This paper examines the concept of Indonesian cosmopolitanism from writers’ perspective from the late colonial period in the 1920s to the early Independence period in the late 1940s and explores which concept has been retained in the contemporary period. Through close reading and historical-political contextualisation, it identifies different framings of the idea of cosmopolitanism at the early stage of decolonisation within four canonical novels: Abdoel Moeis’s Salah Asoehan (Never the Twain, 1928), Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana’s Layar Terkembang (With Sails Unfurled, 1936), Armijn Pane’s Belenggu (Shackles, 1940), and Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s Perburuan (The Fugitive, 1949). Since the European colonisation produce both Eurocentric and nativistic colonial subjects, this results in different nuances of how the concept was defined. In the earlier novels, the juxtaposition of cultural rootedness and openness (or, at times, even detachment) took the centre stage. In the late 1940s, the focus had shifted to both nationalism and the duty to humankind. This paper concludes that Indonesian writers at polar opposites of the political spectrum used the idea of cosmopolitanism differently at the early stages of decolonisation in an attempt to define the future directions of the state ideology. While the Eurocentric literary scholars did not necessarily come out the winner while the debates were in full swings, their views were reprised and have become prominent in contemporary Indonesian literature. This study limits itself to four canonical novels, each emblematic of its decade, in order to highlight key shifts in how Indonesian writers framed cosmopolitanism in the formative decades of nation-building.