The Rise of the Bandits in Phitsanulok: Reflections on the Bureaucratic Reform in Upper-North Central Siam, 1880s-1930s

Abstract

A history of the people in the era of Siamese reform in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries is receiving serious attention again in Thai society in the early 2020s, partly because of a political awakening among the younger generation. This phenomenon is evidence that a history of the ordinary people is still highly regarded in Thai society. However, most historians who have paid attention to the role of ordinary people, such as gangsters, bandits, and local leaders, still perceived these people only as the troublemakers of the Siamese reformation. In other words, these historians have illustrated the object of their studies with a top-down view. In short, the consciousness and worldview of these ordinary people were not taken into account. This article aims to explore an effect of the Siamese reform from a different perspective, i.e., through the case of a villain in Phitsanulok Region, Mr Jaeng, in order to fill that gap. Microhistory is employed here as the method for discovering the world of the ordinary Siamese people who were living and breathing at that time. However, the explanation of the banditry phenomenon during this period as an effect of economic expansion and operating under the patronage system is contendingly insufficient. The results of this study illustrate that the banditry phenomenon such as Mr Jaeng's case was a direct effect of the bureaucratic reform in which traditional local power and administration was directly intervened in by the central government. Thereby, this criminal case was not simply a crime over an economic interest nor one perpetrated by specific powerful local figures, it was evidently the structural rift between the old regime and the new bureaucratic administration pertaining at the transitional period.