Boundaries in Shaping the Rohingya Identity and the Shifting Context of Borderland Politics

By Kazi Fahmida Farzana

Volume 15, Issue 2, pages 292-314

Abstract

In recent years, new waves of ethnic violence in the Arakan (Rakhine) state of Burma (Myanmar) have resulted in increased internal displacement and the continued exodus of the Rohingya people to neighbouring countries. At the heart of this problem is the fact that Burma (which the Rohingyas claim as their ancestral land) and Bangladesh (where many Rohingyas are unwelcome and/or undocumented refugees) continue to deny the Rohingyas their political identity, each insisting that the displaced Rohingyas are the responsibility of the other. This study examines the history of the region to explore how political identities are shaped (generally) and how Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, living along the borders, identify themselves in the midst of political sovereignty claims and a social space that exists across artificially drawn borders (specifically). This article argues that the true political identity of the displaced Rohingya refugees can be located in their social memory and their life-politics in the borderlands. In this social memory, the Rohingyas’ beliefs in ethnicity, identity, and belongingness play an important role in shaping their current identity. Their production of cultural artefacts while in exile suggests a non-conventional resistance, and the close proximity of the refugees to their homeland creates a completely different psychology of attachment and alienation, which needs further attention in refugee studies. Such an understanding of life-politics along the border may challenge our current understanding of borderland conflicts within the framework of state-imposed boundaries. The boundaries of identity may go beyond traditional notions of national borders and the identity of the state.

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Intensive Transnationalism amongst Japanese Migrants after the Great East Japan Earthquake: Voices from Diasporic Blogs

By Atsushi Takeda

Volume 15, Issue 3, pages 492-507

Abstract

This article explores how Japanese migrants responded to the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 by analysing personal weblogs published by Japanese migrants across the globe. The analysis of their blog posts demonstrates the collective response of Japanese overseas citizens to a crisis in their homeland. Their narratives reveal their emotional reactions, such as frustration, heartache, and guilt, and delineate how this catastrophe affected their sense of national identity and solidarity. As well as shedding light on these responses, the data further serve to crystallize the way in which Japanese migrants’ transnationalism intensifies following homeland disasters.

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Religion, Ethnicity and Immigrant Integration: ‘Latino’ Lutherans versus ‘Mexican’ Catholics in a Midwestern City

By Luisa Feline Freier

Volume 8, Issue 2, pages 267-289

Abstract

Although the majority of Latin American immigrants to the United States are Roman Catholics, increasing numbers of Latinos are converting to Protestantism. To understand the incentives for, and any possible integration effects of, immigrants’ religious conversion, it is crucial to examine not only the religious but also the social boundaries of new immigrant congregations. This article examines the class-based but ethnically labeled boundary construction of a Latino Lutheran towards a Latino Roman Catholic congregation in Madison, Wisconsin. The de facto ethnicised class differentiation via denominational choice shows that first: for ethnic discrimination to occur, no exclusive and imperative categories are needed, second: socioeconomic identification can superimpose religious and ethno-cultural feelings of belonging, and third: the formation of a more liberal and higher educated ‘Latino’ Lutheran community facilitates the civic integration of its worshippers into the broader community based on the political mobilisation of panethnic identification.

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To commemorate the 70th anniversary of Partition, this week features two articles on India and Pakistan.

Ethno-Religious Identity and Sectarian Civil Society: A Case from India

By Sarbeswar Sahoo

Volume 8, Issue 3, pages 453-480

Abstract

This paper analyses the role of Rajasthan Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad (RVKP), an ethnic Hindu(tva) organisation, among the tribal populations in south Rajasthan. It argues that the RVKP has been able to enhance its legitimacy and expand its socio-political support base among the tribals through a well-articulated and planned process of ‘ethnification’. This process has been carried out in four basic ways: (1) utilising development projects as means to spread the ideology of Hindutva, (2) bringing religious awakening and organising mass re-conversion programmes, (3) redefining indigenous identity and characterising certain communities as ‘the other’, and (4) with the support of the various state institutions. The paper concludes that by ethnicising indigenous identity, the RVKP has not just created a ‘culture of fear and violence’ in the tribal regions but also threatened the secular democratic ethos of Indian society.

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Pakistani Nationalism and the State Marginalisation of the Ahmadiyya Community in Pakistan

By Sadia Saeed

Volume 7, Issue 3, pages 132-152

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between nationalism, state formation, and the marginalisation of national minorities through an historical focus on Pakistani state’s relationship with the Ahmadiyya community, a self-defined minority sect of Islam. In 1974, a constitutional amendment was enacted that effectively rendered the Ahmadiyya community a non-Muslim minority, in spite of claims by the community that it was Muslim and hence not a minority. This paper attempts to account for this anti-Ahmadiyya state legislation by arguing that the genealogy of the idea of a Pakistani state is key for understanding the politics of exclusion of the Ahmadiyya community from ‘Muslim citizenship’ – that is, who is and isn’t a Muslim.

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National and Ethnic Identities: Dual and Extreme Identities amongst the Coloured Population of Port Elizabeth, South Africa

By Wendy Isaacs-Martin

Volume 14, Issue 1, pages 55-73

Abstract

A popular maxim in South Africa, a legacy of apartheid thinking, is that the Coloured population does not possess an ethnic identity and that, secondly, in post-apartheid popular thought, that the group does not embrace the collective national identity. The aim of this article is to demonstrate that the Coloured population is not a homogenous group in terms of political thought and primary language, and yet the group reflects ethnic consciousness. The study focused on a population sample (n = 215) in the port city of Port Elizabeth, where the majority of Coloured people in the Eastern Cape Province are located. The findings revealed that the majority of the Coloured population support collective national identity. Another finding is that a significant proportion of the Coloured population regard their ethnic identity as salient. The conclusions drawn were, firstly, that the group showed ‘extreme’ identity preferences rather than dual identities; secondly, that language played a role in determining the primary collective identity amongst the group.

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