How Indian Merchants and Sufi Saints Took Islam to Indonesia

Whirling Dervishes, pic: Wikipedia Commons

                                        

While talking about India-Indonesia civilisational ties spreading over two millennia, Hindu and Buddhist influences are commonly mentioned but Indian merchants and Sufi saints were, to a large extent, responsible for introducing Islam in Indonesia. Today Indonesia is the largest Muslim nation in the world, but Islam took six hundred years to grow roots in Southeast Asia. Though Muslim traders were a familiar sight for long, the first Muslim state came up at Samudra Pasai at the eastern- most corner of Indonesia,–at Banda Aceh, around 1300 CE. It was here at the eastern most corner of Indonesia that the foreign merchants were most closely involved in commercial operations as well as administration. Ibn Battuta, the inveterate Maghrebi traveller (1304-1369) reached Aceh in 1345 and noted that Samudra Pasai was the eastern most Islamic state in the world then.

In fact, the rise of Islam created an unprecedented trading network in the Indian Ocean. Islam united the Middle East with Persia on the one hand and Egypt and North Africa on the other. There was a sort of Islamic colonisation of the East African coast, leading to the rise of prosperous port cities and kingdoms at Malindi, Mogadishu, Kilwa, and Zanzibar. As more and more people thronged Mecca for annual Haj, Jeddah, prospered as the entry point and the market of Haj started dominating the annual trading calendar of West Asia. At the other end of the Ocean, the first mosque in China–Memorial Mosque or Huaisheng Mosque was constructed in Canton/Guangzhou in 627 CE by Sa`d ibn Abi Waqqas, an uncle of Prophet. Modern historians doubt whether Waqqas had ever been to China but there is hardly any doubt about Muslim presence in China from the mid-seventh century. Probably Persian maritime traders had reached China directly long before, though the first account of the Siraf-Canton maritime route comes from the ninth-century Akhbar al Sin wa’l Hind (a description of India and China) of Suleiman.

Merchants from Red Sea ports or Persian Gulf coasts first stopped at Muscat or Suhar at Oman or Aden, and then either came to Cambay in Gujarat or went straight to Koulam Male in Malabar (Kerala). From there, mostly Indian Muslim (Gujarati Muslims, Mapillas from Kerala, Chuliyas from Tamil Nadu coast) merchants sailed up to South East Asian ports. Islam gave a tremendous boost to urbanisation all over Asia. In the Western flank, a long period of stability and domestic economic expansion, helped to create a large market. Similarly, in China, continuous movement of people from North to South, closer to coast, created another large market for consumption goods. A combination of this resulted in surging Asian commerce from the tenth century onward. Spice trade remained the chief attraction for foreign merchants but with large and stable empires, robust trade infrastructure, close contact with both South Asia and China and maritime Southeast Asia’s first standardised coinage, islands of Java and Bali were by now ready for the age of commerce. Indian merchants, especially from the coastal regions of Gujarat and South India were keen to participate in it.

Long before the rise of international commercial law, the bond of a common religion helped these merchant networks to conduct business across this vast geography, deal with the ever-present danger of natural disasters or man-made violence or extortion of local authorities (it also spawned a huge vocabulary of common maritime terms which were in circulation from Middle East to South East Asia for centuries like Nakhuda or the owner of the ship, Mu’alim or the pilot, Sahrang/Sareng or mate, Tandill or the officer in-charge of the seamen or Khallasi/Khalasi, Laskar or the crew - from Aden and Hormuz to Malacca–these terms became as familiar as the annual arrival and departure of foreign merchants). There were varieties of boats with exotic cargo but out in the water, they all were part of the same culture.

Tombstone of Sultan al Malik al Saleh, written in Arabic script and dated 1297 CE, Samudra Pasai – very similar to contemporary tombstones in Gujarat, particularly in Cambay, the principal port city

It was around the same time when the Islamic state of Samudra Pasai came about in early 14^th century that the first series of Islamic tombs (barring an isolated case in the eleventh century) appeared in Java. These tomb stones closely resemble the style of similar tombs in contemporary Gujarat and in some cases, the tomb stones might have come from the Gujarati port of Cambay. Similarly in Java, Islam came through harbour kingdoms of Cirebon, Demok, Japara and Gresik, where foreign merchants frequented in large numbers. Traditional Javanese accounts attribute spread of Islam to the activities of a group of nine Saints, collectively known as Wali Sanga–though the exact list of the nine is not above dispute. The first of these saints (and his family dominates the list) was Malik Ibrahim, who came from Gujarat (though he was probably of Persian origin) and died at Gresik in 1419 CE.

