“Inter-Asia as Method” and Radical Politics

Abstract

This chapter examines two recent attempts at reclaiming inter-Asia regionalism to resist the hegemonic forces of nationalism and global imperialism: Chen Kuan-hsing’s Asia as method and Prasenjit Duara’s circulatory histories. These authors challenge us to see Asian interdependency—namely between East, South, and Southeast Asia— as an imaginary resource for locating alternative political frameworks outside Euro-American precedents in a multi-polar world. They show how practices of Asian religious, philosophical and cultural traditions via regimens of bodily and ethical activity render capacities for radical self-transformation and collective resistance that transcend narrow oppositional frameworks of radical politics. By turning tradition from a conservative into a revolutionary category, they challenge critical norms by presenting a different embodiment of radical politics. The chapter discusses these trends in light of existing decolonial paradigms and offers examples of how activists in Malaysia equally work within local cultural and linguistic traditions, including Islam, to expand possibilities for ethno-religious conviviality and social justice. Keywords