Adat, Islam, and the Idea of Religion in Colonial Indonesia

Abstract

Based on some early anthropological accounts, people understand adat as any traditional practice: including visiting graves and forest, belief in supernatural powers, and other rituals and ceremonies. Practically speaking, people have not differentiated between the term adat and the encompassing traditions, customs, laws, and others. However, the discourse of religion has influenced the comprehensiveness of the idea of adat. This paper describes the construction of adat through the colonial period, a time dominantly influenced by the discourse of religion. I argue that the colonial construction of adat has strongly impacted religion in Indonesia. Adat which became a contested term and used by the rulers has declined the religious dimension of adat. The construction of adat and the disposition of adat from religion was influenced by various factors including colonial policies. This paper identified three dominant discourse of adat as political construction in colonial Indonesia: firstly, adat as animism was considered as the practices which are not religious, uncivilized and primitive; secondly, the mainstream of adat law has concerned on the secular aspect of adat while neglected the religious dimension of adat; thirdly, the construction of adat as not religion subsequently strengthened the Islamic identity and stressed the adat as opposed to Islam.

Full text

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ADAT, ISLAM, AND THE IDEA OF RELIGION IN
COLONIAL INDONESIA
Mufdil Tuhri
Universitas Gadjah Mada Yogyakarta
Email: mufdiltuhri@gmail.com
Samsul Maarif
Universitas Gadjah Mada Yogyakarta
Email: samsul.maarif75@ugm.ac.id
Rikardo Simarmata
Universitas Gadjah Mada Yogyakarta
Email: rikardosim@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Based on some early anthropological accounts, people understand adat as any
traditional practice: including visiting graves and forest, belief in supernatural
powers, and other rituals and ceremonies. Practically speaking, people have not
dierentiated between the term adat and the encompassing traditions, customs,
laws, and others. However, the discourse of religion has inuenced the compre-
hensiveness of the idea of adat. is paper describes the construction of adat
through the colonial period, a time dominantly inuenced by the discourse of
religion. I argue that the colonial construction of adat has strongly impacted
religion in Indonesia. Adat which became a contested term and used by the rul-
ers has declined the religious dimension of adat. e construction of adat and
the disposition of adat from religion was inuenced by various factors including
colonial policies. is paper identied three dominant discourse of adat as polit-
ical construction in colonial Indonesia: rstly, adat as animism was considered
as the practices which are not religious, uncivilized and primitive; secondly, the
mainstream of adat law has concerned on the secular aspect of adat while ne-
glected the religious dimension of adat; thirdly, the construction of adat as not
religion subsequently strengthened the Islamic identity and stressed the adat as
opposed to Islam.
Key words: Colonialism, Adat, Religion, Islam.
INTRODUCTION
Various research has been done on adat and religion, however many of these
studies have accepted the concept of adat and religion without criticism. ese
studies generally distinguish between adat, religion, culture, and tradition
(Prasojo, 2013), even though there is no such thing in adat and religion as a

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lively practice (Bowen, 2003). In the Minangkabau community, people do not
distinguish between practices referred to as adat and religion. For instance, the
modern day practice of adat and Islam in Minangkabau shows that they do not
even distinguish between the two. How the Minangkabau traditional practice
perceive their adat includes law, morality, customs, etiquette, ceremonies,
dress, art, songs, and dances as well as pre-Islamic Hindu-Buddhist and
Animistic Beliefs (Benda-Beckmann & Benda-Beckmann, 2013). Despite a
large number of both historical and anthropological works on the discourse
of adat and religion in Indonesia, a number of questions remain concerning
Indonesian indigenous-state relations. is paper intends to problematize the
idea of Islam as religion through historical construction of adat in Indonesia.
is paper focuses on eorts to trace the idea of adat in the colonial political
construction that has invalidated the religious dimension of adat.
To look at the colonial construction of adat and its impact on religion, I will
use the genealogy theory of religion, which has been reied through history.
te word “religion” is rooted in western essentialism towards the idea of
monotheistic tradition. Smith mentions that religion was reied in modern
history in the Christian tradition in the West in the 17th century. Historically,
what was initially called religious (religio) in the rst century has been
disqualied since the term religion was taken over by Christianity (Smith,
1962). e reication process occurred because of the dominant power in
the church that separates the tradition of a perverted Christian community
without it being considered heretical. Consequently, whoever practices beyond
this limitation will be labeled as a pagan, an indel, a heathen and so forth.
Based on this concept, the world religion paradigm sees religion as a practice
which requires the hierarchical relation between God, humans, and nature.
In addition, religion is rooted in the concepts of “belief” which become the
dominant ideology and simultaneous suppression of traditional cosmology
(Asad, 1993). In addition, he conceptualizes religion as a constructive term
derived from colonial Europe in order to complement the ideological and
political agenda where capitalism could thrive. e product of the discourse
of religion is the essentialization of the world religion paradigm.
In the context of Indonesia, the idea of religion as historical construction can
be analyzed through the construction of Islam as religion. Based on this theory,
I would like to nd the historical contingencies of adat, where adat developed
as a conceptual system. Adat is neither a descriptive nor an analytical term,
but a prescriptive and normative one. Adat is a point of contention between
dierent sets of actors. Adat just like other folk categories (religion, din, mana,
tao, dharma, agama) should not be taken as a conceptual tool, but ought to be

