Malay Folk Beliefs and Rituals in the Prose Writings by Muslim Reformist Authors in the First Half of 20th Century

Abstract

The study explores texts of Malay literature of 1920-s – early 1940-s focusing on pre-Islamic worldview and magic rituals. These topics were widely represented in Western research, but fiction of the time provides a unique opportunity to contemplate the attitude to traditional beliefs within Malay society itself at the important stage of its historical development. The authors’ evaluation of the whole complex of animistic beliefs and shamanistic practices is studied in the light of Islamic reformist thought. The first decades of the 20th century in British Malaya witnessed the rise of reformism with its preaching of socioeconomic progress based upon the purification of Islam from the remnants of archaic perception of being and upon public education. In the meantime, genres of modern literature were evolving with active participation of the writers who shared reformist ideas. On the one hand, the study reveals negative attitude of these authors towards what they called “dark superstitions”. This position is actualized in the texts of literature aiming to change the reader’s opinion through the revision of his convictions. The authors of early Malay prose aspired to expose the emptiness of traditional beliefs, powerlessness of magic rituals, amorality and deception of shamans. On the other hand, the analysis traces a number of motifs demonstrating the importance of traditional cults and the demand for their practitioners within the Malay community, that made them able to withstand the pressure of reformist thought. The paper specifies factors that contributed to the survival of traditional worldview.