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Equinox Classic Indonesia
Language and Power: Exploring Political Cultures in Indonesia
In this lively book, Benedict R. O'G. Anderson explores the cultural and political contradictions that have arisen from two critical facts in Indonesian that while the Indonesian nation is young, the Indonesian nation is ancient originating in the early seventeenth-century Dutch conquests; and that contemporary politics are conducted in a new language. Bahasa Indonesia, by peoples (especially the Javanese) whose cultures are rooted in medieval times. Analyzing a spectrum of examples from classical poetry to public monuments and cartoons, Anderson deepens our understanding of the interaction between modern and traditional notions of power, the mediation of power by language, and the development of national consciousness. Language and Power , now republished as part of Equinox Publishing's Classic Indonesia series, brings together eight of Anderson's most influential essays over the past two decades and is essential reading for anyone studying the Indonesian country, people or language. Benedict Anderson is one of the world's leading authorities on Southeast Asian nationalism and particularly on Indonesia. He is Professor of International Studies and Director of the Modern Indonesia Project at Cornell University, New York. His other works include Imagined Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism and The Spectre of Nationalism, Southeast Asia, and the World .
316 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1990
21 people are currently reading
493 people want to read
About the author
Benedict Anderson
137 books425 followersBenedict Richard O'Gorman Anderson was Aaron L. Binenkorb Professor Emeritus of International Studies, Government & Asian Studies at Cornell University, and is best known for his celebrated book Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, first published in 1983. Anderson was born in Kunming, China, to James O'Gorman Anderson and Veronica Beatrice Bigham, and in 1941 the family moved to California. In 1957, Anderson received a Bachelor of Arts in Classics from Cambridge University, and he later earned a Ph.D. from Cornell's Department of Government, where he studied modern Indonesia under the guidance of George Kahin. He is the brother of historian Perry Anderson.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
June 14, 2020
Benedict Anderson dedicated his life to study about Southeast Asia culture and history especially Indonesia. His deep understanding on Indonesia were completely remarkable. In this book, Ben Andre explain how Power and Language are somehow relate to each other in terms of Indonesia struggle to be an independent nations. The language used by Indonesian Founding father to express their concerns, spirits and dream of a free nations.
I learned a lot about the perspective through Ben Anderson writing. Yes, for some parts the books seems complicated to followed but still offer adventurous writing on Indonesian history of languages.
I learned a lot about the perspective through Ben Anderson writing. Yes, for some parts the books seems complicated to followed but still offer adventurous writing on Indonesian history of languages.
June 15, 2025
"The Invisible Scripts of Power: Unmasking Indonesia Through Javanese Eyes"
I first encountered Language and Power: Exploring Political Cultures in Indonesia during my early awareness of the heavily Java-centric nature of Indonesian society, both geographically and culturally. That realisation gradually unfolded through my personal and professional journey, and it was during my MBA study at RSM that I finally had the time and intellectual maturity to read the book in full.
This 1990 collection of essays, speeches, and reflections is more than a study of Indonesia; it is a deep meditation on the intersection of language, culture, and authority. Drawing from his intimate knowledge of Javanese and Indonesian political cultures, Benedict Anderson moves far beyond the standard fare of postcolonial analysis. He explores how power is not merely exercised, but performed—ritually, symbolically, and linguistically—in Southeast Asia, with a particular focus on Indonesia.
Key themes include:
a. The performativity of authority, where rulers rule not merely through laws or coercion but through symbols, etiquette, and carefully constructed public appearances;
b. The centrality of language, from the formality of Javanese honorifics to the politicisation of Bahasa Indonesia as a nationalist tool;
c. The transformation of statecraft, especially as the modern nation-state collides with traditional structures of legitimacy.
What makes this book exceptional is Anderson’s use of multiple lenses—anthropology, linguistics, history, and politics—without diluting analytical rigour. His comparison of Suharto’s carefully staged political dominance with older Javanese kingship rituals is particularly illuminating.