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the object of analysis instead (Benda-Beckmann & Benda-Beckmann, 2013).
is paper is based on the concept of religion as a way of relating: how human
beings relate to their fellow humans including the living and the dead, and
other beings: animals, plants, forests, mountains, rivers, and invisible beings
such as gods and spirits. I argue that religion is from the perspective of
indigenous religion paradigm (Maarif, 2012). Religion includes many aspects
of everyday life. As an everyday practice, religion in which people relate to
“others” encompasses elements of everyday life including politics, economics,
agriculture, rituals, and more (Maarif, 2012; Pati & Ma’arif, 2016). Based on
this understanding, I argue adat as religion encompasses the cosmological
characteristics of indigenous religious practice, which also has an intimate
connection between land, sacred places, their knowledge, and also the
rituals they continue practicing. Furthermore, from the perspective of
indigenous religion, understanding adat can be also considered as religion
which encompasses whole aspects of practice, habit, and tradition that are
consciously practiced in society.
ADAT AS “TRADITIONAL” PRACTICE
We do not know when Indonesian people started using the word adat in
the sense of “traditional practice” or when they actually chose to label their
own traditional practice as adat. It seems that adat developed along with the
beginning of the inuence of Islam in the archipelago. As a daily practice,
adat has been predominantly known by Muslim societies (Crawfurd, 1820;
Marsden, 1811; Pires, 1944; Raes, 1830).
It is worthily considered that the sources that explain this traditional practice
have been noted by Western scholars during the colonial period. Here, I use
ethnographic examples from Sulawesi to show where the supernatural/natural
distinction misled Europeans trying to understand and portray a pre-colonial
Indonesian cosmology. Aragon’s account of pre-colonial traditional practice
of the people in Tobaku highlanders is an apt example. As he writes:
“Before Dutch colonial intervention in the early 1900s, the social world
of Tobaku highlanders in Central Sulawesi included recently deceased
relatives (kiu), deied ancestors (anitu), spirit ‘owners’ (pue’) of resources
such as land, and dangerous beings in the forest (seta) who were best
avoided or appeased with oerings. ese beings, however, were not
usually mysterious to Sulawesi people. Villagers could explain their basic
habits, specify the human transgressions that elicited retribution, and
note empirical signs (sounds, sightings) of their perceived existence. When
misfortunes occurred, people usually had a good idea what was amiss,

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and who had erred. If there was any doubt, a religious specialist (tobalia)
was asked to intercede and determine the causes and solutions. In short,
while dead relatives and ‘owners’ of the land were recognised as dierent
in their abilities from living villagers, they were not seen as transcendent
(one Western connotation of ‘supernatural’) but, rather, immanent and
interactive in a seamless cosmos. In the pre-Christian Tobaku cosmology,
many powerful entities are understood the way we understand the moon’s
periodic invisibility. Even though the moon oen cannot be seen by day, we
still know it is there. Additionally, beings that appear dierently to Tobaku
people under dierent circumstances are analogous to our understandings
of chameleons, or caterpillars and butteries, which appear variously
according to environment or during dierent life stages. For example,
angry ancestors in Central Sulawesi can appear as rats and consume an
entire crop planted by their descendants who transgress ancestral rules
of behavior. e transformation of living relatives into ancestor spirits
into rats is never portrayed as miraculous or ‘not natural’; rather, these
transformations are the way of the universe. In short, the natural vs.
supernatural distinction corresponds to no indigenous categories in the
Tobaku area or, probably, in the entire Indonesian region (Aragon, 2003:
133).
Regarding some of the practices described, it shows that in the past, people
had their own practices and traditions. However, various traditions and beliefs
as a xed category referred to as religion, culture, tradition and customs in
the archipelago. e traditional practices of the people covering all elements
recognized as a daily activity by the community. As stated by Tylor in Primitive
Culture, all of the human activity or traditional practice of the ancient people
considered as culture includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs and
any capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society (Tylor,
1871:1).
It would appear that it has been a long time, the people of the archipelago have
practiced their traditional practices. Sometimes, the people had no reference
to each category in terms of denitions, perspectives, and as a normative
concept until the coming of the western conception long aer the period of
pre-colonial. Adat included any practices of Indonesian society in the pre-
colonial period encompassing tradition, custom, and practices developed at
that time. People called those as adat as well as they called it as tradition,
religion, customs, and so forth. In this sense, I argue that such practices of
pre-colonial tradition are called traditional practice. However, it does not
mean refer to old practice but used as the strategic essentialism to identify the
people’s practices at that time.

