Abstract
The discourse on nationalism is a highly contested terrain for Rohingyas, especially to those denied of their Burmese citizenship. The denial of citizenship not only expels them from “state-nation-territory” as argued by Agamben (Homo Sacer. Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1998) but prevents access to basic set of rights that instils a sense of belonging in them. The overt emphasis on primordial nationalist tendency of the Burmese state warrants an introspection on how the Rohingya refugees’ conceptualize nationhood and belonging. How do they conceptualize nation? The chapter intends to introspect the theoretical assertions to emphasize on the state-centric discourse of nationalism and focus on the abstraction of nationalism among the very individuals that comprise the nation state. Such an analysis necessitates a deeper understanding on the formation of national identity and the constitution of “self” with respect to nation. The Rohingyas are conveniently an outcast from the nation state that relegates them to physical, territorial and symbolic margins of Burmese nation by deliberately othering them as the “enemy of the state”. A bottom-up approach on the conceptualization of nationalism among Rohingya refugees will enable us to understand how the symbols, practices and ideas of shared history, ethnicity and culture that shapes, re-shapes and propagates the notion of nationalism is constantly negotiated in their everyday struggle for survival as a stateless refugee.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
The observation was comprehended by Gorski in (2000), p. 1428.
- 3.
Two-year-old Aylan Kurdi along with his mother and brother drowned to death when the boat that carries the migrants from Turkey to Greece capsized at Turkish coastline. See https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/04/world/europe/syria-boy-drowning.html.
Oscar Alberto Martinez and his one-year-old daughter Angie Valeria from El Salvador drowned to death during their attempt to cross Rio Grande to bypass US-Mexico border. See https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/26/politics/mexico-father-daughter-dead-rio-grande-wednesday/index.html. Both these images catalysed public attention on the issue of misery of migrants who try to cross the borders for a better life.
- 4.
- 5.
As per the news article in Reuters https://in.reuters.com/article/myanmar-rohingya-petition/exclusive-rohingya-refugee-leaders-draw-up-demands-ahead-of-repatriation-idINKBN1F80SH. Accessed July 14, 2019.
- 6.
Arab News http://www.arabnews.com/node/1405901/world. Accessed July 14, 2019.
- 7.
E-International Relations https://www.e-ir.info/2018/04/05/nationalism-persecution-and-repatriation-of-the-rohingya/. Accessed July 16, 2019.
- 8.
Pugh (2019).
- 9.
These factors were elaborated in detail by Kazi Fahmida Farzana in Memories of Burmese Rohingya refugees-Contested Identity and Belonging, Palgrave Macmillan (2017) from page 91–105.
- 10.
Kurd nationalism can be an example where they elevate their subnational identity to develop a nationalist discourse that validates their effort to create a new nation altogether—Kurdistan.
References
Agamben, G. (1998). Homo Sacer. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.
Alam, J. (2017). The Rohingya of Myanmar: Theoretical significance of the minority status. Asian Ethnicity, 19(2), 180–210. https://doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2017.1407236.
Anderson, B. (1986). Imagined communities. London: Verso.
Arab News. (2018). Rohingya leaders to visit Myanmar. http://www.arabnews.com/node/1405901/world. Accessed July 14, 2019.
Arai, T. (2013). Toward a Buddhist theory of structural peace: A case study of Myanmar. In Asia Pacific Peace Research Association Conference. Bangkok, Thailand.
Arendt, H. (1973). The origins of totalitarianism. Harcourt Inc: New York.
Barker, P. (2009). Religious nationalism in modern Europe: If god be for us (pp. 12–45). New York: Routledge.
Beissinger, M. (2002). Nationalist mobilization and the collapse of the Soviet state. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bhabha, H. (2013). Nation and narration. New York: Routledge.
Bhattacharya, B. (1927). Bengali influence in Arakan, Bengal past and present. Journal of the Calcutta Historical Society, 33(65–66), 139–144.
Blackburn, K. (2010). War memory and nation-building in South East Asia. South East Asia Research, 18(1), 5–31. https://doi.org/10.5367/000000010790959857.
Blackburn, T. (2000). The British humiliation of Burma (p. 17). Bangkok: Orchid Press.
Bond, R. (2006). Belonging and becoming: National identity and exclusion. Sociology, 40(4), 609–626. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038506065149.
Breuilly, J. (1993). Nationalism and the state. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Brodsky, J. (1992). Poetry as a form of resistance to reality. PMLA, 107(2), 220. https://doi.org/10.2307/462635.
