Polarizing Javanese Society

In the course of the nineteenth century, colonial rule, population pressure and Islamic reform all acted to undermine this 'mystic synthesis'. Pious Muslims became divided amongst adherents of that synthesis, reformers who demanded a more orthoprax way of life, reforming Sufis and those who believed in messianic ideas. A new category of Javanese emerged, people who resisted Islamic reform and began to attenuate their Islamic identity.

This group became known as abangan, nominal Muslims, and they constituted a majority of the population. For the first time a minority of Javanese converted to Christianity. The priyayi elite, Java's aristocracy, meanwhile embraced the forms of modernity represented by their European rulers and the wider advances of modern scientific learning.