Identity Shift: from Javanese Islam to Shari’ah-Centric Muslims in the Trah, a kinship-based social organisation

Contemporary Islam https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-022-00487-5 Identity Shift: from Javanese Islam to Shari’ah‑Centric Muslims in the Trah, a kinship‑based social organisation Bambang Hudayana1 Accepted: 20 April 2022 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2022 Abstract This article explores how Javanese identity has shifted away from Javanese Islam (kejawen) to a more shari’ah-centric identity. This shift is evident within the trah, a Javanese bilateral decent group or social organisation consisting of generations of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, including spouses and subsequent descendants. Long-term observations were conducted in this research through participation in various trah activities and in-depth interviews with trah members. The research found that initially, the trah members were kejawen, namely Javanese who identify as Muslims, but who adhere to Javanese beliefs and ritual practices that have been acculturated into Islamic teachings. Kejawen have a high appreciation of Javanese art and culture as part of their identity. However, trah members began to identify with shari’ah-centric piety, having internalised various aspects of a shari’ah lifestyle that is deemed more Islamic. This shift in identity occurred during the Indonesian political Reformation era which brought freedom of expression. This freedom was manipulated by Islamic activists to fortify political positions and engender a shari’ah-centric identity. The trah has provided a platform for its members – generations of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren – to adopt this shari’ah-centric piety. Keywords Identity · Islam · Javanese Islam (Kejawen) · Shari’ah-centric Muslims · trah · Reformation era Background The socio-religious identity of the Javanese, who make up most of the Indonesian population, underwent a transition throughout the post-independence period until the Reformation period. Initially, their socio-religious identity was categorised into * Bambang Hudayana 1 Department of Anthropology, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Nusantara 1 St., Bulaksumur, Sleman, Yogyakarta 55281, Indonesia 13 Vol.:(0123456789) Contemporary Islam three groups, namely abangan, santri and priyayi (Geertz, 1976). The abangan were identified with lower levels of society, generally farmers, who adhered to religious syncretism, consisting of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism along with local ritual beliefs. Santri were the traders who claimed to be Muslims practising a more stringent Islamic shari’ah, while priyayi consisted of government employees practising kebatinan or spiritualism. These different socio-religious orientations then started to align to different political parties, thus the term politics stream emerged. The politics stream consisted of political parties gaining constituents based on their loyalty to their respective socio-religious orientation, which became the foundation of their identity. Party elites reproduced the politics stream during the New Order era (1967–1998) to garner mass support in all of the general elections (Gaffar, 1992). During the Reformation period (1998–present), religious and nationalist parties have continued to depend on the sentiment of the politics stream to gain votes in democratic elections (Burhani, 2017; Baswedan, 2004). However, in the New Ode era, there was no longer a trichotomy of socio-religious streams consisting of abangan, santri and priyayi as kejawen and santri had become the prominent socio-religious pillars (Hilmy, 2018; Burhani, 2017; Hefner, 2011). This paper explores the two categories of kejawen or Javanese Islam and shari’ah-centric piety. Several studies show that when identity is based on a socio-religious pillar it will continue to change. As such, Priyayi has effectively transitioned into a category that is more accurately a social class and not a religious category (Koentjaraningrat, 1985). Meanwhile, abangan, which initially was very resilient in Java, has gradually merged into both the kejawen and shari’ah-centrist groups (Hefner, 2011). The abangan category disappeared with the formalisation of religion that occurred during the New Order era (Hefner, 2011; Machmudi, 2008). Children of the abangan were educated in Islamic teachings in schools and abangan adherents were ‘religionised’ to become Muslims (Hefner, 2011). They were also included in the kejawen group as the state only tolerated religious practices that were intrinsically connected to customs and culture (Hefner, 2011). The widespread Islamisation during the New Order and Reformation era was influential and led to the adoption of shari’ah teachings within kejawen groups, such as praying. The most devout and active Muslims in practising shari’ah teachings were flaunting their identity as shari’ah Muslims. Therefore, this study is interested in assessing how kejawen adherents converted to shari’ah-centric piety. The kejawen view is that being Muslim does not mean that one has to discard their Javanese identity, which includes a multitude of teachings on nobility, beliefs and rituals as well as arts, culture and customs. Kejawen adherents are not permitted to relinquish various rituals such as slametan (a ritual meal with prayer) and numerous arts, culture and Javanese traditions that are considered valuable and noble. They also believe that Javanese noble teachings are in line with their ancestral heritage and are Islamic in nature and, therefore, must be preserved. Meanwhile, shari’ah-centric adherents claim that they are practising Islam correctly and maintain its purity by adhering to various aspects of shari’ah. The shari’ah-centric Muslim purists strive to ensure their religious teachings are devoid of any kejawen influence, which has adopted Hindu teachings and practices religious syncretism (Natsir & Jinan, 2018). 13 Contemporary Islam Several studies depict the continuity of Geertz’s thesis, in which the politics stream has divided religious groups both politically and culturally into kejawen and shari’ah-centric groups (Hudayana, 2021; Burhani, 2017; Baswedan, 2004; Hefner, 2000). Furthermore, other studies describe a shift in identity from kejawen to shari’ah-centric piety. Firstly, one study found the transformation from kejawen Muslims to shari’ah-centric Muslims due to an Islamisation process that has occurred through da’wah in the abangan communities, which improved their understanding of the true teachings of Islam (Natsir & Jinan, 2018). Meanwhile, some studies, such as Hefner (2000), Machmudi (2008) and Kim (2017), show the prominent role of the state in ‘religionising’ Java, by formalising religious teachings, prompting many abangan children to become shari’ah-centric Muslim groups’ agency. Although these studies have depicted the process of the changing religious identity, they do not assess the role of kinship organisations in influencing the transformation to a shari’ah-centric identity. Therefore, this study foc (...truncated)