Ethnic and Religious Identities and Integration in Southeast Asia

Edited by Ooi Keat Gin and Volker Grabowsky

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. 

Contents 

1. Politics of Cross-Border Living in Southern Laos–Central Vietnam—Vatthana Pholsena 
2. Khon Rai Sanchat: Resident Aliens and the Paradox of National Integration in Thailand—Mukdawan Sakboon, Prasit Leepreecha, and Panadda Boonyasarana 
3. Resettled Lua Communities in Northern Thailand: Between Ethnic Disintegration and National Integration—Amalia Rossi 
4. Language, Culture, and Identity: A Case Study of Diasporic Ethnic Pakistanis in MultilingualPenang—Shakila Abdul Manan 
5. Transmutations of the Rohingya Movement in the Post-2012 Rakhine State Crisis— Jacques Leider 
6. The Karen Leke Religious Movement in the Thailand-Myanmar Borderland: Deterritorialization and Diversification—Kwanchewan Buadaeng 
7. The Refreshing Paradoxes of Indonesian Political Islam: Considerations on the Islamist Exception—Rémy Madinier 
8. Thailand’s Muslim Kaleidoscope from the Central Plains to the Far South: Fresh Perspectives from the Sufi Margins—Christopher M. Joll 
9. Plural and Separate: Penang’s Colonial Experience, 1786–1941—Ooi Keat Gin 
10. Heritage and Nationalism in the Preah Vihear Dispute—Volker Grabowsky 
11. Regional Identities and National Integration: Hero Cults in Lan Na—Pantipa Chuenchat 

Highlights 

• Analyses of various issues of ethnic, cultural, and religious identity that affect national integration within the nation-states studied
• A wide-ranging survey of how identity and integration are negotiated at communal and state levels in a region where diverse identities intersect and overlap
• Both historical and social anthropological approaches are used to explore ethnic and religious identities and integration in Southeast Asia

About the Editors 

Ooi Keat Gin is an award-winning author and editor, a professor of history and coordinator of the Asia Pacific Research Unit (APRU-USM), School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia.

Volker Grabowsky is professor of Thai studies at the Department of Languages and Cultures of Southeast Asia, University of Hamburg, and speaker of the Asia-Africa Institute. 

About the SEATIDE Project

This study was written for the École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO), in the framework of the project “Integration in Southeast Asia: Trajectories of Inclusion, Dynamics of Exclusion” (SEATIDE) funded by the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission (FP7). The research leading to these results as well as their publication have received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme [FP7/2007–2013] under Grant Agreement n°320221. 

Keywords 

Southeast Asia | identity | diversity | ethnicity | religion | national integration