13 Facts About Sanusi Pane

Sanusi Pane was an Indonesian writer, journalist, and historian.

Sanusi Pane was highly active in literary media, sitting on the editorial boards of several publications.

Sanusi Pane has been described as the most important dramatist from before the Indonesian National Revolution.

Sanusi Pane began his education in two primary schools in Sibolga, before continuing to middle school, first in Padang, then in Batavia.

In 1929, Sanusi Pane moved to India, where he spent a year studying the culture of India.

Sanusi Pane continued to be active in literary circles, joining the editorial board of Panorama in the early 1930s, together with Liem Koen Hian, Amir Sjarifuddin and Mohammad Yamin.

In mid-1936, together with his colleagues Liem, Sjarifuddin and Yamin, Sanusi Pane started another newspaper, Kebangoenan, which was published by Phoa's Siang Po Printing Press.

Together with Armijn, Adam Malik, and Soemanang Soerjowinoto, on 13 December 1937 Sanusi Pane founded the news agency Antara; after independence, Antara became Indonesia's official news agency.

From 1941 to 1942, Sanusi Pane edited the magazine Indonesia, published by the state-owned publisher Balai Pustaka.

Sanusi Pane viewed Western cultures as being too materialistic, focusing on the physical aspects of life; Eastern cultures, on the other hand, he viewed as being more spiritualistic.

Sanusi Pane saw this as influencing the way in which humans interacted with nature, with Westerners seeking to conquer it and Easterners preferring to adapt to it.

In one polemic in response to fellow Poedjangga Baroe editor Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana, who was decidedly pro-Western, Sanusi Pane compared the West to Faust, who sold his soul to the devil for worldly pleasure and knowledge, and the East to Arjuna, who searched for a spiritual truth.

Sanusi Pane did admit that Western technology could bring a positive change.