Contextual Deepening: Javanese Politeness and Mataram Statecraft
Two supporting texts deepen the resonance of Anderson’s analysis:
1. Sukarno’s (2010) paper on Javanese politeness helps unpack the deeply hierarchical communicative logic (andhap-asor, tanggap ing sasmita) that underpins Javanese social relations and governance. It explains why indirectness, deference, and ritualised ambiguity are not forms of avoidance but mechanisms of control and harmony. Anderson’s treatment of this cultural idiom as a political technology becomes even more convincing in light of this linguistic backdrop.
2. Similarly, HY. Agus Murdiyastomo’s (2016) study on Mataram statecraft traces the sacred-symbolic model of governance rooted in divine kingship and territorial cosmology. The repeated relocation of the court (from Kota Gede to Plered, Kartasura, and eventually Surakarta), the spatial centrality of the kraton, and the charisma-driven legitimacy (wahyu keprabon) all echo Anderson’s claim: in Java, power is less about laws and institutions than about orchestrated performance and symbolic mastery. The "state" was a persona, not a bureaucracy.
Jokowi: A Living Embodiment of Contradictions
This becomes particularly fascinating when read alongside Ben Bland’s Man of Contradictions: A Lowy Institute Paper: Penguin Special: Joko Widodo and the struggle to remake Indonesia, the first English-language biography of President Joko Widodo. Jokowi’s carefully curated “simple man” image—obsessively repeated impromptu visits (blusukan), humble attire, and ritualistic displays of proximity to the people (rakyat)—can be seen as a modern, democratic adaptation of the Javanese performative script.
Jokowi’s rise fits the Idea of Power in Javanese Culture. He does not shout, he absorbs; he does not confront, he encircles. His ambiguity is strategic. The contrast between his informal gestures and his consolidation of authority reflects not incoherence, but cultural fluency. As Bland shows, Jokowi masterfully balances tradition, populism, and technocracy—often at the cost of ideological consistency. In Anderson’s terms, Jokowi is a post-Suharto puppet master (dalang), retelling the Ramayana epic with modern props.
Who Should Read This Book?
This book is essential reading for both foreigners and Indonesians who wish to understand the deeper logics underpinning Indonesian politics, culture, and society. For scholars, policy professionals, and businesspeople alike, Anderson’s work offers a systematic and academically grounded framework to decode the often-opaque operations of power in Indonesia.
If you seek to understand why Indonesian politics and society function the way it does—not only in formal structures but in their cultural core—this book is indispensable.
I first encountered Language and Power: Exploring Political Cultures in Indonesia during my early awareness of the heavily Java-centric nature of Indonesian society, both geographically and culturally. That realisation gradually unfolded through my personal and professional journey, and it was during my MBA study at RSM that I finally had the time and intellectual maturity to read the book in full.
This 1990 collection of essays, speeches, and reflections is more than a study of Indonesia; it is a deep meditation on the intersection of language, culture, and authority. Drawing from his intimate knowledge of Javanese and Indonesian political cultures, Benedict Anderson moves far beyond the standard fare of postcolonial analysis. He explores how power is not merely exercised, but performed—ritually, symbolically, and linguistically—in Southeast Asia, with a particular focus on Indonesia.
Key themes include:
a. The performativity of authority, where rulers rule not merely through laws or coercion but through symbols, etiquette, and carefully constructed public appearances;
b. The centrality of language, from the formality of Javanese honorifics to the politicisation of Bahasa Indonesia as a nationalist tool;
c. The transformation of statecraft, especially as the modern nation-state collides with traditional structures of legitimacy.
What makes this book exceptional is Anderson’s use of multiple lenses—anthropology, linguistics, history, and politics—without diluting analytical rigour. His comparison of Suharto’s carefully staged political dominance with older Javanese kingship rituals is particularly illuminating.
