Religious Idioms in Anti-Colonial Movements - Roy AB Tolentino

Peter Carey’s monumental study of Prince Dipanagara and his role in the Java War correctly situates the monarch within a complex of political, socio-cultural, and economic forces. Going beyond the mythologizing prevalent in the court literature of the time (Dipanagara’s autobiography included), Carey paints a more balanced view of the historical context. Given this multi-faceted examination, it is interesting to note how the religious idiom of the Just King remains central to Dipanagara’s story. The Babad Dipanagara paints the picture of how Dipanagara must have appeared to the faithful:

Pangeran Dipanagara was not very far away mounted on a beautiful black horse with a superb harness. He was clad entirely in white in the Arab style. The end of his turban flapped in the wind as he made his horse prance. The reins attached to his belt, he seemed to be dancing in the midst of his lance-bearing bodyguard. (Payen 1988:151, quoted in Carey 2007:602)

Poetic imagery aside, the rise of Dipanagara amidst the tumult of that period sent the message that the Ratu Adil had indeed come, the Just King had returned to restore the rule of God in a land that infidels had plundered. At least, this was the religious symbolism conveyed in his actions as understood by his subjects.

Whether or not this was intentional in the case of Dipanagara, the religious idiom here is framed in a way that is overtly opposed to the colonizers. The Just King emerges as product of, and heir to, a tradition and culture older and more venerable than that of the invaders. Islam affords the oppressed people a claim to a higher moral authority and divine justification. Religion in this case is mobilized precisely as difference, otherness, in opposition to the homogenizing tendencies of the colonizers.

The Banten uprising of 1888 follows a similar tack. Kartodirjo points out that “no distinction is made in Islam between a religious and political community,” and therefore “every religious protest movement easily turns into a political one.” (Kartodirjo 1966:143) It is not surprising, then, that the peasant uprisings in Banten, while considered insurrections, were spurred by religious fervor. According to Kartodirjo, Islamic eschatology and politics played a significant role in fuelling the rebellion: “People were imbued with fervour for the Holy War and with a corresponding hatred of the ‘infidel government’, and besides, they were also delighted by the prospect of the establishment of an Islamic state...” (Kartodirjo 1966:165) Here again we see the aspect of difference emphasized in order to establish a hierarchy between the colonizer and the conquered. The logic of colonization is not so much reversed as it is employed against the colonizers themselves.

Another strategy emerged in the Philippine experience. Unlike the Dutch, for whom Christianization was not a priority, the Spanish were more zealous and ultimately more successful in their efforts at evangelization. When the time for revolution came, the religious idiom could not be mobilized according to the logic of otherness, since the majority of Filipinos had already become Catholic. Instead, the very idiom of Christianity was subverted in order to promote anti-colonial ideas. Reynaldo Ileto’s landmark study, Pasyon and Revolution, describes how the locally constructed Passion narrative usually recited during Lent promotes revolutionary values and subversion as exemplified in the life of Christ. Rather than emphasizing difference, the same religious idiom is cast in another light to oppose colonial power. Given these and other strategies of appropriating religion, I wonder if religion is in general simply a tool mobilized for political expediency.

Carey, Peter. The power of prophecy: Prince Dipanagara and the end of an old order in Java, 1785-1855. Leiden: KITLV,
2007.
Ileto, Reynaldo C. Pasyon and revolution: Popular movements in the Philippines, 1840-1910. Quezon City: Ateneo de
Manila University Press, 1979.
Kartodirdjo, Sartono. The peasant revolt of Banten in 1888. VKI Vol. 50. Gravenhage: Martinus Njhoff, 1966.