Papers by nasrin siraj
Land Use Policy, Feb 29, 2024
Studies of transition states and societies, 2024
Book review: Land, Life, Emotional Landscapes at the Margins of Bangladesh by Eva Rozalia Holze,... more Book review: Land, Life, Emotional Landscapes at the Margins of Bangladesh by Eva Rozalia Holze, 2022, Amsterdam University Press.
BRILL eBooks, Apr 11, 2023
Involving dynamics of both synergy and friction, cultural encounters can be accompanied by profou... more Involving dynamics of both synergy and friction, cultural encounters can be accompanied by profound reconfigurations at social and political levels, resulting in war, conflict, and segregation as well as in new forms of coexistence and social relationships. In this chapter we aim to analyse such dynamics of conflict and cohabitation between the (im)migrant ‘national majority’ community of ethnic Bengalis and local ethnic minorities in the context of Chittagong Hills Tracts of Bangladesh. Here, we focus on individual stories of inter-ethnic/racial conjugality between the Bengali Muslim migrants and members of local indigenous communities in the Hills. We argue that personal stories of (im)material sacrifice and sufferings both in the private and public spheres of individuals involved in inter-ethnic/racial (heterosexual) marriages indicate neither assimilation nor abandonment of belongings. Rather, they depict the capacity of individuals to navigate the volatile classed-, gendered-, sexualised- and racist- political situations to negotiate and secure membership within the constellations of different collective boundednesses. We also argue that understanding these individuals’ stories is important in moving beyond the popular simplistic lens that reduces all human actions and responses to dichotomous and antagonistic encounters of two inwardly homogenous and outwardly oppositional categories (e.g. Hill-peoples vs. Bengali migrants).
This chapter focuses on the Bangladesh borderland with Northeast India and Myanmar (Burma). Histo... more This chapter focuses on the Bangladesh borderland with Northeast India and Myanmar (Burma). Historical and ethnographic interest in this part of Asia has remained strikingly limited, and the region would, to date, largely qualify as a 'geography of ignorance'. In his seminal article entitled 'Geographies of Knowing', Willem Van Schendel showed how academic regionalisation has produced specific 'geographies of knowing' and 'geographies of ignorance' (Van Schendel 2002). 1 He argued that '(t)he very structure of area studies leads to the peripheralisation of certain regions and certain types of knowledge', and he proposed an alternative 'physical space', which he named Zomia, to counterbalance the hitherto peripheralisation of large parts of upland Asia (Van Schendel 2002: 653). For several reasons to be explored in more detail hereinafter, we will argue that the Bangladesh borderland with Northeast India and Myanmar makes an interesting and necessary addition to the idea of 'Asian Highlands', the 'Southeast Asian Massif ', 'Zomia', or other qualifications for the Asian uplands. Mounting interest in Asian borderlands since the late 1990s and the foundation of the Asian Borderlands Research Network in 2008 have indeed encouraged scholars to overcome statecentred analyses and territorial boundaries, study crossborder connectivity and disconnections, and be inspired by distinct bodies of literature, theory, and concepts developed in/for different regional contexts. In 2010, Jean Michaud drew a map suggesting the contours of Zomia (+), imagining it as broadly stretching between the uplands of Pakistan and Afghanistan to the west and the Central Highlands of Vietnam in the east (Michaud 2010: 188). As with the other mappings of Asian Highlands in his chapter, the contours of his Zomia idea nearly meticulously follow the official border demarcations between Northeast India, Myanmar, and Bangladesh. Bangladesh itself remains largely excluded, though, except for the southeastern hills known as the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). This choice makes sense, as large sections of the actual border between Bangladesh and its neighbours also mark the transition from lowland to hills. The border, however, does not meticulously follow these natural patterns. Besides the CHT, there are several hilly patches within the borders of Bangladesh. Moreover, people cannot be stopped by borders-whether these are political, ecological, or otherwise-and simply be categorised as highlanders or lowlanders.
Asian Journal of Social Science, 2017
Democracy has generally been understood the best remedy to prevent societal violence, as it gives... more Democracy has generally been understood the best remedy to prevent societal violence, as it gives different groups a channel to voice their interests and grievances. However, in this article, that focuses on the Chittagong Hills, which for many decades has formed one of the most violent spaces in Bangladesh, we argue that, in reality, democracy and violence can be two sides of the same coin. This is not to say that in Bangladesh, where full liberal democracy is not in place, ordinary citizens have no values and idea(l)s of democracy and citizenship. On the contrary, in order to make sense of the intricate connection between democratic idea(l)s, and violent imaginations and practices, we focus in particular on the process of what we call the vernacularisation of democratic politics. We connect this process to the appropriation of citizenship and nationalism, by ordinary but radically differently-positioned people, in their daily realities. We demonstrate that widely shared imaginatio...