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ADAT AND ANIMISM
In the early 1800s, the Dutch held control of almost the entire archipelago. In
the beginning, the discourse on adat related to the enactment of customary law
applied to the Indonesian people. Contextually, such customary law was not
contrary to public or social interests (Soekanto and Soekanto, 1981; Sudiyat,
1985; Wiranata, 2005). Between 1830 and 1870, it was known as Forcing
Cultivation (Cultural Stelseel). is policy was in the hands of Governor Van
den Bosch who was authorized by King Williem. e Dutch colonial and
economic policies gained momentum in weakening village communalism in
Indonesia and stiing traditional power.
Aer forty years of colonial occupation in Indonesia, people’s lives were
signicantly impacted, specically with the decline in social life as a result of
economic stagnation, crop failure, livestock disease, and starvation (Gouda,
1995; Kodoth, 2002). As a criticism of previous policy, the Dutch government
began to formulate a policy that was oriented towards the private interests
of colonists. It was issued as the Liberal Policy of 1870. is policy can be
considered as a more moderate policy and began to shine attention on the
interests of the colonies. is momentum initiated interest from many Dutch
people into local people’s lives. ey began to require research regarding laws
and traditions of the people. On the basis of this interest, the strengthening
of colonial attention to its colonies led to the Dutch concern in regulating
the laws regarding land. e laws that were quite inuential at this time were
related to the rules regarding agrarian law.
In 1870, it was known that this liberal period gave the capitalists entry into
space in the economic heart of rural farmers (Benda, 1958a). An important
moment began with the birth of the Dutch Agrarian Law in 1870. is law
adhered to the principle of the domain verklaring, conrming state ownership
of customary land (Rachman, 2011). e Agrarian Law of 1870 declared that
all land that could not be proven to be individual private ownership, based on
Western colonial law, was to be considered a domain of the state, called “state
land.” Based on this law, various concessionary rights for plantation/estates
were given to foreign corporations for operation on lands claimed as state-
owned property.
Various tendencies gave space to the Dutch to begin intervening in the social life of
the community. Entering the 19th century, the deepening of colonial penetration
started the rst religious mission in the Dutch East Indies. e spread of liberal
colonialism in the 19th century prompted the government to deeply introduce
more information about the Netherlands culturally and politically. In 1870, new
administrators came to power inuenced by socialism and idealism, along with

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the reorientation of religious-based political parties. In 1888, the position of the
old conservatives was replaced by the power of an alliance between the anti-
revolutionaries, the Calvinists, and the Romans who were narrower than their
old allies, the liberal party, who later formed a new Christian party as the right
wing to confront the le-wing secularist group (Furnivall, 1944). is period was
later known as the period of Dutch Ethical Policy.
In the early 20th century, Ethical Policy was promoted by right-wing
politicians in the Netherlands. Ethical Policy was marked by the victory of
the right wing of liberalism in the Central Government of the Dutch East
Indies. e Christian party gained power. Around this time, various policies
became colored with a spirit of love or religious zeal. e Indies Government
also began to position itself as a defender of moral responsibility (Furnivall,
1944). With the spirit of moral responsibility, Queen Wilhelmina conveyed
the Dutch debt and ethical responsibility to the people of the Indies in her
annual message. is Ethical Policy was then realized in three policies, namely
educatia (education), irrigaties (irrigation) and emigratie (migration) (Niel,
1960). e Ethical Policy highlighted the need to make native welfare the
main concern.
e importance of adat in the Dutch colonial political discourse began to
strengthen from the beginning of this Ethical Policy. Various patterns of
Dutch politics encouraged the dynamics of the construction of adat in this
colonial period. is Ethical Policy was closely related to the interests of the
Dutch to control their colonies. Francis Gouda has linked Ethical Policy with
the emergence of social liberalism along with the social policies which were
won by social liberalism in the Netherlands (Gouda and Zaalberg, 2002).
Gouda discovered an Ethical Policy as an initial mission to promote culture
in the days of the colonial government. At this time, culture became more
prominent as a policy eld (Gouda, 1995). Beside the cultural policy, religion
as a part of people practice also became a more dominant concern.
Several indigenous research projects were initiated at this time. e research
on adat equips the colonial state with categories and own knowledge that
was used in running the government (Jones, 2013). At this time, adat was
dened in the Encyclopaedia of the Dutch East Indies as a habit and practice
that guides every aspect of indigenous life: social relations, agriculture, care,
sick people, judicial arrangements, ancestral worship, burial of dead people,
popular games and entertainment, etc.” At a glance, this concern for colonized
people shows that the Ethical Policy was involved in many aspects. is
Ethical Policy gave rise to the idea of dening adat as part of a cultural project.
However, the far-reaching impact of this Ethical Policy also involved other

