COLLISION COURSE

if you had to pick a place in the Muslim world least susceptible to any kind of religious extremism, it would be hard to find a better candidate than indonesia.

thus began one of the most insightful articles on indonesia that i remember reading in the indian mainstream media. a culture thats very similar to ours is being rapidly uprooted by the radicalisation of Islam in indonesia. residing in india, it may be hard to see our connection to that far-away land. but it lingers on in everyday names, dances, music and literature being subtracted by arab thought from the collective conscience of indonesians.
the adoption of ‘Muslim fashion’, cursing people by calling them ‘bush’ and bilingual street signs - in bahasa indonesia and arabic are just some examples. the problem starts early, in the indoctrination across schools and colleges, and that’s where any solution must have its greatest impact. i wonder if obama would become president studying in a government-run school in jakarta today.
it’s impossible for india to match the arabic hard power and petro-dollars, but we have an ace up our sleeves they don't: soft power. every indonesian remotely interested in badminton still runes swie king’s defeat at the hands of prakash padukone and bollywood’s star-power is matchless amongst the locals. the need of the hour are initiatives like this year’s ‘festival of india’ that widen the cultural exchange.
culture is not a question of us versus them. between indonesia and india, it has always been us and them, and that is how it should remain in future.