ABSTRACT
This book analyses the processes by which a conservative and introverted Balinese village has been incorporated into the Indonesian nation-state. It explores the transformation of village subjects of their local ‘king’ to anonymous citizens of the Republic of Indonesia, a process which is incomplete. In focusing on one village, called ‘Brassika’,1 and its 4,000-odd inhabitants, the book argues that the Indonesian state, through its bureaucratic arrangements, national ideologies and development programmes, has intimately penetrated the daily lives of Balinese villagers. This has come about via the mediation of many people, mainly local villagers, who embody both state and local interests. In describing this process, the book argues against the assumed opposition of society and state and shows that we can only understand the longevity of the Suharto regime by understanding that villagers wanted to participate in the version of modernity offered by the Indonesian nation-state.2
