Revolutionary Worlds: Local Perspectives and Dynamics during the Indonesian Independence War, 1945-1949

Revolutionary Worlds looks at the Indonesian revolution (1945-1949) from a local and regional perspective. With seventeen contributions, Indonesian and Dutch researchers bring to life the revolutionary world from widely differing perspectives. The authors explain how Indonesian, Chinese, Indian and Eurasian civilians, fighters, farmers and officials experienced and shaped the often volatile period between 1945 and 1950. The book focuses on different ideas of independence, survival strategies, mobilization, minorities, contestation of authority and the use of force against the backdrop of Indonesian and Dutch authorities’ efforts to gain or maintain control.

Bringing together two national historiographical traditions which have long remained largely separate, Revolutionary Worlds is the result of a collaboration between the Indonesian research project Proklamasi Kemerdekaan, Revolusi dan Perang di Indonesia ('Proclamation of Independence, Revolution and War in Indonesia', Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta) and the Dutch research group of the Regional Studies project, under the umbrella of the research programme Independence, Decolonization, Violence and War in Indonesia, 1945-1950.

The authors of this book – Taufik Ahmad, Galuh Ambar Sasi, Maarten van der Bent, Martijn Eickhoff, Farabi Fakih, Roel Frakking, Apriani Harahap, Anne-Lot Hoek, Sarkawi B. Husain, Julianto Ibrahim, Gerry van Klinken, Erniwati, Mawardi Umar, Anne van der Veer, Abdul Wahid, Tri Wahyuning M. Irsyam, and Muhammad Yuanda Zara – work with various universities and research institutes in Indonesia and the Netherlands.|The Indonesian revolution viewed from a variety of regional, social and cultural perspectives.

Bambang Purwanto is a professor of history in the Department of History, Faculty of Cultural Sciences at the Universitas Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Roel Frakking is a lecturer in political history in the Department of History and Art History at the University of Utrecht.

Abdul Wahid is head of the Department of History and lecturer at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences at the Universitas Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Gerry van Klinken is honorary professor of Southeast Asian history at the University of Queensland (Historical and Philosophical Inquiry), the University of Amsterdam (Anthropology), and the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) in Leiden.

Martijn Eickhoff is director of the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies and is also Endowed Professor of Archaeology and Heritage of War and Mass Violence at the University of Groningen.

Yulianti is a lecturer in the Department of History, Faculty of Cultural Science at the Universitas Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. She also teaches at the Center for Religions and Cross-Cultural Studies at the same university's graduate school.

Ireen Hoogenboom is a coordinator of joint research on Indonesia at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) in Leiden.