PESANTREN IN THE CHANGING INDONESIAN CONTEXT: HISTORY AND CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS

This article discusses the history of pesantren as an educational institution in the changing Indonesian context, and provides a snapshot on their current development and enrolment trends. It aims to provide an updated comprehension on Indonesian pesantren, which is an important aspect in understanding the contemporary development of Islam in Indonesia. The data presented here is based on a systematic review of existing literature and policy documents, interviews with key policy makers, and observation in some pesantren. I argue that Indonesian pesantren have continued to grow over different historical periods due to their adaptability in the changing contexts. Such adaptability is seen in their adoption of modern schooling system, their incorporation of non-religious subjects into their curricula, as well as their dynamic integration into the national education system.


A. Introduction
Pesantren are Islamic boarding schools that have been found in Indonesia from pre-colonial times to the present.
In the past, their core business was the provision of Islamic learning for Muslim pupils who had aspirations to later become the propagators of Islam in their home communities.
In their current form and under the auspices of present and past Indonesian governments, pesantren have become an important part of the Indonesian national educational system serving a wide populace.
Kiai is a title given to Islamic scholars who for the most part provide the leadership of pesantren in Indonesia.
Scholarship on Indonesian Islam has noted the important position of kiai in their communities, beyond their position as leaders of pesantren. The relationship between kiai and community is based on mutual expectation. Community members usually expect kiai to provide them with spiritual, moral, and religious guidance, as well as expecting them to perform a protective leadership role. In return, community members respect kiai, and out of this respect kiai gain the authority to disseminate Islamic teachings within the community. Beyond this local role, kiai also deal with outside agents on behalf of their community, as well as mobilising the community to support causes that the kiai advocate (Horikoshi, 1976, p. 300). In short, in addition to their position as pesantren leaders, kiai are expected to play multiple roles in important areas, which include Islamic rituals, Islamic propagation, politics and economics. The concerns and personal interests of individual kiai largely determine which of these multiple roles an individual will undertake.  Steenbrink (1986), van Bruinesssen (1990), Dhofier (1999, Azra (1994Azra ( , 2006, Mas'ud (2004) and in some ways Abdullah (1986), just to mention the most widely read and cited, had cemented foundational bricks of this field for the next generations of scholars. Later generation brought the studies into a more topical emphasis like, among others, pesantren's role in education and shaping Muslim future generation (e.q. Hefner, 2009;Lukens-Bull, 2005;Tan, 2012), its involvement in electoral politics (e.q. Karim, 2008Karim, , 2009, and its dynamic as a religious authority (e.q. Halim, 2018;Pohl, 2006). Those works have provided in-depth explanation on the chosen topic. However, readers especially early scholars of Indonesian Islam have to read scattered sources to develop their understanding on this typical Indonesian Islamic learning institution. This article aimed at providing a short but wide-covering information on Indonesian pesantren, from historical information to contemporary development. It is expected to help readers with a "shortcut" reading before reading more historical, anthropological, and topical works on Indonesian pesantren.

B. History and Shared Characteristics of Pesantren
Pesantren are Islamic educational institutions that share many common characteristics. Their physical and organisational structures commonly share several elements: mosque, dormitory, students (popularly called santri), and kiai (Islamic scholar who leads pesantren). The central place is occupied by a mosque where the students and kiai pray five times a day, and do other activities that involve a large number of people, such as public lectures, collective prayers, and public preaching. The house of the kiai is commonly located beside the mosque and the dormitory where the students reside (Dhofier 1999: 34). Today's pesantren also commonly have class rooms and other school buildings. The other characteristic is the teaching of Islamic texts, organised mainly after prayer times.
