The Muslim intelligentsia of Indonesia : a genealogy of its emergence in the 20th century
Date
2004
Authors
Latif, Yudi
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Abstract
This thesis examines 'the genealogy of Muslim intelligentsia (and power) in twentieth
century Indonesia'. The main concern of the thesis is with the genealogy of the
collective entity of Muslim 'intelligentsia'. Even so, attention will also be given to the
role of individual 'intellectuals' as fomulators and articulators of the Muslim
intelligentsia's collective identities and ideologies.
Although the Indonesian intelligentsia has been the ruling stratum of Indonesian
society, there has been no single systematic study under the rubric of Indonesian
(Muslim) 'intelligentsia'. The very few available studies related to this issue have used
the term Indonesian (Muslim) 'intellectuals' but have examined the ideas of individual
intellectuals rather than provide an analysis of the structural position and collective
representation of the Indonesian people of ideas.
To a certain degree, Indonesian intelligentsia has been studied under the rubric
of the Indonesian 'elite'. The mainstream analysts of the Indonesian elite tended to
restrict the notion of power struggle to the purely political and bureaucratic fields, while
power struggle in the realm of knowledge and meaning was not taken into serious
consideration. Based on the assumption that Indonesian Muslims had frequently failed
to win elections and control parliament, many analysts came to the conclusion that
Muslim politics had been defeated. Moreover, most of these studies focused too much
attention on individual time, without considering the time of the 'longue durée'. In
considering intellectual performance and politics as an end product rather than as a
process, as a synchronic state rather than as a diachronic development, these studies
underestimated the regenerative capacity of Muslim intelligentsia. Such a conclusion is
problematic in the context of the current preponderance of Muslim intelligentsia in the
political and bureaucratic elite.
This thesis is a dynamic, interactive and intertextual approach to the study of
Indonesian Muslim intelligentsia and its relations to power. The dynamic approach of
this thesis attempts to situate synchronic states within a diachronic context. This
approach reveals that throughout the 20th century there have been diachronic Muslim
intellectual networks across generations that made possible the continuity of Muslim
intellectual political traditions. At the same time, there have been continuous synchronic changes in the formulation of Muslim intelligentsia's identities and ideologies across
generations.
The interactive approach of this study attempts to see the development of
Muslim intelligentsia and power as the result of a dynamic interplay between past and
present, between and within various intellectual-political traditions, and between
various arenas of power relations. This approach reveals that ideological formulation
and power strategies of a particular generation of Muslim intelligentsia cannot be
isolated from the influence of the previous generation, the presence of significant others
and the interplay of various arenas of power relations.
The intertextual approach of this study attempts to mobilise interdisciplinary
studies and to sec the interconnectedness of texts and discourse. This approach reveals
the interdependence of inter-generaticnal texts of Muslim intelligentsia and the
relationality of diverse texts as well as of discursive and non-discursive formations.
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