The Great Mosque of Central Java, Semarang. Pic: Wikipedia Commons

Nuruddin ibn Ali ar-Raniri, a mystic from Rander, near Surat, lived for many years at the court of the Sultan of Aceh. His works are considered among the oldest Islamic scholarships in Southeast Asia. In a sweet celebration every March at Padang in Sumatra, small sachets of sugar are scattered from rooftops to celebrate the birthday of Sahul Hamid, an Indian preacher credited with introduction of Islam in Sumatra (festival of Serak Gulo). This is also a beautiful reminder of the Gujarati commercial association of this saint - Gujarat once exported sugar around the world (from the Sanskrit word khanda/khand, mainly used to denote pieces of jaggery, comes Persian qand, Arabic qandi, French candi and English candy).

Earlier it was believed that Islam was introduced mainly by Indian/Gujarati traders but now most historians believe that Islam came to Indonesia through multiple sources including Chinese, South Indian, and Gujarati. But there is no doubt that Islam reached Indonesia through maritime commercial sources and not riding on the back of a victorious army unlike Western or Central Asia. What the Indian Sufi mystics taught – a personal union with God – was not alien to what a Javanese Guru would earlier be teaching to his disciples. It was perhaps both Sufi and maritime influences that led to the blossoming of a moderate Islam in the archipelago and that too, without constituting a break with their rich, syncretistic social and cultural past, including Ramayana and other Hindu/Buddhist traditions.

Hariprabha Takeda: A Bengali Bride in Early 20th Century Japan

 

In 1907, Hariprabha Basu Mallick (1890-1972), a young Brahmo middle class woman from Dhaka, fell in love and married Oemon Takeda (1875-1949), a Japanese soap maker, who was hired as a manager by her father. Her progressive Brahmo family strongly believed in constructive social work. Apart from establishing this soap factory, they also ran a home for destitute women, Matri Niketan in Dhaka. In fact, Hariprabha, before and after her marriage, was closely associated with this home for women. It is not clear exactly how Oemon reached India or Calcutta but during the Swadeshi movement (1905-11), a number of new age soap factories came up in Dhaka, including the Bulbul Soap Factory, where Oemon was employed. After their marriage, Oemon set up his own Dhaka Soap Factory. 

Rabindranath Tagore in Japan, 1916

This unlikely marriage between a Japanese chemist and a young Bengali woman in Dhaka needs to be seen in the overall context of Bengal’s fascination with Japan at that point. Rise of Japan as an Asian power – as attested by Japan’s victory against Russia in 1904-05 – had captured the imagination of Bengal, then in the throes of the Swadeshi movement. Umpteen number of Bengali children born around the turn of the century had their nicknames after prominent Japanese war heroes and politicians. One of the major planks of Swadeshi in Bengal was economic self-reliance through both traditional means and modern technology. Japan appeared to be a role model in that respect too. Bengalis collected money to send talented youngsters to Japan to learn new technologies. Some of them came back to play pioneering roles in new industries like machine-made potteries or chrome tanning. They also welcomed Japanese technicians proficient in various trades like Oomen.

Okakura Kakuzo (1863-1913)

For Rabindranath, Bengal’s premier cultural icon, Japan remained a lifelong obsession. Interaction between him and the famous Japanese artist and art critic Okakura in Calcutta in the early twentieth century inaugurated the Indo-Japan relations in modern times. Rabindranath visited Japan four times and was hailed as a symbol of rising Asia (later on, his stringent criticism of rabid nationalism compelled Japanese intellectuals in turn to criticise him and begin their own introspection). Japanese culture left an indelible imprint on Rabindranath – he started writing short poems in Japanese fashion (haiku) and introduced in Shantiniketan, Japanese style ink and wash paintings, flower-designing (Ikebana), marshal art (Jujutsu) and carpentry with Japanese teachers. Apart from Rabindranath, Okakura Kakuzo (also known as Okakura Tenshin) developed close friendship with stalwarts of Bengali socio-cultural life, including Swami Vivekananda, Sister Nivedita and painters like Abanindranath and Gaganendranath. Okakura also developed a romantic liaison with Priyambada Debi (1871-1935), a leading Bengali poetess and she translated Okakura’s famous book The Book of Tea in Bengali. 