In a more formal language, pesantren are commonly called pondok pesantren. Pondok literally means a 'hut', while pesantren means 'a place of the santri'. In a broader sense the term santri also refers to 'religiously oriented Muslims' as opposed to 'abangan' or nominal Muslims (Geertz, 1960b, pp. 121-130). The term 'santri' can also be limited to denote 'pesantren's student'. In the past, the term pondok pesantren or simply pesantren was used only in Java, but today the term pondok pesantren is also commonly used in other regions of Indonesia as this term has been adopted by the central government to refer to Islamic boarding schools (Azra, 2006, pp. 61-77). Nevertheless, some regions still use local terms to refer to similar institution such as surau in West Sumatera and dayah in Aceh. Surau literally means 'a place of worship' which is smaller than mosque, and is the same as langgar and mushalla in Java. In the Minangkabau region of West Sumatra, it denotes the site of traditional Islamic learning led by tuanku shaykh (Azra, 2003(Azra, , 2006. In Aceh, the local name of similar institution is meunasah, rangkang, and dayah. Meunasah is a place in which children learn the recitation of al Qur'an and basic teachings of Islam, then they go to rangkang to continue with intermediate Islamic subjects, finally they end up in dayah as the most advanced level of Islamic schools. These schools are led by teungku (similar to kiai in Java) (Azra, 2006;Srimulyani, 2013).
Within a pesantren there is a central figure and authority who bear different titles according to locality. In Java, such figures are called kiai, in Sundanese ajengan, in Nusa Tenggara Barat tuan guru, in South Sulawesi guruta/ anreguruta. Other regions with strong Muslim populations have their own titles to refer to such figures. The authority of these figures is sometimes shared with other family members such as wife and sons who may also share an interest in managing the pesantren as an institution or in dealing with community affairs. As a central figure, the kiai is a role model and 'figurative parent' for the students. They consult him on problems related to pesantren and their daily life. In some pesantren in Java, a kiai is sometimes called romo, a Javanese word for father (Srimulyani, 2012, p. 43) or aba, an Arabic word for father. In general, the relation of kiai and his students is not equal as he is believed to have superior intellectual and spiritual authority. This relation places kiai as the sole source of power and authority within the pesantren and no santri should question any decision made by him. Pesantren is therefore like a small kingdom led by the kiai. A kiai, as a source of knowledge and spiritual authority, is often visited by his students and the laity alike for consultation or to acquire his blessing (barokah) (see Dhofier, 1999, pp. 39-40).
The other way to obtain such blessings is by inviting or asking a kiai to lead a collective prayer in a slametan for particular purposes such as celebrating a baby's birth, a wedding ceremony, and commemorating the death of family members (haul) (Bustami, 2009, pp. 53-60).
In addition to his specific role within his own pesantren, to some extent a kiai is also a central figure for surrounding community. Many kiai become leaders of mysticism order (tarekat) which organises systematic spiritual teaching with  (Mulyati, 2002;van Bruinessen, 1995).
The most widely shared legends about the origin of pesantren among ordinary Javanese Muslims are from the period of walisongo (nine saints) whom are believed to be the first propagators of Islam in Java and the teaching methods that they used to spread Islam in the Javanese community.
These stories are still widely reproduced and disseminated at various events through religious sermons by Javanese Islamic preachers. Scholars, however, have debated the origins of the pesantren as an institution. Clifford Geertz (1960a, p. 231) has argued that pesantren are based on a model derived from Javanese Hindu-Buddhist monasteries from the second to the sixteenth century CE. When Islam came to the archipelago, the Islamic preachers maintained this educational model, but replaced its content with Islamic content, or in Geertz's words 'a new wine in a very old bottle' (Geertz, 1960a, p. 231). An alternative history has been suggested by Van Bruinessen (1994, p. 9), where he argues that today's pesantren developed in the nineteenth century as a further expansion of Islamic study groups located in mosques or the houses of kiai.
An Indonesian historian, Taufik Abdullah (1986, pp. 86-101) argued that the history of pesantren should be traced back to the period when 'religious men' withdrew from the life of kraton (the local name for the palace of Javanese kingdoms) because of internal political rivalries and disappointments with the kraton establishment and its dealing with European colonizers. This point is evident in the case of Diponegoro who was a prince of the Mataram Kraton in Yogyakarta.
When he became disillusioned with the way the Kraton was dealing with the Dutch, he took his followers and established his own community in a village, whose political stance was more strongly anti-colonial and religious stance more overtly Islamic and that could be considered to be a 'religious or santri community'. The kiai with their santri community inhabited so called 'desa perdikan (autonomous villages)'. These were special villages that were established for religious purposes and given considerable autonomy and privileges, most notably tax exemption. With the deepening of Islam among the community, desa perdikan were then also characterised by the growth of Muslim cemeteries, mosques and pesantren. It is important to note that this historical pattern is specific only to Java (T. Abdullah, 1986;Azra, 2006, p. 72).
