Bangsa and Umma: Development of People-grouping Concepts in Islamized Southeast Asia (review)

The book is a collection of essays based on workshops and a symposium in 2007 held at three Japanese universities, organized by the Islamic Area Studies, Local Cultures in the Malay World Study Group, Jawi Study Group and the Joint Study Group on Social Order and Relations in Muslim Populated Southeast Asia. Six of the nine contributors are Japanese, with the remaining three from Australia, the US and Malaysia.

Bangsais the Malay word for race, while the Arabic umma( umat) refers to the Muslim brotherhood. The book examines people-grouping concepts—how people classify others/themselves and how people react to these classifications. The focus is on the concept of race and ethnicity ( bangsa), while nationality is treated as one of the many people-grouping concepts found in the Malay world. For bangsaand ummathe idea of civilization is crucial to the groupings, as are the ideas of equality and homogeneity among members. The book is divided into three parts: Part 1 deals with Melayuand Jawi, two inclusive people-grouping concepts during the pre-colonial period; Part 2 deals with the substantiation of bangsa Melayuand how it changed during colonial rule and thereafter to become more exclusive; Part 3 customizes bangsawith ummain regions beyond the Malay states like Sabah, Aceh and Mindanao. Each section is composed of three essays, while a short introduction, weaving all three parts (and the nine essays) together, is useful to the general reader.

The concept of bangsa Melayuhas become a subject of considerable debate in recent years. In Chapter 1 Anthony Milner revisits some of the debated issues. According to Milner, before the advent of colonial rule there were a number of people-grouping concepts in the Malay world, including the people-grouping concepts of bangsa Melayu, kerajaan, Jawawhich convey a sense of religious community and of the community of the 'people beneath the wind'. These concepts, in particular bangsa Melayu—closely associated with the Melaka sultanate—convey a sense of a particular civilization that was not restrictive and incorporated other bangsa, notably the Javanese. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the more restrictive concept of Melayuemerged from definitions concocted by Europeans based on their ideas of race. By the late eighteenth century Melayubegan to appear in European scholarly writings, notably through Raffles in the early nineteenth century. However, the European-derived idea of race, according to Milner, was transformed with emphasis on common descent downplayed and the capacity of bangsa Melayuto absorb others highlighted even after 1963.

Equally significant are the views of the Malays on the issue. To Abdullah Munshi (mid-nineteenth century) or Mohd Eunos Abdullah (early twentieth century), the concept of bangsa Melayuwas in sharp contrast with the kerajaanor ruler. Eunos saw the ruler as grounded in the adat, which is the property of the bangsa. Increasingly, Islam has become a pillar of Malayness, as indicated by the wide usage of umatIslam which has become an alternative people-grouping concept. As in the past, Milner believes bangsa Melayuhas the potential to be reformulated again in the future.

In Chapter 2 Michael Laffan discusses Jawi, another important concept which refers to some form of linguistic and religious unity among peoples of the Islamized world. Its origin remains obscure, but the term began to appear in thirteenth-century Arab sources. By the fourteenth century there were individuals who were described as connected to the Jawi, which refers to the Malay world, although in Southeast Asia the term Jawiis associated with Islamic culture, especially through the use of the Arabic scripts. In the sixteenth century Hamzah Fansuri chose bahasa Jawias the medium for his writing as it was more widely understood than Arabic or Persian. By the seventeenth century there were variants of the Jawilanguage, with Pasai and Aceh representing a plurality of people who...