Class and Ethnic Conflict in Indonesian's Decolonization Process: A Study of East Sumatra

stage of the Indonesian National Revolution in a region with a particularly complex social composition--the former Residency of East Sumatra. It focuses in particular on the forces that made possible the establishment (with Dutch support) of an "autonomous" state in East Sumatra, the so-called Negara Sumatera Timur (NST), which lasted from December 1947 to August 1950. It also suggests that the way in which these forces were mobilized and articulated politically contributed significantly to the state's eventual demise, and left behind deep antagonisms which continue to affect the region's politics today.