From the second half of the 19 th century onward, pesantren was a symbol of Islamic resistance and identity among the santri community. This can be seen from the reluctance of the santri community to send their children to the Dutch schools, which were beginning to be established from the end of the nineteenth century onwards. In the early part of the nineteenth century, there were 1,853 pesantren with 16,556 students. This number increased dramatically to 14,929 pesantren with 222,663 students by the end of the century, even though the Dutch schools had been introduced in many places. It seems that pesantren at that time were the choice for Muslims to maintain their independence and cultural pride in the face of increasingly intrusive Dutch colonial power (Azra, 2006, pp. 72-73).
Throughout the colonial era, the existence and development of pesantren was largely beyond the control of the colonial government. Instead, pesantren developed their own networks with Islamic learning centres in Egypt and present-day Saudi Arabia. The influence of the Arab world is evident in their curricula contents and models of education. Azra (1994), van Bruinessen (1994, 1995, and Mas'ud (2004) noted that most Indonesian pesantren were globally oriented in their intellectual reference and orientation. This can be found in their strong orthodoxy in using classical Arabic texts  (Castle, 1966, pp. 30-32). The hallmark of this type of pesantren was their emphasis on the use of Arabic and English in daily conversation and learning activities. In theology and school of thought, they claimed not to be affiliated with particular schools of classical Islamic jurisprudence (madzhab). They saw a fanatical affiliation to certain schools of thought as contrary to the reform mission and as an obstacle to the development of Islamic scholarship.
By taking this position, they accommodated children from both modernist and traditionalist streams of the population.
Politically speaking, Gontor has always claimed to be neither affiliated to NU nor to Muhammadiyah by coining the tagline "untuk semua golongan or for all groups". Many of its graduates subsequently replicated this model in many other places such as Pesantren Pabelan in Magelang and Pesantren Darun Najah in South Jakarta. Currently there are more than 200 pesantren operated by Gontor's alumni and replicating the Gontor educational model. Pesantren Gontor also has a strong reputation, with many of its graduates becoming important political figures at national level (see Castle, 1966;Hady, 2012;Shabir & Susilo, 2018;Yunus, 2008, pp. 276-277 (Hasan, 2008;Tan, 2012 Chapter 3). The growth of new wahabi-salafi pesantren in Indonesia has been significant in the last decade (see Wahid, 2014). In addition, some pesantren are known for their specialities. Pesantren Suryalaya in Tasikmalaya with its famous leader Abah Anom is known for its focus on drug rehabilitation (see Mulyati, 2002).
Pesantren are not only limited to male students. Indeed, beginning in the early 20 th century, some pesantren started to accept female students. According to Srimulyani (2012, p. 38 Tebuireng called Pesantren Putri Salafiyah Syafi'iyyah (Yasin & Karyadi, 2011, pp. 12-13;Zaini, 1998, pp. 54-66). In West Sumatera, Rahmah Al Yunusiah founded Madrasah Diniyah Putri in Padang Panjang in 1923 (Yunus, 2008, p. 69). All these female pesantren continue to exist today. Currently, most pesantren accommodate both male and female students along with the widespread involvement of women in the provision of pesantren education. is to strengthen unity and diminish differences-which mostly concerns aspects of ritual (furu')-among Muslims. As such, the foundation of the Pesantren IMMIM was an effort to produce high quality Islamic preachers with a strong capacity to work across the divided communities-such as who affiliated to Muhammadiyah, Nahdlatul Ulama, and other groups (Damopoli, 2011).

C. Learning Models and Curricula
The learning model in pesantren has gradually been reformed as a result of influences from both Islamic learning tradition in the Arab world and a Western schooling model brought by the Dutch to the country. In pre-independent Indonesia, the learning model in pesantren was very modest.