Brubaker, R. (2009). Citizenship and nationhood in France and Germany. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Castells, M. (2010). The power of identity (pp. 8–11). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Cheesman, N. (2017). How in Myanmar “National Races” came to surpass citizenship and exclude Rohingya. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 47(3), 461–483. https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2017.1297476.
CK, A., & CS, R. (2018). Institutional strategies of identity constructions and exclusions: Exploring the state of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. Otoritas: Jurnal Ilmu Pemerintahan, 8(2), 82. https://doi.org/10.26618/ojip.v8i2.1231.
Clifford, J. (1988). Identity in Mashpee. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press.
Coates, E. (2014). Sectarian violence involving Rohingya in Myanmar: Historical roots and modern triggers, Centre of Excellence for National Security (RSIS) – Singapore.
Coser, L. (Ed.). (1992). Maurice Halbwachs: On collective memory. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Deutsch, K. (1966). Nationalism and social communication: An inquiry into the foundations of nationality (2nd ed.). Cambridge, (MA), London: M.I.T. Press.
Dickinson, G. (1997). Memories for sale: Nostalgia and the construction of identity in Old Pasadena. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 83(1), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/00335639709384169.
Durkheim, E. (2013). The elementary forms of the religious life—The original classic edition. Newstead: Emereo Pty Ltd.
E-International Relations. (2018). Nationalism, persecution and repatriation of the Rohingya. https://www.e-ir.info/2018/04/05/nationalism-persecution-and-repatriation-of-the-rohingya/. Accessed 16th July 2019.
Eriksen, A., & Sigurdsson, J. (2010). Negotiating pasts in the Nordic Countries. Chicago: Nordic Academic Press.
Eriksen, T. (1993). Ethnicity and nationalism: Anthropological perspectives. London: Pluto Press.
Farzana, K. (2017). Memories of Burmese Rohingya refugees—Contested identity and belonging. [S.l.]: Palgrave Macmillan.
Friedland, R. (2001). Religious nationalism and the problem of collective representation. Annual Review of Sociology, 27(1), 125–152. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.125.
Gellner, E., & Breuilly, J. (2006). Nations and nationalism. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Gennep, A., Vizedom, M., Caffee, G., & Kertzer, D. (1960). The rites of passage. London: Routledge.
Gilroy, P. (1990). Nationalism, history and ethnic absolutism. History Workshop Journal, 30(1), 114–120. https://doi.org/10.1093/hwj/30.1.114.
Gorski, P. (2000). The Mosaic moment: An early modernist critique of modernist theories of nationalism. American Journal of Sociology, 105(5), 1428–1468. https://doi.org/10.1086/210435.
Grosby, S. (2005). Nationalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Guibernau, M. (2004). Anthony D. Smith on nations and national identity: A critical assessment. Nations and Nationalism, 10(1–2), 125–141. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1354-5078.2004.00159.x.
Haacke, J. (2016). Myanmar. In B. Alex J & D. Tim, The Oxford handbook of the responsibility to protect. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press.
Habermas, J., Cronin, C., & De Greiff, P. (1998). Inclusion of the other: Studies in political theory. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Harvey, G. (1967). History of Burma: From the earliest times to 10 March 1824 the beginning of the English conquest (pp. 44–45). London: Frank Cass and Co., Ltd.
Hobsbawm, E., & Ranger, T. (2006). The invention of tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Holliday, I. (2014). Addressing Myanmar’s citizenship crisis. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 44(3), 404–421. https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2013.877957.
Houtman, G. (1999). Mental culture in Burmese crisis politics. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA), Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
Huddy, L., & Khatib, N. (2007). American patriotism, national identity, and political involvement. American Journal of Political Science, 51(1), 63–77. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2007.00237.x.
Jilani, A. (1999). The Rohingyas of Arakan: Their quest for justice (pp. 32–33). Dhaka: The University Press Limited.
Juergensmeyer, M. (2010). The global rise of religious nationalism. Australian Journal of International Affairs, 64(3), 262–273. https://doi.org/10.1080/10357711003736436.
Khan, M. S. (1936). Muslims intercourse with Burma. Islamic Culture, 10(3), 409–427.
Kelman, H. (1997). Negotiating national identity and self-determination in ethnic conflicts: The choice between pluralism and ethnic cleansing. Negotiation Journal, 13(4), 327–340.
Kelman, H. (1999). The interdependence of Israeli and Palestinian national identities: The role of the other in existential conflicts. Journal of Social Issues, 55(3), 581–600. https://doi.org/10.1111/0022-4537.00134.
