Note on Early Indonesia
K.ku
Political Activism in a Traditional and Colonial
Society Indonesia between 1908 and 1928
by Peter Lowensteyn
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http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/5867/indonesia01.html#Islam
Islam
Islam in Indonesia was, as in other Muslim nations in Asia,
undergoing
important changes during the first decades of the twentieth century.
The
two major movements were Pan-Islamism and the Islamic Modernist
movement and both were active in Indonesia. The Dutch Colonial
Government was at first mainly concerned with the Pan-Islam
movement,
because it feared the international character of its ideology. As a
result of
this the Islam Modernist movement could easily spread throughout
Indonesia.33 It was only later that the Government realised that the
Modernist movement was the more dangerous one, because it tried to
combine modern scientific concepts with the teachings of Islam, and
was
thus attractive to the educated élite in Indonesia who were trying
to combine
their traditional upbringing with the new values they had absorbed
in
Europe. The aim of the Modernist movement to "restate the principles
of
Islamic ethics in terms of social values"34 was more appealing to
the
Indonesian élite than the more conservative concepts of Pan-Islam.
Islam in
Southeast Asia, and specially in Indonesia, had never been the
intense
religion it was in the heartland of Arabia. Through reinterpretation
and
diffusion with local traditions, Islam in Indonesia had adapted
itself to the
culture of the region. As a result the Pan-Islam movement never
gripped the
imagination of the Muslims in Indonesia to the same extent as it did
in the
Islamic nations of the Middle East.35
Although Islam had played an important role in earlier uprisings in
Indonesia, the modern revival of Islam could be used more
effectively to
counter foreign political as well as foreign religious influences.
It could
become a focal point for antigovernment action, because it had
become
more international and modern in outlook which appealed to the
educated
elite. It now became useful as a means to unite the people of
Indonesia,
who regardless of their geographical position in the widespread
archipelago,
or of differences in language, in general adhered to Islam. Some
historians in
Indonesia during the 1920's claimed that Islam was a hindrance to
political
socialist activism and that Islam was a cover for the bourgeois
elements in
Indonesian society, from behind which they maintained control over
the
nationalist movements.36 But many Indonesian leaders sincerely
believed
that the concepts of Islam were a prerequisite rather than a
hindrance to
national unity, and that the international character of Islam would
lead to a
feeling of togetherness in the own national sphere.37 The fact that
so many
of the marxist-socialists in Indonesia were Dutchmen, who had but
little
understanding of, and use for Islam, and who regarded Islam
essentially as
an alien ideology, explains much of this opposition to Islam among
the
socialist leaders in Indonesia. They forgot that Islam had a long
tradition in
Indonesia of supporting resistance not only against the Dutch, but
against
their priyayi henchmen as well, who had not hesitated in the past
the help
the Dutch in suppressing-Islamic "fanaticism".
In general the new Islamic movements of the twentieth century had a
revolutionising and modernising effect on Indonesian society, and
the Dutch
authorities strove to limited its influence, by supporting the rule
of the adat
chiefs and to encourage local patriotic feelings, and by presenting
the
Modernist movement in the areas beyond Java as a new form of
Javanese
domination.38