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Memories of Burmese
Rohingya Refugees
Contested Identity and Belonging

KAZI FAHMIDA FARZANA

 Memories of Burmese Rohingya Refugees

“It is an excellent work which shows a lot of promise. I am impressed by Kazi

Fahmida Farzana’s theoretical contribution and primary research on Burmese
Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. She contributes to the scholarship, which calls
for more attention to the social and political processes of forced migration and
identity politics that generates protracted displacement.”
—Bina D’Costa, PhD Fellow, College of Asia and the Pacific
Australian National University, Australia

“This is an extremely well written, multi-disciplinary, eclectic piece of work. The

book knits the varied strands together to enhance the understanding of a critical
issue in all its varied dimensions. It is well-argued, and the diagrams, pictures and
drawings render the study more interesting. As is well known illustrations are able
to tell more than words can. It makes original contribution to the existing know­
ledge on the subject.”
—Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, PhD Former Advisor, Bangladesh
Caretaker Government, and ex-Ambassador to the United Nations
Currently Principal Research Fellow, Institute of South Asian
Studies, National University of Singapore
 Kazi Fahmida Farzana

Memories of Burmese
Rohingya Refugees
Contested Identity and Belonging
Kazi Fahmida Farzana
Universiti Utara Malaysia
Kedah, Malaysia

ISBN 978-1-137-58619-3    ISBN 978-1-137-58360-4 (eBook)

DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-58360-4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017946650

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub-
lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the
material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The
publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institu-
tional affiliations.

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Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Nature America Inc.
The registered company address is: 1 New York Plaza, New York, NY 10004, U.S.A.
To those Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh who shared their stories in hopes of
improving their lives and history
and
to my beloved parents
Quazi Qudrat & Sharifa Begum
 Acknowledgments

I am grateful to numerous people whose active and sincere cooperation

and invaluable support were fundamental to produce this book. Foremost,
I am gratefully indebted to those refugees who trusted me and shared
their stories in hopes of improving their lives, and participated in the inter-
views and dialogues. This book could not have been completed without
the generous cooperation of my informants. Without going into spelling
their names individually, I express my deepest thanks and gratitude to
them all collectively.
A number of institutions and people have helped me during my field-
work for this research. Among them, I thank Professor Dr. Imtiaz Ahmed
of Dhaka University and Dr. Chowdhury Abrar of Refugee and Migratory
Movements Research Unit for extending their support for this research and
sharing published materials from their personal archives. I owe my grati-
tude to Chris Lewa, executive director of the Arakan Project in Thailand,
who provided me with many valuable unpublished documents; Dr.
Khurshid Alam, executive director of Community Development Centre
based in Chittagong, who generously helped through his connections to
find a safe place during my stay in the field in that remote border area in
Teknaf, Bangladesh. Thanks also to the officials of Integrated Protected
Area Co-management Project in Teknaf, and Delwar Hossain, area man-
ager of Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), Cox’s Bazar,
who offered much encouragement and support. I am deeply indebted to
Lieutenant Arafat, the district head of the Directorate General of Forces
Intelligence Teknaf branch, for all his generous time and kind assistance.

vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Necessary encouragement and a supportive environment in which to

thrive as a scholar and a teacher were provided at the National University
of Singapore (NUS) by successive heads of the department of South Asia
Studies Programme A/P Dr. Gyanesh Kudaisya and A/P Dr. Young Mun
Cheong. My two former supervisors, A/P Dr. Shapan Adnan and Professor
Dr. Ishtiaq Ahmed, at my home institution, have both made a positive
impact on my life and work. I was privileged to have enjoyed the interac-
tion of many renowned academicians from diverse fields at NUS. A/P Dr.
Vineeta Shinha of the sociology department has offered me sage advice
and invaluable assistance, ranging from generating ideas, reading of my
first draft of empirical chapters, and providing critical comments. Dr. Carl
Grundy-Warr of the geography department has remained a steadfast sup-
port from the moment I began to assemble my thoughts and research
findings until developing this manuscript.
I am grateful to the following, whose names I cannot go without
mentioning: Irene Nai and Chye Seng of the Multimedia Development
Laboratory, for their assistance on computer-related matters; Dr. Chie
Ikeya of Southeast Asian Studies Programme at NUS, for her help in
translating some Burmese documents; Professor Dr. Leszek Buszynski of the
Australian National University (ANU), for his faith in my work and abil-
ity; Professor Dr. Habibul Haque Khondker of Zayed University, UAE, and
Associate Professor Dr. Ishtiaq Hossain of International Islamic University
Malaysia for their advice and encouragement.
I have also had the pleasure of working with Dr. Serene Lim, an expe-
rienced, skilled, and reliable proof-editor. Her thorough reading with
necessary editing has greatly improved the quality of my presentation.
However, I take personal responsibility for the analysis and conclusions, as
well as any remaining errors and omissions that may have gone unnoticed
in the book.
I would like to thank Palgrave for allowing me to reuse some mate-
rials published in journals and edited books: Studies in Ethnicity and
Nationalism (2015), Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities
(2016), and book chapter in Children and Violence (2016), and Myanmar’s
Mountain and Maritime Borderscapes (2016). Feedbacks from anonymous
reviewers were also helpful in strengthening my argument and analysis,
adding information to my final manuscript.
Many wonderful friends and colleagues, from around the world, have
rendered me much support throughout the journey. My heartfelt thanks
to Petra Pojer, Timothy Murphy, Jeff Parkey, Rie Nakamura, Shayela
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
   ix

Mian, Jan Oppie, Sherko Kirmanj, Ananya Samajdar, Shumaila, Nargis,

Ngawang, Ummu Atiya, Nazaria, Ratnaria, Deeba, and Mohita.
I am very fortunate in having tight-knit family members around me
that have given me total support, cooperation, and unconditional love.
My husband, Md Moniruzzaman, has been very supportive and under-
standing, allows me to pursue my passion relentlessly. My greatest respect
is to my beloved parents for their unending prayers and moral support
throughout my life. Most affectionate thanks to my mother, Syeda Sharifa
Begum, for giving her full support and particularly for taking care of my
precious baby daughter, Fariha Zaman, in the final stage of this project.
My deepest thanks to my dearest father, Quazi Qudrat-e-Khuda, for tak-
ing interest in my work, and from time to time, sending research materials
to me from across the miles. Both my younger brother Md Faisal and
sister Kazi Shahzabeen have always been dependable friends to me. My
parents-in-law Md Abdul Hai and Rokeya Begum have been a source of
encouragement for my work.
Last but not least, I believe that no achievement can be possible, and
no one could have been a better help for me than the mercy and blessings
of my God. Therefore, all praises are to that loving and caring Almighty.
 Contents

1 Introduction   1

2 The Historical and Politico-Military Context of the Border   41

3 The Refugee Problem from an Official Account  59

4 Reconstructions of Social Memory by Refugees  87

5 Everyday Life in Refugee Camps 145

6 Music and Art as Symbols of Identity and Everyday

Resistance 191

7 Conclusion 233

 ppendix 1 Chronological Genealogy of the Shah

A
of Arakan (1430 A.D.–1638 A.D.) 249

Appendix 2 Some Basic Facts About the Teknaf Area 251

Index253

xi
 About the Author

Kazi Fahmida Farzana is a senior lecturer in the Department of

International Affairs and a research fellow at the Centre for Asian Studies
at the Universiti Utara Malaysia. Her areas of specialization are South
and Southeast Asian politics, national identity, ethnic conflicts, stateless-
ness, and contemporary political theories. She teaches Nationalism and
Ethnic Conflicts in International System, Diplomacy, Politics of East Asia,
International Organizations, and Seminar on International Relations. She
has a PhD from the National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore.
Her articles have appeared in Studies in Ethnicity & Nationalism, Asian
Journal of Social Science, Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies,
Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, and Asian Geographic, and in edited
volume published by ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore, and
Cambridge University Press.

