Disentangling Conceptual Grammars? On the Formation of the "Buddhist Secular" in 19th Century Siam

• In Event: Buddhist Secularism? Interrogating the Relation between Buddhism and Religious Plurality in Burma/Myanmar and Thailand

Abstract

Scholars have often portrayed the intricate relation between the state and religion in Thailand as ‘state Buddhism’ or ‘Buddhist nationalism’, a dangerous ‘amalgam’ catalyzing military violence in the ongoing insurgency in southern Thailand. My paper engages the theoretical tools of critical secular studies to unpack this ‘amalgam’ and examine the production and regulation of religion in the secular formation of the Thai nation-state. Following Talal Asad (2003), I deploy a genealogical approach to inquire historically into the entanglement of conceptual grammars that enabled an epistemological shift towards the ‘Buddhist secular’ in 19th century Siam. It was this epistemic shift, I argue, that authorized hierarchical practices of governing different religions in the emerging nation-state.

Rereading Chaophraya Thipakorawong’s ‘Nangsue Sadaeng Kitchanukit’ (Book Explaining Various Things, 1867), a pivotal source in Siamese intellectual history, I trace the formation of the ‘Buddhist secular’ to an entanglement of modern discourses of comparative religion with traditional concepts of Buddhist kingship. This entanglement resulted in a heterogeneous formation that engendered both modern and traditional conceptual grammars, and resonated with both the registers of imperial geo-politics and regional religious discourse. In conclusion, I discuss how this heterogeneous formation of the ‘Buddhist secular’ authorized practices of governing the ‘Buddhist majority’ and the ‘Muslim minority’ in the new nation-state.

Author

• Ruth Streicher, University of California, Berkeley