The shared sense of national identity in Indonesia, as the largest Muslim country in the world, was influenced to a large extent by a new trend of Islamic thought usually called “Islamic modernism”[1]. This essay discusses the contributions of modernist Muslims to the general development of Indonesian nationalism in the first half of the twentieth century, particularly from 1900 until 1942. In addressing the issue, it is necessary to consider the general state of Islamic thought in the late nineteenth century. There was a trend of awakening among some Islamic scholars in Muslim countries, especially after the era when the Islamic empires such as the Mughal in India and the Ottoman in Turkey had come to an end one after another. Consequently, the call for Islamic revivalism and the attempt to modernisation by some Muslim scholars influenced the first modern Islamic organisational activities in Indonesia (Dutch East Indies) which prompted a shared sense of belonging to the single country, promoted the same identity, and helped in shaping the Indonesian nationalism.
Although the emergence of modernist Islam was to a large extent a reaction to the domination of the Islamic world by the Western colonialism, its outcome went beyond the struggle merely against colonialism. For instance, in Indonesia, the modernist Muslims had a significant role in developing a shared sense of belonging among the native population. As it is defined by Benedict, a nation is “an imagined political community […] because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of communion”[2]. Modernist Muslims in Indonesia strengthened the general sense of this imaginary communion and paved the ways towards the Indonesian nationalism. However, various other integrating factors such as anti-colonialism, communism, social mobility and the expansion of education had all together contributed to the improvement of Indonesian nationalism. Islam, in particular, the modernist Muslims, played a pivotal role as it is acknowledged by scholars that “[t]he first mass nationalist movements were those based on Islam”[3]. The contributions that modernist Muslims made to the development of nationalism in pre-1942 Indonesia were achieved in various ways, which can be allocated in different parameters. In particular, the common motive for resisting colonialism, the institutional operations of local modern organisations established by Indonesian Muslims such as Sarekat Islam and Muhammadiyah, the interactions with the rest of the Islamic world through the pilgrimage of Hajj, and socio-political changes in the Muslim world were the ways that influenced modernist Muslims in Indonesia and encouraged them to actively contribute to the development of Indonesian nationalism.
Following the collapse of three Gunpowder Empires, which were the empires of the Ottomans in Turkey, the Safavids in Iran, and the Mughals in India and the occupation of Western powers in the East and particularly Islamic states, an anti-Western spirit grew among some Islamic scholars. Sayyed Jamaluddin Afghani was one of the prominent Muslim scholars popularised the idea of modern Islam in favour of resisting against Western domination[4]. He was pioneering in the Muslim world in promoting the unity of the East and reviving Islam in order to tackle the Western colonialism. According to Olomi, “Al Afghani’s imagines the East as a pan-Islamic state, unified and capable of resisting European hegemony”[5]. Less than three years before the dawn of the twentieth century, Afghani died in 1897[6], but his legacy of reviving Islam through encouraging rationality and incorporating modern science within this religion[7] influenced a large number of Islamic scholars throughout the region from Egypt to South East Asia.
The long tenure of Dutch colonialism and bloody rebellions against the European domination in parts of the archipelago had resulted in a general sense of opposition against colonialism in the overall public perception. Entering the twentieth century among many native populations of Indonesia, including Muslims, embraced anti-colonialism as a common cause for political activism. Laffan notes that in the late nineteenth-century Dutch scholar and the Advisor on Native Affairs to the colonial government, Snouck Hurgronje had come to reveal “the seeds of pan-Islamism and anti-colonialism”[8] among Indonesian elites who were visiting Mecca for the pilgrimage of Hajj. Modernist Islam inherited the historical and traditional resistance of Muslims against colonialism. In other words, in public perception, the privilege of historical resistance of majority Muslims against colonialism was manifested in the organisation and activities of modernist Muslims through their foreseeable attempts. Kartosuwiry, who was the vice president of the central board in Sarekat Islam, founded on November 11, 1911[9], wrote for a “foundations of the anti-colonial struggle, political non-cooperation with the Dutch and the establishment of a state based on Islamic principles and jurisprudence”[10]. Having a predilection for communism, Kartosuwiry was a personal assistant of the Indonesian nationalist leader Haji Umar Said Cokroaminoto[11]. Furthermore, Kartosuwiry was deeply influenced by another modernist Muslim leader Agus Salim[12]. Kartosuwiry’s provocative writings coincided with the peak of anti-colonialism. Although he was reflecting upon the organisational goals of Sarekat Islam which were in line with the common motive of anti-colonialism, these publications were also contributing the sense of nationalism in Indonesia as they were reflecting the very essential demands of the native population.
The word 'Indonesia' was coined more than half a century before modernist Islam influence this country. Elson notes that “[James] Logan was the first to employ the name ‘Indonesia’ to describe, however loosely, the geographical region of the archipelago”[13]. The modernist Islamic movements, particularly Sarekat Islam promoted rather inclusive concepts in relation to Indonesian nationalism in their organisational public events. For the first time in the history of Indonesia, Sarekat Islam used the word 'national' to identify their second congress in 1916; as Noer records “[w]hile during the first stage there meetings were called only congress, those of the second stage were called “national” congress”[14]. Noer explains this symbolic initiative was the first attempt to achieve autonomy and the campaign for the right of the native population to express their opinion on political affairs. Furthermore, in the same national congress, Cokroaminoto the leader of Sarekat Islam demanded the involvement of natives in political power. As Noer quotes Cokroaminoto’s speech that says, “it is no longer justifiable that [Indonesian] population, especially the natives, do not have the right of participation in political affairs which are concerned with their very fate”[15]. This way, one of the local organisations established by the modernist Muslims, Sarekat Islam, through its institutional activities, took the first major step towards Indonesian nationalism.
