From an Independent to Non-autonomous Village (The History of Status Change of Selo Village, Grobogan District)

Selo is one of historical villages in Java which had existed in the Mataram Islam Kingdom era as an independent village. Independent villages means villages which received special autonomy from the king in its governance and was exempted from tax payment. Together with the change of governance in Java, the status of this traditional village also changed. Thus, this study tries to analyse the social status change of Selo from Mataram Islam era, Dutch colonization to the New Order era. This research used a historical method by using both documentary and oral sources, either oral historical interviews or oral tradition. The results show that in the Mataram Islam Kingdom era, the status of an independent village of Selo was highly respected by the Islam rulers. However, since the Dutch Colonial era, the government policy was issued to restrict the independence of this traditional village. Nevertheless, the Netherlands still respected in the existence of Selo as a village where sacred tombs of Mataram Islam king ancestors were located. After the issuance of Laws number 5 year 1979 concerning the equalization policy of village status throughout Indonesia, the status of an independent village, Selo, has been lost. Keywords— independent village; special autonomy; tax; colonial era; new order era