argues that Muhammadiyah’s initiatives functioned not only as social services but also as forms of socio-cultural resistance to colonial domination. This study contributes to social welfare historiography by integrating Islamic philanthropy, colonial child policy, and transnational humanitarianism into a single analytical framework

Keywords : Islamic Philanthropy; Colonial Child Policy; Transnational Humanitarianism; Aisyiyah; Social Welfare History

Abstrak

Penelitian ini mengkaji peran Muhammadiyah dalam pengasuhan dan pendidikan anak yatim serta terlantar di Hindia Belanda sejak 1921. Berbeda dengan model kolonial yang bersifat diskriminatif dan berorientasi pada kontrol sosial, Muhammadiyah melalui Aisyiyah mengembangkan sistem pengasuhan berbasis filantropi Islam, pendidikan, dan kemandirian. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode sejarah yang meliputi heuristik, kritik sumber, interpretasi, dan historiografi, dengan memanfaatkan sumber primer berupa arsip kolonial, surat kabar sezaman, serta dokumen Muhammadiyah. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa panti asuhan Muhammadiyah tidak hanya berfungsi sebagai lembaga sosial-keagamaan, tetapi juga sebagai alternatif sistem kesejahteraan yang lebih inklusif. Selain itu, keterhubungan dengan organisasi internasional seperti Pro Juventute menunjukkan bahwa praktik pengasuhan ini memiliki dimensi transnasional. Dengan menggunakan perspektif filantropi Islam, pendidikan kritis, dan transnasionalisme, penelitian ini menegaskan bahwa pengasuhan Muhammadiyah merupakan bentuk resistensi kultural terhadap kolonialisme sekaligus kontribusi penting dalam sejarah kesejahteraan sosial di Indonesia.

Kata kunci: Filantropi Islam; Kebijakan Anak Kolonial; Humanitarianisme Transnasional; Aisyiyah; Kesejahteraan Sosial

Keywords

Muhammadiyah, Education, Orphans, Abandoned.

References

Benthall, J. (2016). Islamic charities and Islamic humanism in troubled times. Manchester University Press. https://doi.org/10.7765/9781784997458

Dirks, A. (2011). For the youth: Juvenile delinquency, colonial civil society and the late colonial state in the Netherlands Indies, 1872–1942 (Doctoral dissertation, Leiden University).

Fanon, F. (1963). The wretched of the earth. Grove Press.

Fauzia, A. (2013). Faith and the state: A history of Islamic philanthropy in Indonesia. Brill.

Freire, P. (1968). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Continuum.

Howell, M., & Prevenier, W. (2001). From reliable sources: An introduction to historical methods. Cornell University Press.

Jumriani, Abbas, E. W., Isnaini, U., Mutiani, & Subiyakto, B. (2022). Pattern of religious character development at the Aisyiyah orphanage in Banua Anyar Village Banjarmasin City. Al-Ishlah: Jurnal Pendidikan, 14(2), 2251–2260. https://doi.org/10.35445/alishlah.v14i2.1735

Kaur Khalsa, A. D. (2014). The road to the reformatory: (Mis)communication in the colonial court between judges, juveniles and parents in the Netherlands Indies, 1900–1942. In H. Ellis (Ed.), Juvenile delinquency and the limits of Western influence, 1850–2000 (pp. 167–188). Palgrave Macmillan.

Kuntowijoyo. (2018). Pengantar ilmu sejarah. Tiara Wacana.

Latief, H. (2013a). Filantropi dan pendidikan Islam di Indonesia. Jurnal Pendidikan Islam, 28(1), 123–139.

Latief, H. (2013). Islamic philanthropy and the private sector in Indonesia. Indonesian Journal of Islam and Muslim Societies, 3(2), 175–201. https://doi.org/10.18326/ijims.v3i2.175-201.

Levitt, P., & Glick Schiller, N. (2004). Conceptualizing simultaneity: A transnational social field perspective. International Migration Review, 38(3), 1002–1039. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7379.2004.tb00227.x

Luttikhuis, B., & Moses, A. D. (2012). Mass violence and the end of the Dutch colonial empire in Indonesia. Journal of Genocide Research, 14(3–4), 257–276. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2012.719362

Mahfud, C., Rohani, I., Nuryana, Z., Baihaqi, M., & Munawir. (2023). Islamic education for disabilities: New model for developing Islamic parenting in Integrated Blind Orphanage of Aisyiyah. Indonesian Journal of Islam and Muslim Societies, 13(1), 115–142. https://doi.org/10.18326/ijims.v13i1.115-142

Mak, G. (2022). Colonial children connected. Huygens Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis.

Murestiyanto, A. O. (2015). Parenting patterns at Al-Barokah orphanage (Undergraduate thesis, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences).

Nashir, H. (2010). Muhammadiyah: A reform movement. Suara Muhammadiyah.

Pimpinan Pusat Muhammadiyah. (1962). Sejarah 50 tahun Muhammadiyah. Pimpinan Pusat Muhammadiyah.

Rodogno, D. (2012). Against massacre: Humanitarian interventions in the Ottoman Empire, 1815–1914. Princeton University Press.

Rosyida, H. D. Q. (2016). Brothers and sisters relationship in the orphanage: Application of the role of the family as a form of parenting in the Islamic orphanage of R. M. Suryowinoto Yogyakarta (Undergraduate thesis, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Faculty of Cultural Sciences).

Shihab, A. (1998). Membendung arus: Respons gerakan Muhammadiyah terhadap penetrasi Kristen di Indonesia. Mizan.

Singer, A. (2008). Charity in Islamic societies. Cambridge University Press.

Soetjito, A. (2018). Transnasionalisme: Peran aktor non-negara dalam hubungan internasional. Obor.

Stoler, A. L. (2002). Carnal knowledge and imperial power: Race and the intimate in colonial rule. University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520927742

Syaifullah, M. (2010). Filantropi Islam dan transformasi sosial: Studi atas amal usaha Muhammadiyah di bidang pendidikan dan kesehatan. UIN Jakarta Press.

Tosh, J. (2015). The pursuit of history: Aims, methods and new directions in the study of history (6th ed.). Routledge.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17509/historia.v9i1.90349