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Matthew J Walton - "Protecting Buddhism: Ma Ba Tha and the Shaping of Moral Subjects in Myanmar"

Nov
13
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Henry R. Luce Hall
34 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven CT, 06511
Room 203

For almost five years, the most prominent group associated with expanded anti-Muslim and pro-Buddhist activism in Myanmar was Ma Ba Tha, the Organization for the Protection of Race and Religion. Emerging during a period of significant political change and anxiety, Ma Ba Tha filled a religio-political vacuum in the country, enjoying widespread moral legitimacy–due to its respected monastic leadership and mission to protect Buddhism–and near-immunity in the political realm–due to its many patrons in the ruling government and military.

How should we understand Ma Ba Tha, both at the time of its emergence and in the context of a post-coup Myanmar? This talk argues against applying the simplistic label of “Buddhist nationalism” to the group, since it obscures both the nature of Ma Ba Tha’s wide appeal to a range of different groups and the relative fragility of its coalition and claims to authority. The movement should be seen instead as an assemblage: contingent on (temporarily) shared symbolism, discourse, anxieties and identities, but with a broad aim of shaping idealized Buddhist political subjects.

Matthew J Walton is an Associate Professor in Comparative Political Theory in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto. Previously, he was the inaugural Aung San Suu Kyi Senior Research Fellow in Modern Burmese Studies at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. His research focuses on religion and politics in Southeast Asia, with a special emphasis on Buddhism in Myanmar. Matt’s first book, Buddhism, Politics, and Political Thought in Myanmar, was published in 2016 by Cambridge University Press. His articles on Buddhism, ethnicity, politics and political thought in Myanmar have appeared in Politics & Religion, Journal of Burma Studies, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Nations & Nationalism, Journal of Contemporary Buddhism, Buddhism, Law & Society, and Asian Survey.

Speakers

Matthew J Walton, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Toronto