East Sumatra revolution

The East Sumatra revolution, also known as the East Sumatra Social Revolution, began on 3 March 1946. Across 25 "native states", many sultanates were overthrown and mass killing of members of the aristocratic families were performed by armed pergerakan groups (Indonesian nationalist). To the opportunistic pergerakan militants (especially Partai Komunis Indonesia Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) Communists: Karim Marah Sutan and Luat Siregar), the revolutionary movement was seen as one of the means for East Sumatra to be freed from colonial overlordship and to join the larger Indonesian National Revolution. Participants of the revolution were believed to be provoked by leaders to kill aristocrats and create violence. These belligerents had three prime objectives: to eliminate the sultans and aristocrats (who were seen as Dutch allies), to seize their wealth (as sources of funding for the Indonesian independence campaign) and to eliminate the region's feudal social structure. The revolution brought about the formation of Negara Sumatera Timur (NST/the East Sumatran State), which was dissolved when the region became part of the Indonesian republic.

On 3 March 1946, thousands of armed men assembled to oppose the big sultanates after hearing the rumours of the Dutch’s return. Violence and bloodshed was involved, where seven princes, ninety aristocrats (in Langkat) and countless officials from native states were killed. The Sultan of Langkat’s daughters were raped and a poet Tengku Amir Hamzah was killed on 9 March by the Pemuda (young Japanese-trained militant) leaders and many Malay farmers were forced to give up their plantation land that they had acquired under the Dutch to be redistributed for those former plantation workers and non-Malay farmers.The militants under the leadership of PESINDO (Pemuda Republik Indonesia), Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), and Indonesian National Party (PNI) attacked almost all of the Malay aristocrats. The wives and children of the aristocrat families were interned and their houses were ransacked for treasure by the pemuda. The sympathy that Malay aristocrats had for the Dutch and the threats that they represented to the independence of Republic Indonesia were commonly seen as the two main reasons for the occurrence of this violent event.

There are three main objectives associated with the revolution that involved different groups of people: firstly, to seize Malay aristocrats and their principal supporters so as to thwart their plans for the return of the Dutch; secondly, gain control of kerajaan (Malay empire)’s wealth in order to sustain the expenses for national struggle and thirdly, to exercise political and societal changes in accordance to the Marxist intellectuals who were involved in the event.

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