Alongside its political activities, the Muslim organisations influenced by modernist interpretations of Islam took the initiative of promoting public education by establishing schools for the younger generation and running other institutions for social welfares. Muhammadiyah (originally named as Muhmmadijah) was another organisation which “was set up in Jogjakarta on November 18, 1912, by Kijahi Hadji Ahmad Dahlan”[16], with the aim of “spreading of Islam among the population and the promotion of religious life among its members”[17]. Muhammadiyah provided great interest in and advocacy for expanding public welfare, therefore, within less than two decades Muhammadiyah expanded beyond Java and established dozens of new branches throughout the archipelago including those at the local level, small towns, etc. According to Noer, Muhammadiyah established the very first and second branches in Medan and then in Minangkabau respectively, and by 1929 its branches were active in Bengkulen, Bandjarmasin, and Amuntai, Atjeh (Aceh), and Makassar[18]. This rapid expansion of branches indicates a high level of public support and enthusiasm to the outspoken advocacy of Muhammadiyah in matters relating to public welfare. As noted by Brown, “[e]ducation was not the only thing Muhammadiyah was interested in—it also ran hospitals, orphanages and other institutions of a social welfare”[19]. It can easily be understood that the operations of such a great network of local modern organisations, which were established by Indonesian Muslims to provide public services to a significant proportion of the population were a parallel establishment with the colonial government.
With consideration the aims of Muhammadiyah as a modernist Islamic organisation and its principles to spread Islam and promote religious life, the branches were not merely organisational bases but their educational policies should be based on Islamic values. This included, but not limited, to a complete rejection of teaching Dutch or incorporating that language into the curricula of Muhammadiyah schools. Brown mentions that “[n]eedless to say, Islamic schools never taught in Dutch or taught Dutch as a subject”[20]. This was another way by which modernist Islam was to expand the local languages, particularly Malay, the language which later becomes a unifying tool for Indonesian nationalism.
The interactions with the rest of the Islamic world through participating to Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, as well as influenced by socio-political changes were other ways in which Indonesian Muslims got acquainted with the ideas of modernist thinkers in the Islamic world. Many Indonesians who later became leaders of both Muhammadiyah and Sarekat Islam, have gone to Hajj at least once or were inspired by the modernist scholars such as Mohammad Abduh. Mohammad Abduh was one of the “devoted students”[21] of Afghani who himself was one of the forefathers of the Islamic modernism. Noer claims that ‘by 1912 Dahlan [the founder of Muhammadiyah] had already got acquainted with [Abduh’s] ideas”[22]. Likewise, Noer records that “In 1904 [Hadji Samanhoeddhi, the founder of Sarekat Islam] went to Mekka for the pilgrimage and returned home the following year”[23]. It is worth noting that the founder of Sarekat Islam had a very basic understanding of Islam as Noer notes that “his knowledge of Islam was meagre”[24]. Nevertheless, following his trip to Mecca, Samanhoeddhi became interested in establishing organisational works. Furthermore, Indonesian nationalism reflected political changes in Turkey. William et al. state that the nationalists including the modernist Muslims in Indonesia observed “the success of Kemal Ataturk in creating a modern, secularized Turkey after World War I on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire”[25]. Therefore, Indonesian nationalism reflected trends in other parts of Asia and Europe and particularly the Islamic world through modernist Muslims.
Nationalism in the world's largest Muslim country of Indonesia has greatly influenced by the new trend of modern Islamic thought. Among the various integrating factors that influenced socio-political movements towards the development of nationalism in Indonesia, modernist Islam had a critical role. The contributions of modernist Muslims in the development of Indonesian nationalism were largely emanated from the historical resistance of Muslims against colonialism, the emphasises on Islamic values which were other than westernised values of Dutch, and the new trend of modern Islamic thoughts. Furthermore, the progressive expansion of the branches of Islamic organisations such as Muhammadiyah and Sarekat Islam, their services in providing education and public welfare throughout the archipelago, and incorporating of Malay language improved the sense of unity among the native population, which consequently contributed to the development of Indonesian nationalism.
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[1] Moaddel. Islamic Modernism. 2.
[2] Benedict, Imagined Communities, 6.
[3] Brown, A Short History of Indonesia, 119.
[4] Olomi, “The Oriental and the Orientalist”, 3.
[5] Ibid., 33.
[6] Ibid., 41.
[7] Shepard, Introducing Islam, 232.
[8] Laffan, Islamic Nationhood, 72.
[9] Noer, “THE RISE AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODERNIST MUSLIM”, 161.
[10] Formichi, “Pan-Islam and Religious Nationalism”, 131.
[11] Ibid., 131.
[12] Ibid., 131.
[13] Elson, “The origins of the idea of Indonesia,” 2.
[14] Noer, “THE RISE AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODERNIST MUSLIM”, 178.
[15] Ibid., 179.
[16] Ibid., 115.
[17] Ibid., 118.
[18] Ibid., 120-122.
[19] Brown, A Short History of Indonesia, 109.
[20] Ibid., 108.
[21] Olomi, “The Oriental and the Orientalist”, 3.
[22] Noer, “THE RISE AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODERNIST MUSLIM”, 119.
[23] Ibid., 168.
[24] Ibid., 169.
[25] William et all, Indonesia: A Country Study. No page.
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