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aspects, especially initiation to manage with a more civilized approach.
e backdrop of this transformation was the Ethical Policy initiated by the
Dutch government and carrying the banner for the improvement of native
people’s welfare, the promotion of Christian missions, decentralization, and
the expansion rule over islands outside Java (outer possessions) (Risa, 2014). At
that time, Dutch Colonial Administrators nurtured optimism by eliminating
the pernicious inuence of Islam by spreading Christianity instead. Obviously,
the Dutch government looked upon the presence of missions in the Indies
with complication. On one hand, European mission societies were permitted
to proselytize non-Muslim populations as a means to curb the advance of
Islamization. On the other hand, Christian proselytization remained forbidden
in Muslim areas, for fear of arousing anti-colonial sentiments.
e inclusion of this religious mission brought new hegemony in the religious
tradition that developed from colonial rule in the Netherlands at this time.
Religion, as a whole, brought by these missionaries became problematic. New
categories began to dierentiate the status of the people based on their beliefs
and traditions. Here, a missionary and an anthropologist, Albert C. Kruyt
has contributed to spread the idea of animism. rough his studies on local
people in Sulawesi, Kruyt replaced the pejorative term alfuru, previously used
to describe the non-Christian, non-Islamic islanders of the eastern half of the
Dutch East Indies. Kruyt identied the religion of the highlanders as animism
and produced a number of theoretical works that placed it within a wider
evolutionary framework. Kruyt dierentiated the Islamic coastal peoples
from highlanders on the basis of their religion even though they both shared
many of the same animistic beliefs. Kruyt’s denition of animistic religion
necessarily placed Christianity and Islam as its standard ideal of what so called
as religion (Kruyt, 1906).
Kruyt’s position can be considered as an important momentum in inuencing
the colonial administrator on understanding of traditional practices of people.
rough the idea of animism, Kruyt understands religion as a set of rules
originating from the idea of the existence of God. Kruyt’s original contribution
to the debate was made in a lengthy comparative study called Animism in
Indischen Archipel (1906), published just aer the military incorporation of
Central Sulawesi in the Dutch East Indies. It is combined with Wilken’s two
paradigms, linking the four stages of social evolution to a parallel religious
evolution from pre-animism to animism to spiritism to Christianity. Kruyt
denes elements of traditional religion as “animism”, namely belief in the soul.
For animists, like the Toraja people, Kruyt proposed conversion to Christianity
as a form of progress.

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is generalized view of animism with local beliefs was rapidly strengthening
at this time. Not only in Torajam but also in other areas, animism was an
increasingly popular term referring to practices that are commonly believed
in some contexts of society. Van Dijck states:
“Animistic beliefs were still widespread and shamanism was generally
practiced. Also, Buddhist and Hindu notions, introduced from Java, had
not lost their attractiveness. Observance of Islamic rules and obligations
was low, and, as we shall also observe elsewhere, those religious Islamic
ocials who did function in Minangkabau society had only a poor
knowledge of Islam” (Dijck, 1984:9).”
erefore, the domination of world religion introduced by Kruyt at this time
conrmed the position of adat which was increasingly separated from religion.
In the dominant discourse, the practice of adat was no longer considered to
have a religious dimension. Discursively, in the context of the above policy,
revitalization of adat was thus interpreted as an eort to modernize and
Christianize adat. Some post-colonial perspectives place Christian conversion
in the colonial period as antithetical to the “real” religion of indigenous
inhabitants. In this momentum, dening adat as secular was needed for
missionaries to intervene and Christianize adat.
Because of the emerging idea of animism which regards adat as primitive,
tribal, and uncivilized, adat as identical with animism shows no element of
religion. Adat is regarded as an old tradition that was inherently integrated in
society before Islam. Islam was always opposed to adat. It also impacted the
product of some scholarly literatures which mention the traditional practice
of Muslim people. For instance, when adat was used as a new category, adat
basically should be interpreted in other terms which are considered parallel
such as abangan in Java society. e term abangan, on the one hand, it was
oen categorized as a variant of Islam (Ricklefs, 2012). In Java, according to
Ricklefs (2012), in the period of the 19th century, several Dutch historical
sources identied dierences in the practice of society, including the practice
of abangan and putihan.
ADAT AS NOT RELIGION AND DISCOURSE OF A DAT LAW
Attention among the colonial people at this time was related to legal aairs
and legislation which came to be known as Adat Law. In an eort to formulate
Adat Law, colonial administrators faced initial polemics about the relationship
between Adat Law and religion. e initiator of Adat Law in the early days
accepted the categorization formulated by Van den Berg, known as his theory

