Islamic nationhood and colonial indonesia (original) (raw)
Islamic identity in the secular environment of Post-colonial Indonesia
The country of Indonesia is not only the world largest Muslim country but also has a diverse culture and history. This paper will try to answer the question of how the historical context and political environment have contributed to shaping the relationship between Islam and (secular) democracy in Indonesia today. By examining remnants of the country’s colonial past, independence from the Dutch in the late 40’s, through the authoritarian regime of Sukarno and The “New Order Administration” and how these periods of the country’s existence have helped shape the socio-religious environment of contemporary Indonesia. By looking at how the socio-religious context interacted with political context of the country during its modernizing transformation after the colonial period, I suggest that the Islam found in Indonesia, exists in a variety of ways but cannot be looked at without taking the historical context into consideration. As a consequence of large diversity among Indonesians both ethnically and religiously, Islam was never a united political force as in other countries. But how does the contemporary political environment affect religious identity construction for contemporary Indonesians? With the socio-religious climate in Indonesia one of dynamism, active participation and as it contains the largest Muslim populous in the world as well as one of the largest growing economies, Indonesia and the relationship between Islam and democracy is of increasing global importance.
2016
In contrast to countries in Southeast Asia such as Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, and even Thailand, Islam in Indonesia has special characteristics. If these countries have a homogeneous tendency, on the other hand Indonesia is very heterogeneous. The strong hegemony of the authority of the religious life, tend to become a reason for the emergence of a monolithic color in religious life. Otherwise, in Indonesia, the strong pull of the relationship between Islam and the country it self, led to religious practice that necessitates the diversity, the denial of the diversity. The following article examines the religious diversity which apparent since Indonesia emerged as a country. Keywords: dynamics, Islam, Indonesia
Tamalola: Transregional connectivities, Islam, and anti-colonialism on an Indonesian island
Wacana: Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia, 2019
The present study focuses on a set of events in the Aru Islands, Maluku, in the late eighteenth century which are documented in some detail by Dutch records. A violent rebellion with Muslim and anti-European overtones baffled the Dutch colonialists (VOC) and led to a series of humiliations for the Company on Aru, before eventually being subdued. As one of the main catalysts of the conflict stands the chief Tamalola from the Muslim island Ujir. Interestingly, this person is also a central figure in local traditions from Ujir. Moreover, his story connects with wider cultural and economic networks in eastern Indonesia. Thus the article asks how the imprints of the Tamalola figure in textual and non-textual sources can add to our knowledge of how communities of Eastern Indonesia ordered their lives outside colonial control.
The Next Episode of Islamic History: the Rise of Indonesia as the New Giant in Muslim World
2020
After World War I and II, Muslim Society has to deal with political changes of the World. The emerging of New Muslim Majority Countries with new political system – especially democracyhas given new colour in the Islamic World. The Intellectual life in the Islamic World has also grown, despite of stagnancy in 16-19 century. In this article, the author wants to explain the rising of Indonesia as the New Giant in Muslim World. The research done by John Gerry (2011) showed that the longer a Nation lives in democracy the better it will perform in many areas. This article supports that theory. It also supports the statement of Anthony Reid (2012), Robinson and Hadiz (2017), it said that Indonesian democracy is the best democracy in Southeast Asia, and it becomes the model for other Islamic Countries to practice democracy in Muslim Society. This article also supports a research done by PWC about the shift of economic domination from G7 to E7, which include Indonesia. In military sector, In...
Islam and the making of the nation: Kartosuwiryo and political Islam in 20th century Indonesia
This book investigates the relation between Islam and politics in Indonesia throughout the 20th century. Through accurate archival research, the author follows the career and ideology of Kartosuwiryo, the religious nationalist leader of the Sarekat Islam party and later Imam of the Islamic state of Indonesia. Focussing on the dialectic between the religious and secular anti-colonial and nationalist movements, this effort is pursued to understand the failure of political Islam in the mid-1950s and the consolidation of the Pancasila state under Sukarno’s and Suharto’s regimes. Tracing a trajectory of political activism consistently dedicated to the formation of an Indonesian state independent of foreign intrusions, the chapters delineate the gradual radicalization of the Islamic party and Kartosuwiryo’s own ideals from the 1920s until the 1950s. For decades scholars of Indonesia have rejected the religious claims of this movement, interpreting the antagonism between the Islamic state and Soekarno’s republic as a fight for power, self-assertion, or land rights, whilst recently Kartosuwiryo and the DI have become heroic symbols of the local Islamist struggle. The author looks beyond this dichotomy unveiling a ‘third’ dimension of this character, a politician whose legacy has shaped the role of Islam in Indonesian politics. A testament to the relevance of historical enquiry in the understanding of contemporary politics, Islam and the making of the nation guides the reader through the contingencies of the past which have led to the transformation of a nationalist leader into a ‘separatist rebel’ and a ‘martyr’, at the same time shaping Indonesia’s public perceptions of political Islam and strengthening the position of the Pancasila.
