ASIAN REVIEW

The Library of Andrew Rippin

Majid Daneshgar — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0700

Andrew Rippin passed away in Victoria, Canada, on 29 November 2016. The current generation of scholars, many of whom began working on Qurʾānic studies within the last decade, have paid a lot of attention to Rippin’s scholarship. His books and articles have been translated and reviewed in Arabic, Indonesian, Malay, Persian, Turkish and Urdu languages, and are the subject of dissertations and articles throughout the Muslim world. As a contribution to Rippin’s legacy , this communication piece provides an account of the young Rippin and a library collection that he accumulated in the 1970s and 1980s before becoming one of the most significant historians of Islam and philologists whose ideas and works contributed to Muslim and non-Muslim Qurʾānic studies.

Introduction

Jirayudh Sinthuphan — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0700

This issue of Asian Review is a product of the Asian Consortium of South Asian Studies. The article in this volume explores the profound and multifaceted ways in which communities of South Asian descent have migrated to, settled in, and dynamically reshaped their identities within Southeast Asia. Moving beyond the historical narrative of South Asian Diaspora, these studies demonstrate that the notions of belonging, diasporic identity and national identity are not static concepts but are continuously negotiated, performed, and politicized in response to local contexts and global shifts. The papers collectively reveal a complex history of South Asian migration.

A “Bangladeshi” Descendant Muslim Community in Northern Thailand

Mineo Takada — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0700

Thailand is a majority Buddhist country. However, there is a Muslim population in some parts of the country. One such community is a so-called "Indian" Muslim community in northern Thailand. In fact, they originally came from East Bengal, now Bangladesh, not India. A large community of such Bangladeshi descendants can be found in Chiang Mai and other groups of them live in some smaller towns in northern Thailand.

This paper discusses the migration processes, routes, and settlement processes of a group in northern Thailand. When the author started researching them, they declared themselves "Bangladee" (Thai pronunciation of Bangladesh), but they added that they did not know where their ancestors came from, only knowing place names like Chittagong or Noakhali. This paper will focus on an examination of their settlement processes and community formation. It will also emphasize the importance of the land route connection between South Asia and Southeast Asia.

Nationalism and Indian Community in Malaya during the Japanese Occupation, 1941-1945

Ji-Eun Lee — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0700

This study examines the transformation of the Indian community in Malaya during the Japanese occupation (1941–45), with a focus on the rise of nationalist consciousness and collective identity. Through the formation and activities of the Indian Independence League (IIL) and the Indian National Army (INA), the Indian community experienced significant organizational and ideological changes. Under Subhas Chandra Bose’s leadership, civilian participation and support for the INA increased dramatically, fostering a sense of unity and purpose. Comparative analysis highlights the differing wartime experiences of Malaya’s major ethnic groups: while Malays benefited from Japanese policies, the Chinese faced harsh repression, leading to intensified interethnic tensions. The findings suggest that the Indian community’s collective wartime experiences fostered political unity and national identity, contributing to both the anti-colonial movement and the post-war restructuring of Malaya’s multi-ethnic society.

Fluctuating “Indianness” or “Belonging”

Yoshiaki Takemura — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0700

This article investigates the dynamic relationship between cultural heritage and regional identity among the Indian diaspora in Singapore, specifically focusing on the experiences of classical Indian dancers. Historically, the process of “Indianization” deeply influenced the cultural landscape of Southeast Asia, evidenced by the regional prominence of the Hindu epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Using the context of a regional Ramayana Festival, this paper analyzes how Singaporean Indian dancers, while performing art forms rooted in the Indian subcontinent, negotiate their identity when confronted with diverse Southeast Asian interpretations of the same epic narrative.The study argues that this encounter forces a critical negotiation between the essentialized notion of “Indianness” (the perceived homeland culture) and a localized sense of “Belonging” within the Southeast Asian region. The dancers’ performance becomes a site where two impulses intersect: the desire to preserve the purity of classical tradition and the acknowledg-ment of a unique, diasporic reality. Ultimately, this research demonstrates that identity for the Singapore Indian community is not fixed but is a fluctuating, active process, continuously shaped by regional cultural dialogue and revealing a distinctive Southeast Asian Indian consciousness.