M. C. Ricklefs (1943–2019)

Social change in Java

By the end of the 16th century, Islam had become a key element of Javanese identity. This was a Sufi version of Islam with a strong mystical content to reconcile Islam with older Hindu-Buddhist mystical believes on the island. In the 17th and 18th centuries the court of Mataram usually sided with the infidel East India Company, creating a cause for an Islamic-inspired opposition. Although many adhered to the five pillars of Islam, in practice, they also accepted an array of other spiritual forces and many remained familiar with the Hindu-Buddhist-derived classics. Other rules of Islam were not strictly followed.

In 1830, the Java War had resulted in unchallenged power for the colonial regime. The 19th century brought a significant growth in the population, and an increasing population density despite that much unused land was opened up for agriculture and settlement. Intellectual and religious contexts were changing rapidly. The Cultivation System that brought so much prosperity to the colonial power required the collaboration of the Javanese elite and made the “priyayi” outside the Principalities equally rich (p.16). The priyayi tried to imitate the kings with spiritual power at an appropriate level. Out of necessity to rule millions of Javanese, the Cultivation System was a conservative system and strengthened the position of the priyayi (p.23). Their financial strength was increased by the opportunities for corruption that matched modern day Indonesia. Non-priyayi also increasingly had jobs outside farming. Haji's had a certain elevated status that they later used to inspire reforms.

After 1830 the Sufist "mystic synthesis" of Islam and local beliefs was challenged and ultimately reduced to one of the variants of Islam on the island. More extreme forms of mysticism aimed at Nothingness or the Realm of the Void also existed. Buddhists from earlier eras could still be role models.

Steamships made the haj more easy and the number of people who made the pilgrimage and donned Arab clothing upon their return rose significantly, while some puritanical groups emerged. Haji's and religious students were mostly living in Surakarta and in Pasisir. In the 1880's religious schools were still mostly teaching magic arts, i.e. the older ngelmu's of Javanese Islamic traditions. Arabic books were used, but most teachers had little or no command of the language (p.71). In the years before the Depression, the Netherlands East Indies sent some 30 to 50 thousand haji yearly, some 40% of all pilgrims there. The Javanese have been about 20% of the Indies' total (p.215).

The middle of the 19th century saw the emergence of the abangan (reds): nominal, non-practising Muslims. They had not existed as a group before, so its members had distanced themselves from an Islamic identity and orthopraxy, although they attended certain Islamic activities as an expression of village solidarity. The stricter and often more affluent putihan (whites) were in the minority. The distinction may be a product of the Islamic reform movement. Culturally the two groups grew apart in many aspects.

Another minority converted to Christianity, which accommodated itself to Javanese identity and culture. The converts were largely won by Indo-Europeans rather than by the stricter Dutch Protestant missionaries. Not unlike Islamic missionaries may have done earlier, the Indo-Europeans used spirituality and mystical knowledge (p.109). Some maintained they could control malign spirits, presented Jesus as the ratu adil (legendary just king) and continued circumcision and selamatans (ritual meals). The Catholics were late entrants, but successful in blending Christianity with Javanese culture, as is expressed in the church at Ganjuran to the south of Yogyakarta. Protestant and Islamic missionaries were often not flexible enough to convince the Javanese.

Dutch colonial rule brought stability for the Principalities as well as for the priyayi elite. The cultural and intellectual horizon of the priyayi expanded dramatically. They created a world different from European administrative practices, that consisted of "punctilious distinctions of status and competition (...) for place, power and wealth". European modernity competed with Islamic modernity for the priyayi's attention. The former offered status, wealth and security, the latter an existence as a middle class trader. Dutch policies allowed the priyayi to be more modern and more traditional at the same time. Bramartani, the only newspaper in Javanese at the time, regularly published praising comments for the useful innovations and modern learning they brought to the island. The paper also supported the colonial government and Javanese soldiers in the wars in Aceh. The priyayi were most enthusiastic about Western schools to a place were little formal education had existed (scribes were used as tutors). Among others, Western learning helped to wipe out old (and preferably commoners') superstitions. God, Muhammad, King Willem and the government were praised for the opportunities education brought. Although America was also admired by Bramartani, the Netherlands was the principle cultural reference. Dutch furniture and theatricals also made inroads as were theosophy and freemasonry. Many priyayi shared the Dutch fascination with pre-Islamic Java, while Bramartani wrote positively about Thai Buddhism (p.172). Some also claimed that Dutch knowledge would succeed Islam. They rejected Islam as a foreign import that compared unfavourably with earlier Hindu-Buddhism ("buda"). One story held that the ancient god-clown Semar had remained in Java to instruct the people "to drink alcohol, eat pork, as in the age of Majapahit, and know profit and loss" (p.188).

The 20th century saw the rise of formal organisations on Java. They would also become political. Dutch education for natives gave rise to nationalist nucleus. Budi Utama was inspired by Java's Hindu-Buddhist past, with Gandhi and Tagore among its inspirations. Budi Utama felt an implicit indifference towards Islam. An equivalent Islamic modernism, combining a return to the roots of Islam with the embrace of Western learning also made inroads via the Muhammadiyah. This organisation opposed traditional Islamic practices and founded a range of government-sponsored schools. The Taman Siswa movement was purely nationalistic. It did not care about Islam, but found Dutch culture ill-fitting. Sarekat Islam was more militantly anti-colonial and anti-priyayi. This mass movement only became more self-consciously religious over time. Some priyayi Theosophists believed their culture was superior to the materialist Dutch and started another nationalist movement. Still, they published in Dutch. The most radical movement was the Communist Party. They also found inspiration in Java's past, but some also found Islam egalitarian. Still the PKI was mostly abangan. Its members often had religious and animistic ideas that would be difficult to recognise by Western communists (p.242).

