Signs from Allah: History, Science and Faith in Islam
152. Indonesia – Struggle for Independence - 5
By Professor Nazeer Ahmed
Concord, CA
Shaikh Burhanuddin is widely recognized as the founder of Ahle Sunnah Wal Jamaat in Java. The Ahl e Sunnah Wal Jamaat emphasize in their teaching adherence to the Qur’an, the Sunnah of the Prophet and the ijmah both of the Companions of the Prophet and of the community. They accept validity of all four of the Sunnah schools of fiqh and the philosophical teachings of Abu Hassan al Ashari (873-935) who said God could be known only through his Names and attributes. He also taught that the Qur’an was “not created”, meaning, it was time-independent and eternal.
The students of Shaikh Burhanuddin established zawiyas throughout Southeast Asia and were responsible for the spread of Islam to the far-off islands in the archipelago. Shaikh Burhanuddin died in the year 1699 and his tomb in Ulakan is visited by thousands even to this day. His influence is felt in modern Indonesia in the largest social-religious organization in modern Indonesia, the Nahdatul Ulema which runs scores of pesantrans (religious schools) throughout the archipelago.
Upon the death of Iskandar Muda in 1636, his son Iskander Thani ruled for brief five years and was succeeded by Iskander Muda’s daughter Ratu Safiatuddin Tajul Alam. Queen Safiatuddin was one of a succession of five queens who ruled Aceh from 1641 to 1702. She was a capable monarch who ruled in consultation with a court consisting of noblemen and merchants. She rationalized the tax collection and unlike her father invested the tax revenue for the welfare of the people instead of precious diamonds. Her style was consultative and she made the noblemen and the merchants stakeholders in the continuity of the throne. For these reasons she was extremely popular with the powerbrokers and the peasants alike and her tenure was accepted by the ulema. Four Aceh queens followed Safiatuddin in succession. These were Ratu Naqiatuddin Nurul Alam (1675-1678), Ratu Zaqiatuddin Inayat Syah (1678-1688), Ratu Kamalat Syah Zinatuddin (1688-1699) and Badrul Alam Syarif Hashim Jamaluddin (1699-1702). The tradition of a woman head of state was consistent with the honor bestowed on women in the local Malay tradition (aadat) and with the position that women enjoyed in the non-Arab Turkish, Indian and African Islamic courts. Their legacy reinforced the earlier legacy of Razia Sultan of India (1336-1340) and Queen Shajarat ut Durr (1351-54) of Egypt. By their example these women adorned the canvas of Islamic history and paved the way for women heads of state in our own times.
The Treaty of 1873 removed British objections to the Dutch colonization of Sumatra. Wasting no time, the Dutch invaded the sultanate of Aceh. Aceh was ruled by Sultan Mahmud Syah (d 1874), heir to a long line of monarchs dating back to the turn of the 19 th century. When the Dutch laid siege to his capital, the sultan appealed for international help. Britain, the only power that could have helped, turned the other way. As the Dutch advanced, the sultan retreated to the mountains to continue resistance. The following year he died of natural causes and the cause of resistance was taken up by Sultan Tunku Ibrahim. A long war of attrition ensued.
The Sumatrans fought valiantly for thirty years for their land and for their independence. It was Islam that provided the backbone for their resistance. It was only in 1903 that the Dutch gained the upper hand and convinced the sultan to lay down his arms. Sporadic resistance continued in the hills of the large island and the Dutch were never able to establish absolute colonial authority in Sumatra as they did elsewhere in the islands.
The dawn of the 20 th century saw the colonial empires at their zenith. The British flag flew over India, Egypt, Malaya and South Africa. British arms were triumphant on the Gold Coast and Nigeria. Canada, Australia and New Zealand were in the British Commonwealth owing their allegiance to the King. The French sway over Indochina and West Africa was complete. The Dutch Empire, a satellite of the British Empire had completed its stranglehold on the East Indies. The colonial mind set had taken hold in Europe and the “white man’s burden” was openly talked about as if it was the manifest destiny of Europe to shepherd the peoples of Asia and Africa.
Man is born free and the longing for a free soul is embedded in the human spirit. Even as the colonial powers felt secure in the vastness of their empires the foundations of their power were shaken up by the undercurrents of Asian national consciousness. The first seeds of independence in the colonies of Asia and Africa were sown in the heyday of the colonial empires at the turn of the 20 th century.
Throughout the first decade of the 20 th century, there were signs that the Asian giants were stirring. The establishment of the Indian National Congress (1885), the All India Muslim League (1906), the Aceh Islamic resistance (1874-1903) and the Moro war (1898-1902) in the Philippines were manifestations of these stirrings. The victory of the Japanese over the Russians in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-05 showed that Asians could stand up to the military prowess of Europe.
On May 20, 1908 the first Indonesian national organization, the Budi Ultimo National Congress was founded by a Javanese physician Dr Wahidin Soedirohoesodo. Dr Wahidin was a modernist who believed that Western education would kindle national consciousness among his countrymen. His ideas found a resonance with the educated elite, the doctors, engineers, teachers and government workers. Budi Utomo became an umbrella organization that took in its fold Indonesians of all political persuasion.
Included in it were Islamic scholars, merchants as well as labor leaders and is therefore considered the parent organization of various strands that appeared later in the century – nationalist, Islamist as well as communist. It grew rapidly, adopted Malay as its national language, established a national organizational structure and set up scores of local branches in Java and the outer islands. Paid membership grew and a cadre of dedicated workers got their first training in the political process. The Dutch grew suspicious of its strength. To curb its influence at the national level and exploit local rivalries, they recognized the local branches but refused to recognize the national organization.
The broad-based Budi Utomo National Congress could not accommodate the divergent, often conflicting goals of the nationalists, Islamists and the communists. Other organizations sprang up to provide alternate and specific platforms to these diverse groups. In 1910, Douwes Dekker, a journalist and politician of Eurasian descent, established the Indies party. Dekker had worked as a youth in the coffee plantations of Java and had seen firsthand the discrimination and suffering of the Javanese peasants. Together with Tjipto Mangunkusumo and Kihadjar Dwantara, Douwes established a Committee which initially advocated self-rule for Indonesia within the Dutch empire but later stood for full independence of the islands. Alarmed, the colonial Dutch government accused the three of subversion and exiled them to the Netherlands where Dekker continued his work in behalf of Indonesian independence. The influence of Dekker in the Indonesian struggle for independence was significant. He was the first one to use the term Indonesia in his writings. In the 1920s he was a mentor to Sukarno, the hero of Indonesian independence.
The centrist Budi Utomo did not sufficiently address the concerns of the workers and a migration to leftist politics was inevitable. The ideas of Karl Marx had found their way to the Indies through Dutch publications. The first move towards organizing the workers was taken in 1914 by Hendricus Sneevliet who formed the Indies Social Democratic Association. Events in Europe continued to affect the destiny of the peoples of Asia. The success of the Bolshevik Revolution (1917) gave a boost to the struggle of Asian workers who toiled under the yoke of unbridled colonial capitalism. In 1924 the Indies Social Democratic Association changed its name to the Indonesian Communist Party and worked to organize trade unions and farmers. However, the focus of the party shifted when it started a series of insurrections in Java and Sumatra in 1926. The Dutch forcefully put down the insurrections. The leaders of the party were killed or exiled and it was not until after 1948 that the party resurfaced as a significant player in Indonesian politics.
(The author is Director, World Organization for Resource Development and Education, Washington, DC; Director, American Institute of Islamic History and Culture, CA; Member, State Knowledge Commission, Bangalore; and Chairman, Delixus Group)
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