Kaharingan or Hindu Kaharingan

Abstract

Many scholars have addressed processes whereby local faiths have come to be classified as Hindu. In Indonesia, such classifications are of profound significance among practitioners and for the state. For some Ngaju Dayaks, an indigenous people of Indonesian Borneo, obtaining recognition of Kaharingan, the traditional faith, as Hinduism was part of a struggle for social justice. Others demand that the alliance between Kaharingan and Hinduism be dissolved. The article explores the goals and activities of two important religious organizations committed to Kaharingan’s survival and promulgation in different forms. The authors argue that differences between the two lend insight into how and why this faith is simultaneously classified as both a new and an old religion in Indonesia, as both Hinduism and not-Hinduism, and they suggest that the Kaharingan case encourages reflection on what constitutes a “new” religious movement.