Becoming Indonesians: The Ba Alawi in the Interstices of the Nation

. is paper examines the Ba Alawi-a group of.a.rami diaspora acknowledged as the descendants of Prophet Muhammad-in post-colonial Indonesia. In particular, it observes the Ba Alawi scholars' creative adaptation and manipulation of their Sufi path, tariqa 'alawiyya, in their attempt to secure their place within the wider imagination of Indonesian nationhood while protecting their distinctive genealogical eminence. In the twentieth century the tariqa, which had long functioned to secure their identity, differentiate them from others and nurture their diasporic consciousness, proved incompatible with the assimilationist discourse of the nation. Further challenges came from Islamic reformism, preaching egalitarianism increasingly defined public articulation of Islam, confronting the Ba Alawi's notion of Islamic authority. The Ba. Alawi scholars adapted by reshaping of the tariqa rituals, shifting emphasis on Prophetic piety, expanding the Ba. Alawi textual community to include local scholars, and the projecting of a new form of Prophetic authority in a framework of hadith studies. Such shifts were sustained by the construction of a new Ba. Alawi center in Kwitang, Jakarta, and the cultivation of scholarly networks connecting the Ba. Alawi and local kyais (Indonesian Islamic scholars). More specifically, this paper observes the career of three Ba. Alawi scholars and their efforts to reconfigure the discursive practice of the tariqa in the early decades of the Indonesian republic. By presenting practices recognizable to the dominant modes of Islamic reformism in the country, the Ba 'Alawi succeeded in maintaining their visibility in Sukarno's Indonesia.