Seeing Through the Lens of Atheism: Plural Societies, Religion, and Harmony Ideology in Southeast Asia

Abstract

The notion of plural societies has often been used to refer to a common feature of many Southeast Asian societies, namely their fragmented diversity under a single political unit. Despite the criticism this concept has received, we argue that it is still relevant for many Southeast Asian societies today. Through nation-building processes, the plural societies from the late colonial era have dialectically been sublated. What ensures social cohesion and national identity within these post-plural societies, this article argues, is the notion of the religious, while, at the same time, distinct religions contribute to the ongoing fragmentation of these societies. In order to understand these processes and the social cohesion deriving from religions and the religious, we analyze how the negation of the religious, namely atheism as non-belief, is referred to in these societies and what discourses on atheism have emerged. We thus demonstrate that different societies in Southeast Asia have found different ways to relate to atheism, but in all of them, atheism depicts limits of the post-plural societies. We demonstrate how atheism challenges the harmony ideologies in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, and how atheism emerges there in different discourses.