THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LIVING WITH VIOLENCE: THE CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF RECURRENT BUDDHIST-MUSLIM VIOLENCE IN MYANMAR A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE DIVISION OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY BY NATHANIEL JAMES GONZALEZ CHICAGO, ILLINOIS AUGUST 2020 Copyright © 2020 by Nathaniel James Gonzalez All Rights Reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................ v LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................................... vii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................. viii RECURRENT COMMUNAL VIOLENCE ................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Studying Recurrent Communal Violence ....................................................................... 4 1.3 Defining Communal Conflict and Communal Violence ................................................ 7 1.4 The Causes of Communal Violence ............................................................................. 16 1.5 Institutionalized Systems of Communal Conflict ......................................................... 23 1.6 Methodology ................................................................................................................. 36 1.7 Dissertation Structure.................................................................................................... 43 HISTORY OF BUDDHIST-MUSLIM RELATIONS IN MYANMAR ...................................... 45 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 45 2.2 Buddhist-Muslim Relations in Pre-Colonial Burma ..................................................... 47 2.3 British Colonial Era ...................................................................................................... 64 2.4 From Independence to Military Dictatorship ................................................................ 76 2.5 Saffron Revolution, Communal Violence, and Democratization ................................. 82 GROUP IDENTITY THROUGH VIOLENCE ............................................................................ 90 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 90 3.2 Becoming Muslim in Myanmar .................................................................................... 91 3.4 The Muslim Foreigner in the 21st Century .................................................................. 105 3.5 Muslim Identity over Time and in response to Violence ............................................ 121 ESTABLISHING ORGANIZATIONS OF COMMUNAL CONFLICT ................................... 123 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 123 4.2 Communal Violence in Mandalay, July 1st – 5th 2014 ................................................ 126 4.3 Protectors of Buddhism and The Hidden Hand .......................................................... 130 iii 4.4 Organizing for Peace and Prevention ......................................................................... 143 4.5 Organizing for Communal Conflict ............................................................................ 154 EVOLVING REPERTOIRES OF COMMUNAL CONFLICT ................................................. 156 5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 156 5.2 Communal Conflict in Mingalar Taung Nyunt ........................................................... 158 5.3 Instigating Violence: The Patriotic Monks Union ...................................................... 161 5.4 Preventing Violence Phase One: Preparation ............................................................. 163 5.5 Preventing Violence Phase Two: Response ................................................................ 170 5.6 Preventing Violence Phase Three: Maintaining Peace ............................................... 175 5.7 Generalizing from Mingalar Taung Nyunt ................................................................. 179 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 181 6.1 Communal Violence in Myanmar ............................................................................... 181 6.2 Communal Conflict over Time ................................................................................... 182 6.3 Institutionalizing Communal Conflict ........................................................................ 185 6.4 Building a Lasting Peace ............................................................................................ 187 APPENDIX ................................................................................................................................. 189 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 191 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Administrative Map of Myanmar ................................................................................... ix v LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Interview Respondents by Religion ................................................................................ 41 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I could not have completed this project without my friends and colleagues in Myanmar, many of whom must remain anonymous for their own protection. I am thankful to my interviewees who, whether in anger or support, agreed to share their thoughts, experiences, and their lives with a total stranger who looked nothing like them. I am especially grateful to my translators, including Min Ko Ko and Thint Myat, who braved approaching interviewees, ranging from strangers on the street to military officials and notorious nationalists, on my behalf. Their thoughts on the project, whether they were over beers, while in the car, or over email, were a vital part of the process, and I cannot thank them enough for their support. I would also like to thank the Inya Institute, who provided me a great working environment in Yangon, as well as my friends and colleagues from SEASSI. The dissertation was completed only through the support of my amazing PhD committee comprised of my committee chair, Prof. Kimberly Kay Hoang, and committee members Profs. Elisabeth Clemens, Marco Garrido, and Dan Slater. It was a privilege to work with such brilliant scholars these past few years. I would also like to thank the members of the Politics History and Society Workshop and the Inequalities Workshop at the University of Chicago, and the members and attendees of the Burma Studies Conference and the Southeast Asian Research Group, all of whose comments and feedback were vital in this process. I would finally like to thank my brilliant wife, Vivian Yan-Gonzalez, whose inciteful comments, detailed line-edits, and constant support, carried me through this process. vii ABSTRACT Communal violence between Buddhists and Muslims has recurred in Myanmar since at least the British Colonial period in the late 19th and early 20th century. That violence has recurred under a distant colonial regime, a democratic one, a socialist one, a military junta, and has recurred in the newly elected democratic government of the past few years. This dissertation is about that recurrence. It asks why, given the vastly different historical, economic, and political contexts, this anti-Muslim violence continues to plague Myanmar. In investigating this case, the dissertation also seeks to answer a broader question about communal conflict globally: why do the same countries continue to face communal violence, while others, in similar demographic, economic, and political conditions, seem immune? The dissertation addresses this puzzle by drawing on historical data, one year of ethnographic evidence, as well as 93 interviews with government officials, religious leaders, reporters, teachers, businesspeople, students and others who are involved in instigating and responding to communal violence in two cities in central Myanmar. It finds that these communities are knowingly living in a context of violence and have developed robust institutions for responding to threats of escalating tension. People in Mandalay and Yangon are not surprised when violence seems imminent, but instead rely on their experience with conflict to see the patterns of escalation and respond accordingly. Violence recurs in these communities because it is institutionalized in the way their group boundaries are defined, the organizations that they have built, and the repertoires they rely on to act when violence seems imminent. By taking recurrence seriously, the dissertation shows that the pattern of observed violence is not due to some inherent incompatibly between the groups or an unseen mastermind manipulating the masses. Violence is built,