7 Indonesian Muslims and Their Place in the Larger World of Islam
Indonesia Rising, 2012
Indonesian Muslims and Their Place in the Larger World of Islam Martin van Bruinessen* With over 220 million Muslims, Indonesia has the largest community of Muslims in the world. Nevertheless, Indonesian Muslims do not play a role in global Muslim thought and action that is commensurate with their numbers. Indonesian Muslims have been eager to learn from Arab as well as Indian, Turkish and Persian thinkers, but do not seem to think they may have something valuable to offer in return. In Indonesian bookshops one finds the translated works of classical and modern Arabic authors, as well as studies of and by major Indian, Pakistani, Iranian and Turkish authors. But Malaysia is the only other country where one can find works by Indonesian Muslim authors, and there are virtually no serious studies of Indonesian Islam by scholars of other Muslim nations. The Arab world has shown a remarkable lack of interest in Asia in general, let alone in the social and cultural forms of Islam in Southeast Asia. Though more outward looking, other Muslim regions of Asia have not taken a serious interest in their Southeast Asian co-religionists either. 2 Indonesians are pursuing Islamic studies in India, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey, as well as in the Arab world and in the West. Indian and Turkish Muslims travelling to Indonesia, on the other hand, are not going there as students but as teachers and missionaries. Missionary movements such as the Ahmadiyya and the Tablighi Jama'at (both originating in India) and the Nur and Gülen movements (which started in Turkey) are active all over the world, as are the various * The author wishes to thank Martin Slama, Ulil Abshar-Abdalla, Mona Abaza and Tony Reid for their comments on an earlier version of this paper. The sole Egyptian academic to have published serious studies on Malaysian and Indonesian Islam, as well as on the relationship between the Middle East and Indonesia, is the Germantrained sociologist Mona Abaza. Her overview of Arabic writing on Asia reveals how shallow and uninformative most of the existing literature is (Abaza 2011; see also Abaza 2007). She makes an exception for an encyclopaedic work on Islam among non-Arabic speakers by Ahmad Shalabi (1983), who spent many years teaching in Indonesia in the 1950s and 1960s. 2 One exception is Göksoy's (1995) work on Islam in Indonesia under the Dutch. Originally a dissertation submitted to the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, the book was later published in Turkish by a publishing house associated with Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs. 8 Natsir appears in various roles in a major study of the Muslim World League by Schulze (1990). See also Schulze (1983).
The Fate of Muslim Nationalism in Independent Indonesia
My doctoral dissertation at Yale University, 2012. This dissertation traces the fate of groups in Indonesia who sought to make their country an Islamic state by transforming politics and society. Although these groups played a critical role in winning Indonesia's independence during the Indonesian Revolution (1945-1949), divisions between political leaders, theological leaders, and the grassroots split the movement, and by 1960 these divisions caused the failure of Islam as a political movement for an Islamic state. During revolution, Dutch-educated political leaders took the leadership of the Islamic movement through appointments in the Socialist-led cabinets. These political leaders brought their Western norms to the struggle to establish an Islamic state. Theological leaders, prominent for their roles in Islamic education and mass organizations, also sought to establish an Islamic state, but they were less involved in Indonesia's modern governance. Across Indonesia, pious Muslims disconnected from the national leadership of the Islamic movement also contributed to the revolution. At this grassroots level, the Indonesian Revolution was experienced as an Islamic fight for independence. The diversity of Muslim experiences in the revolution, including many heterodox practices, demonstrated the distance between the syncretic Islamic grassroots and the new leadership of the Islamic movement nationally. After Indonesia's independence was recognized in late 1949, Islamic political parties and mass organizations sought to shape the state and nation to make them more Islamic. They were hindered in this by tensions between the political and theological leaders in the Islamic bloc, tensions that climaxed in the 1952 departure of Nandlatul Ulama from the major Islamic party Masjumi. The Islamic movement experienced many successes after independence, such as the expansion of Islamic organizations and education, but national trends such as the standardization of language limited the influence of Islamic ideas and activists. Things came to a head in the national elections of 1955, when the political leaders, theological leaders, and Islamic grassroots not only battled political parties opposed to Islam but also battled each other. Facing the elections, political interests proved to be paramount over existing social and cultural interests in the Indonesian Islamic movement. Although they expected an unambiguous victory, Islamic parties won only 45% of the seats in the resulting parliament and Constituent Assembly, severely restricting their ability to implement their vision of an Islamic state. After this defeat, the strain between the Islamic political elite and the Islamic grassroots and theological leaders became too great. Islamic political leaders were pushed into increasing irrelevance, failing to pass legislation, failing in the constitutional assembly, and committing half-heartedly to the PRRI rebellion of 1958-61. As a result, the debilitated Masjumi party was dissolved. Islamic mass organizations freed themselves from political parties and embraced the Sukarno regime. The Islamic movement as a bloc struggling for Indonesia to become an Islamic state fell apart.