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Thai Nation-Building: Assimilating Upcountry Peasantry to Develop Security

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Abstract

Nations around the world continue to grapple with the role and status of minority or rural populations within their borders. Thailand’s experience in assimilating rural populations outside of the state structure may provide some lessons-learned on assimilation techniques that benefit both the minority populations and nation–state. In the post-World War Two period leading up to, and through, the Second Indochina War (1959–1975), the Thai state embarked upon a nation-building effort to improve the kingdom’s security posture. Conflict was advancing on peninsular Southeast Asia, and Thai leaders reckoned a durable way to protect Thailand were to enhance its national security through two measures: improve the population’s quality of life through rural economic development and acculturate remote, rural villagers into the greater Thai Kingdom. This paper focuses on the latter, how the Royal Thai Government acculturated and assimilated villagers living in the outermost reaches of the kingdom, many of whom were only vaguely aware of the concepts of government and Thai nationhood. The Thai government accomplished this assimilation, through rural development, nationalism, and promotion of Buddhist values. Although lingering social and economic problems remain, they are a far cry from the rural separatist movement that once plagued Bangkok. Thailand successfully integrated the rural population culturally, socially, and linguistically, creating an enduring kingdom. This paper discusses how the Thai government conducted this effort and achieved its results.

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Data Availability

The data I used are available and accessible to all researchers. The information I report is accurate and comes from the official source.

Notes

  1. These surveys are found at Chulalongkorn University’s Thailand Information Center, Central Library.

  2. I found phatthanakhon in common usage in the mid-1960s in many USOM village surveys, contrary to Pinit Lapthananon’s statement (which he says was based on a village headman interview), that the word was not recognized by villagers until the 1970s. See his Development Monks in the Northeast, “Center for Southeast Asian Studies” (Kyoto: Kyoto University Press, 2012), p. 2

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  1. Thai Studies, Department of Arts, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

    Paul T. Carter

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Carter, P.T. Thai Nation-Building: Assimilating Upcountry Peasantry to Develop Security. East Asia 37, 331–348 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12140-020-09340-z

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