Contextual Deepening: Javanese Politeness and Mataram Statecraft
Two supporting texts deepen the resonance of Anderson’s analysis:
1. Sukarno’s (2010) paper on Javanese politeness helps unpack the deeply hierarchical communicative logic (andhap-asor, tanggap ing sasmita) that underpins Javanese social relations and governance. It explains why indirectness, deference, and ritualised ambiguity are not forms of avoidance but mechanisms of control and harmony. Anderson’s treatment of this cultural idiom as a political technology becomes even more convincing in light of this linguistic backdrop.
2. Similarly, HY. Agus Murdiyastomo’s (2016) study on Mataram statecraft traces the sacred-symbolic model of governance rooted in divine kingship and territorial cosmology. The repeated relocation of the court (from Kota Gede to Plered, Kartasura, and eventually Surakarta), the spatial centrality of the kraton, and the charisma-driven legitimacy (wahyu keprabon) all echo Anderson’s claim: in Java, power is less about laws and institutions than about orchestrated performance and symbolic mastery. The "state" was a persona, not a bureaucracy.
Jokowi: A Living Embodiment of Contradictions
This becomes particularly fascinating when read alongside Ben Bland’s Man of Contradictions: A Lowy Institute Paper: Penguin Special: Joko Widodo and the struggle to remake Indonesia, the first English-language biography of President Joko Widodo. Jokowi’s carefully curated “simple man” image—obsessively repeated impromptu visits (blusukan), humble attire, and ritualistic displays of proximity to the people (rakyat)—can be seen as a modern, democratic adaptation of the Javanese performative script.
Jokowi’s rise fits the Idea of Power in Javanese Culture. He does not shout, he absorbs; he does not confront, he encircles. His ambiguity is strategic. The contrast between his informal gestures and his consolidation of authority reflects not incoherence, but cultural fluency. As Bland shows, Jokowi masterfully balances tradition, populism, and technocracy—often at the cost of ideological consistency. In Anderson’s terms, Jokowi is a post-Suharto puppet master (dalang), retelling the Ramayana epic with modern props.
Who Should Read This Book?
This book is essential reading for both foreigners and Indonesians who wish to understand the deeper logics underpinning Indonesian politics, culture, and society. For scholars, policy professionals, and businesspeople alike, Anderson’s work offers a systematic and academically grounded framework to decode the often-opaque operations of power in Indonesia.
If you seek to understand why Indonesian politics and society function the way it does—not only in formal structures but in their cultural core—this book is indispensable.
September 29, 2018
This book is written in 1990, its explain his background on why he interested in studying Indonesia. In the beginning, I thought its a political science book, indeed it cover political analysis, but I think most of part is more ethnography on Javanese and also anthropological work. This might be the weakness of this book to cover a broad topic into a single book. I think it can be separated into several books. His life is an inspiration for anyone that dedicated their life for the advancement of science.
May 11, 2025
Ada banyak refleksi kesejaraahan yang masih relevan sampai hari ini utamanya terkait :
1. Bagaimana sistem kekuasaan tradisional jawa berkembang.
2. Bagaimana posisi bahasa Jawa dengan stratanya, bahasa indonesia sebagai pemersatu dan bahasa asing sebagai identitas intelektual
3. Review serat centhini dan gatholoco dalam sastra jawa pujanngga baru.
4. Cerita Soetomo untuk menjelaskan bagaimana falsafah dan langkah hidup priyayi jaw
1. Bagaimana sistem kekuasaan tradisional jawa berkembang.
2. Bagaimana posisi bahasa Jawa dengan stratanya, bahasa indonesia sebagai pemersatu dan bahasa asing sebagai identitas intelektual
3. Review serat centhini dan gatholoco dalam sastra jawa pujanngga baru.
4. Cerita Soetomo untuk menjelaskan bagaimana falsafah dan langkah hidup priyayi jaw
April 22, 2025
A collection of articles written over a few decades so not everything is as curious as the discussion of sodomies in a classic Javanese poem - but very interesting look at the political culture and cultural history of Indonesia, with wider implications too.
