Pesantren-based development: Islam, education, and economic development in Indonesia

by Buresh, Scott Allen, Ph.D., University of Virginia

Abstract (Summary)

This study is an examination of the degree to which three traditional Islamic institutions, pesantren , in West Java, Indonesia have successfully become agents of educational, social, and economic development in the rural areas in which they are located. I will argue that it is the historical strength of the pesantren as educational institutions and their adaptability to their social context that has provided their leaders, known as kyai , with the framework, not only to survive in the modern context, but also to become one of the leading advocates for the comprehensive improvement of the standard of living in rural Indonesia.

In selecting three pesantren, Pesantren Cipasung in Tasikmalaya, Pesantren Raudlatut Tholibin in Cirebon, and Pesantren Pertanian Darul Fallah in Bogor, I was able to gain a regional as well as a local perspective on how kyai and their constituencies are drawing on the strengths of their traditions to engage modernity with flexibility and resilience. The social, political, and economic challenges they face in representing the increasingly marginalized rural sector of society are daunting. The majority of kyai have been able to adapt educationally, thereby playing a vital, ongoing educational role for a large percentage of Indonesia's

population. Economic adaptation has proven much more difficult. Those kyai , like Kyai Ilyas Ruhyat, who have maintained a strong commitment to their religious and educational values have demonstrated a neo-modern resiliency in the economic and political arenas as well. Those who have neglected their educational mission or who have failed to adapt it to the modern context have struggled to remain viable.

The challenges kyai and their followers are facing are relevant to the viability of sustainable, people-centered development in the Islamic world. Many kyai have embraced a neo-modern approach in Fazlur Rahman's terms (1982) to applying their Islamic faith with passion and yet tolerance. For this reason their successes and/or failures are crucial to the choices Muslims are making, not only in Indonesia, but also globally and the viability of non-revivalist alternatives to engaging modernity with faith.