| Nahdlatul Ulama is Indonesia's, and the world's, largest Muslim organization, with approximately 35 million members. Long active as both a political and religious organization, in 1984 it withdrew from the formal political sphere in a move called "Kembali ke Khittah 1926", that allowed it room under the repressive Suharto regime to develop a nascent civil society movement. Towards the end of the New Order, and during the " reformasi" period, this movement became more critical towards the state and at the same time gained momentum internally. As a result, in many circles NU became associated with civil society. One element of the discourse produced by this movement was an opposition to "Islamist" politics---a stance that was deeply embedded in the historical modernist-traditionalist conflict coloring intra-Islamic relations in Indonesia for the past century. In 1999, Abdurrahman Wahid, revered NU leader, became president of Indonesia in a move that significantly complicated the position of NU's civil society movement, which had gradually established for itself a "watchdog" role towards the state. This dissertation examines the emergence of this civil society discourse in the historical context of the "Kembali ke Khittah 1926" movement, and it explores the response of the pro-civil society activists of NU to political developments under Wahid's presidency---in particular analyzing the role of the modernist-traditionalist conflict in shaping not only understandings of "civil society" but also important movements within Islam in Indonesia more generally. |
