Recognition or Incorporation? Postcolonial Legal Governance and the Reconfiguration of Islamic Authority in Indonesian Pesantren

The statutory recognition of pesantren in Indonesia raises a broader question in socio-legal scholarship: how does state recognition reshape the authority of religious institutions whose legitimacy is grounded in normative traditions that predate their formal incorporation into state governance? This question returned to public debate following the October 2025 broadcast of Xpose Uncensored on Trans7, which portrayed certain practices of respect shown by students (santri) towards religious leaders (kiai) as expressions of feudalism. The controversy, which was followed by a seven-episode suspension imposed by the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI), exposed competing interpretations of religious authority, institutional autonomy, and public accountability. This article examines how Law No. 18 of 2019 on Pesantren reconfigures the relationship between state regulation and the normative authority of pesantren. Drawing on a qualitative socio-legal approach, the study combines statutory and documentary analysis with a postcolonial perspective on legal governance. The analysis finds that legal recognition enhances the institutional legibility of pesantren while bringing them into closer engagement with administrative, standardisation, and public accountability mechanisms. However, recognition does not necessarily displace religious authority or establish comprehensive state control. Rather, it creates conditions in which pesantren practices are interpreted and contested within overlapping normative and institutional frameworks. The Xpose Uncensored controversy illustrates this dynamic: practices understood within pesantren in terms of religious pedagogy and established traditions may acquire different meanings when evaluated through media representations and state regulatory frameworks. The article contributes to scholarship on Islamic law and legal pluralism by conceptualising recognition as a process of institutional reconfiguration through which religious authority becomes more open to public contestation without necessarily forfeiting its normative legitimacy. It also highlights the need to distinguish legitimate public oversight from unwarranted intervention in the internal religious life of pesantren.