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of receptio in complexu. Van den Berg and others took an extreme position
when they held, “it is generally accepted that the family and inheritance law
of the population of Java and Madura who have accepted the Islamic faith is
governed by Mohammedan law (syara’)” (Berg, 1892). Van der Berg maintains
the view of Islamic law with deviations so that it was not “Indonesian law with
irregularities.” In this case, the concept of Adat Law is the same as religious
law.
e polemic context for Adat Law above shows initially, there was no clear
consensus regarding the connection between adat and religious law. In the
theory of reception in complexu, Van den Berg stated that Adat Law was the
same as religious law. is meant asserting that adat and religion are not
separate. Adat law was part of the religious law itself. is polemic about
Adat Law was characterized by problems in dening religion and adat that
have not been completed. e theory of reception in complexu was opposed
by Van Vollenhoven. According to him, from the beginning, people had
distinguished between Adat Law and religious law. erefore religion and
custom were separate. Adat that were widespread were then drawn by the
legal element. ese legal elements are also distinguished from Islamic law.
erefore, Vollenhoven oen mistakenly views that adat and religion are the
same (Vollenhoven, 1918). Vollenhoven believes that the adat in question
was adat which has legal consequences. According to the historical account,
Vollenhoven basically continued the tradition of adat studies which had been
initiated by Snouck Hurgronje in de atjehners (Benda, 1958a). erefore, Van
Vollenhoven called this Adat Law the term adatrecht (Vollenhoven, 1918).
e initiative carried out by Van Vollenhoven was caused by the diculty
to separate between adat and law. So as to make it easier to nd Adat Law
categories, an attempt was made to recognize adat with legal consequences
and separate it from adat without legal reasons. Van Vollenhoven rst initiated
the term adat in 1901. Adat as the science of adat Law rst began in the early
20th century and when the Dutch government had an interest in carrying out
Ethical Policy.
Van Vollenhoven deserves to be appreciated for his eorts to maintain adat’s
legacy. Van Vollenhoven’s eorts were commendable and the inuence
of ethical principles helped, for the adat proponents appeared to be more
sympathetic to Indonesian discourse of law, and more knowledgeable about
local cultures, than those who favored unication (Lev, 1985). However, Van
Vollenhoven reduced the comprehensive aspect of adat, especially in matters
relating to religious dimensions. He only sees adat in the view of Law that
contains sanctions. While reducing adat in relation to the noble beliefs and

