Rethinking self-determination: colonial and relational geographies in Asia

Abstract

This paper argues for a geographical analysis of self-determination by bringing literature on self-determination into dialogue with scholarship on postcolonial geographies and relational space. First, we draw from scholarship that conceptualises colonialism, including non-European colonialism, as playing out differently in different places. This shines a spotlight on a set of self-determination claims, which are resolutely anti-colonial but do not fit neatly into existing conceptions of saltwater and settler colonialism. Second, we discuss three communities who make such claims: the Nagas, the Tibetans, and the Karen. These communities have recently rearticulated the right to self-determination as a mechanism for progressing their causes amidst protracted conflicts and political stasis. In each case, we explore how self-determination is a relationally constituted claim, informed by interactions across various sites and scales. Paying attention to moments, events, and practices foregrounds the tensions that underpin how self-determination is claimed and realised, encompassing: who has the agency to speak on behalf of the ‘people’; the scale at which self-determination is articulated; and how territory is understood vis-à-vis self-determination. This demonstrates how a geographical approach can drive critical analyses of self-determination as a right that is being reworked on the ground, imbued with aspirational and regenerative politics.