Ethnic and Religious Identities and Integration in Southeast Asia

This stimulating volume analyzes the impact of ethnic change and religious traditions on local, national, and regional identities. Through the lens of identity, the authors explore and appraise the level of integration within the political borders of Southeast Asian nation-states and within the region as a whole. 

 

Case studies include the Bru population in Laos/Vietnam, hill tribe populations without citizenship in northern Thailand, the Lua also in northern Thailand, the Pakistani community in Penang, the Rohingya in Myanmar, the Karen Leke religious movement in Thailand/Myanmar, political Islam in Indonesia, Sufi Muslims in Thailand, pluralism in Penang, the Preah Vihear dispute between Thailand and Cambodia, and hero cult worship in northern Thailand. 

 

Historians and social anthropologists variously tackle these issues of identity and integration within the kaleidoscope of ethnicities, religions, languages, and cultures that make up Southeast Asia. The result is a rich, multifaceted volume that is of great benefit to students and specialists in unraveling the complexities of national and transnational dynamics in the region. 

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Introduction

 

1. Politics of Cross-Border Living in Southern Laos–Central Vietnam

 

2. Khon Rai Sanchat: Resident Aliens and the Paradox of National Integration in Thailand

 

3. Resettled Lua Communities in Northern Thailand: Between Ethnic Disintegration and National Integration

 

4. Language, Culture, and Identity: A Case Study of Diasporic Ethnic Pakistanis in MultilingualPenang

 

5. Transmutations of the Rohingya Movement in the Post-2012 Rakhine State Crisis

 

6. The Karen Leke Religious Movement in the Thailand-Myanmar Borderland: Deterritorialization and Diversification

 

7. The Refreshing Paradoxes of Indonesian Political Islam: Considerations on the Islamist Exception

 

8. Thailand’s Muslim Kaleidoscope from the Central Plains to the Far South: Fresh Perspectives from the Sufi Margins

 

9. Plural and Separate: Penang’s Colonial Experience, 1786–1941

 

10. Heritage and Nationalism in the Preah Vihear Dispute

 

11. Regional Identities and National Integration: Hero Cults in Lan Na

 

Lis of Contributors

Index