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traditions of the community at that time. Van Vollenhoven’s opinions were
based on the concept of Western law, where anyone who violates order or law
will be sanctioned. e strong inuence of Van Vollenhoven which constructs
adat was basically also a continuation of the mission of the modern state
which threatens local history, imagination and law. Above all, according to
Burns, this Dutch colonial policy project had an interest in making customary
law in order to conquer the kings of the archipelago at that time (Burns, 1989;
Lev, 1985).
e essentialization of Adat Law looks at the position of customary rights,
namely the legal dimension relating to Adat Law. is term was known as
beschikkingsrecht from Van Vollenhoven and his student Ter Haar (Haar,
1962). is term later emerged as an important part of the talk about Adat
Law and agrarian law. Separation of religion from adat deserves to be traced
from colonial times. e dominant perspective that sees adat as dierent from
religion gives birth to a twofold consequence. First, it created a new category,
“tradition” which previously did not contradict the category of “religion” but
was caused by “administration”, with reference to that which came under the
authority of the colonial state. Second, the explanation above has shown that
the rst impact of adat aer being reduced by missionaries was that adat will
become an old and primitive tradition. It separates adat from the nature of its
religiosity. Adat meaning as the traditional practices that are dierent from
this category of religion, considered as animism. Subsequently, when adat
becomes a habit, essentially, this habit was reduced again as an old habit. en,
by itself adat refers to Adat Law that was contrary to religious law.
At this time, the adat construction, which increasingly alienated religion
in the adat category under Dutch Ethical Policy, was mutually related. By
strengthening the position of Adat Law for the non-Islamic peoples among
whom the missions had been granted permission to work, the government
worked against mission eorts at religious conversion, since these peoples
made no distinction between two. is le the missions with two options: the
rst, to oppose the policy of indirect rule through indigenous adat, would have
meant an untenable alliance with Islam. e second option was to embrace
adat studies as means of dening religion in the East Indies social formation.
is second option was adopted by the Ethical eologians who utilized
secular liberal social sciences in the service of missions. eir ethnographic
work took place within the common framework established by Adat Law
studies (Schrauwers, 2000).
By the time the Dutch scholars were involved in the project of religion, many
cosmological concepts of Indigenous people such as knowledge, rituals,

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practices, spiritualism had been declined. e modernization project of the
colonial era that aimed at economic reform, political organization, and rural
electrication set the dominant conditions within ocial religion. Likewise,
the colonial construction of the discourse of adat was in the colonial interests;
it also was conducted for the eectiveness of the colonial administration
(Burns, 1989; Lev, 1985). By the time the colonial administrators and Dutch
scholars were involved in the interest of Adat Law, many traditional centers
of power such as courts of kings/ sultans and palaces of port-city princes had
ceased to function as seats of government and places of rule-enforcement
(Burns, 1989).
ISLAMIC IDENTITY AND THE IMPACT OF SEPARATION
BETWEEN ADAT AND RELIGION
Many scholars have contributed to the debate on the notion of adat and
Islam both normatively and empirically (Abdullah, 1966; Bowen, 1988;
Bräuchler, 2010; Budiwanti, 2013; Hanami, 2002; Prins, 1951; Srimulyani,
2010; Yakin, 2014). As a practice, adat and Islam as also adat and religion
are not problematized by people. However, politically speaking, adat become
more contested in the sense of how rulers perceive Muslim people according
to what they practice. is appeared at the beginning of the rise of the politics
of religious identity which was used to drive away colonial forces in the early
1800’s. Generally, this movement appeared from traditional circles who came
from rural communities (Abdullah, 1970; Dobbin, 1977). ey sometimes live
in non-elite circles. However, they grew up outside the structure of the power
elite at that time. ey appear as a movement that oppresses local groups
which assumed conspiracies to foreign rulers. On the other hand, colonial
policies which exploit the natives led them to hang over the new power. Such
a movement gradually rose grassroots at that time until the emergence of the
early Islamic revival movement.
In the mid-19th century, such movements emerged in the modern period
of Indonesia and subsequently became the new people’s power against
colonialism in several regions in Indonesia. In Sumatra, the Padri War (1821-
1838) become a momentum for the contestation between Islam and adat. e
inuence of the Padri War in religion and adat in the life of the people in West
Sumatra was marked by a restructuring of adat and religious governments. e
separation between adat and religious governments at this time was increasing.
According to Benda Beckmann ``religious ocial, who formerly had been
embedded in the organization of the matriclans, were gradually detached the
nagari gradually detached from the matriclans and become religious ocials

