National identity is neither lost nor reaffirmed, yet as a result of the violent conflict. Further, as Pakistani state has been facing problems with the process of national integration of its multiple ethnicities, the case of national identity becomes significant to be explored The study argues that the impacts of conflict and violence on national identity are complex and multi-dimensional. The conflict is peculiar (1) because of the use of Islam by Muslim militants which is an identity marker for Pakistani national identity and Pukhtun ethnic identity, (2) the case of Swat, an ex-princely state integrated only in 1969 in Pakistan with a history of religious violent mobilizations. Using an extended constructivist position and the case study of Pukhtuns in Swat, Pakistan, this study outlines the interplay between violent conflict (between Muslim Militants and Pakistani state military) and National identity and its markers. Because of this concept, some are excluded from the benefits of membership, while migration has serious implications on citizenship policy, exclusion (from citizenship) exacerbates (forced) migration in the region.
Through the concept of citizenship, the paper argues conceptually and empirically that borders created through ‘imagined community’ can easily discriminate against populations who are not considered as members of a political community or not ‘one of us’. This chapter intends to establish some frameworks for the book by unpacking the notion of borders, not only from territorial and geographical perspectives, but also the borders created within cultural, social and economic spheres.
Southeast Asian States seem to imagine their communities as exclusive, with certain categories of people being excluded, especially those who are considered different and those who cross (inter)national borders.
Because of this imagination that a nation (-state) is ‘inherently exclusive’. It is imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign’. Benedict Anderson (1991) suggested ‘a Nation-state is an imagined political community.
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