Independence · a Light

Indonesia was declared in a front garden in 35 words

On the morning of 17 August 1945, two days after the Japanese surrender and before the Dutch could return, Sukarno stood in the front garden of his house in Jakarta and read out a proclamation of two short sentences, typed that night after a long argument among younger and older nationalists. There was no ceremony to speak of, a flag sewn by Sukarno's wife Fatmawati was raised, and a few hundred people were present. Four years of war followed before the Netherlands recognised it in 1949. Indonesia is now the country with the largest Muslim population on earth, and Islam arrived there not by conquest but along the trade routes, centuries earlier.

Jakarta · 17 August 1945