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of the mosques” (Benda-Beckmann and Benda-Beckmann, 2013). During the
period of the struggle for independence, from 1945 to 1949, power within the
nagari shied again from the adat leaders, who had become an essential part
of the colonial administrative system, to men primarily belonging to religious
parties. e Dutch had previously excluded these leaders from exercising any
real political or administrative authority within their communities (Kahin,
1985).
Following this, the strengthening of Islamic identity as part of the forces
against colonialism, conrmed the new movement of the people which
brought Islamic orthodoxy. In consequence, Dutch administrators consider
Islam as a threat to colonial power. Dutch colonists responded through
many eorts. In the early 20th century, the Dutch colonialists issued a policy
separating Islam and adat. Political reasons behind the policy was to respond
to rebellions of militant Muslims, based on the advice of Christian Snouck
Horgronje. Hurgronje contributed to constructing a mutual relationship with
the Muslim society at that time. Based on his research of Muslim Pilgrimage
to Mecca, Hurgronje concludes that religion should be separate from adat. In
his recommendation, Hurgronje stated the threat is not Islam as a religion, but
Islam as a political doctrine, both in the form of agitation of local fanatics and
in the form of Pan-Islam (Benda, 1958a). As a result of this, Dutch government
issued the order to provoke the separation between Islam as political and adat
as communal force. Subsequently, the community was polarized between
Islamic or religious groups and indigenous or adat groups. is separation
increasingly inuenced people’s discourse in the community between adat and
religion. is led to strong social tensions in the community between Islamic
groups and adat groups. However, Hurgronje should be appreciated for his
eort to provide religious freedom to adhere to people’s respective religions.
Hurgronje suggested the colonial policy to promote access to education to
local communities. Especially religious education (Maarif, 2012). e so-
called “the twin politics” of tolerance and hostility nally had to go hand in
hand with Dutch assistance to, and Dutch support for social elements. ese
elements were little under the inuence of Islamic fanaticism, adat leaders and
rulers outside Java, and the Priyayi elite in Java.
e emergence of religious-based institutions participated in responding
to the birth of religious contestation in the public sphere in Indonesia. In
the early 20th century, Western education developed, but so did modern
religious schools (Kato, 1982). At this time, the spirit of Dutch Ethical Policy
that provided an opportunity for the establishment of religious education,
had an impact on eorts to mainstream religion in the country’s dominant

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practices at that time. is opportunity was well utilized by Islamic scholars
to introduce Islam as a strict law and rule. us, gradually the community
has been able to distinguish which are considered as pure Islamic rules or
not. Until the beginning of the 20th century, these strict views encouraged
the purication of cases that were considered as custom or “un-Islamic”
such as indigenous festivals, visits, homage, preparation of food, and more
(Feillard, 2011). Religious communities with a modern, orthodox and puritan
religious orientation generally consider adat as a cultural tradition that could
contaminate the pure religion, but religious communities that have traditional-
contextual religious orientations tend to accept adat not contradictory to the
principles of religious teachings. Adat enriches religions (Maarif, 2017a; Ropi,
2017). Such polarization strengthens and impacts many social aspects of
Indonesian people in general.
In this regard, the dominant discourse of Islam also impacts on other dominant
religion such as Christianity. To follow this, it can be relatively considered that
Islam and Christianity are the two religions that dominated the population
of Indonesia in this early foundational period. ese non-religious citizens
who were adat people became the target of Islamization and also Christian
missionaries (Hefner and Horvatich, 1997). e contestation of the traditional
and modernist groups on religious discourse in this period has increasingly
marginalized adat. is also led to Islam and Christianity becoming more
powerful that adat in practice. us, these new ideas and teachings dominate the
discourse about religion, while adat was seen merely as an antiquated element
or tradition. When religion dominantly colored the contestation between
religious groups, many religious institutions emerged at that time. According
to Deliar Noer, the establishment of some modernist Islamic organizations
such as Serikat Islam and Muhammadiyah indicated this. On the other hand,
as a reaction to the emergence of the Islamic modernist movement, several
new organizations were established, such as the Nahdlatul Ulama (Noer,
1982). Deliar Noer also identied several symptoms of the dominance of
the Islamists represented by Modernist Islam and Traditionalist Islam (Noer,
1982). Furthermore, it seems to me that such a polarization is between Islam
as a religious organization and adat as an indigenous organization. Here, the
establishment of these religious organizations is essentially as a response to
adat as traditional institution at that time.
I argue that the presence of socio-religious movements in this period targeted
indigenous people. Islamic circles that did not have access to political action
resulted in the concentration of religious movements that were more focused
on the process of Islamization than against the colonial resistance. Here,

