<i>Priyayi</i> Islamic Assertions under Dutch Rule in the Middle of the 19th Century

Abstract

In the middle of the 19th century Javanese aristocrats (priyayi) who had become bureaucrats in the colonial government managed to stay on good terms with the Dutch colonial government in order to preserve their social status. At the same time, they were charged with governing local society. They had to oversee the social order and local religious activities in order to implement the agrarian system. For self-justification, they needed to involve religious officials known as pangulu.Discourses between priyayi and Muslim leaders over the religious movement that occurred in the 1850's in the Residency of Pekalongan offers a very interesting example. The leader of this movement, K. H. Ahmad Rifa'i, after returning from Mecca, opened an Islamic shool in the outlying village of Kalisalak and began teaching orthodox Islamic beliefs to the villagers in central Java. He composed many Islamic poetic works in Javanese (with Arabic letters pegon) so that people could understand them easily. In his works he severely criticized local religious officials and the priyayi for serving “the infidel” (the Dutch). He urged the reformation of Javanese Islamic society.The Priyayi, on the other hand, endeavored to refute Rifa'i's argument, also using Islamic terms. In the one famous work of court literature, entitled Serat Cabolek, Rifa'i is described as an ignorant and arrogant Islamic leader, who had been admonished by the pangulu and priyayi for his acts of folly. According to Scrat Cabolek, Rifa'i spread a heretic Islamic dogma not in accordance with the Koran and was deceiving ignorant villagers into disrespecting the priyayi. At the end of the story, Rifa'i's assertions prove to be false as the result of “religious dispute” with a pangulu, held in the presence of the priyayi and an audience. The pangulu is praised for his intelligence and courage, and the priyayi is also praised for maintaining the order in Javanese society.The priyayi thus endeavored to justify themselves through the subjugation of a “heretic.”