Islam and the making of the nation: Kartosuwiryo and Political Islam in 20th Century Indonesia

263 Pages·2012·1.388 MB·English

by  Chiara Formichi

Islam

and the making
I
s
l
a of the nation
Recently Kartsowiryo and the Darul Islam have become heroic m
symbols of the Islamist struggle. The author looks beyond the
a
popular dichotomy between rebel and martyr and unveils a n Kartosuwiryo and Political Islam
politician whose legacy has been shaping the role of Islam in d
in 20th century Indonesia
Indonesian politics for over fifty years. She thereby offers an t
h
alternative view of Soekarno as the leader of the republic and e Chiara Formichi
his antagonism with the Islamic state. m
In a blend of archival sources, printed material, and oral
a
accounts, the author follows the career and ideology of k
i
Kartosuwiryo. The chapters delineate the gradual radicaliza- n
g
tion of the Islamic party and of Kartosuwiryo’s own ideals from

the 1920s to the 1950s. o
f
A testament to the relevance of historical research in under-
t
standing contemporary politics, Islam and the making of the h
e
nation guides the reader through the contingencies of the

n
past that have led to the transformation of a nationalist leader
a
into a ‘separatist rebel’ and a ‘martyr’, while at the same time t
i
shaping the public perception of political Islam and strength- o
n
ening the position of the Pancasila in contemporary Indonesia.
Chiara Formichi (1982) has a PhD from School of Oriental and C
African Studies, University of London and she is Assistant h
i
a
Professor of Asian and International Studies at the City
r
University of Hong Kong. Her interests include the political his- a

F
tory of Indonesia, Islam in Southeast Asia, transnational Islamic
o
movements and inter-Asian intellectual flows. She is co-editor r
m
of Beyond Shi’ism: Alid piety in Muslim Southeast Asia.
i
c
h
i
ISBN 978-90-6718-386-4
9 789067 183864
ISLAM AND THE MAKING OF THE NATION

V E R H A N D E L I N G E N
VAN HET KONINKLIJK INSTITUUT
VOOR TAAL-, LAND- EN VOLKENKUNDE
282
chiara formichi
ISLAM AND THE MAKING
OF THE NATION
Kartosuwiryo and political Islam in
twentieth-century Indonesia
KITLV Press
Leiden
2012
Published by:
KITLV Press
Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde
(Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean
Studies)
P.O. Box 9515
2300 RA Leiden
The Netherlands
website: www.kitlv.nl
e-mail: [email protected]
KITLV is an institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and
Sciences (KNAW)
Cover: samgobin.nl
ISBN 978 90 6718 386 4
© 2012 Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde
KITLV Press applies the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCom-
mercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License (http://creativecommons.
org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/) to selected books, published in or
after January 2011.
Authors retain ownership of their copyright, but they permit any-
one unrestricted use and distribution within the terms of this
license.
Printed editions manufactured in the Netherlands
To my mother,
and the loving memory of my father

Contents
acknowledgements xi
note on spelling and transliteration xiii
list of abbreviations xv
preface: new perspectives on political islam
in twentieth-century indonesia 1
Scholarly approaches to Islam and politics 3
Kartosuwiryo’s motives 6
About this book 8
Structure of the book 9
A note on the sources 12
1 planting the seeds: java, the nationalist movement and
kartosuwiryo in the 1920s 15
From desa to kota: a nationalist leader in the making 15
Colonial perspectives 15
Surabaya 19
Batavia 25
Back to the desa: building local networks 29
West Java 29
Malangbong 32
Islam, authority and leadership in the Priangan 34
Developing an Islamic nationalist ideology 38
Concluding remarks 46
2 political islam in changing times: sarekat islam and masyumi
under the dutch and japanese occupations (1930-1945) 47
Kartosuwiryo: a rising star? 48
Redefining Partai Sarekat Islam Indonesia’s priorities 50
Pan-Islamism and non-cooperation 50
The Islamic movement and secular nationalism 53
The consequences of non-cooperation 56
| Contents
The Brosoer sikap hidjrah PSII and Daftar oesaha hidjrah 60
Reflecting on the ‘Middle East’ factor 64
Kartosuwiryo’s weakening support and withdrawal from politics 66
New regime, new approach: Dai Nippon and Islamic politics 70
The rise of secular nationalism 75
Concluding remarks 77
3 religious resistance and secular politics: laying
the foundations of the indonesian state (1945-1947) 79
Shifting centres of power: Tokyo, Jakarta, London, The Hague 81
Masyumi’s islamization of the ideological struggle 85
Kartosuwiryo’s Haloean politik Islam 89
Troop polarization in West Java 92
Seeking a structure 92
The Linggadjati agreement and the Dutch invasion 96
Consequences for West Java 98
The Limbangan incident 100
West Java on the eve of the Renville agreement 102
Ideological radicalization: calling for holy war 103
Kartosuwiryo’s Perang sabil 103
Kartosuwiryo’s ‘holy war’ 105
Government reception of Masyumi’s and Kartosuwiryo’s
calls for a jihad 106
Concluding remarks 107
4 building the islamic state: from ideal to reality
(1947-1949) 109
Groundwork (November 1947-May 1948) 111
Imagining the Islamic state 111
Laying the foundations of the Islamic state 114
Early reactions 117
Initial expansion 120
A step closer to establishing the Islamic state
(May-December 1948) 121
Institutional and territorial consolidation 121
Structuring the Islamic state 123
Reaching out: promoting the common goal 125
Growing apart (December 1948-August 1949) 127
Tentara Islam Indonesia and the Siliwangi in West Java:
an uneasy cohabitation 127
…and an easy divorce 130
viii
Contents |
Opposing reactions: clashing military and political
interests 131
Declaring an Islamic state in ‘occupied’ West Java 134
The proclamation of the Negara Islam Indonesia 135
The NII’s criminal code 136
The NII’s Islamic martial law 137
Initial attempts to reconciliation (August-October 1949) 139
Concluding remarks 142
5 the ‘war of the roses’: the islamic state and the pancasila
republic (1949-1962) 145
Shifting approaches: between negotiation
and condemnation (1949-1954) 146
The ‘Commission for the solution to the
Darul Islam problem’ 146
‘Silently resorting to great military force’ 150
The duty to restore peace 152
The unitary state: ‘a modern form of colonialism’ 153
A new round of negotiations 154
Soekiman’s ‘more resolute way’ 155
Soekarno’s Pancasila national state and its opponents 156
‘Final operations’ against the enemies of the state 160
The demise of Masyumi and Darul Islam (1955-1962) 161
Political defeat 161
Darul Islam and the regional rebellions 165
Operation ‘annihilate’ 167
Concluding remarks 169
6 from rebellion to martyrdom? 171
Speculations and the rhetoric of betrayal (1948-1950) 172
Darul Islam and Communism 173
The DI: a scheme of ‘(D)utch (I)nfiltration’ 176
Missing ideological reactions to Kartosuwiryo’s NII 178
Building the image of a ‘sterile rebel’ 181
Condemnation: mysticism, violence and defeat 182
Reconciliation: keep your friends close, but your enemies
closer 186
Glorification 190
Kartosuwiryo and contemporary visions of Islamic law
in Indonesia 193
Comparing the codes: crimes and punishments 196
ix