Pendidikan, filantropi, dan emansipasi: Gerakan pengasuhan anak yatim Muhammadiyah di Hindia Belanda (1921–1930-an)

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.