Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the politics of identity and belonging for young Muslim people in Myanmar as they 'come of age'. I examine the way anti-Muslim sentiment has altered people's understandings of themselves, tempered by a view of the self, propagated by the state, as 'other'.

Paper long abstract:

Based on sixteen months of fieldwork in south-eastern Karen state, this paper examines the politics of identity, marginality and belonging for Muslim people in contemporary Myanmar. Much of the scholarship examining anti-Muslim sentiment in Myanmar has been couched through the lens of Burmese Buddhist nationalism and state-organised violence (Crouch 2016). However, little attention has been paid to how questions of exclusion and marginality are understood and experienced at the more everyday and mundane level.

Using two case studies, I look at processes of acculturation for young Muslim people as they 'come of age' and how this relates to issues of socialisation and categorisation, age and gender norms, ethnicity and identity in what is an era of rapid socio-economic and political change. In particular, I examine the way anti-Muslim sentiment has altered people's understandings of themselves and their identity, tempered by a view of the self as 'other'. In doing so, this paper points to the multiple ways the state uses 'cultural citizenship' (Rosaldo 2003) to further marginalise and foster fear and resentment against Muslim communities in Myanmar.