The Dara'ang and The Art of Becoming Governed

Southeast Asia is marked by its diversity and, unfortunately, widespread ethnic conflict and political instability. This unsafe environment has led members of vulnerable ethnic groups, particularly those who reside in mountainous upland regions, to engage in refugee movements throughout the region. Yale political scientist James C. Scott discusses this particular subset of upland migrants in his book, The Art of Not Being Governed. He characterizes the interactions between the upland and lowland peoples as one where the former seeks to escape state control and official legibility from the latter. The Dara’ang are one such upland group seeking relocation. Since the 1990s, thousands of Dara’ang have fled Myanmar into Northern Thailand in a seemingly Scottsian pattern. This paper argues, however, that the Dara’ang exhibit shifting attitudes toward state control and legibility—from one of escaping the state to one of embracing the state in search of an improved quality of life. Data for this paper was collected through archival research and fieldwork in Thailand and Myanmar in 2018. Inclusive of qualitative interviews and observational data, the paper analyzes collected evidence against Scott’s theoretical framework to modify Scott’s conclusions, at least with respect to the experience of Dara’ang refugees.