Heroes of Production

Abstract

This article examines people-centered science in Indonesia between 1950 and 1965, and its role in the agrarian movement. It explores the decolonial context of knowledge production by examining the contribution of leftist figures, who were members of the Indonesian Peasants’ Front (Barisan Tani Indonesia—BTI), in creating people-centered science. Through an analysis of their personal profiles, innovations, and relations to power, the paper shows that BTI’s strategy of epistemological decolonization was very much a political business, which included negotiations with political leaders, the channeling of funds, and the mobilization of public support. It can be said that contrary to the assumption of the “purity” of people power or indigenous knowledge in decolonial Indonesia, the people-centered science of Indonesian leftists was constructed by connecting, borrowing, and adapting different roots, including those that were l eft by colonial institutions.