Native Indonesians in the context of Kaharingan

Indonesians (Indonesian: Orang Indonesia) are citizens or people who are identified with the country of Indonesia, regardless of their ethnic or religious background. There are more than 1,300 ethnicities in Indonesia, making it a multicultural archipelagic country with a diversity of languages, culture and religious beliefs. The population of Indonesia according to the 2020 national census was 270.2 million. 56% live on the island of Java, the world's most populous island. Around 95% of Indonesians are Native Indonesians (formerly grouped as "Pribumi"), primarily of Austronesian and Melanesian descent, with 40% Javanese and 15% Sundanese forming the majority, while the other 5% are Indonesians with ancestry from foreign origin, such as Arab Indonesians, Chinese Indonesians, Indian Indonesians, and Indos.

Universitas Gadjah Mada (Javanese: ꦈꦕꦮꦶꦪꦠꦒꦗꦃꦩꦢ, romanized: Ucawiyata Gajah Mada; Indonesian: Universitas Gadjah Mada, abbreviated as UGM) is a public research university located in Sleman, Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Officially founded on 19 December 1949, Universitas Gadjah Mada is one of the oldest and largest institutions of higher education in the country, and has been credited as one of the best universities in Indonesia. In the 2026 QS World University Rankings, UGM is ranked 2nd in Indonesia and 224th in the world.

During the period when native education was often restricted, the institution was the first to open its medicine to native Indonesians when it was founded in the 1940s under Dutch rule.

Discrimination against people of Chinese descent in Indonesia has been carried out since the time of the Dutch East India Company. Serious violence against Chinese people has occurred at irregular intervals since 1740, when the soldiers of the Dutch East India Company and other ethnic groups from Batavia killed up to 10,000 people of Chinese descent during the Chinezenmoord. The worst outbreaks took place in 1946-49 during the Indonesian National Revolution against Dutch rule. There were significant outbreaks in the early 1960s. Violence against Chinese also took place in 1965 after the failed coup attempt during anti-communist purges; the main target of the killings being Native Indonesian communists. In May 1998, many Chinese businesses were burned down and many Chinese girls and women were raped and murdered.

The Indo people (Dutch: Indische Nederlanders, Indonesian: Orang Indo) or Indos are Eurasian people living in or connected with Indonesia. In its narrowest sense, the term refers to people in the former Dutch East Indies who held European legal status but were of mixed Dutch and indigenous Indonesian descent as well as their descendants today.

In the broadest sense, an Indo is anyone of mixed European and Indonesian descent. Indos are associated with colonial culture of the former Dutch East Indies, a Dutch colony in Sundaland, Wallacea, and western Melanesia and a predecessor to modern Indonesia after its proclamation of independence shortly after World War II. The term was used to describe people acknowledged to be of mixed Dutch and Indonesian descent, or it was a term used in the Dutch East Indies to apply to Europeans who had partial southeastern Eurafrasian ancestry. The European ancestry of these people was predominantly Dutch, but also included Portuguese, German, British, French, Belgian and others.

Bumiputera or bumiputra (Jawi: بوميڤوترا‎, Native), often shortened to Bumi in casual contexts, is a term used in Malaysia to refer to the Malays, the Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia, various indigenous peoples of East Malaysia and certain Peranakans sub-groups. The term, rooted in the Sanskrit word later absorbed into the classical Malay bhumiputra (Sanskrit: भूमिपुत्र, romanized: bhū́miputra), literally translates as "son of the land" or "son of the soil". In Indonesia, a related term, "Pribumi", is used, although in Malaysia it more broadly denotes indigenous peoples.

Following the 13 May incident in 1969, the government implemented the New Economic Policy (NEP), a set of measures granting extensive social, economic and political advantages to bumiputera communities. These included affirmative action in education, housing and preferential treatment in the public sectors, officially aimed at improving the socioeconomic position of the bumiputera and appeasing the Malay majority by granting them a constitutionally enshrined privileged status over Malaysian citizens who are Chinese or Indians. Although originally presented as a temporary solution to interethnic tensions, the policy has remained in force for decades and has been described as a form of institutionalised racism.