xiii
 List of Figures

Fig. 3.1 Repatriation from Bangladesh (2000–2005). Last repatriation

date: July 28, 2005, family 01, person 02, total third country
resettlement up to 2009: 262 persons 73
Fig. 4.1 Types of abuses in Arakan (Rakhine) state 89
Fig. 4.2 Reasons for feeling unsafe in Bangladesh 118
Fig. 5.1 Occupation (by gender) of refugees in Nayapara camp 162

xv
 List of Tables

Table 3.1 The trade positions from 1992 to 1997 79

Table 5.1 Food distribution in Nayapara camp 150
Table 5.2 The birth and death rates in Nayapara camp from
2000 to 2005 157
Table 5.3 The displaced Rohingyas in many parts of the world 164

xvii
 List of Diagram

Diagram 4.1 The process underlying the displacement and forced

migration of the Rohingyas 116

xix
 List of Pictures

Picture 4.1 Notice of eviction (in Burmese language) 100

Picture 4.2 Notice of eviction (English translation) 101
Picture 4.3 An undocumented refugee home hidden from view at
the hill top near the town 132
Picture 4.4 The muddy slippery hilly slopes used as a staircase to reach
refugees’ hidden location 133
Picture 5.1 Refugee children playing in the camp 166

xxi
 List of Maps

Map 1.1 Northern Arakan on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

Source: Christie (1996) 3
Map 1.2 Research sites in Teknaf. Source: Banglapedia, National
Encyclopedia of Bangladesh. Retrieved from Banglapedia
website: http://www.banglapedia.org/HT/C_0364.htm23
Map 5.1 Nayapara camp. Source: The original administrative map of
Nayapara camp was collected from the camp office. It has
been simplified for the purpose of using in this chapter by
the author 148

xxiii
 List of Drawings

Drawing 5.1 We cannot play freely 167

Drawing 5.2 We want to go to that school, but they would not
let us go out 169
Drawing 5.3 Our teacher sleeps while teaching class 170
Drawing 5.4 A “thank you” note from Shabnam 171
Drawing 6.1 Eviction from villages and torture in the model village area 211
Drawing 6.2 Destruction of Rohingya property in Arakan 213
Drawing 6.3 Forced labor: Physical torture on women and children 214
Drawing 6.4 Life on both sides of the border: The River Naff 215
Drawing 6.5 Complicated and difficult realities on both sides of
the River Naff 218
Drawing 6.6 Life in Bangladesh: At the Nayapara refugee camp 219
Drawing 6.7 An uncertain dream for a better future 220

xxv
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

In the context of modern territorially demarcated nation-states system,

an individual without a national identity is an anomaly. This is because
people cannot escape being connected to a state even when the state has
disowned them. Despite this understanding being very fundamental to
the system of nation-states, the question of identity formation remains.
What are the criteria or factors that identify an individual with a particular
nation? Who decides on the criteria? Is identity a natural entitlement or a
label conferred by the authorities? What is the relationship between iden-
tity and institutions? Such questions are at the heart of identity formation
debate, and demand an exploration of how the state practices its sover-
eignty and suppresses the voices of its citizens’ and non-citizens’ (those
who live on the borderland) experiences of conflict in order to produce
state’s unity. In this process, many states have failed to resolve violence,
generated forced migration, and created stateless populations.
Today in many state-centric conflicts, we find peoples (citizens and
non-citizens of a country) are forced to leave their country for neighbor-
ing countries that do not want them. They flee in order to avoid vio-
lence, persecution, and threats to their lives which are often produced
by the governments or the elites among whom they live. In 2017, the
UNHCR estimated the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide
to be about 65.3 million, about 21.3 million of whom are refugees liv-
ing in developing countries. Despite their untold sufferings—forced to
flee their home country and losing their familiar socio-economic, natural,

© The Author(s) 2017 1

K.F. Farzana, Memories of Burmese Rohingya Refugees,
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-58360-4_1
2 1 INTRODUCTION

and political environments—and having to face and negotiated v­arious

enormous humanitarian challenges in their host countries, refugees and
displaced people worldwide are largely marginalized. The Palestinian
refugees in Jordan and Syria, the Kurdish refugees from Iraq to Turkey
and Iran, the Roma from France to Bulgaria and Romania, the flight of
Afghans to Pakistan, the flight of Tibetans from China to India, the exo-
dus of Burmese Indians after Myanmar’s independence in 1948, the exo-
dus of Sri Lankan Indians and Sri Lankan Tamils, the stranded Pakistanis
(Biharis) in Bangladesh, the flights of Chakmas from Bangladesh to India,
and the Vietnamese refugees in the Philippines are all examples of the
consequences of actions taken by repressive governments or dominant
ethnic groups among whom they live. And all these cases demonstrate
that peoples (citizens and non-citizens), who are dissatisfied within the
boundary of the nation-state, can actually challenge the state (country of
origin as well as the host state) at any time through various means that
range from conventional resistance movement to even non-conventional
confrontation. This book tells such a story.
There are about two million Rohingyas in Myanmar/Burma, approxi-
mately 800,000 of whom live in northern Rakhine (previously Arakan)
state. About half a million have migrated to other parts of the world. An
estimated 328,500 now live in Bangladesh (Map 1.1), as documented
and undocumented refugees.1 The documented refugees, estimated at
28,500, live in two official registered refugee camps, and the vast major-
ity of undocumented refugees, estimated to be between 200,000 and
300,000, live in scattered settlements among the host population in the
whole of Teknaf, Ukhia, and Cox’s Bazar. Such figures are merely indica-
tive of some much deeper issues. The central problem of the Rohingyas is
the question of the group’s political identity and hence its belonging. The
Rohingyas claim Burmese citizenship as their natural right and claim that
they are entitled to enjoy all citizenship rights, including state protection,
just like any other Burmese citizen. In contrast, the Burmese state politi-
cal authority considers them “Bengali,” “illegal immigrants,” and “never”
having been a part of Myanmar’s history. Hence, they ought to be excluded
from Myanmar’s national identity. Meanwhile, the Bangladeshi govern-
ment maintains that the Rohingyas were not originally from Bangladesh.
They were not officially known until 1977, when they first crossed the
border from Myanmar in huge numbers because of political upheaval in
their land of origin. Hence, the Bangladeshi government notes, they are
rightfully labeled “refugees” and ought to return. Such political denials on
 1 INTRODUCTION 3

Map 1.1 Northern Arakan on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. Source: Christie

(1996)

both sides increase the complexity of the situation, and prolong the crisis
by pushing the Rohingyas back and forth across state boundaries.
This book takes an in-depth look into the root and precipitating causes
and consequences of the Burmese Rohingya2 refugees’ displacement,
and calls for more attention to the social and political processes of forced
migration and identity politics that generate protracted displacement. The
importance of this book lies in its ability to present an alternative and
endogenous interpretation of the problem in contrast to the exogenous
one presented by actors such as state institutions, non-governmental orga-
nizations, and media. The main theoretical contribution of this book lies
4 1 INTRODUCTION

in conceptualizing everyday resistance and negotiations through socio-­

cultural memories of the refugees. The study is based on original research,
largely drawn from fieldwork data. It explores the voices and artistic
expressions of those dispossessed, displaced, and marginalized by the poli-
cies and decisions of the nation-state. It also creates some space within the
discourse to take into account the untold stories of the people concerned
and capture their voices that usually remain unheard. The comprehensive-
ness of this book would help to explain and understand the current politics
of identity and belonging at the Myanmar-Bangladesh border.

Identity: Citizenship and Multiculturalism

Many theoretical approaches have addressed the questions of individual
identity within a given socio-political context. Powerful ideologies such as
nationalism and socialism have turned the identity question highly politi-
cal (Gellner 1983[1992], 1994), generating various approaches such as
liberalism, totalitarianism, and neoliberalism. Each of these approaches
has offered analytical frameworks to crystallize the process of social and
political identity formation of individuals. This section outlines the major
theoretical approaches to identity, and places the question of Rohingya
identity within those folds. The major argument here is that, even though
liberalism is regarded as the champion in solving the identity question
through various mechanisms, the theories and the state institutions prac-
ticing the theories have apparently failed to address the identity of the
displaced Rohingya refugees.
The most powerful ideology that has directly addressed the question of
identity is nationalism (Anderson 1991; Hobsbawm 1994) which claims a
sovereign state over a particular territory on behalf of a community of peo-
ple. The ideology is constituted of a mixture of unifying symbols such as
emotion, language, ethnic origin, historical experience, culture, and reli-
gion. However, no human community is exclusively different from others
in these respects, which makes the territorial identity formation difficult.
Due to such practical realities, two grand approaches to national identity
formation have emerged: the civic-political model and the cultural-ethnic
model (Ahmed 2008).
The civic model has its origin in the French Revolution’s liberty, equal-
ity, and fraternity, which conferred an identity of egalitarian citizenship
and political rights to all irrespective of differences. In contrast, the ethnic
model of national identity originated in the German Romantic Movement,
which rejected the French universalism and emphasized homogenous
 CITIZENSHIP: A THEORETICAL DEBATE 5

ethnic and cultural factors instead (Ahmed 2008; Smith 1986). This
form of identity was to be based on exclusive common characteristics,
which later degenerated into extreme forms such as totalitarianism, chau-
vinism, racism, and fascism based on hatred and superiority complex
(Arendt 1966[1958]). The experience of such identity-building process
in Germany and Italy proved to be highly disastrous.
However, it is the French model that received universal acceptance,
especially in the post-war period, which gradually took the shape of liber-
alism (Galston 1991). As such, liberal nationalism prescribed multiplicity
of identity under one grand national identity. People in the private sphere
can maintain their peculiar ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious diver-
sities in which the state does not interfere. However, within the public
sphere, the individuals are subjected to the government’s standard rules
and regulations and regarded as equal in terms of enjoying public utilities
and rights, such as the right to vote, political association, right to educa-
tion and health services, and protection by the law.
Therefore, the theory of liberal nationalism plays an instrumental
role in offering each individual a common identity with equality, irre-
spective of any perceived differences in public spheres (Rusciano 2003).
However, heterogeneity among the people creates practical problems that
place state and people’s identity at loggerheads (Ahmed 1998, Chap. 2).
Heterogeneity implies differences of taste, preferences, attitude, lifestyle,
and internal system. Due to specific peculiarities, people tend to maintain
centripetal tendency toward their own internal specific heritage and cus-
toms. This obviously brings liberalism into conflict with diversities. Several
fundamental questions arise out of the practical reality, such as: what does
the equality mean for ethnic and racial groups? How should the theory be
put into practice, so as to achieve equality? How can state institutions and
distributive mechanisms be arranged to ensure equal rights?
Over the past few decades, a number of theories under liberalism have
offered various mechanisms to accommodate heterogeneity at the private
level while maintaining a common identity at the public level. The most
prominent of these theories are citizenship and multiculturalism.

