Santri Day 2025 and the Indramayu PCNU: Reading from the Outskirts of Sanca Village
By: H. Adlan Daie
Political and Socio-Religious Analyst
The author certainly doesn’t understand how the “Asbabun Nuzul” (Asbabun Nuzul) for the culmination of the 2025 National Santri Day (HSN) commemoration by the Indramayu PCNU (October 26, 2025) chose Sanca Village, a “suburb” village in Gantar District, Indramayu Regency, far from the Indramayu government center.
The choice of this “suburb” village is interesting and “sexy” to read about. “Suburb” and “santri,” at least from the sociological perspective of Dr. Zamakhsyari Dhofir in his book “Tradition of Pesantren” (1982), are two social entities that form a “unique” village ecosystem in the cultural sense, where NU, as an Islamic organization, was born and grew.
This is often overlooked by “outsiders,” including foreign researchers like Clifford Geezt, who wrote the political anthropology book “Santri, Priyayi, and Abangan” (1956). Even many NU “insiders” themselves only touch the “outer shell.” That is the “complexity” of reading NU, but also the “fun” of reading NU.
There are at least two “unique features” that shape the NU “subculture”—as Gus Dur often wrote about in various national media (1971-1990): a perspective on NU as an Islamic mass organization, as a “subculture” of social power within the map of Indonesia’s socio-political history.
First, NU was founded not following the theory of “global modernism,” but rather as a meeting point of “heavenly” signals and the inevitability of the caliphate’s mission on “earth.” NU is a “jamaah,” a social-religious community based on Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) on the outskirts of villages that has been “congregated” and formalized into a structural organization. That is NU’s “exceptionality.”
NU’s cultural strength precedes its structural strength. NU’s strength lies in its social network of Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) and its chain of scholars, whose cohesion is stronger than mere organic structural ties. NU, as a “jam’iyah,” is not like a “bureaucratic machine” tightly regulated except for matters related to “qanun asasy,” religious ideology. NU is a social ecosystem that shapes cultural institutions in villages.
Second, the historical relationship between NU’s founding and the NU’s founding is not only the significant role of “village” kiai; moreover, it is symbiotic and reciprocal. The village social ecosystem is culturally a primary supporting pillar of NU, within the spectrum and perspectives of many NU figures who originate from villages, where NU’s chain of scholars is nurtured within the pesantren ecosystem.
Within the spectrum of the reprehensible perspectives of these “village” kiai, the construction of Islam is situated within the convergence of cultural acculturation in relation to other social elements, as well as in the context of Islam’s relationship with the state, which is “complementary,” mutually complementary, not head-to-head, or confrontational.
The perspective on the two “unique” NU subcultures mentioned above emphasizes that the choice of the location of the 2025 National Student Day (HSN) summit of the NU Indramayu PCNU in Sanca village should not be read merely as a geographical and tactical choice, but rather as a strategic and paradigmatic one.
This is crucial for reaffirming NU’s religious perspective (“Almuhafadloh”), even while requiring openness and adaptability to new, tactical social pragmatism (“Al akhdu bil jadid Al aslah”).
This is crucial for “sewing” the NU ecosystem more firmly from the “fringes” due to the current era of social disruption, an era in which values and social cohesion are beginning to be undermined by the massive penetration of social media platforms into the private “rooms” of NU members in rural areas.
A 2018 study by LIPI (Indonesian Institute of Sciences), although somewhat outdated and not specific to Indramayu but rather to West Java, reveals that 80% of the Muslim population in West Java practices NU traditions and practices, such as visiting graves, tahilah (cleansing the graves), qunut (prayer) during dawn prayers, and two adhans during Friday prayers. However, only 9% are affiliated with NU organizations.
This means that NU’s social cohesion is somewhat loose in West Java; in Indramayu, further in-depth research is needed. Young people from NU families are easily “intimidated” by the Muslim style of social media and are becoming more confident, unafraid of being accused of being radical and intolerant, and even engaging in “urban Islam” actions, a movement of Islamic modernism.
Survey data from the scientific duo Marcus Meizner and Burhanudin Muhtadi (2028) in their paper “The Myth of Nahdlatul Ulama” confirms the quantitative picture that NU members at the grassroots level in West Java are “more deeply” intolerant than those in Central and East Java regarding issues of tolerance and diversity.
Here, once again, the importance of NU is being re-energized from the “periphery,” with a symbolic “kick-off” point in Sanca village, where the 2025 National Day of Nahdlatul Ulama (HSN) celebration of the Indramayu NU Central Board (PCNU) was celebrated, to protect NU members at the grassroots level from intolerant tendencies, as seen in the survey data trends above.
Social ecosystem compared to other Islamic organizations at the rural level, such as the Islamic study group network, small prayer rooms, etc.
This is the social ecosystem that counteracts the trend of intolerance with the most effective soft-cultural approach, without resorting to explosive intimidation, and even lacking state institutions, except for the hardware of authority.
Happy National Day 2025. Strengthening Aswaja from the outskirts of Indramayu to strengthen Indonesia’s inner and outer dimensions. That is NU’s ongoing national charity amidst the challenges of the era of social disruption. **
Indramayu, October 22, 2025
Wassalam
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