Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the 10th-century Prambanan Temple dedicated to Hindu gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, on the last day of the Indonesian leg of his three-nation tour of the Indo-Pacific region. He called the temple a testament to the close cultural ties between India and Indonesia. A day earlier, Modi addressed the Indonesian parliament and said that the relationship between the two countries is rooted in local versions of the Hindu epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata, and monuments such as Borobudur, the world’s largest Buddhist temple, around 50 km from Prambanan. He referred to Indonesia’s national emblem, Garuda, which is Lord Vishnu’s mount in the Hindu tradition.

Modi spoke about traders and Sufis from his home state of Gujarat, who brought the message and values of Islam to Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation and home to roughly one in eight Muslims worldwide. He highlighted aspects of Indonesia, the world’s third-largest democracy and Southeast Asia’s largest economy, that are not spoken about as much as they should be.

Indonesia is among the most underestimated countries. Its inclusive nationhood stands out even as the idea is under threat globally with the rise of Right-wing populism. The idea has endured despite democratic backsliding and blasphemy laws, which the US Commission on International Religious Freedom has described as a religious freedom violation and prone to misuse against minority groups. It is based on sound foundational principles, Pancasila, such as........

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