Citizenship: A Theoretical Debate

The idea of citizenship is as old as the idea of politics itself. In ancient
Greece, Plato and Aristotle conceptualized citizenship as a privileged
status to be claimed and enjoyed by the male gender of certain classes,
namely, the property-owning freemen, soldiers, guardians, and the judges
6 1 INTRODUCTION

(Russell 2010[1946]). The rest of people in society such as the labor class,
merchants, women, and slaves were not entitled to be citizens (Ahmed
2005). Such an understanding of citizenship as a domain of privileged
classes did not change much until the eighteenth century (Marshall 1965)
and before the emergence of modern nationalism. In the post-war multi-­
ethnic and multiracial state, a universal citizenship was considered the
most useful mechanism to achieve and maintain social unity (Vesselinov
2010). Gradually, through state practice and international treaties, the idea
became universal as well, within the fold of liberal democracy (Spinner
1994). The theory of citizenship attracted renewed academic interest after
1960, due to the upsurge of ethnonationalism in many parts of the world
(Ong 2005). Secessionist movements based on ethnic identity such as
those in the Iberian Peninsula, in the Balkans, and the Kashmiris in the
subcontinent are some of the examples of enthonationalist movements
that renewed the debate on citizenship and nationality.
Citizenship is understood in two different ways. One, it is related to the
idea of individual entitlement, and second, it refers to attachment to a politi-
cally sovereign state. A theory of citizenship includes the question of indi-
vidual identity and socio-political conducts and responsibilities, roles, and
loyalties (Turner 1992), which is also known as the “theory of nationality”
(Hibbert 2008). The dimensions of citizenship include horizontal relation-
ships among individuals and vertical relationship between individuals and the
state (Staeheli 2010). Kymlicka and Norman (1994) call these overlapping
aspects of citizenship “citizenship-as-legal-status,” in which an individual’s
political membership is a component part of a given political community, and
“citizenship-as-desirable-activity,” which refers to the degree and nature of
an individual’s participation and contribution to that community. From the
perspective of liberalism, citizenship has both Leftist and Rightist spectrums.

The Leftist Theory of Citizenship

T. H. Marshall’s (1949) “Citizenship and Social Class” is considered the
most influential modern exposition of the conception of citizenship-as-­
rights. To Marshall, citizenship is primarily a matter of every individual’s
right, as a member, to full and equal treatment in a society. This percep-
tion and sense of membership to a society can be assured through giving
people increasing citizenship rights (Cohen 2010).
Marshall divides citizenship rights into three categories. Firstly, civil
rights such as individual freedom, liberty of the person, freedom of
 CITIZENSHIP: A THEORETICAL DEBATE 7

thought, speech and faith, the right to own property and to conclude valid
contracts, and the right to justice, all of which appeared in the eighteenth
century. Secondly, political rights in the form of universal suffrage that
emerged in the nineteenth century. And finally, social rights such as the
right to public education, health care, and unemployment benefits that
have become established in the twentieth century with the development of
a welfare state (Marshall 1965). Marshall also argues that with the expan-
sion of the rights of citizenship, the class of citizens has also expanded. For
instance, civil and political rights were earlier restricted only to property-­
owning white Protestant men. But over time, these have been extended to
other classes of people such as Catholics and Jews, blacks, women, and the
working-class groups (Levy and Miller 1998; Ling and Monteith 2004;
Boyd and Burroughs 2010).
Obviously, Marshall’s concept of citizenship can be practiced within a
state that is liberal, democratic, and pro-welfare in nature. By giving the
three types of rights, the liberal democratic welfare state can ensure that
every individual is made to feel that he/she is a full member, and can par-
ticipate in, and enjoy, all the benefits of society. This means that a violation
or withdrawal of civil, political, and social rights will create social alien-
ation for the people. Social alienation may then develop into “passive” or
“private” citizenship, where people confine their rights in passive entitle-
ments and abstain from participation in public life. This view is known as
the Left view on citizenship, which argues that citizenship involves both
rights and responsibilities where the right to participate must precede the
responsibilities. That means that it is only appropriate to demand fulfill-
ment of the responsibilities after the rights to participate have been secured
(Fitzpatrick 2001; Martin et al. 2006; Steenbergen 1994; Pierson 2004).
Marshall or the Leftists believed that the state creates a participatory
“common culture” by “empowering” citizens to democratize the welfare
state which socializes them with political participation, responsibilities and
duties (Oldfield 1990), and socio-economic and political virtues (Galston
1991).
Yet, the Left is often blamed for the imbalance between rights and
responsibilities, because of its claim that these are to be ensured even in
the absence of the citizens fulfilling their social and political responsibilities
(Andrews 1991; Held 1991; Mead 1986; Oldfield 1990; Pierson 1991).
The critics argue that citizenship responsibilities should be incorporated
more explicitly into left-wing theory (Hoover and Plant 1988; Mouffe
1992; Vogel and Moran 1991), because it seems clear that the Left still
8 1 INTRODUCTION

lacks a “language of responsibility” commensurate with its notion of citi-

zenship, or a set of concrete policies to promote these responsibilities.
However, some argue that Marshall’s conception is still strong because,
evidently, “social citizenship did not abolish political citizenship in lib-
eral democracies. Political citizenship did not extinguish civil citizenship”
(Cohen 2010, p. 83).

The New Right on Citizenship

Marshall’s and the Leftist’s conceptions of citizenship have increasingly
come under attack in the past decades. The most politically powerful cri-
tique of his theory came from the New Right, which maintains an extreme
view of liberalism, seeking to reverse the leftist position of widening the
scope of citizenship rights and ending inequality (King 1987). The New
Right believes that “inequality is a pre-requisite for societal develop-
ment and progress advocating to seek not only to revive the role of mar-
ket mechanism and to end collectivist state policy but also to dismantle
citizenship rights” (King 1987, p. 3). The New Right has consistently
resisted these rights on the grounds that they were: (a) inconsistent with
the demands of (negative) freedom or justice; (b) economically inefficient;
and (c) similar to maintaining a serfdom.
The New Right argues that the welfare state system has contributed
negatively to the individuality of citizens by creating passivity and inaction
among the poor, degrading their living standards, and creating a culture
and mentality of dependency. According to Norman Barry (1990), there
is no evidence that welfare programs have in fact promoted more active
citizenship.
So, to ensure the social and cultural integration, one must go “beyond
entitlement,” and focus instead on their responsibility to earn a living.
Since the welfare state discourages people from becoming self-reliant, the
safety net should be cut back, and any remaining welfare benefits should
have obligations tied to them. This was the idea behind the principal
reform of the welfare state in the 1980s, introducing “workfare” pro-
grams, which required welfare recipients to work for their benefits, to
reinforce the idea that citizens should be self-supporting.
On the question of how the citizens can become active participants in
the “workfare” culture, the New Right relies heavily on the market as a
school of virtue. It believes that people’s voluntary association with civil
society will create this citizenship virtue. As Walzer put it: “the civility that
 THE THEORY OF MULTICULTURALISM 9

makes democratic politics possible can only be learned in the associational

networks” of civil society (1992, p. 104). It is here that “human character,
competence, and capacity for citizenship are formed,” for it is here that
one internalizes the idea of personal responsibility and mutual obligation
and learns the voluntary self-restraint, which is essential to truly respon-
sible citizenship (Glendon 1991). It follows, therefore, that one of the
first obligations of citizenship is to participate in civil society.
However, the New Right is not beyond criticism as well. The critics
charge that it is difficult to find any evidence that the New Right reforms
of the 1980s have promoted responsible citizenship. The critics point out
that reforms aimed to give people more benefit through market deregula-
tion in order to teach them the virtues of initiative, self-reliance, and self-­
sufficiency did not produce any positive result (Mulgan 1991).
Also, cutting welfare benefits, far from getting the disadvantaged back
on their feet, has expanded the underclass and exacerbated class inequali-
ties (Fierlbeck 1991; Hoover and Plant 1988). For many, therefore, the
New Right program is most probably viewed as de-construction and an
attack on the underlying principle of citizenship, and not as an alterna-
tive explanation and re-conceptualization of citizenship. Instead of accept-
ing citizenship as a political and social status, modern conservatives have
sought to reassert the role of the market and have rejected the idea that
citizenship confers a status independent of economic standing (Heater
1990; King 1987; Plant 1991).
The main issue in citizenship discourse here is whether the citizens of
the state are politically active or passive vis-à-vis their entitlement or enjoy-
ment of state welfare. However, a different dimension of citizenship debate
focuses not on entitlement and responsibility, but on belongingness to the
political community in the first place. This debate is more on the exclusion
or inclusion of membership to a particular political c­ ommunity or state.
Although this dimension of the debate exists in the Western societies, it is
more prevalent in the non-Western societies. Below are citizenship theo-
ries discussed from this exclusion-inclusion perspectives.