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Ricklefs identies several eorts from mainstream Islamic organizations such
as those played by Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama who play a role in
the Islamization process (Ricklefs, 2012). ese organizations were born as a
manifestation of religious revival in the space of Indonesian civil society. To
some extent, this movement has its own characteristics in their background.
In 1912, Muhammadiyah which was called the reformist movement was a
group that attempted to purify previous religious heritages such as Hinduism,
Buddhism, and all practices that are considered pre-Islamic. At the same
time, it also emerged as a reaction to the spirit of Christianization targeting
the group (Shihab, 1998). At the same time, the Reformists also proposed
to abandon the medieval schools of law (mazhab), mastered by only a few
learned scholars. For the letter, Nahdlatul Ulama was established not directly
as a form of reaction to western colonialism, but rather, a form of reaction to
the ulama movement. In other words, as a reaction to attacks on the mazhab,
in 1926, the non-Reformist ulama which was Nahdlatul Ulama created
their own organization (Feillard, 2011). As a matter of fact, although it was
recognized that these two organizations have dierent attitudes towards local
cultures where traditionalists are considered more accommodative towards
local culture, the establishment of the traditionalist in responding to pre-
Islamic traditions was still based on Islamic exclusivity.
Based on this backdrop, strengthening the separation of religion from adat
was not only caused by external factors, such as the colonists aim to modernize
indigenous people, but also the role of local actors who contribute to perpetuate
the dominant discourse on religious mainstream (Yamin at.al, 2019). is
can be seen from the process of Islamization and Christianization carried
out by certain groups and organizations that emerged before independence.
Referring to this pattern of Dutch Colonial Policy, it can be concluded that
religious movement as an religious activity has been supported by the colonial.
Following the colonial period, there was the Japanese occupation which held
a dierent policy towards religion. Dutch politics related to religious issues
was inversely proportional to the Japanese policies on religion in that period.
Japanese policies were characterized by a more certain policy of divide et impera
which results in limited redistribution. Japan provided freer access to the
realization of Islamic politics at this time. Japan had no doubts about increasing
the position of Islam and giving social prestige and implicitly political prestige to
its spokespersons in Java, as was the case everywhere in Indonesia. Finally, Islam
became so strong. Japanese policies that organized the period and strength of
the educated people at that time became an opportunity for Muslims to take
part in formulating state policies (Benda, 1958b).

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e rise of religious organizations further strengthened identity politics at
this time. e impact of Japanese politics then gave an opportunity to build
aliation with Islamic and urban leaders again. In the early years of Japanese
rule, Masyumi stood as an Islamic organization that was allowed to maintain
its identity. I argue these Islamic organizations have had an important role in
making policies related to Islamic issues on the island of Java. e discourse
about the dominance of religion at this time was getting stronger. e climax
was that, towards the time of independence, these religious leaders were
increasingly trying to inuence the formulation of laws and state constitutions.
e essential category between religion and non-religion dominantly
continues to inuence State policy. With many regulations on religions,
the tension between people who claim to be followers of local traditions
increasingly loses its religious dimensions. ey continue to be the subject
of hegemony in the name of the dominant religion. Religion is a very formal,
prescriptive, and normative concept. Consequently, state politics began to
distinguish between religious and non-religious groups. e emergence of
these dominant authorities tries to classify and categorize what is included
with adat and not. Religion as an identity strengthened in the period leading
up to Indonesian independence. While Adat became an important attention
from the government policies on legal and cultural aspects, the religious
dimension of Adat was increasingly marginalized, especially with the issues
of many laws governing religion for the citizens. Religion at this time was
based on religion in a theological sense that made Islam and Christianity as
the standard (Maarif, 2017a). As a result of this, the purication movement
ourished in the community. is was followed by the coming of Islamic
organizations. Religion began to be discussed specically in some Indonesian
constitutional literature. Religion has become a national issue. Compared to
Adat, the discourse of religion is more dominant.
CONCLUSION
e construction of Adat in colonial Indonesia appeared as an initial attempt
that degraded the scope of the meaning of adat as secular and unfullling
of requirements necessary to be a religion. Discursively, adat in the colonial
period also showed that the concept of adat is constantly developing. Adat
began as a marker of the intervention of many powers which subsequently
disposed of religious aspects of practices of adat people. e construction
of Dutch Colonial Administrators regarding adat (dierent from those that
developed in the community) illustrate that adat was an animist culture
that needed to be transformed into religion and modernized. at was the

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beginning of the idea of the separation between people practices including
adat which is regarded as an ‘old’ traditional practice. Colonialism tried to
govern the people through policies.
e idea of modernity as the root of western colonialism penetrated into
many aspects of life for the people. For example, there were policies such as
Liberal Policy and Ethical Policy that initiated the idea of universalizing the
western concept of religion for the people in the colonies. In particular, the
world religion paradigm which was the dominant idea,used to dene the
practice of the people and asking for adat to be modernized. at was because
of the emerging idea of animism which regards adat as primitive, tribal, and
uncivilized. On one hand, adat is supposed in terms of customary laws. Under
the inuence of the world religious paradigm, many colonial administrators
consider adat peoples as an object to be developed in terms of modernity. In a
political aspect, adat became the arena of power contestation used by various
levels of power, including the Dutch Colonial Administrators, local elite, and
dominant society to perpetuate its power in their circles. In the context of
Islam, adat is considered dierent from Islam. Adat is regarded as an old
tradition that was inherently socially embedded before Islam. So, at this time,
Islam was always opposed to adat.
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