A kiai read the kitab kuning (classic books) surrounded by his students, and sometimes complemented this with a question and answer season. There was no systematic grading system. When student numbers were large and their intellectual levels were diverse, the kiai organised the learning process but delegated the teaching task for some groups to his senior students. This model was changed by Muslim scholars who had returned from their studies in Egypt in early 20th century. At this time the Islamic reform movement was taking place in Arab countries in response to colonialism and the identified backwardness among Muslims, especially in the fields of science and technology (Steenbrink, 1986, p. 26).
According to Muhammad Abduh, one of the most important figures of the Islamic reform movement, this backwardness was a result of the separation of school into those Islamic schools which taught only Islamic subjects and the modern schools which taught non-religious subjects. This separation created two distinct cohorts with different visions regarding the future of Muslim ummah (Hourani, 1983, p. 137). At the same time, during the late 19th century, the Dutch also began to introduce schooling for selective segments of indigenous population. Some years later, some of the graduates of these Dutch schools taught in pesantren where they passed on their experiences in the Dutch school system. Those two developments-Islamic reformism and colonial, Western education-gradually influenced the pesantren world. The first influence evidenced in the adoption of graded classes of madrasah system, and the second was the incorporation of non-religious subjects (Steenbrink, 1986, p. 25). This new model was initially adopted by some Muslim reformists after studying in Middle East, especially at Al Azhar University in Cairo. Later, however, the traditionalists also began to follow M. Falikul Isbah this trend (Azra, Afrianty, & Hefner, 2007, pp. 175-177;Dhofier, 1999 Chapter Four;Steenbrink, 1986, pp. 69-72;van Bruinessen, 1994, pp. 20-24).
Madrasah is an Arabic word for school, while sekolah is an Indonesian word derived from Portuguese to refer to school. In the Indonesian context, madrasah are specifically In terms of educational arrangement, today's pesantren can be divided into three main categories. The first category is pesantren kholaf that provide formal schooling through madrasah and sekolah. The second category is pesantren salaf (not salafi) which do not provide a government-approved schooling system (Hefner, 2009, pp. 66-69;Lukens-Bull, 2005;Zuhdi, 2006). Such pesantren still exist in some places and are regarded as able to produce graduates with greater expertise in kitab kuning as they do not need to study general sciences (Isbah, 2012). The final category is pesantren modern Today, the majority of pesantren provide formal schooling through madrasah and sekolah that incorporate non-Islamic subjects in their curricula like any other school, and can be categorised as pesantren kholaf. The difference is that pesantren schools provide a greater proportion of Islamic subjects in their curricula than is the case with schools outside pesantren system. Given the limits of school hours, most pesantren arrange their curricula so that Islamic subjects and the teaching of kitab kuning are given outside the school hours, commonly in afternoon or evening through a madrasah diniyah, halaqoh (discussion group) and pengajian.
In madrasah diniyah, the management and teaching methods are similar to secular school, but the material is limited to Islamic teachings which commonly stresses Arabic, theology, Islamic law (fiqh and ushl fiqh), Islamic ethics (akhlak), tasawuf (mysticism), Qur'anic exegesis (tafsir), and Traditions of the Prophet (hadits) (van Bruinessen, 1995, pp. 32-37). In line with the wider adoption of a government approved madrasah schooling model since early 1970s, many pesantren started to incorporate non-Islamic subjects in their curricula. It should be noted, however, that Islamic schools managed by Muhammadiyah were among the first to introduce subjects like mathematics, geography, Dutch language and so forth, while Pesantren Tebuireng in Jombang was among the first traditionalist pesantren to do the same thing in late colonial era (Dhofier, 2011, p. 186). According to Lukens-Bull (2000, p. 26, 2001, combining Islamic and non-Islamic subjects in their curricula was the way pesantren leaders encountered modernisation and globalisation. In this way, they were projecting their students on a path to become members of a society "that is fully modern, fully globalised, fully Indonesian, and fully Islamic" at the same time (Lukens-Bull, 2000, p. 26).