The Theory of Multiculturalism

The universal citizenship theory puts the focus on the macro image of
the society to maintain social unity. But the theory came under serious
stress over the past few decades because of the strengthening of cultural,
minority, and ethnic prominence in politics (Gellner 1987). Reflecting
10 1 INTRODUCTION

on the trend in Western democracies over the past decades, Kymlicka

observed that there are “shifts away from historic policies of assimilation
or exclusion towards a more ‘multicultural’ approach that recognizes and
accommodates diversity” (2005, p. 28). Kymlicka explains how Western
democracies have solved the problem of rights, citizenship, and nation-
hood in the following terms:

Western democracies have moved away from older models of unitary, cen-
tralized nation-state, and repudiated older ideologies of “one state, one
nation, one language.” Today virtually all Western states that contain indig-
enous peoples and substate national groups have become “multination”
states, recognizing the existence of “peoples” and “nations” within the
boundaries of the state. This recognition is manifested in a range of minor-
ity rights that include regional autonomy and official language status for
national minorities, and customary law, land claims, and self-government for
indigenous peoples. (p. 28)

The changing political trend zooms in on the micro features and

diversities in the society, giving rise to the theory of multiculturalism
(Kymlicka 1995). Following the trend, an increasing number of citizen-
ship theories are being heavily grounded on cultural pluralism (Ahmed
2005). The multicultural theorists argue that the conventional percep-
tion of citizenship rights was originally developed and defined by white
men and for white men (Marshall 1965). So, such a concept is unable to
accommodate the particular feeling, perceptions, and needs of non-white
or minority groups. On the practical side, the surge in demographic com-
position has made the universal citizenship identity much more complex,
giving rise to right-consciousness in the minority groups. In such a context
it is “identity … rather than interest … is the hallmark of new politics”
(Ahmed 2005, p. 19).
The theory of multiculturalism envisions the same social equality within
a larger common identity, through differentiated recognition, rather than
merging differences. Kymlicka (1995) argued that “a comprehensive the-
ory of justice in a multicultural state will include both universal rights,
assigned to individuals regardless of group membership. And certain
group differentiated rights or ‘special status’ for minority cultures” (p. 6).
This is because, as Young (1989, 1990) argued, group differences are
fundamental and natural; therefore, any attempt to develop a universal
conception of citizenship overlooking the group differences would be
unjust to the groups. Young advanced two reasons why recognizing,
 THE THEORY OF MULTICULTURALISM 11

instead of ignoring, group differences is more important in creating a

genuine equality. Firstly, groups that are culturally excluded are already
politically disadvantaged. Thus, “the solution lies at least in part in provid-
ing institutionalized means for the explicit recognition and representation
of oppressed groups” (Young 1989, p. 259). These procedural measures
would include “public funds for advocacy groups, guaranteed representa-
tion in political bodies, and veto rights over specific policies that affect
a group directly” (Young 1989, pp. 261–262). Secondly, there are cer-
tain distinctive needs of a culturally disadvantaged group that can only
be fulfilled through policies of group differentiation. Such needs include
language rights, rights to land for Aboriginals, and women’s reproduc-
tive rights (Young 1990, pp. 175–183). Young defends these rights as a
response to five types of “oppression,” which are exploitation, marginal-
ization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and “random violence and
harassment motivated by group hatred or fear” (Young 1989, p. 261).

Mechanisms of Multiculturalism
Theories, as well as practices, suggest a number of possible responses to
identity diversity, ranging from the extreme left, seen as representing the
least tolerant view, to the extreme right, representing the most tolerant
view, on the spectrum. The extreme leftist view includes policies such as
genocide occurred in Nazi Germany during World War II and in Rwanda
in 1994, and ethnic cleansing occurred to Albanians in the Serbian terri-
tory of Kosovo. On the extreme right is a concept known as recognition
of separation and independence claims, which is more ideal than practi-
cal. Evidently, the existing states would be unlikely to compromise their
boundaries by meeting secessionist claims unless pressured by exceptional
circumstances such as foreign intervention (East Timor in 1999 and South
Sudan in 2011).
Between these two extreme positions are mechanisms that are con-
sidered tolerant and that fall under the boundary of multiculturalism.
Kymlicka (1995) has identified four such mechanisms known as assimi-
lation, integration, accommodation, and ethno-federalism. Assimilation
refers to the government policy to compel the minority groups to aban-
don their cultural peculiarities and adopt those of the majority group.
This policy strikes on the identity of the group, rather than forcing the
group out of the territory. If the group’s cultural characteristics were
eliminated, then their identity would be assimilated into the dominant
12 1 INTRODUCTION

group. The Canadian policy, in the early twentieth century, to forcefully

segregate aboriginal children from their parents, forcing them to live in
boarding schools, was implemented to forcefully resocialize them out
of the aboriginal cultural influences. The second mechanism is integra-
tion, which involves a greater amount of willingness on both majority
and minority groups to recognize each other’s privileges and existence
in exchange for certain compromises. Here, the minority recognizes and
accepts that the majority will be culturally privileged, and will have larger
control on resources and decision-making; in exchange, the majority will
recognize and accept the minority’s right to practice and maintain aspects
of its culture. The Malaysian experience in letting the Chinese and Indian
communities continue to use their respective languages in schools and in
maintaining their vernacular and culture-specific schools are examples of
the integration mechanism.
The third multicultural mechanism is called accommodation, which
prescribes a higher degree of cultural freedom for the minority. Known
also as cultural autonomy or affirmative action policies or “special repre-
sentation rights” (Kymlicka 1995, p. 7), the accommodation mechanism
ensures extensive rights and privileges reserved for members of minority
ethnic groups. The policy may offer a range of greater rights such as the
right to attend schools where the curriculum is designed in the minority
language, special treatment in hiring, quotas for certain government posi-
tions, and preference to minority members. The affirmative action policies
of the United States exemplify the mechanism of accommodation. A much
improved and institutional version of accommodation is known as “conso-
ciational democracy” (Ahmed 2005, p. 27) practiced in the Netherlands.
And finally, the ethno-federalism policy, which confers, upon the m ­ inority
groups, territorial autonomy with a high degree of, but not complete
control over, resources and decision-making. Only specific powers are del-
egated to the groups to manage regional governance specific to the region
and the groups; an entire country could be a federation of ethnic autono-
mous territories. In this case, the ethnic minorities must be geographically
concentrated in particular regions in ways that the regions can be clearly
distinguishable from each other. Known also as “self-government rights”
(Kymlicka 1995, p. 7), such as the reservation system of the American
Indians, the demand for group rights is not seen as a temporary mea-
sure; rather, such rights are natural. Aboriginal peoples and other national
minorities such as the Quebecois or Scots claim permanent and inherent
rights, grounded in a principle of self-determination. These groups occupy
 THE THEORY OF MULTICULTURALISM 13

