Professional Documents
Culture Documents
June McDaniel
I
ndonesia is often called the largest Muslim nation in the world, but
while it has the highest Muslim population it is neither a sultanate
nor a theocracy. Its government policy is tolerance towards religions
claiming one Almighty God, and non-tolerance towards others. We may
call this approach “mandatory monotheism,” or the required belief in
one God, though the name and qualities of that deity may differ. This
article will explore how Indonesian Hinduism had to change in order
to fit the government definition of a legitimate religion, and the ways it
has become a new religious movement.
The Republic of Indonesia is a Southeast Asian country with over
13,000 islands.1 While Indonesia is primarily Muslim, a minority of its
Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, Volume 14, Issue 1, pages
93–111, ISSN 1092-6690 (print), 1541-8480 (electronic). © 2010 by The Regents of the
University of California. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to
photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s
Rights and Permissions website, at http://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintinfo.asp.
DOI: 10.1525/nr.2010.14.1.93
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NOTE ON METHODOLOGY
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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
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Ida Sang Hyang Widhi Waca is the source of all creations. God of all Gods.
The center of all, the one God and Supreme Creator, Source of all sources
in the universe, Bhur, Bwah and Swah, 3 levels. Hyang Widhi creates
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different God forms to accomplish the many tasks of taking care and
protecting the universe and all of its entities. Each form, such as Dewa
Brahma, Dewa Wisnu, and Dewa Siwa, together with their Sakti, Dewi
Saraswati, Dewa Sri, and Dewa Dhurga represents a different characteristic
of Sang Hyang Widhi and rules over a different aspect of the Universe.34
explain WHY you're using a tourist bookto define a religiousconcept...
Currently, Indonesia accepts six officially recognized religions, and
has institutionalized Islam, Catholicism, Protestant Christianity, Hinduism
and Buddhism.35 Confucianism is being adapted.36 All are understood as
monotheistic religions with revealed texts and prophets. The government
ignores some religions (such as Judaism and Zoroastrianism, monothe-
isms that never went through the paperwork), and bans others (such as
Jehovah’s Witnesses, who claim the ban was instigated by trinitarian
Christians).37 Atheism is also not accepted, and some Islamic groups have
been banned for moving too far from orthodoxy.38
Currently people are not compelled to practice their faith, but every
citizen must be classified as a member of a recognized religion. Without
declaring a religious affiliation, persons cannot get official documents
such as the national identity card, without which they cannot vote or
travel out of the country. Also, people without an accepted religion are
open to aggressive proselytizing by accepted religions.
The current situation, however, is much more open than it was dur-
ing Suharto’s presidency (1967–1998). From 1965 to 1968 there was an
attempt to overthrow the government, understood as led by Indonesian
Communists and the People’s Republic of China. The Indonesian
military, assisted by Muslim youth organizations, began a purge of
Communists, as well as atheists and “people without religion” who
might be secret Communists. Only members of accepted agamas were
safe from death squads. There were attacks on peasants following more
liberal forms of Islam, and on mystical kebatinan groups.39 With
Suharto’s violent rise to power, religious rules were made much more
rigid. Any beliefs not following the rules of the central government’s
“New Order” were interpreted as threats to national unity. Being an
atheist was equated with being a Communist, justifying a death sen-
tence for treason. There was massive fighting between Islamist,
Communist and nationalist groups in Indonesia (in 1965, a half-mil-
lion to one million people were killed).40 Fear of violence still exists.
Everyone has an official religion, though some will write down their
religion as “Islamic for the identity card.”41
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this in his book The Social Contract (1762). In the United States, Robert
Bellah notes certain “common elements of religious orientation that
most Americans share,” and understands them to be the basis of civil
religion in America. These include following God’s will, valuing human
rights, rewarding virtue and punishing vice. He notes that there is an
acceptance of “higher law” based on revelation, and reference to a
monotheistic god, but civil religion is not specifically Christian. It is
rather “Unitarian,” and more related to order, law and right, than to
salvation and love.59 However, American civil religion has no formal
creed.
This is quite similar to the structure of the Indonesian pancasila,
which I would argue fits Bellah’s definition more clearly and simply
than the wide range of American political statements. As Bellah’s
American civil religion is monotheistic but nonsectarian, so the reli-
gions accepted by the Indonesian government are monotheistic but not
limited to specific sects. Agama Hindu Dharma Indonesia is an explicit,
State-supported, mandatory monotheism.60 This is mandatory not in
the sense of being forced, but required if one wishes to have the bene-
fits of an accepted religion. Religious liberty is allowed insofar as the
religion fits the accepted model of one God, scriptures and a universal
ethical system. The pancasila list—the country is based on one God, a
just and civilized humanity, the unity of the nation, democracy, and so-
cial justice—fits these concerns with God, human rights, justice, and the
virtue of the State. It is an intentional, mutually supportive union of reli-
gion and nationalism that works against communal identities to create a
national religious identity intended to avoid regional and religious wars.
Agama Hindu Dharma Indonesia might best be categorized as a new re-
ligious movement that is a fusion of “revealed” or historical religion and
civil religion, a systematized union of public and private religion.