Social Identities, 2017
View related articles View Crossmark data Citing articles: 4 View citing articles 'Hunger has bro... more View related articles View Crossmark data Citing articles: 4 View citing articles 'Hunger has brought us into this jungle': understanding mobility and immobility of Bengali immigrants in the Chittagong Hills of Bangladesh
Democracy has generally been understood the best remedy to prevent societal violence , as it give... more Democracy has generally been understood the best remedy to prevent societal violence , as it gives different groups a channel to voice their interests and grievances. However, in this article, that focuses on the Chittagong Hills, which for many decades has formed one of the most violent spaces in Bangladesh, we argue that, in reality, democracy and violence can be two sides of the same coin. This is not to say that in Bangladesh, where full liberal democracy is not in place, ordinary citizens have no values and idea(l)s of democracy and citizenship. On the contrary, in order to make sense of the intricate connection between democratic idea(l)s, and violent imaginations and practices, we focus in particular on the process of what we call the vernacularisa-tion of democratic politics. We connect this process to the appropriation of citizenship and nationalism, by ordinary but radically differently-positioned people, in their daily realities. We demonstrate that widely shared imaginations of Bangladeshi-ness, as Bengali-ness or Muslim-ness, and of Bengalis/Muslims as the true nation and citizens of Bangladesh, are intimately connected with popular understandings and practices of democracy, which are based on the exclusion of the not-genuine-Bengalis, with the legitimisation and continuation of violence, and the exclusion of ethnic minorities in the Chittagong Hills.
The recent history of the Chittagong Hills in Bangladesh is marked by ongoing conflicts between m... more The recent history of the Chittagong Hills in Bangladesh is marked by ongoing conflicts between minority (non-Muslim and non-Bengali) locals and state-sponsored (Bengali Muslim) immigrants. In general, these immigrants are framed as land grabbers who have been receiving protection from a pro-Bengali military force. We propose instead, that the understanding of these Bengalis as a homogenous category of mobile perpetrators fails to take into account their complex histories as mobile landless peasants. Our ethnographic research reveals that the framing of the local minorities and the mobile Bengalis as two antagonistic categories with opposing interests obscures the fact that both categories have fallen victim to very similar regimes of mobilities and immobilities of the state and national and local (political, economic and military) elites. Here, we reject binary thinking that counterpoises mobility and immobility as two antagonistic concepts and argue that mobility and immobility are intrinsically related and their relationship is asymmetrical.
The article demonstrates how relationships between the respondents and the researcher were develo... more The article demonstrates how relationships between the respondents and the researcher were developed while conducting an ethnographic research in a sub-district in the northern part of Bangladesh, where people were protesting the establishment of an open cut coal mining in their vicinity. During the field work it was experienced that the position of the researcher which was not fixed but multiple and shifting had greatly contributed in the relationship building. The field experience played an important role not only to gain ethnographic materials but also to understand motivations and perceptions of human security of the protesters of the social movement. However, fear of mass displacement among locals, an important motivation of the protesters to join the social movement, had also thrown the researcher in the dilemma of balancing engagement and distance with the research community. The field experience reinforces that each anthropologist should be viewed in terms of shifting identifications amid a field of interpenetrating communities and power relations (Narayan 1997:23). The experience also converses with the engagement of anthropologists Svensson, 2006) in public debate and advocacy.
Thesis Chapters by nasrin siraj
Brill, 2023
Involving dynamics of both synergy and friction, cultural encounters can be accompanied by profou... more Involving dynamics of both synergy and friction, cultural encounters can be accompanied by profound reconfigurations at social and political levels, resulting in war, conflict, and segregation as well as in new forms of coexistence and social relationships. In this chapter we aim to analyse such dynamics of conflict and cohabitation between the (im)migrant ‘national majority’ community of ethnic Bengalis and local ethnic minorities in the context of Chittagong Hills Tracts of Bangladesh. Here, we focus on individual stories of inter-ethnic/racial conjugality between the Bengali Muslim migrants and members of local indigenous communities in the Hills. We argue that personal stories of (im)material sacrifice and sufferings both in the private and public spheres of individuals involved in inter-ethnic/racial (heterosexual) marriages indicate neither assimilation nor abandonment of belongings. Rather, they depict the capacity of individuals to navigate the volatile classed-, gendered-, sexualised- and racist- political situations to negotiate and secure membership within the constellations of different collective boundednesses. We also argue that understanding these individuals’ stories is important in moving beyond the popular simplistic lens that reduces all human actions and responses to dichotomous and antagonistic encounters of two inwardly homogenous and outwardly oppositional categories (e.g. Hill-peoples vs. Bengali migrants).
The recent history of the Chittagong Hills in Bangladesh is marked by ongoing conflicts between m... more The recent history of the Chittagong Hills in Bangladesh is marked by ongoing conflicts between minority (non-Muslim and non-Bengali) locals and state-sponsored (Bengali Muslim) immigrants. In general, these immigrants are framed as land grabbers who have been receiving protection from a pro-Bengali military force. We propose instead, that the understanding of these Bengalis as a homogenous category of mobile perpetrators fails to take into account their complex histories as mobile landless peasants. Our ethnographic research reveals that the framing of the local minorities and the mobile Bengalis as two antagonistic categories with opposing interests obscures the fact that both categories have fallen victim to very similar regimes of mobilities and immobilities of the state and national and local (political, economic and military) elites. Here, we reject binary thinking that counterpoises mobility and immobility as two antagonistic concepts and argue that mobility and immobility are intrinsically related and their relationship is asymmetrical.
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Papers by nasrin siraj
Thesis Chapters by nasrin siraj