March 12, 2017
111 - 2017
January 17, 2018
Not my favorite work by Anderson, but worth reading if you like his style and political opinions.
January 29, 2021
anderson's critical analysis on the concept of "nation-state" is not only foundational but also universal
July 6, 2025
Terjemahannya terlalu bertele tele, namun makna dalam buku ini tetap bagus utk di baca.
January 19, 2025
Most intriguing when genealogising Bahasa Indonesia in relation to Javanese. Can be maddeningly obscure with its allusions at other times.
November 15, 2013
Language and Power is an academic text from 1990 focusing on the political cultures of Indonesia, specifically Java. For those of you that didn't immediately click away or fall asleep, L&P covers its specific subject with an admirable amount of depth. The book also served as an excellent gateway as its numerous footnotes and references introduced me to a treasure trove of other sources, academic and otherwise, I would have never found on my own.
The book is actually a collection of eight essays, under the subheadings of Power, Language, and Consciousness, written by a scholar who lived in Jakarta from 1961 to 1964. That he was subsequently banned from reentry by the Suharto regime because of his writings is almost a commendation, placing him in the good literary company of Pramoedya Toer whom the author explores at great length in several of his essays. The essays have been written over long time span, with the first essay published in 1966 and the most recent published in 1989. As such, there are several small inconsistencies and reversals as the reader works from essay to essay. However, each essay presents a thorough and thought provoking examination on a narrow slice of Javanese culture.
While I found the entire book enlightening, three chapters stood out in particular. The first one, which is also the first essay in the book, tackles Javanese conceptions of power and contrasts it to that of the West. Of all the essays this one had the most immediate applicability to my everyday life. It placed in proper cultural context several attitudes and practices I saw around both my school and village that previously had been enigmatic. Another one of my favorites was the author’s deconstruction of the influences and cultural politics behind Indonesia’s many national monuments and two of its political cartoonists. Perceptive and original with strident examinations of the art styles and symbolism involved in both the monument design and cartoons this chapter was custom made for me, an unabashed comics and architecture nerd. Finally, the chapter titled Sembah-Sumpah digs into a phenomenon that was not even on my radar: the disappointment of the recent generations with what their revolutionary forbearers bequeathed them. From there it explores how the lack of literature written in Javanese is a reflection of this and that many Javanese authors, the most prominent example given being Pramoedya Toer, have transitioned to writing in bahasa Indonesia while using Javanese to hide subliminal (and stingingly sarcastic and satirical) messages.
This is one of the few books I think I would like to reread. The author does an admirable job writing in a clean, clear prose and his ideas are all logically formed and presented. But the highly subtle nature of many of these subjects (such as whether the accumulation of power has no inherent limits or if the quantum of power in the universe is constant) and the fact that they are so unlike anything I have studied before almost necessitates a second reading. For anyone who wants a window into the Javanese psyche, this book shed light on many subjects that Indonesians themselves could not explain.
The book is actually a collection of eight essays, under the subheadings of Power, Language, and Consciousness, written by a scholar who lived in Jakarta from 1961 to 1964. That he was subsequently banned from reentry by the Suharto regime because of his writings is almost a commendation, placing him in the good literary company of Pramoedya Toer whom the author explores at great length in several of his essays. The essays have been written over long time span, with the first essay published in 1966 and the most recent published in 1989. As such, there are several small inconsistencies and reversals as the reader works from essay to essay. However, each essay presents a thorough and thought provoking examination on a narrow slice of Javanese culture.