a particular homeland or territory, and share a distinct language, culture,

heritage, and history. Such cultural nations are usually located within the
territories of a larger and different political community, but claim due to
their distinctiveness the right to self-autonomy, in order to maintain their
distinct culture and otherness. What these national minorities want is not
primarily better representation in the central government, but rather, the
transfer of power and legislative jurisdictions from the central government
to their own communities. The Belgian, Canadian, and the autonomous
regions of China are examples of ethno-federalism.
The above review of the liberal theories of citizenship implies that cit-
izenship is a contested political identity with specific qualifications and
effects. In light of the preceding discussion, citizenship can largely be
divided into formal (simply referring to membership to a nation), sub-
stantive (having rights and obligations), and differentiated (based on dif-
ferences) categories (Shipper 2010). The theory of multiculturalism and
the various mechanisms are based on recognizing differences, and hence
are known also as “differentiated citizenship” and “multicultural citizen-
ship” in contrast to the universal citizenship discussed earlier. Like uni-
versal citizenship, the differentiated citizenship model also faces criticism
and limitations. Vernon (1988) argued that if differentiated citizenship is
to be maintained in a larger common citizenship context, it would lead
to creation of dual citizenship within a single territory. Furthermore, eth-
nic groups are fragmented, and apparently, the process and demand for
increasing self-government may simply encourage the ambitious groups
to demand for greater, or even complete, independence leading to greater
security risk for the state.
A further shortcoming of the theory is that it is West-centric; like
the development of universal citizenship on the background of Western
experience, multiculturalism theory also suffers from such background
orientation. Certain Asian values such as communal precedence over indi-
vidualism and tendency to centralized economic development rather than
granting devolution and decentralization are considered major obstacles
for the multiculturalism model to fit into the Asian societies. Indeed, the
great variance in historical, cultural, and political situations in multina-
tional states suggests that any generalized answer to the question of citi-
zenship and nationality will likely be overstated (Taylor 1992).
However, counterarguments stand strong as well. Firstly, among the
Asian states, China and Malaysia are successful examples of various forms
of multiculturalism. Secondly, it can be argued that the basic norms of
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
aperture may be retarded relatively to and interfere with those from
another part. A small object-glass can furnish light; it takes a big
object-glass to furnish darkness in the picture.
Now we may ask ourselves whether the ordinary circular aperture
is necessarily the most efficient for giving the wavelets the required
path-differences. Any deviation from a symmetrical shape is likely to
spoil the definition of the image—to produce wings and fringes. The
image will not so closely resemble the object viewed. But on the
other hand we may be able to sharpen up the tell-tale features. It
does not matter how widely the image-pattern may differ from the
object, provided that we can read the significance of the pattern. If
we cannot reproduce a star-disk, let us try whether we can
reproduce something distinctive of a star-disk.
A little reflection shows that we ought to improve matters by
blocking out the middle of the object-glass, and using only the
extreme regions on one side or the other. For these regions the
difference of light-path of the waves is greatest, and they are the
most efficient in furnishing the dark contrast needed to outline the
image properly.
But if the middle of the object-glass is not going to be used, why
go to the expense of manufacturing it? We are led to the idea of
using two widely separated apertures, each involving a
comparatively small lens or mirror. We thus arrive at an instrument
after the pattern of a rangefinder.
This instrument will not show us the disk of a star. If we look
through it the main impression of the star image is very like what we
should have seen with either aperture singly—a ‘spurious disk’
surrounded by diffraction rings. But looking attentively we see that
this image is crossed by dark and bright bands which are produced
by interference between the light-waves coming from the two
apertures. At the centre of the image the waves from the two
apertures arrive crest on crest since they have travelled
symmetrically along equal paths; accordingly there is a bright band.
A very little to one side the asymmetry causes the waves to arrive
crest on trough, so that they cancel one another; here there is a dark
band. The width of the bands decreases as the separation of the two
apertures increases, and for any given separation the actual width is
easily calculated.
Each point of the star’s disk is giving rise to a diffraction image
with a system of bands of this kind, but so long as the disk is small
compared with the finest detail of the diffraction image there is no
appreciable blurring. If we continually increase the separation of the
two apertures and so make the bands narrower, there comes a time
when the bright bands for one part of the disk are falling on the dark
bands for another part of the disk. The band system then becomes
indistinct. It is a matter of mathematical calculation to determine the
resultant effect of summing the band systems for each point of the
disk. It can be shown that for a certain separation of the apertures
the bands will disappear altogether; and beyond this separation the
system should reappear though not attaining its original sharpness.
The complete disappearance occurs when the diameter of the star-
disk is equal to 1⅕ times the width of the bands (from the centre of
one bright band to the next). As already stated, the bandwidth can
be calculated from the known separation of the apertures.
The observation consists in sliding apart the two apertures until
the bands disappear. The diameter of the disk is inferred at once
from their separation when the disappearance occurred. Although
we measure the size of the disk in this way we never see the disk.
We can summarize the principle of the method in the following
way. The image of a point of light seen through a telescope is not a
point but a small diffraction pattern. Hence, if we look at an extended
object, say Mars, the diffraction pattern will blur the fine detail of the
marking on the planet. If, however, we are looking at a star which is
almost a point, it is simpler to invert the idea; the object, not being an
ideal point, will slightly blur the detail of the diffraction pattern. We
shall only perceive the blurring if the diffraction pattern contains
detail fine enough to suffer from it. Betelgeuse on account of its finite
size must theoretically blur a diffraction pattern; but the ordinary
diffraction disk and rings produced with the largest telescope are too
coarse to show this. We create a diffraction image with finer detail by
using two apertures. Theoretically we can make the detail as fine as
we please by increasing the separation of the two apertures. The
method accordingly consists in widening the separation until the
pattern becomes fine enough to be perceptibly blurred by
Betelgeuse. For a smaller star-disk the same effect of blurring would
not be apparent until the detail had been made still finer by further
separation of the apertures.
This method was devised long ago by Professor Michelson, but it
was only in 1920 that he tried it on a large scale with a great 20-foot
beam across the 100-inch reflector at Mount Wilson Observatory.
After many attempts Pease and Anderson were able to show that the
bright and dark bands for Betelgeuse disappeared when the
apertures were separated 10 feet. The deduced diameter is 0·045 a
second of arc in good enough agreement with the predicted value (p.
78). Only five or six stars have disks large enough to be measured
with this instrument. It is understood that the construction of a 50-
foot interferometer is contemplated; but even this will be insufficient
for the great majority of the stars. We are fairly confident that the
method of calculation first described gives the correct diameters of
the stars, but confirmation by Michelson’s more direct method of
measurement is always desirable.
To infer the actual size of the star from its apparent diameter, we
must know the distance. Betelgeuse is rather a remote star and its
distance cannot be measured very accurately, but the uncertainty will
not change the general order of magnitude of the results. The
diameter is about 300 million miles. Betelgeuse is large enough to
contain the whole orbit of the earth inside it, perhaps even the orbit
of Mars. Its volume is about fifty million times the volume of the sun.
There is no direct way of learning the mass of Betelgeuse
because it has no companion near it whose motion it might
influence. We can, however, deduce a mass from the mass-
brightness relation in Fig. 7. This gives the mass equal to 35 x sun. If
the result is right, Betelgeuse is one of the most massive stars—but,
of course, not massive in proportion to its bulk. The mean density is
about one-millionth of the density of water, or not much more than
one-thousandth of the density of air.[25]
 There is one way in which we might have inferred that
Betelgeuse is less dense than the sun, even if we had had no
grounds of theory or analogy for estimating its mass. According to
the modern theory of gravitation, a globe of the size of Betelgeuse
and of the same mean density as the sun would have some
remarkable properties:
Firstly, owing to the great intensity of its gravitation, light would be
unable to escape; and any rays shot out would fall back again to the
star by their own weight.
Secondly, the Einstein shift (used to test the density of the
Companion of Sirius) would be so great that the spectrum would be
shifted out of existence.
Thirdly, mass produces a curvature of space, and in this case the
curvature would be so great that space would close up round the
star, leaving us outside—that is to say, nowhere.
Except for the last consideration, it seems rather a pity that the
density of Betelgeuse is so low.

