Because Indonesia's culture is strongly linked to the Islamic religion - Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim population, with today about 200 million Muslims out of 230 million Indonesians , in other words 86% Indonesians are Muslim – both the official definition of Indonesian national identity made by the state since the independence and the unofficial “feeling” by the people and by intellectuals and religious of their own identity have been defined according to Islam – in including or excluding it.
Thus, we can wonder in which way Islam has influenced the emergence of the Indonesian national identity and how it has been considered in the use by the Indonesian Republic of the “national identity” concept?
Islam had an obvious place in the rising national feeling of the Indonesian, whereas the radical changes in Indonesian cultural and religious life during the nineteenth century made Islam inapt to gather all the Indonesians (I). Thus, the first Indonesian Republic defined a national identity different from, and sometimes even against the Islamic identity, although progressively this religion got an ambiguous place in public policy and in official discourses (II).
[...] But from the nineteenth century to the independence obtained in 1950, Islam failed to redefine Indonesian national identity. Indeed, the Islamic-Indonesian homogenous identity became no more possible by the mid nineteenth century because of a polarization of Indonesian religious identity (Indonesians were no more only Muslims but also Christians or “neo-Buddhist” or “neo-Hindui” priyayi) and particularly because of a polarization within the main religion, Islam, between conflicting interpretations of religious truth (sharia-oriented reformists versus Sufi reformists, messianic, mystic synthesis, Modernists versus Traditionalists). [...]
[...] This state-made definition did not take into account Indonesian reality, thus the official national identity has evolved independently from the tangible common identity felt by the Indonesian. Sukarno's choice of a secular nationalism and the Pancasila philosophy : the construction of Indonesian official national identity against Islam In the aftermath of the independence, the very nationalistic new leaders led by President Sukarno clearly made the choice, from the beginning, to put Islam out of the official national identity. Indeed, in order to avoid that the national unity would be threatened by one exclusivist ideology as Islam whereas the “Indonesian” people is a highly religiously – but also ethnically – divided people, Sukarno and the first government of Indonesia preferred to chose a “neutral” philosophy, called “Pancasila”, as the philosophical and societal foundation of the new Republic. [...]
[...] Similarly, a private foundation controlled by President Suharto launched a huge financing program of mosques throughout Indonesia. Furthermore, because the strong anti-religious policy turned into a neutral non-interventionist approach in religious matters, many non-governmental religious organizations flourished, and the State even delegated some regional administrative or judiciary powers to state-sponsored Islamic institutions such as Islamic courts in the periphery of the central administrative structure. The moderate “Islamisation” of the state – that followed the global Islamisation of the society – led to the political rapprochement of President Suharto with an important part of the Muslim community, and consequently the Indonesian president of the New Order began to take pro- Islamic initiatives in the late 1980s. [...]
[...] The Priyayi wanted to redefine Indonesian identity by the “true” essence of its people, the pre-Islamic culture, religions and way of life. This desire of re-finding national roots in the past was facilitated by the archeological researches made by the Dutch in Java that revealed much about Java's pre-Islamic past that became defined by European scientists – and so by Indonesian elite – as the “classical age” – or “golden age” - of Javanese culture. Thus, for the Priyayi Western-style elite, through “budi” (or modern European-style scientific knowledge) it would be possible to regain “buda” (the pre-Islamic “authentic” culture of Java). [...]
[...] Islam and National identity in Indonesia Indonesia is a young nation: Indeed, the shape of nowadays' Indonesian country that comprises about 17500 islands has not always constituted a sole country. More important, the idea of an Indonesian “nation”, that implies an Indonesian “identity” or an Indonesian “people”, has not been obvious and took roots in the European concept of nation-state, that only emerged during the nineteenth century. What we call “Indonesia” today has been divided during History in several kingdoms then has been an area dominated by the Dutch before finally got independence in 1950 and became a united centralized state. [...]
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