The breadth of sources Mr. Ricklefs uses for this work is obviously limited. The emergence of the abangan is set in a time of the first systematic studies of Islam on the island. Equally, the description of the development of early modern thought is limited to the one Javanese newspaper and some literary works. Still, I found this a fine history.… (plus d'informations)

The slow conversion to a new world religion

Throughout their recorded history, the Javanese have combined an openness to new ideas with cultural sophistication, a penchant for leaving behind literary sources of value to historians, and a fortunate location.

This openness to new ideas has included the replacement of a combination of Hinduism and indigenous faiths by Islam at a time when Islam was already past its prime in most of the world. This book does not tell why the Javanese converted, but chronicles religious development at the courts in Central Java on the basis of literary sources and colonial documents.

The literary sources leave some aspects to be desired. A tropical climate is harsh on the written word and the Javanese language has changed a lot. In Hindu times, the Javanese had turned the Indian classics into a work of their own. The original structure remained, but the content was changed to meet the local situation.

Muslims, likely indigenous, had been present at the Majapahit court in the 14th century, but there was no wholesale conversion until the 16th century. The Muslim visitor Ma Huan, who worked for admiral Zheng He, found no indigenous Muslims, but lots of Muslim merchants from overseas, including many Chinese. The 16th century Portuguese visitor Tomé Pires reported foreign Muslims becoming Javanese and Javanese becoming Muslims. The two late 16th century Islamic books from Java (primbons) that remain to us convey an orthodox Sufi message. Sufism would predominate in the history of Islam in Java.

Both Western and Javanese sources consider Agung, the first sultan of Mataram, as a pious Muslim, who, on the other hand was also married to Ratu Kidul, a Javanese princess considered goddess of the South Sea. As such Agung, as Java's pre-eminent ruler, incorporates Javanese and Islamic identities. His pilgrimage after defeat in Batavia produces various literary works about Alexander the Great, Muhamed and Jesus, and others, all combining Javanese elements into an essentially Islamic story. Another story describes a Javanese monarch as a pious and ascetic Sufi warrior.

After Agung's death, Islamisation was attenuated. The new king rarely attended mosque services and cared little about Islamic prohibitions and slaughtered Islamic leaders. Still, the Javanese had a strong Islamic identity. An insurrection against Amangkurat I could only be repressed with the infidel East India Company. Amangkurat II called the governor-general "father". The court was "protected" by a Company fort. This alliance with the infidels was held against him and his successors. An Islamic identity was shaped by the court's enemies. Pusakas, ritual heirlooms with supernatural powers, remained important as spiritual underpinning for the sultans (and still do). On the death of the King, the princes came to kiss his penis, according to one story. A radiant light (p.168) passed supernatural legitimacy on to his brother in an event hinting back at the time of Senopati.

The rise to the throne of the 16 year-old Pakubuwana II in 1726 brought a new round of Islamisation, encouraged by his blind pious Sufi grandmother, "the amulet of the people of the island of Java". She also wrote various books related to Islam. Still, in the Serat Cabolek we see Javanese syncretism at work, when the author maintains that all Islamic mystical knowledge can be found in books from the age of Hinduism. Pakubuwana II's reign was hectic, with conflicts within as well as with the Company. When he was temporarily ousted from Kartasura, he supposedly went to Gunung Lawu for divine inspiration. This mountain is the home of Hindu temples and autochthonous spirit forces, the home of a wind god that was associated with the powers of sexuality. Still, his capital was sacked and he could return to power with the help of the Company only. He handed over influential Islamisers to the Company.

In 1755 Mataram was split up into two realms, introducing a period of new prosperity, also culturally. The split up was brokered by Turk, claiming to negotiate on behalf of the Ottoman sultan. It was a period of greater Sufi political activism and increased incorporation of Java in the greater Islamic world. The growing encroachment of European colonial powers was seen as an issue for the future of Islam in the region. For the Company it was an age of retrenchment. The waning organisation was on the wane as corrupt, inefficient, nepotistic and overextended. At the courts a lot of religious works were translated from Arabic or Malay. Still Vishnu, Krishna and other Hindu gods appeared in some religious works, if only as a comparison. In 1814, the Sepoys brought by Raffles who feared to be left behind after the return of the Dutch collaborated with Solo's Pakubuwana IV. They used religion as a channel to the king, who lent them Hindu-Buddhist statues in the court's possession. Pakubuwana IV had earlier presented himself as pious Sufi in various literary works.

In the great late 18th century story Centhini, the ulama are depicted comically and the mystical kyais respectfully. This reflects the dominant mode of mystical synthesis. The Centhini, a book full of heroic and sexual adventures, supports old-fashioned Javanistic speculation against the more orthodox interpretation of Islam. The book reveals a substantial knowledge of major works of Islamic literature, but Kangjeng Nyai Rara Kidul plays a role from early on also. Hinduism and Christianity also appear. The 19th century brought new Dutch assertiveness and a willingness to reform Java, including the overthrow of a decadent native ancien regime. After meditation at the Goa Secang in Bantul, the insurrective Prince Diponegara rallied religious leaders, but developed a liking for both white and red wine. He also recommended Hindu books to his younger brother Hamengkubuwana IV.

Mr. Ricklef sees mysticism as an "ecumenical genius", necessary to reconcile Islam with the earlier Hindu-Buddhist faith. Islam presented a world were humans occupied a phenomenal created world that was real and which they hoped to escape through salvation. Hinduism and Buddhism posited an immanent divinity and a world that was unreal, an illusion created by human ignorance and misunderstanding. At the core of mysticism was the searching inner life of the mystic. The essence of Javanese sufism was the doctrine of nonduality of being Javanese and being Muslim. This nonduality was used for all aspects of the Javanese Weltanschauung.… (plus d'informations)