It is now well realized that the stars are a very important adjunct
to the physical laboratory—a sort of high-temperature annex where
the behaviour of matter can be studied under greatly extended
conditions. Being an astronomer, I naturally put the connexion
somewhat differently and regard the physical laboratory as a low-
temperature station attached to the stars. It is the laboratory
conditions which should be counted abnormal. Apart from the
interstellar cloud which is at the moderate temperature of about
15,000°, I suppose that nine-tenths of the matter of the universe is
above 1,000,000°. Under ordinary conditions—you will understand
my use of the word—matter has rather simple properties. But there
are in the universe exceptional regions with temperature not far
removed from the absolute zero, where the physical properties of
matter acquire great complexity; the ions surround themselves with
complete electron systems and become the atoms of terrestrial
experience. Our earth is one of these chilly places and here the
strangest complications can arise. Perhaps strangest of all, some of
these complications can meet together and speculate on the
significance of the whole scheme.
 LECTURE III
THE AGE OF THE STARS

W E have seen that spatially the scale of man is about midway between
the atom and the star. I am tempted to make a similar comparison as
regards time. The span of the life of a man comes perhaps midway in
scale between the life of an excited atom (p. 74) and the life of a star. For
those who insist on greater accuracy—though I would not like to claim
accuracy for present estimates of the life of a star—I will modify this a little.
As regards mass, man is rather too near to the atom and a stronger
claimant for the midway position would be the hippopotamus. As regards
time, man’s three score years and ten is a little too near to the stars and it
would be better to substitute a butterfly.
There is one serious moral in this fantasy. We shall have to consider
periods of time which appall our imagination. We fear to make such drafts
on eternity. And yet the vastness of the time-scale of stellar evolution is
less remote from the scale of human experience than is the minuteness of
the time-scale of the processes studied in the atom.
Our approach to the ‘age of the stars’ will be devious, and certain
incidental problems will detain us on the way.
 Pulsating Stars
The star δ Cephei is one of the variable stars. Like Algol, its fluctuating
light sends us a message. But the message when it is decoded is not in
the least like the message from Algol.
Let me say at once that experts differ as to the interpretation of the
message of δ Cephei. This is not the place to argue the matter, or to
explain why I think that rival interpretations cannot be accepted. I can only
tell you what is to the best of my belief the correct story. The interpretation
which I follow was suggested by Plummer and Shapley. The latter in
particular made it very convincing, and subsequent developments have, I
think, tended to strengthen it. I would not, however, claim that all doubt is
banished.
Algol turned out to be a pair of stars very close together which from
time to time eclipse one another; δ Cephei is a single star which pulsates.
It is a globe which swells and contracts symmetrically with a regular period
of 5⅓ days. And as the globe swells and contracts causing great changes
of pressure and temperature in the interior, so the issuing stream of light
rises and falls in intensity and varies also in quality or colour.
There is no question of eclipses; the light signals are not in the form of
‘dots’ and ‘dashes’; and in any case the change of colour shows that there
is a real change in the physical condition of the source of the light. But at
first explanations always assumed that two stars were concerned, and
aimed at connecting the physical changes with an orbital motion. For
instance, it was suggested that the principal star in going round its orbit
brushed through a resisting medium which heated its front surface; thus
the light of the star varied according as the heated front surface or cooler
rear surface was presented towards us. The orbital explanation has now
collapsed because it is found that there is literally no room for two stars.
The supposed orbit had been worked out in the usual way from
spectroscopic measurements of velocity of approach and recession; later
we began to learn more about the true size of stars, first by calculation,
and afterwards (for a few stars) by direct measurement. It turned out that
the star was big and the orbit small; and the second star if it existed would
have to be placed inside the principal star. This overlapping of the stars is
a reductio ad absurdum of the binary hypothesis, and some other
explanation must be found.
What had been taken to be the approach and recession of the star as a
whole was really the approach and recession of the surface as it heaved
up and down with the pulsation. The stars which vary like δ Cephei are
diffuse stars enormously larger than the sun, and the total displacement
measured amounts to only a fraction of the star’s radius. There is therefore
no need to assume a bodily displacement of the star (orbital motion); the
measures follow the oscillation of that part of the star’s surface presented
towards us.
The decision that δ Cephei is a single star and not double has one
immediate consequence. It means that the period of 5⅓ days is intrinsic in
the star and is therefore one of the clues to its physical condition. It is a
free period, not a forced period. It is important to appreciate the
significance of this. The number of sunspots fluctuates from a maximum to
minimum and back to maximum in a period of about 11½ years; although
we do not yet understand the reason for this fluctuation, we realize that this
period is something characteristic of the sun in its present state and would
change if any notable change happened to the sun. At one time, however,
there was some speculation as to whether the fluctuation of the sunspots
might not be caused by the revolution of the planet Jupiter, which has a
period not so very different; if that explanation had been tenable the 11½-
year period would have been something forced on the sun from without
and would teach us nothing as to the properties of the sun itself. Having
convinced ourselves that the light-period of δ Cephei is a free period of a
single star, belonging to it in the same way that a particular note belongs to
a tuning-fork, we can accept it as a valuable indicator of the constancy (or
otherwise) of the star’s physical condition.
In stellar astronomy we usually feel very happy if we can determine our
data—parallax, radius, mass, absolute brightness, &c.—to within 5 per
cent.; but the measurement of a period offers chances of far superior
accuracy. I believe that the most accurately known quantity in the whole of
science (excluding pure mathematics) is the moon’s mean period, which is
commonly given to twelve significant figures. The period of δ Cephei can
be found to six significant figures at least. By fastening an observable
period to the intrinsic conditions of a star we have secured an indicator
sensitive enough to show extremely small changes. You will now guess
why I am approaching ‘the age of the stars’ through the Cepheid variables.
Up to the present they are the only stars known to carry a sensitive
indicator, by which we might hope to test the rate of evolutionary change.
We believe that δ Cephei like other stars has condensed out of a nebula,
and that the condensation and contraction are still continuing. No one
would expect to detect the contraction by our rough determinations of the
radius even if continued for a hundred years; but the evolution must indeed
be slow if an intrinsic period measurable to 1 part in 10,000,000 shows no
change in a century.
It does not greatly matter whether or not we understand the nature of
this intrinsic period. If a star contracts, the period of pulsation, the period of
rotation, or any other free period associated with it, will alter. If you prefer
to follow any of the rival interpretations of the message of δ Cephei, you
can make the necessary alterations in the wording of my argument, but the
general verdict as to the rate of progress of evolution will be unchanged.
Only if you detach the period from the star itself by going back to the old
double star interpretation will the argument collapse; but I do not think any
of the rival interpreters propose to do that.
It is not surprising that these pulsating stars should be regarded with
special interest. Ordinary stars must be viewed respectfully like the objects
in glass cases in museums; our fingers are itching to pinch them and test
their resilience. Pulsating stars are like those fascinating models in the
Science Museum provided with a button which can be pressed to set the
machinery in motion. To be able to see the machinery of a star throbbing
with activity is most instructive for the development of our knowledge.
The theory of a steady star, which was described in the first lecture, can
be extended to pulsating stars; and we can calculate the free period of
pulsation for a star of assigned mass and density. You will remember that
we have already calculated the heat emission or brightness and compared
it with observation, obtaining one satisfactory test of the truth of the theory;
now we can calculate the period of pulsation and by comparing it with
observation obtain another test. Owing to lack of information as to a certain
constant of stellar material there is an uncertainty in the calculation
represented by a factor of about 2; that is to say, we calculate two periods,
one double the other, between which with any reasonable luck the true
period ought to lie. The observational confirmation is very good. There are
sixteen Cepheid variables on which the test can be made; their periods
range from 13 hours to 35 days, and they all agree with the calculated
values to within the limits of accuracy expected. In a more indirect way the
same confirmation is shown in Fig. 7 by the close agreement of the
squares, representing Cepheid variables, with the theoretical curve.
 The Cepheid as a ‘Standard Candle’
Cepheid variables of the same period are closely similar to one another.
A Cepheid of period 5⅓ days found in any part of the universe will be
practically a replica of δ Cephei; in particular it will be a star of the same
absolute brightness. This is a fact discovered by observation, and is not
predicted by any part of the theory yet explored. The brightness, as we
have seen, depends mainly on the mass; the period, on the other hand,
depends mainly on the density; so that the observed relation between
brightness and period involves a relation between mass and density.
Presumably this relation signifies that for a given mass there is just one
special density—one stage in the course of condensation of the star—at
which pulsations are liable to occur; at other densities the star can only
burn steadily.
This property renders the Cepheid extremely useful to astronomers. It
serves as a standard candle—a source of known light-power.
In an ordinary way you cannot tell the real brightness of a light merely
by looking at it. If it appears dim, that may mean either real faintness or
great distance. At night time on the sea you observe many lights whose
distance and real brightness you cannot estimate; your judgement of the
real brightness may be wrong by a factor of a quintillion if you happen to
mistake Arcturus for a ship’s light. But among them you may notice a light
which goes through a regular series of changes in a certain number of