Educational System
In post-independence Indonesia, pesantren have gradually gained state recognition through their integration into the national educational system. In the early years of independence, the government recognised the existence of be an over-simplification over the problem on the ground, and they were suspicious that the actual purpose of the regime was to eliminate the existence of Islamic schools. Instead, they proposed the idea of standardising curriculum of Islamic schools. This was eventually adopted in the so called 'Three-Ministry Joint Decree' (SKB 3 Menteri). The main point in this policy was that Islamic schools had to adopt a curriculum where 30 percent of learning hours was devoted to religious subjects and 70 percent to non-religious subjects (Zuhdi, 2006, pp. 417-421)).
Since 1975, and partly due to the implementation the Three-Ministry Joint Decree, the general tendency in most pesantrens has been to follow the model of the state's educational system and its curricula. Pesantren manage their schooling through government-recognised madrasah system which requires 70 percent of its learning hours for non-Islamic subjects and the rest 30 percent for Islamic subjects (Hefner, 2009, p. 65). In addition, they provide instruction in a to Law. One reason for this is to equip their graduates with modern skills and degrees so that they are able to compete in the modern labour market. Consequently, graduates from these institutions can readily be found working in government offices, universities, the business sector, and, of course, religious offices (Hefner, 2009, p. 66). In short, it seems that such pesantren do not consider themselves to be different As a consequence of these changing policies and the internal dynamic within pesantren world in responding societal changes, the educational model of Indonesian pesantren today can be divided into four categories. The first is pesantren salaf (traditional) which provides only Islamic teachings in the form of classical works (i.e. the kitab kuning (classic books on Islamic sciences mentioned above). Pesantren of this type commonly organize their teaching activities in madrasah diniyah and pengajian bandongan (public lecture). The second are pesantren that build formal Islamic schools in the form of madrasah ibtida'iyyah (primary school), madrasah tsanawiyyah (junior high school), and madrasah aliyah (senior high school/college) that are supervised by the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Their curriculum is determined by the Ministry in the form of modern text books which are changed periodically. A number of large pesantren have also established tertiary education institutions (perguruan tinggi) within their complexes. The third type of pesantren is similar to the previous type, but their schools are affiliated to the Ministry of National Education and are regarded as sekolah or secular schools, not madrasah. The fourth kind are pesantren that provide both madrasah and secular schools (Bustami 2009: 39). Except the first type, all are categorised as pesantren kholaf (as opposed to pesantren salaf). Many pesantren today organize formal education in madrasah or secular school classes in the morning and teach kitab kuning in the afternoon and evening. This is their way to adapt to modernisation and to meet the expectations of students and parents seeking formal certification (Azra et al., 2007;Hefner, 2009;Steenbrink, 1986;Zuhdi, 2006).
The fact that the majority of today's pesantren resemble the pesantren kholaf model can be seen as a response to parents' pragmatic demands that education be an important contributing factor to students' economic success. Unfortunately, there is no official data available that compares the number of each type of pesantren. Many pesantren opened madrasah or general elementary schools with nonreligious and vocational subjects in the 1970s and 1980s. Their residential students attend these madrasah during the morning and spend the afternoons and evenings studying religious subjects in the dormitory. It is also important to note that all pesantren are independent institutions, and none of them are funded by the Indonesian government. A 2005 data from the Ministry of Religion reveals that 47 percent of pesantren are operated by private foundations, and 39 percent by individuals. The reminder is run by Islamic mass organizations such as Muhammadiyah, Nahdlatul Ulama or other organizations (Jackson & Parker, 2008, p. 26).
There is strong pressure on all forms of Indonesian Islamic education, including pesantren, to integrate into the national education system. However, according to Jackson and Parker (2008), pesantren have constantly faced an uneasy adjustment to, and negotiation with, government policy and its values. For example, in order to produce graduates who are able to compete with their counterparts from secular schools both in the labour market and in pursuing higher education, Islamic schools, including pesantren schools, have to allocate large proportion of their teaching hours to non-Islamic subjects. Added to this, they have to maintain an appropriate number of hours for Islamic subjects in their curriculum. The other issue is that the national education system encourages active and participatory teaching and learning methods in order to raise the level of students' critical thinking. In contrast, this traditional Islamic education method is generally teacher-centred with a high degree of respect for a teacher's knowledge and authority, and tends to centre on rote learning. This might give rise to a contradiction in pedagogical approaches. In summary, most of them have tried to be adaptable to the educational system endorsed by the state (Azra et al., 2007;Hefner, 2009;Zuhdi, 2006).

