Mohammad Misbach

[1] Misbach started to become well-known among the reformist generation in Surakarta (called kaum muda or young group); he became more active in 1914 when he joined Marco Kartodikromo's League of Native Journalists (Dutch: Inlandsche Journalisten Bond).

[1] In 1915 he became even better known after he acted as leader of local people in Surakarta who were opposed to the Dutch "anti-plague" policies which involved the partial demolition of native homes.

[2] In 1915 Misbach helped cofound a left-wing Islamic monthly magazine named Medan Moeslimin (Muslim forum) as a response to increasing Christian missionary publications in Java.

[2] In 1918, Misbach and some of his more Islamically-minded allies (including Oemar Said Tjokroaminoto) entered into a dispute with some parts of the nationalist movement over the publications of content in the Surakarta newspaper Djawi-Hisworo which they deemed disrespectful to Muhammad.

[2] He became a propagandist in the countryside against the regressive Corvée forced labour system through which peasants had to do unpaid work or risk being expelled from their land.