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that underline Scott's usage of it- particularly, emphasis on the ethnic, national, and




religious fluidity of highland communities and their intentionality & agency vis-a-vis




the states with which they engage. [It] constitutes a neglected – an invisible- transitional area which overlapped of four sub regions: Central (Inner), South, East,




and Southeast regions without truly belonging to any of them. It is an area marked by




a spare population, historical isolation, political domination by powerful surrounding




states, marginally of all kinds, and huge linguistic and religious diversity. Scott




considers shifting cultivators as Zomia which don’t want to be governed by others




(state mechanism).”




“Zomia term was coined in 2002 by Dutch social scientist Willem van Schendel in an




article published in the geography journal Environment and Planning: Society and




Space. Van Schendel presented a macroscopic and thought providing analysis in




which he probed and challenges the fixed boundaries of classical ‘Area Studies’. He




proposed to consider the highlands of Asia, from the western Himalayan Range




through the Tibetan plateau and all the way to the lower end of the peninsular




Southeast Asian highlands as a political and historical entity significantly distinct




from the usual area division of Asia: Central (Inner) South, Southeast. Zomia




constituted, he argued a neglected – an invisible – transnational area, which




overlapped segments of all four sub regions without truly belonging to any of them. It




is an area marked by a sparse population, historical isolation, political domination by




powerful surrounding states, marginality of all kinds, and huge linguistic and religious




diversity” (Michaud 2010: 187).




Zomia is a new name for virtually all the lands at altitudes above roughly three




hundred meters all the way from the central Highlands of Vietnam to northeastern




India and transversing five Southeast Asian nations (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos,




Thailand, and Burma and few provinces of China. It us an expanse of 2.5 million




square kilometer containing about one hundred million minority people of truly




bewildering ethnic and linguistic variety. Geographically it is known as the Southeast




Asian Massif (Michaud 2010: 202).




Zomia is the largest remaining region of the world whose people have not yet been




fully incorporated into nation states. They are self governing people (Ibid). According




to J. Scott shifting cultivators are runaway, fugitive, maroon communities who have

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