Working Paper No.68
Close Encounters of an Inner Asian Kind: Tibetan-Muslim co-existence and conflict in Tibet past and present
Andrew Fischer
LSE
Sept 2005
Drawing from the case of Tibetan-Muslim relations from seventh century
contact to present Tibetan boycott campaigns against Muslims in Northeast Tibet
(Amdo), this paper questions the relevance of the mainstream theoretical
disputes on ethnic conflict, i.e. primordialism, instrumentalism, constructivism
and so forth, all of which primarily seek to identify the primary causes or
origins of conflict. Most ethnic conflicts, together with other forms of ethnic
co-existence including cooperation, contain elements of all these theoretical
perspectives, which is evident in the case of Tibetan-Muslim relations
presented here. Therefore, a focus on issues of primary causes or origins is
not particularly insightful, nor does it help to explain why a particular
conflictive trajectory supersedes a more cooperative trajectory. As an
alternative, this paper suggests a focus on processual factors, such as
exclusion, inclusion and the impulse for social protection, which shape or
guide the evolution of conflictive relationships, whether these be deemed of a
primordial or other nature. Accordingly, the commonalities that tie together
the trends of modern ethnic conflict are not found in the origins or primary
causes of conflict, but rather, in the underlying forces of dislocation and
relocation that are fundamental to modern transformations and capitalism, and
which shape the patterns of exclusion and the possible channels for inclusion
and social protection.
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