Indians and Indonesians find cultural threads that help them to adjust cross-culturally and cooperate with one another

Cross-cultural adjustment can be a difficult process, but the common societal characteristics shared by India and Indonesia for almost two millennia have helped create smooth interactions between people from both countries.

This is true for both Indian expatriates living in Indonesia as well as Indonesians traveling to India. Most of them cite openness to those culturally different, cohesive social ties and family values as the strongest similarities between the two countries.

For Sravani Konakanchi, a 12-year-old student of Rama Global School in Purwakarta, West Java, the most comfortable thing about living in Indonesia is the calmness and friendliness of its people, with cohesive communities that make it easy for her to find friends here.

“I was born in India but moved to Indonesia shortly after that and I feel like I am always welcome here,” Konakanchi told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the celebration of India’s 69th Republic Day at the Indian Embassy in Jakarta.

Aditi Singh, another 12-year-old student from the same school, echoes her schoolmate’s sentiment, saying that having been living in Indonesia for eight years, she feels as if she is still living in India, because Indonesians really welcome her family.

“I feel like I’m at home because Indonesians are very nice, kind and warm people. I feel really happy that we Indians get the same respect here from Indonesians as people from other nationalities. The activities of both Indonesians and Indians are also very family-oriented,” Singh said.

Similarly, Indonesians who visit India also experience the same openness and communal feel.

Mia Rizkiana, a 22-year-old international relations student from Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta, who has just joined a youth exchange program between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and India, said she found Indian people to be quite humble in embracing different cultures and accepting people no matter which country they come from.

“They appreciate diversity as well as their own local culture, and when we got there they showcased their rich traditions in various performances,” Muhammad Maulana, a 25-year-old exchange participant who currently works at Bhayangkara Hospital in Lampung, said.

There are, however, some challenges that people from both countries face in adjusting themselves culturally, particularly in terms of food.

“It is very hard to find vegetarian meals here,” Konakanchi said.

The Indonesians, meanwhile, said they enjoyed Indian cuisine because it contained various spices just like Indonesian food. They were initially surprised at the intensity of the spices used in Indian cuisine, but after eating it for a few days, their bodies finally adjusted to the flavor.

Likewise, Indian families in Indonesia are ultimately able to learn to cook some of Indonesia’s vegetarian favorites, or find restaurants and vendors selling this kind of food.

“Fortunately, we are finally able to cook our own vegetarian food at home. My favorite Indonesian food is bala-bala (vegetable fritters),” Konakanchi said.

Singh said her family was also finally able to find places that sold vegetarian food in Indonesia.

“Our favorites are gado-gado (vegetable salad dressed in peanut sauce), as well as nasi goreng (fried rice), but the fried rice definitely has to be vegetarian. The food is really good. As a family, we like to explore different places that sell these dishes near where we live in Purwakarta,” she explained enthusiastically when talking about local food.

For both Konakanchi and Singh, the annual Republic Day celebration is a very important occasion for their families, as the flag-hoisting ceremony conducted to mark the occasion always reminds them of their home country.

“By celebrating Republic Day here [in Jakarta], I feel connected to the Indians who live in my home country,” Singh said.

The Indian Embassy in Jakarta recently observed the 69th Republic Day by hosting a flag-hoisting ceremony with some cultural performances attended by members of the Indian community living in Jakarta, as well as a number of Indonesians who have developed close ties with the community.

Republic Day honors the date on which the Constitution of India came into effect on Jan. 26, 1950, replacing the country’s 1935 Government of India Act as the governing document of India, after it gained independence from its British colonists on Aug. 15, 1947.

The ceremony was conducted on Jan. 26 in the embassy compound in Kuningan, South Jakarta, and was attended by about 300 members of the Indian community as well as their Indonesian friends. The Indian Embassy’s Chargé d’Affaires Prakash Gupta hoisted the national flag while attendees sang India’s national anthem Jana Gana Mana. Similar ceremonies also took place at Indian consulates in Bali and Medan, North Sumatra.

“In 1950, our first Republic Day was attended by the first Indonesian president Sukarno. Today again Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo along with nine other ASEAN leaders are in New Delhi to witness the Republic Day celebrations. What an honor to host this Republic Day commemoration in Jakarta, Indonesia,” Gupta said in his speech during the ceremony, outlining the long-standing India-Indonesia bilateral relationship.

The older Indonesians have the opinion that common contemporary social and economic issues must be tackled by both Indians and Indonesians by working together.

“Both countries have lots of youngsters interested in developing social entrepreneurship as well as digital startup companies, and we can learn from one another,” Muhammad said.

Indonesian ride-hailing company Go-Jek, for instance, has established a research and development center in Bangalore, which has been dubbed India’s ‘Silicon Valley’. Sequoia Capital, one of the company’s investors, has played a vital role in establishing a collaborative team comprising programmers from both countries.

“Both India and Indonesia are also projected to have achieved a demographic bonus by around 2025 to 2035, so we have to work together to empower our youngsters to be a pool of skilled human capital that contributes to society,” Mia said.

Photos JP/Arief Suhardiman

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