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CONCLUSION
ENDNOTES
1 Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, U. S. Department of State,
“Indonesia International Religious Freedom Report 2005,” <http://www.state.
gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2005/51512.htm >.
2 This wide range of populations was given in Bureau of Democracy, Human
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not do formal interviews or write down the names of informants (other than
official government representatives).
5 I. Gusti Putu Phalgunadi, Evolution of Hindu Culture in Bali: From the Earliest
1991), 33.
9 In its earlier draft form, the preamble to the Constitution contained the
Jakarta Charter stating that Indonesian Muslims must follow Islamic religious
law (sharia), and that the President must be Muslim (in order to properly
protect Muslims). The pancasila was a compromise between nationalist Muslims
who wanted a Muslim State and the demands of other religions. When the 1950
final version of the Constitution did not include the Jakarta Charter, radical
Muslim groups (which we would later categorize as Islamist) broke off, creating
the Darul Islam movement, arguing for an Islamic state of Indonesia. It motivated
the creation of later Islamist splinter organizations, such as the Commando Jihad
group.
10 Simplified transliterations of Sanskrit are used in this article, but standard
Indonesian writers up to the present day, both officially and in the opinion pages
of Indonesian newspapers. NOT before the sixties, idiot.
13 Howe, Hinduism and Hierarchy in Bali, 147.
from the Vedas and Upanishads made famous as the basis of the Advaita Vedanta
school in India. For instance, aham brahmasmi or “I am Brahman” refers to the
unity of self and ultimate reality.
15 Frederik Lambertus Bakker, The Struggle of the Hindu Balinese Intellectuals:
22 This was written up in the Dharma Prawritti Sastra, a book on the laws or
dharma of social action and worldly life. See Bakker, Struggle of the Hindu Balinese
Intellectuals, 135.
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28 A memorable quote from Gusti Agung Gede Putra cited in Bakker, Struggle of
31 The term yadnya derives from the Sanskrit yajna, a sacrifice or offering. The
similarities here with Islam, with its five pillars and five daily prayers, are clear.
32 There are variant spellings of the name of this god. This spelling comes from
the textbook for religious education used in the schools. See Penyusum, Buku
Pelajaran.
33 Ramstedt, “Negotiating Identities,” 1.
34 Yves Tulsi Boutin, Bali Culture and Legends (Ubud: Succan Widhi Group/Ni
Luh Edyawati, SE, 1999), 2. Bhur, bhuvah and svah refer to the earth, supernatural
worlds and heavens.
35 Buddhism also had to become monotheistic and went through the same sort
of challenges Hinduism did. At one point, the Bandung group proposed that
the Three Jewels be called a monotheistic entity, but currently Sang Hyang Adi
Buddha is the Buddhist God.
36 In 2000 a presidential decree repealed the ban on Chinese religion (once it
became the monotheistic worship of the Sky God). Now Confucian marriages
can be registered officially, and Confucians can get government identity cards.
Earlier tension over accepting Chinese religion arose from Chinese Communists
being implicated in the coup of 1965.
37 Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, “Indonesia: Country Report
the Ministry for Culture and Tourism, but only as social organizations. Such
groups cannot rent places to hold services and must find other means to perform
rituals. They often have problems registering marriages and children’s births,
and the lack of a birth certificate can prevent a child from enrolling in school,
getting government scholarships, and having government jobs. Indigenous
beliefs are considered to be cultural traditions, not religions.
39 Martin Ramstedt, “Introduction: Negotiating Identities: Indonesian ‘Hindus’
109
August 2002.
43 Not only are Christians and Jews not considered dhimmis in Indonesia, but full
status for members of religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism were not
mentioned in Islamic revelations. See Bassam Tibi, “Indonesia, A Model for the
Islamic Civilization in Transition to the 21st Century,” 1995, <http://godlas.
myweb.uga.edu/tibi.html>. The term dhimmi in Islam refers to “People of the
Book” (especially Jews and Christians) who have secondary status under Muslim
law. Tibi calls the pancasila “not only a revolution in Islamic thinking but also a
translation of the mystical ideas of the great Sufi Muslim Ibn Arabi into a
political program” in which all people are equal. He views it as “a model for
domestic peace in this part of the world” (4).
44 Tibi, “Indonesia,” 4.
Warrior Assembly), the Fron Pembela Islam (Front of the Defenders of Islam),
and the Hizb al-Tahrir (Party of Liberation), as well as many other groups.
There are also representatives in Indonesia from international Islamist
groups.
47 Benjamin Fleming Intan, “Public Religion” and the Pancasila-Based State of
Indonesia: An Ethical and Sociological Analysis (New York: Peter Lang, 2006), 97.
48 This is from Regulation 9, Article VI, of the Indonesian Constitution, cited in
210 days.
50 The Parisada is split currently between the older and more traditional Parisada
Shaping a New Area of Study,” Nova Religio 8, no. 2 (November 2004): 88.
52 Bromley, “Whither New Religions Studies?” 92.
110
Tipton, eds. The Robert Bellah Reader (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006),
228, 231–232.
60 June McDaniel, ”Mandatory Monotheism and Some Problems of Religious
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