While I found the entire book enlightening, three chapters stood out in particular. The first one, which is also the first essay in the book, tackles Javanese conceptions of power and contrasts it to that of the West. Of all the essays this one had the most immediate applicability to my everyday life. It placed in proper cultural context several attitudes and practices I saw around both my school and village that previously had been enigmatic. Another one of my favorites was the author’s deconstruction of the influences and cultural politics behind Indonesia’s many national monuments and two of its political cartoonists. Perceptive and original with strident examinations of the art styles and symbolism involved in both the monument design and cartoons this chapter was custom made for me, an unabashed comics and architecture nerd. Finally, the chapter titled Sembah-Sumpah digs into a phenomenon that was not even on my radar: the disappointment of the recent generations with what their revolutionary forbearers bequeathed them. From there it explores how the lack of literature written in Javanese is a reflection of this and that many Javanese authors, the most prominent example given being Pramoedya Toer, have transitioned to writing in bahasa Indonesia while using Javanese to hide subliminal (and stingingly sarcastic and satirical) messages.
This is one of the few books I think I would like to reread. The author does an admirable job writing in a clean, clear prose and his ideas are all logically formed and presented. But the highly subtle nature of many of these subjects (such as whether the accumulation of power has no inherent limits or if the quantum of power in the universe is constant) and the fact that they are so unlike anything I have studied before almost necessitates a second reading. For anyone who wants a window into the Javanese psyche, this book shed light on many subjects that Indonesians themselves could not explain.
September 9, 2010
Awal tahun 1990 an aku membaca buku ini ketika terbit untuk pertama kalinya. Seorang kawan meminjamkan buku yang baru dibawanya dari Amerika. Jarak seminggu dua minggu kemudian kami mulai berdiskusi tentang isi buku yang ditulis oleh ahli Indonesia dari Cornell University, Ben Anderson. Beberapa dari isi buku ini adalah artikel artikel yang sudah pernah dimuat dalam jurnal Prisma, seperti artikel yang berjudul Sumbah, Sembah dan Serapah misalnya. Sejam dua jam berlalu, sang kawan lalu menawariku untuk menulis resensi buku tersebut di dalam jurnal Prisma. Terkejut bukan kepalang aku, karena tak pernah ku sangka aku bisa mendapat kesempatan untuk menulis di jurnal yang terkenal di masa itu.
Hampir sebulan aku mencoba menulis resensi buku ini, dan menurutku memang tidak mudah untuk membaca pemikiran Ben Anderson. Tapi yang jelas, seluruh isi buku ini memberikan horison yang cukup luas tentang fenomena budaya politik di Indonesia terutama pada periode Orde Baru.
Hampir sebulan aku mencoba menulis resensi buku ini, dan menurutku memang tidak mudah untuk membaca pemikiran Ben Anderson. Tapi yang jelas, seluruh isi buku ini memberikan horison yang cukup luas tentang fenomena budaya politik di Indonesia terutama pada periode Orde Baru.
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February 3, 2014.......
Tak ada yang dapat ditarik lebih jauh daripada hubungan secara main-main dan menghambur-hamburkan antara agama dan seksualitas dari Chentini, sebagaimana dicontohkan oleh episode ketika Cebolang, yang sesudah tidak tidur semalam bergantian menghirup alat kelamin dan masturbasi timbal balik dengan dua santri remaja, dengan tanpa beban, bangun untuk mengamini salat subuh di pesantren.
.......
Tak ada yang dapat ditarik lebih jauh daripada hubungan secara main-main dan menghambur-hamburkan antara agama dan seksualitas dari Chentini, sebagaimana dicontohkan oleh episode ketika Cebolang, yang sesudah tidak tidur semalam bergantian menghirup alat kelamin dan masturbasi timbal balik dengan dua santri remaja, dengan tanpa beban, bangun untuk mengamini salat subuh di pesantren.
.......
July 28, 2007
ini juga sudah diterjemahin dengan bagus oleh revianto.
saya membacanya dengan judul "kuasa dan kata".
saya membacanya dengan judul "kuasa dan kata".
March 4, 2012
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