Ki Hajar Dewantara

Life & Legacy

Raden Mas Soewardi Soerjaningrat (2 May 1889 – 26 April 1959), better known by the name Ki Hajar Dewantara since 1922, was a leading Indonesian independence movement activist, writer, columnist, politician, and pioneer of education for native Indonesians in Dutch colonial times. He founded the Taman Siswa school, an institution that provided education for indigenous commoners, which otherwise was limited to the Javanese aristocracy and the Dutch colonials.
He was honored as a National Hero of Indonesia by Indonesia's first president, Sukarno, on 28 November 1959.