Abangan

The term "abangan" literally means “brown (or red) ones”.  Abangan is a Javanese term used to describe those Javanese who are only nominally committed to Islam, the dominant religion of Indonesia.  They are generally unconcerned about the formal ritual obligations of Islam (reciting five daily prayers, keeping a month long fast, giving alms, etc.) and are culturally committed to pre-Islamic Javanese art forms, such as wayang (shadow theater), and to local religious ideas (adat). 

In the early twentieth century, the Dutch amalgamation of peasant villages often placed strict Muslims (santri) and nominal Muslims (abangan) under a single administration.  Social tensions between the two populations were heightened by the santri community’s pressures for religious orthodoxy.  These tensions were exploited by Indonesian nationalists, who embraced the abangan as a counter-balance to Islamic political pretensions.

Sukarno (1901-1970), the first president of Indonesia (1949-1967), was particularly adept as a spokesman for the abangan community.  The Indonesian Communist Party (Partai Komunis Indonesia - "PKI"), rather than emphasizing the theoretical doctrines of Marx and Lenin, drew most of its membership from among the Javanese abangan community by promising a return to a great pre-Dutch and pre-Islamic egalitarian age.

Alternative names include:

Abangan
Brown Ones
Red Ones