Contention Within the Family: Environmental Justice and Religion in Indonesia

The religious dimensions concerning environmental justice have been neglected in scholarly conversation despite the fact that religious organizations were initially part of environmental justice activism and movements. To fill this gap, scholars have begun to scrutinize the role of religious institutions in relation to various environmental harms that disproportionately affect marginalized people and people of color. Pellow and Guo (2017) have identified three main ways in which religion shapes environmental justice. First, religion is used to legitimize environmental injustices. Second, religion can be used as a means of resisting environmental injustices. Third, environmental injustices can negatively impact religious or spiritual practices. This thesis extends our understanding of the first two dynamics. Using the case of internal contention among the family members of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the largest religious organization in Indonesia, and drawing on in-depth interviews with activists and secondary sources, the analysis reveals that religious organizations are fields of contention where a faction within the organization may justify environmental injustices, whereas another may advocate for environmental justice. The resource extraction conflicts in Kendeng and Wadas prompted the contention, with Front Nahdliyyin untuk Kedaulatan Sumber Daya Alam (The Nahdliyyin Front for Sovereignty over Natural Resources/FNKSDA) opposing and resisting environmental injustice, while NU tends to support the state and corporations in perpetuating injustice. The analysis also shows that the contention stems from varying interpretations of the organizational ideology and practical interests among the contentious parties.