Rabindra-Okakura Bhavan in Kolkata, inaugurated by Prime Minister Abe in 2007, was a result of lifelong efforts of Tagore scholar Prof Kazuo Azuma (1931-2011), who spent long years in Shantiniketan

Five years after her marriage, Hariprabha sailed with her husband and some of his Japanese friends to meet her in-laws. This was the first known voyage of a South Asian woman to Japan in modern times. After a long journey, they finally reached Oemon’s family in a village near Nagoya. Despite the language barrier, Hariprabha was warmly welcomed by her mother-in-law and other relatives of Oemon. Hariprabha, in turn, observed the Japanese social life through her keen eyes. In those days, the Japanese, particularly outside the major cities, had seen very few foreigners. Their visit had naturally been a matter of popular interest and a Japanese newspaper, Kobe Yushin Nippo had published an interview of the couple. Three years after her maiden voyage to Japan, in 1915 she published what seems to be a rather straight forward account of what she saw in Japan.

First Edition of Hariprabha's book, proceeds were to be used for Matri Niketan

Published by her sister Shantiprabha, Banga Mahilar Japan Jatra (Journey of a Bengali Woman to Japan) was not the first or the only account of Japan travel in Bengali. At least two Bengalis had published their travelogues by 1910 – Japan Probas by Manmathanath Ghosh (1882-1944) and Japan by Sureshchandra Bandopadhyay (1882-?).  A number of eminent Bengalis had visited Japan either before her or around the same time – the list includes Swami Vivekananda, who was perhaps the earliest, followed by scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose, historian Jadunath Sarkar and social scientist Benoy Kumar Sarkar, who in 1923 published a large scholarly book on Japan titled Nabin Asia r Janmadata Japan (Japan, the Mother of New Asia). Rabindranath’s much-acclaimed account Japan Jatri (A Sojourn to Japan) would come out in 1919, three years after her first visit to the land of rising sun.

But what sets Hariprabha’s story apart is her unique perspective – none of the others could gain entry into Japanese social life as a family member. She wrote about the lives of ordinary Japanese women, their social and child-rearing practices (and her implicit criticism of Bengali social mores) – themes which were generally absent in our travelogues.

Hariprabha (in dark saree) with Netaji

Even as the Second World War raged on, Hariprabha went back to Japan a third time in 1941 under much strained circumstances (her second trip in 1924 was undocumented). Plagued by illness, her husband had to close down his soap-making unit and he was also afraid of being jailed by the British government. Her writing paints a dark picture of war-torn Japan – death in almost every family, food ration, broken roads, and a general atmosphere of crisis. Amidst all these, Hariprabha risked her life to find money and medicine for her ailing husband. When she writes about her experience of meeting Rashbehari Bose or Subhas Chandra in Japan, personal recollections merge seamlessly with the historical narrative. Rashbehari Bose offered her a job of Bengali newsreader for Azad Hind Radio and every night, she walked through dark, bomb-battered streets of Tokyo to go to the radio station.

Shortly after the end of the War, the couple shifted back to India (Judge Pal of the Tokyo trial fame was among the well-wishers, who had helped them with the passage money) and started living with one of her sisters in Jalpaiguri. Oemon, physically unwell and completely heartbroken by the fall of Japan, passed away soon after. Later in her life, Hariprabha shifted to Kalyani with one of her nephews and eventually passed away in 1972 in Calcutta’s Shambhunath Pandit hospital when hardly anyone remembered her story. Today, along with Rabindranath, Okakura, Rashbehari, Judge Pal and Subhas Bose, her story is also counted as one of the milestones of the Japan-India/Bengal relations.

A Bangladeshi scholar, Monzurul Huq located a copy of Hariprabha’s book in London’s India Office library and published it in 1999. Since then, there has been a lot of interests in Hariprabha’s extraordinary life and her writings. A recent translation by Somdatta Mandal features her handwritten experience of Second World War ravaged Japan and some other relevant pieces. In 2012, exactly 100 years after her epoch-making first visit to Japan, filmmaker Tanvir Mokammel made a documentary on her life titled ‘Japani Badhu’ (The Japanese Wife). In 2021, another documentary on her life titled Hariprabha Takeda: An Unsung Traveller of Bengal was produced by Eliza Binte Elahi.

Priyanka Yoshikawa Ghosh

In these hundred years, both her homeland and Japan have undergone tremendous changes. Amidst renewed interests in Hariprabha’s life, a fluent Bengali-speaking Priyanka Yoshikawa Ghosh became Miss Japan in 2016. Her father is a Bengali settled in Japan and her Japanese mother is a Bengali teacher by profession (Priyanka also happens to be the great-granddaughter of Bengal’s first Chief Minister Prafulla Ghosh). Excitement over her success briefly brought back the memories of Bengal’s fascination with Japan more than a century back.