Islam in Indonesia

Submitted by B.N.Gururaj (India), May 3, 2009 at 00:01

I have not had the occasion to study the history Indonesia in detail. From wikipedia, it appears that prior to 15th Century, Hinduism and Buddhism were the prominent religions. Just as the case with India, Islam seems to have entered Indonesia through muslim merchants. Thereafter, it is not clear how Islam spread so swiftly through the Indonesian Islands so as to make it the most populous Islamic country. Wikipedia's history of Indonesia does not throw much light on this aspect.

When you say that it may have spread peacefully, there may be some truth in it, inasmuch as large number of Buddhist and Hindu temples have survived in Indonesia. Indian epics, names, poetry, mythology still form a part of Indonesian culture, even though it is an islamic country. Even the names of muslims has Sanskritic elements like former president Ahmed Sukarno. Sukarno stands for "Sukarna" in sanskrit. His daughter who is a political leader of Indonesia is Meghawati Sukarno, entire name is Sanskritic. The fact that old culture has survived in Indonesia inspite of islamisation is somewhat mystifying. It merits greater study. Probably, some other day, when I have studied this topic better, I might write a few lines!

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