Kelman, H. (2001). The role of national identity in conflict resolution: Experiences from Israeli-Palestinian problem-solving workshops. In R. D. Ashmore, L. Jussim, & D. Wilder (Eds.), Social identity, intergroup conflict, and conflict reduction, pp. 187–212. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Kelman, H. (2005). National identity and the role of the “other” in existential conflicts: Israeli-Palestinian case. In Conference on transformation of international conflicts. Amsterdam. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.561.565.
Kinnvall, C. (2004). Globalization and religious nationalism: Self, identity, and the search for ontological security. Political Psychology, 25(5), 741–767. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2004.00396.x.
Kipgen, N. (2013). Conflict in Rakhine state in Myanmar: Rohingya Muslims’ conundrum. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 33(2), 298–310. https://doi.org/10.1080/13602004.2013.810117.
Kyaw, N. (2015). Alienation, discrimination, and securitization: Legal personhood and cultural personhood of Muslims in Myanmar. The Review of Faith & International Affairs, 13(4), 50–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/15570274.2015.1104971.
Leider, J. (2018). Rohingya: The name and its living archive. ASEAN Focus ISEAS, 2, 17–19.
Lluch, J. (2009). National identity and political identity: Resolving the stateless nationalists’ dilemma. Florence: European University Institute.
MacLean, K. (2018). The Rohingya crisis and the practices of erasure. Journal of Genocide Research, 21(1), 83–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2018.1506628.
Mahtani, S. (2013). Myanmar plan to curb interfaith marriage gains support. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323829104578619462267929512.
Malkki, L. (1992). National geographic: The rooting of peoples and the territorialization of national identity among scholars and refugees. Cultural Anthropology, 7(1), 24–44. https://doi.org/10.1525/can.1992.7.1.02a00030.
Malkki, L. (1995). Purity and exile: Violence, memory and national cosmology among Hutu Refugees in Tanzania. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
Marx, A. (2005). Faith in nation: Exclusionary origins of nationalism. New York: Oxford University Press.
Proshansky, H., Fabian, A., & Kaminoff, R. (1983). Place-identity: Physical world socialization of the self. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 3(1), 57–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0272-4944(83)80021-8.
Pugh, C. (2019). How do Rohingya explain concepts that undermine their existence? The Globe Post. https://theglobepost.com/2019/04/09/rohingya-social-identity/. Accessed 15 July 2019.
Robertson, Bonal, & Dale, (2002). GATS and the education service industry: The politics of scale and global reterritorialization. Comparative Education Review, 46(4), 472. https://doi.org/10.2307/3542181.
Rosenberg, S., & Beattie, P. (2018). The cognitive structuring of national identity: Individual differences in identifying as American. Nations and Nationalism, 25(1), 361–384. https://doi.org/10.1111/nana.12416.
Scott, J. (1985). Weapons of the weak (p. 33). Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Smith, A. (1991). National identity. London: Penguin Books.
Smith, A. (2009). Ethno-symbolism and nationalism: A cultural approach. London: Routledge.
Stein, B. (1981). The refugee experience: Defining the parameters of a field of study. International Migration Review, 15(1/2), 320. https://doi.org/10.2307/2545346.
Steinberg, D. (2006). Turmoil in Burma: Contested Legitimacies in Myanmar. East Bridge: Norwalk.
Taylor, R. H. (2015). Refighting old battles, compounding misconceptions: The politics of ethnicity in Myanmar today. ISEAS Perspective, December 15. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Turner, V. (1967). Betwixt and between: The liminal period in rites of passage. In V. Turner (Ed.), The forests of symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Uddin, N. (2019). The state, transborder movements, and deterritorialised identity in South Asia in Nasir Uddin. In N. Uddin & N. Chowdhory, Deterritorialised identity and transborder movement in South Asia. Springer.
Ullah, A. (2011). Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh: Historical exclusions and contemporary marginalization. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, 9(2), 139–161. https://doi.org/10.1080/15562948.2011.567149.
Walton, M., & Hayward, S. (2014). Contesting Buddhist narratives (p. 27). Honolulu: East West Center.
Weber, M. (1978). Economy and society. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Wolff, S. (2001). German expellee organizations between ‘homeland’ and ‘at home’: A case study of the politics of belonging. Refuge, 20, 52–65.
Yegar, M. (1972). The muslim of Burma: A study of minority groups (pp. 37–39). Jerusalem: Hebrew University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Thacham Poyil, S. (2020). National Identity and Conceptualization of Nationalism Among Rohingya. In: Chowdhory, N., Mohanty, B. (eds) Citizenship, Nationalism and Refugeehood of Rohingyas in Southern Asia. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2168-3_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2168-3_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-15-2167-6
Online ISBN: 978-981-15-2168-3
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)