From Recognition To Populism: The Construction of Hari Santri as a National Commemoration in Indonesia

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Published: Dec 30, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15642/jrp.2025.15.2.262-278
Keywords:
Hari Santri; Islam and the state; religious commemoration; political identity; Indonesia

Main Article Content

Wildan Ulumul Fahmi
Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies, Universitas Gadjah Mada

Abstract

The designation of Hari Santri as a national commemoration has triggered pros and cons since the beginning. Traditional Islamic groups represented by Nahdlatul Ulama were the initiators of this official commemoration, and Muhammadiyah as the representative of modernist Islamic groups rejected and resisted this formalization for the fears of sectarianism in the Islamic internal. Accordingly, the close relationship between the state and traditional Islamic groups brought them in a mutual relationship. This momentum is very important because, through this formalization, Santri’s contribution and rights to be recognized as equal to other citizens have been realized. The government also benefits by instrumentalizing the santri identity to support their agendas. This article analyzes how the Hari Santri commemoration was constructed as a national commemoration. Using a historical-contextual method, this article tries to zoom in what happened in the past and how it was reconstructed for the current agenda.

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How to Cite
Fahmi, W. U. (2025). From Recognition To Populism: The Construction of Hari Santri as a National Commemoration in Indonesia. Jurnal Review Politik, 15(2), 262–278. https://doi.org/10.15642/jrp.2025.15.2.262-278
Issue
Vol. 15 No. 2 (2025): December
Section
Articles
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

©The author (s). Published by Department of Islamic Political Thought, Faculty of Ushuluddin and Philosophy, Sunan Ampel State Islamic University Surabaya, Indonesia.

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