seconds; that tells you that it is such-and-such a lighthouse, known to
project a light of so many thousand candlepower. You may now estimate
with certainty how far off it is—provided, of course, that there is no fog
intervening.
So, too, when we look up at the sky, most of the lights that we see
might be at any distance and have any real brightness. Even the most
refined measurements of parallax only succeed in locating a few of the
nearer lights. But if we see a light winking in the Cepheid manner with a
period of 5⅓ days, we know that it is a replica of δ Cephei and is a light of
700 sun-power. Or if the period is any other number of days we can assign
the proper sun-power for that period. From this we can judge the distance.
The apparent brightness, which is a combination of distance and true
brightness, is measured; then it is a simple calculation to answer the
question, At what distance must a light of 700 sun-power be placed in
order to give the apparent brightness observed? How about interference by
fog? Careful discussions have been made, and it appears that
notwithstanding the cosmical cloud in interstellar space there is ordinarily
no appreciable absorption or scattering of the starlight on its way to us.
With the Cepheids serving as standard candles distances in the stellar
universe have been surveyed far exceeding those reached by previous
methods. If the distances were merely those of the Cepheid variables
themselves that would not be so important, but much more information is
yielded.
Fig. 11[26] shows a famous star-cluster called ω Centauri. Amongst the
thousands of stars in the cluster no less than 76 Cepheid variables have
been discovered. Each is a standard candle serving to measure the
distance primarily of itself but also incidentally of the great cluster in which
it lies. The 76 gauges agree wonderfully among themselves, the average
deviation being less than 5 per cent. By this means Shapley found the
distance of the cluster to be 20,000 light years. The light messages which
we receive to-day were sent from the cluster 20,000 years ago.[27]
The astronomer, more than other devotees of science, learns to
appreciate the advantage of not being too near the objects he is studying.
The nearer stars are all right in their way, but it is a great nuisance being in
the very midst of them. For each star has to be treated singly and located
at its proper distance by elaborate measurements; progress is very
laborious. But when we determine the distance of this remote cluster, we
secure at one scoop the distances of many thousands of stars. The
distance being known, the apparent magnitudes can be turned into true
magnitudes, and statistics and correlations of absolute brightness and
colour can be ascertained. Even before the distance is discovered we can
learn a great deal from the stars in clusters which it is impracticable to find
out from less remote stars. We can see that the Cepheids are much above
the average brightness and are surpassed by relatively few stars. We can
ascertain that the brighter the Cepheid the longer is its period. We discover
that the brightest stars of all are red.[28] And so on. There is a reverse side
to the picture; the tiny points of light in the distant cluster are not the most
satisfactory objects to measure and analyse, and we could ill spare the
nearer stars; but the fact remains that there are certain lines of stellar
investigation in which remoteness proves to be an actual advantage, and
we turn from the nearer stars to objects fifty thousand light years away.
 About 80 globular clusters are known with distances ranging from
20,000 to 200,000 light years. Is there anything yet more remote? It has
long been suspected that the spiral nebulae,[29] which seem to be
exceedingly numerous, are outside our stellar system and form ‘island
universes’. The evidence for this has become gradually stronger, and now
is believed to be decisively confirmed. In 1924 Hubble discovered a
number of Cepheid variables in the great Andromeda nebula which is the
largest and presumably one of the nearest of the spirals. As soon as their
periods had been determined they were available as standard candles to
gauge the distance of the nebula. Their apparent magnitude was much
fainter than that of the corresponding Cepheids in globular clusters,
showing that they must be even more remote. Hubble has since found the
distance of one or two other spirals in the same way.
With the naked eye you can see the Andromeda nebula as a faint patch
of light. When you look at it you are looking back 900,000 years into the
past.
 The Contraction Hypothesis
The problem of providing sufficient supplies of energy to maintain the
sun’s output of light and heat has often been debated by astronomers and
others. In the last century it was shown by Helmholtz and Kelvin that the
sun could maintain its heat for a very long time by continually shrinking.
Contraction involves an approach or fall of the matter towards the centre;
gravitational potential energy is thus converted and made available as
heat. It was assumed that this was the sole resource since no other supply
capable of yielding anything like so large an amount was known. But the
supply is not unlimited, and on this hypothesis the birth of the sun must be
dated not more than 20,000,000 years ago. Even at the time of which I am
speaking the time-limit was found to be cramping; but Kelvin assured the
geologists and biologists that they must confine their outlines of terrestrial
history within this period.
About the beginning of the present century the contraction theory was
in the curious position of being generally accepted and generally ignored.
Whilst few ventured to dispute the hypothesis, no one seems to have had
any hesitation, if it suited him, in carrying back the history of the earth or
moon to a time long before the supposed era of the formation of the solar
system. Lord Kelvin’s date of the creation was treated with no more respect
than Archbishop Ussher’s.
The serious consequences of the hypothesis become particularly
prominent when we consider the diffuse stars of high luminosity; these are
prodigal of their energy and squander it a hundred or a thousand times
faster than the sun. The economical sun could have subsisted on its
contraction energy for 20,000,000 years, but for the high luminosity stars
the limit is cut down to 100,000 years. This includes most of the naked-eye
stars. Dare we believe that they were formed within the last 100,000
years? Is the antiquity of man greater than that of the stars now shining?
Do stars in the Andromeda nebula run their course in less time than their
light takes to reach us?
It is one thing to feel a limitation of time-scale irksome, ruling out ideas
and explanations which are otherwise plausible and attractive; it is another
thing to produce definite evidence against the time-scale. I do not think that
astronomers had in their own territory any weapon for a direct attack on the
Helmholtz-Kelvin hypothesis until the Cepheid variables supplied one. To
come to figures: δ Cephei emits more than 700 times as much heat as the
sun. We know its mass and radius, and we can calculate without difficulty
how fast the radius must contract in order to provide this heat. The
required rate is one part in 40,000 per annum. Now δ Cephei was first
observed carefully in 1785, so that in the time it has been under
observation the radius must have changed by one part in 300 if the
contraction hypothesis is right. You remember that we have in δ Cephei a
very sensitive indicator of any changes occurring in it, viz. the period of
pulsation; clearly changes of the above magnitude could not occur without
disturbing this indicator. Does the period show any change? It is doubtful;
there is perhaps sufficient evidence for a slight change, but it is not more
than ¹⁄₂₀₀th of the change demanded by the contraction hypothesis.
Accepting the pulsation theory, the period should diminish 17 seconds
every year—a quantity easily detectable. The actual change is not more
than one-tenth of a second per year. At least during the Cepheid stage the
stars are drawing on some source of energy other than that provided by
contraction.
On such an important question we should not like to put implicit trust in
one argument alone, and we turn to the sister sciences for other and
perhaps more conclusive evidence. Physical and geological investigations
seem to decide definitely that the age of the earth—reckoned from an
epoch which by no means goes back to its beginnings as a planet—is far
greater than the Helmholtz-Kelvin estimate of the age of the solar system.
It is usual to lay most stress on a determination of the age of the rocks
from the uranium-lead ratio of their contents. Uranium disintegrates into
lead and helium at a known rate. Since lead is unlike uranium in chemical
properties the two elements would not naturally be deposited together; so
that the lead found with uranium has presumably been formed by its
decomposition.[30] By measuring how much lead occurs with the uranium
we can determine how long ago the uranium was deposited. The age of
the older rocks is found to be about 1,200 million years; lower estimates
have been urged by some authorities, but none low enough to save the
contraction hypothesis. The sun, of course, must be very much older than
the earth and its rocks.
We seem to require a time-scale which will allow at least
10,000,000,000 years for the age of the sun; certainly we cannot abate our
demands below 1,000,000,000 years. It is necessary to look for a more
prolific source of energy to maintain the heat of the sun and stars through
this extended period. We can at once narrow down the field of search. No
source of energy is of any avail unless it liberates heat in the deep interior
of the star. The crux of the problem is not merely the provision for radiation
but the maintenance of the internal heat which keeps the gravitating mass
from collapsing. You will remember how in the first lecture we had to assign
a certain amount of heat at each point in the stellar interior in order to keep
the star in balance. But the internal heat is continually running away
towards the cooler outside and then escaping into space as the star’s
radiation. This, or its equivalent, must be put back if the star is to be kept
steady—if it is not to contract and evolve at the rate of the Kelvin time-
scale. And it is no use to put it back at the surface of the star—by
bombarding the star with meteors, for example. It could not flow up the
temperature-gradient, and so it would simply take the first opportunity of
escaping as additional radiation. You cannot maintain a temperature-
gradient by supplying heat at the bottom end. Heat must be poured in at
the top end, i. e. in the deep interior of the star.
Since we cannot well imagine an extraneous source of heat able to
release itself at the centre of a star, the idea of a star picking up energy as
it goes along seems to be definitely ruled out. It follows that the star
contains hidden within it the energy which has to last the rest of its life.
Energy has mass. Many people would prefer to say—energy is mass;
but it is not necessary for us to discuss that. The essential fact is that an
erg of energy in any form has a mass of 1·1. 10-21 grammes. The erg is the
usual scientific unit of energy; but we can measure energy also by the
gramme or the ton as we measure anything else which possesses mass.
There is no real reason why you should not buy a pound of light from an
electric light company—except that it is a larger quantity than you are likely
to need and at current rates would cost you something over £100,000,000.