Enrolment Trends
The current growth of Indonesian pesantren and their enrolment trend is complex. Statistically the number of pesantren has been increasing steadily over the past decades, but their proportion of the total national student body remains at only about 13 percent of Indonesian school age children (Azra et al., 2007, pp. 178-180). Some commentators have sought to justify the importance of pesantren not merely in terms of their student numbers relative to that of general schools but in terms of the strategic position that pesantren hold in driving the direction of Islam in a country where there are many contested sources of religious authority in Indonesia (cf. Sakai, 2012Sakai, , 2014. My own observation additionally suggests that there is a new tendency among those who do not have pesantren education background but now wish to send their children to pesantren. PESANTREN IN THE CHANGING INDONESIAN CONTEXT .....| Number of Pesantren andPupils (1977-2012) Year 2016d 28,194 4,290,626 2011-2012a 27,230 3,759,198 2006-2007b 17,506 3,289,141 1997c 9,388 1,770,760 1977c 4,195 677,384 Source: (c. Azra et al., 2007;b. Direktorat Jenderal Kelembagaan Agama Islam, 2008;a. Direktorat Jenderal Pendidikan Islam, 2012a;d. Muhyiddin & Yulianto, 2017) A report based on a survey in 2011-2012 from the than those of semi-modern and modern pesantren, and even more than for secular public school students (Sticher 2008: 157-64).

Pupils
Based on these quantitative findings, Sticher (2008, pp. 162-165) argues that choice of a school is linked closely to the educational background of parents, their own pesantren experience, their family size, and economic level. Educational attainment and family size are also indicators of social class.
This data shows that parents of pesantren salaf's students are mostly from lower class backgrounds relative to other kinds of pesantren and secular schools. There are two possible explanations for this. First, it is because pesantren salaf are cheaper than their alternatives. However, this reason is certainly not or no longer accurate because today secular public schools or pesantren with government recognised madrasah -as in the case of modern and semi-modern pesantren-may be cheaper than in the past as a result of government subsidies.
Financial reasons are, however, likely to be just a part of the explanation. Another reason is that well-educated parents, especially those with secular educational backgrounds, prefer secular schools or pesantren with secular subjects.
In terms of quality which can be measured by failure rates in National Final Examination, pesantren or madrasah are relatively less successful than secular schools. The available data of 2003 indicates that the failure rate at junior secondary madrasah (Tsanawiyah) is 10.9 % compared to 3.9 % at general junior secondary school. For senior secondary madrasah (Aliyah), the failure rate is 15.4 % compared to 5.7 % at general senior secondary school. This is because they tend to serve disproportionately a rural and poor demographic (Azra et al., 2007, pp. 177-182). Azra, Afrianty, and Hefner (2007, pp. 177-182) showed a statistic produced by the Ministry of Religious Affairs in 2003 suggesting that over 50 % of pesantren students were children of farmers or laborers. A survey in 1999, across ten provinces, indicated that 85 % of pesantren are located in rural areas, 14 % in semi-urban districts, and just 0.8 % in cities (Azra et al., 2007, pp. 177-182 The success rate in the National Final Examination as a reliable indicator of the educational quality should be questioned, as there is a substantial amount of mass media reporting, which questions the integrity of this examination, due to practices such as cheating, the leaking of question and answer sheets, and an over emphasis on coaching for the examination by teachers who fear the possible failure of their students in this examination.

F. Conclusion
As an Islamic institution, pesantren has played several important and crucial roles in the changing historical situation of Indonesia. It has survived different political contexts and continued to grow despite the changing socio-economic conditions of Indonesian people. In the colonial era, it tried to isolate itself from the influence of the European, non-Muslim, colonizers because they believed that the Islamic learning tradition would nurture a mastery in Islamic sciences and through this Muslims would be able to perform their religious obligations in line with the Islamic orthodoxy. Pesantren leaders saw a different goal in the colonizers' educational philosophy which was perceived as a worldly oriented system.
Such a philosophy was regarded harmful to the 'pure vision' of pesantren learning tradition. As a result, pesantren education represented a solid block to the influence of the colonizers.