Re-inventing tradition for the sake of “belonging there” – Ruptures and dissonances

Politics of Belonging are often centred on the question of place and territory. Claims to territory are articulated by particular sections of society such as so-called indigenous people and put national integration and minority accommodation to the test. In most cases, constructions of cultural tradition, agrarian modes of production and the special relationship to land are important arguments. The claims, however, are usually not made by individuals for whom these specific ways of life count but rather by (professional) activists who are used to represent in translocal and global contexts and whose way of life has taken a very different shape.

Based on empirical material concerning indigenous activism in Bangladesh, this paper explores the specific constellations of representation along with the ruptures and dissonances in the place-related politics of belonging. It argues that the specific rhetoric of indigenousness and the reinvention of tradition is taking place in the translocal networks between indigenous professionals around the world. The relationship between those inhibiting these translocal “expert worlds” and those they seek to represent is often ambivalent and conflict prone, which necessitates investigating the re-invented tradition vis-à-vis the significance of tradition in local people’s every-day life.