Indonesia Conference Directory

As the largest Islamic organization in Indonesia, the Nahdlotul Ulama (NU) has members (santri) which have contributed to the development of Indonesia. Some of Santri either became politically active as a party member or involved a strategic nonpolitical position. The purpose of the study is to find out how the santri build their social identity in their political activities. A case study was conducted to find the process and the central dynamics of santri in political activities. The several semi-structured interviews were used to obtain the construction of identity of two members of Nahdlotul Ulama (NU) who have grown up in the santri tradition. The results of this research show that a unique identity of santri was built by their pride in their status as santri, since they believe that the santri status has more values than others. They also believe that their political activity is a kind of religious activity.