Introduction

Indonesia, independent since 1945, is the fifth largest nation in the world. About 90 per cent of its population consider themselves Muslims, and the Republic of Indonesia, though not an Islamic state in the constitutional sense, has the world’s largest number of Muslim citizens.

Roughly 62 per cent of Indonesia’s total population which, in 1985, was estimated at over 160 million, reside on the island ofjava which is one of the most densely populated parts of the world. A high percentage of the population lives in rural areas based on subsistence economy. The difference between city and country life, between the urban elite and the rural masses is distinct.

There is still some confusion in the literature about the ethnographic description of the peoples of Indonesia whom one may find referred to as the ‘Malays’, or, even less correct, as Proto- and Deutero­Malays. The use of the word Malay as a generic term is misleading since, strictly speaking, it only applies to one of the several hundred ethnic groups inhabiting the islands. These groups tend to differ widely with regard to their traditional social structure and political organisation. Only a few founded states in the past. Examples are the Javanese and Balinese, the Malays of Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula and the coastal parts of other major islands, the Buginese and Macassarese of southern Sulawesi (Celebes), the Acehnese and the Batak of northern Sumatra, some groups in the Moluccas, and the Minangkabau of western Sumatra. Whereas some of these states, foremost among them the Javanese empire of Majapahit (fourteenth century) had a firm territorial base, others such as the Malay empires of Srivijaya (tenth century) and of Melaka (Malacca, fifteenth century) gained their wealth and power almost exclusively through trade and commerce.

It was only with the arrival of nationalism at the beginning of this century that the numerous ethnic groups and nations moved towards the formation of one Indonesian nation.