If you could keep all this light (ether-waves) travelling to and fro between
mirrors forming a closed vessel, and then weigh the vessel, the observed
weight would be the ordinary weight of the vessel plus 1 lb. representing
the weight of the light. It is evident that an object weighing a ton cannot
contain more than a ton of energy; and the sun with a mass of 2.000
quadrillion tons (p. 24) cannot contain more than 2.000 quadrillion tons of
energy at the most.
Energy of 1·8. 1054 ergs has a mass 2. 1033 grammes which is the
mass of the sun; consequently that is the sum total of the energy which the
sun contains—the energy which has to last it all the rest of its life.[31] We
do not know how much of this is capable of being converted into heat and
radiation; if it is all convertible there is enough to maintain the sun’s
radiation at the present rate for 15 billion years. To put the argument in
another form, the heat emitted by the sun each year has a mass of 120
billion tons; and if this loss of mass continued there would be no mass left
at the end of 15 billion years.
 Subatomic Energy
This store of energy is, with insignificant exception, energy of
constitution of atoms and electrons; that is to say, subatomic energy. Most
of it is inherent in the constitution of the electrons and protons—the
elementary negative and positive electric charges—out of which matter is
built; so that it cannot be set free unless these are destroyed. The main
store of energy in a star cannot be used for radiation unless the matter
composing the star is being annihilated.
It is possible that the star may have a long enough life without raiding
the main energy store. A small part of the store can be released by a
process less drastic than annihilation of matter, and this might be sufficient
to keep the sun burning for 10,000,000,000 years or so, which is perhaps
as long as we can reasonably require. The less drastic process is
transmutation of the elements. Thus we have reached a point where a
choice lies open before us; we can either pin our faith to transmutation of
the elements, contenting ourselves with a rather cramped time-scale, or we
can assume the annihilation of matter, which gives a very ample time-
scale. But at present I can see no possibility of a third choice. Let me run
over the argument again. First we found that energy of contraction was
hopelessly inadequate; then we found that the energy must be released in
the interior of the star, so that it comes from an internal, not an external,
source; now we take stock of the whole internal store of energy. No supply
of any importance is found until we come to consider the electrons and
atomic nuclei; here a reasonable amount can be released by regrouping
the protons and electrons in the atomic nuclei (transmutation of elements),
and a much greater amount by annihilating them.
Transmutation of the elements—so long the dream of the alchemist—is
realized in the transformation of radio-active substances. Uranium turns
slowly into a mixture of lead and helium. But none of the known radio-
active processes liberate anything like enough energy to maintain the sun’s
heat. The only important release of energy by transmutation occurs at the
very beginning of the evolution of the elements.
We must start with hydrogen. The hydrogen atom consists simply of a
positive and negative charge, a proton for the nucleus plus a planet
electron. Let us call its mass 1. Four hydrogen atoms will make a helium
atom. If the mass of the helium atom were exactly 4, that would show that
all the energy of the hydrogen atoms remained in the helium atom. But
actually the mass is 3·97; so that energy of mass a 0·03 must have
escaped during the formation of helium from hydrogen. By annihilating 4
grammes of hydrogen we should have released 4 grammes of energy, but
by transmuting it into helium we release 0·03 grammes of energy. Either
process might be used to furnish the sun’s heat though, as we have
already stated, the second gives a much smaller supply.
The release of energy occurs because in the helium atom only two of
the four electrons remain as planet electrons, the other two being
cemented with the four protons close together in the helium nucleus. In
bringing positive and negative charges close together you cause a change
of the energy of the electric field, and release electrical energy which
spreads away as ether-waves. That is where the 0·03 grammes of energy
has gone. The star can absorb these ether-waves and utilize them as heat.
We can go on from helium to higher elements, but we do not obtain
much more release of energy. For example, an oxygen atom can be made
from 16 hydrogen atoms or 4 helium atoms; but as nearly as we can tell it
has just the weight of the 4 helium atoms, so that the release of energy is
not appreciably greater when the hydrogen is transmuted into oxygen than
when it is transmuted into helium.[32] This becomes clearer if we take the
mass of a hydrogen atom to be 1·008, so that the mass of helium is exactly
4 and of oxygen 16; then it is known from Dr. Aston’s researches with the
mass-spectrograph that the atoms of other elements have masses which
are very closely whole numbers. The loss of 0·008 per hydrogen atom
applies approximately whatever the element that is formed.
The view that the energy of a star is derived by the building up of other
elements from hydrogen has the great advantage that there is no doubt
about the possibility of the process; whereas we have no evidence that the
annihilation of matter can occur in Nature. I am not referring to the alleged
transmutation of hydrogen into helium in the laboratory; those whose
authority I accept are not convinced by these experiments. To my mind the
existence of helium is the best evidence we could desire of the possibility
of the formation of helium. The four protons and two electrons constituting
its nucleus must have been assembled at some time and place; and why
not in the stars? When they were assembled the surplus energy must have
been released, providing a prolific supply of heat. Prima facie this suggests
the interior of a star as a likely locality, since undoubtedly a prolific source
of heat is there in operation. I am aware that many critics consider the
conditions in the stars not sufficiently extreme to bring about the
transmutation—the stars are not hot enough. The critics lay themselves
open to an obvious retort; we tell them to go and find a hotter place.
But here the advantage seems to end. There are many astronomical
indications that the hypothesis attributing the energy of the stars to the
transmutation of hydrogen is unsatisfactory. It may perhaps be responsible
for the rapid liberation of energy in the earliest (giant) stages when the star
is a large diffuse body radiating heat abundantly; but the energy in later life
seems to come from a source subject to different laws of emission. There
is considerable evidence that as a star grows older it gets rid of a large
fraction of the matter which originally constituted it, and apparently this can
only be contrived by the annihilation of the matter. The evidence, however,
is not very coherent, and I do not think we are in a position to come to a
definite decision. On the whole the hypothesis of annihilation of matter
seems the more promising; and I shall prefer it in the brief discussion of
stellar evolution which I propose to give.
The phrase ‘annihilation of matter’ sounds like something supernatural.
We do not yet know whether it can occur naturally or not, but there is no
obvious obstacle. The ultimate constituents of matter are minute positive
charges and negative charges which we may picture as centres of
opposite kinds of strain in the ether. If these could be persuaded to run
together they would cancel out, leaving nothing except a splash in the
ether which spreads out as an electromagnetic wave carrying off the
energy released by the undoing of the strain. The amount of this energy is
amazingly large; by annihilating a single drop of water we should be
supplied with 200 horsepower for a year. We turn covetous eyes on this
store without, however, entertaining much hope of ever discovering the
secret of releasing it. If it should prove that the stars have discovered the
secret and are using this store to maintain their heat, our prospect of
ultimate success would seem distinctly nearer.
I suppose that many physicists will regard the subject of subatomic
energy as a field of airy speculation. That is not the way in which it
presents itself to an astronomer. If it is granted that the stars evolve much
more slowly than on the contraction-hypothesis, the measurement of the
output of subatomic energy is one of the commonest astronomical
measurements—the measurement of the heat or light of the stars.[33] The
collection of observational data as to the activity of liberation of subatomic
energy is part of the routine of practical astronomy; and we have to pursue
the usual course of arranging the measurements into some kind of
coherence, so as to find out how the output is related to the temperature,
density, or age of the material supplying it—in short, to discover the laws of
emission. From this point onwards the discussion may be more or less
hypothetical according to the temperament of the investigator; and indeed
it is likely that in this as in other branches of knowledge advances may
come by a proper use of the scientific imagination. Vain speculation is to be
condemned in this as in any other subject, and there is no need for it; the
problem is one of induction from observation with due regard to our
theoretical knowledge of the possibilities inherent in atomic structure.
I cannot pass from this subject without mentioning the penetrating
radiation long known to exist in our atmosphere, which according to the
researches of Kohlhörster and Millikan comes from outer space.
Penetrating power is a sign of short wave-length and intense concentration
of energy. Hitherto the greatest penetrating power has been displayed by
Gamma rays originated by subatomic processes occurring in radio-active
substances. The cosmic radiation is still more penetrating, and it seems
reasonable to refer it to more energetic processes in the atom such as
those suggested for the source of stellar energy. Careful measurements
have been made by Millikan, and he concludes that the properties accord
with those which should be possessed by radiation liberated in the
transmutation of hydrogen; it is not penetrating enough to be attributed to a
process so energetic as the annihilation of protons and electrons.
There seems to be no doubt that this radiation is travelling downwards
from the sky. This is shown by measurements of its strength at different
heights in the atmosphere and at different depths below the surface of
mountain lakes; it is weakened according to the amount of air or water that
it has had to traverse. Presumably its source must be extra-terrestrial. Its
strength does not vary with the sun’s altitude, so it is not coming from the
sun. There is some evidence that it varies according to the position of the
Milky Way, most radiation being received when the greatest extension of
the stellar system is overhead. It cannot come from the interior of the stars,
the penetrating power being too limited; all the hottest and densest matter
in the universe is shut off from us by impenetrable walls. At the most it
could come only from the outer rind of the stars where the temperature is
moderate and the density is low; but it is more likely that its main source is
in the diffuse nebulae or possibly in the matter forming the general cloud in
space.[34]
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