Uyghurs in Uzbekistan: Strangers Among Alike?

Abstract

This thesis examines the developments in the Uyghur community, precisely why their number dropped significantly in post-Soviet Uzbekistan, and what role in this respect formal nationality plays. One of the most obvious issues in literature is the decline in the number of Uyghurs in Uzbekistan between 1989-2001. Scholarly work point to the fact that the decline occurred not due to mass-scale migration, but rather due to a change of formal nationality by many Uyghurs. This research aims to find possible explanations for this development through a theory of nationalism, precisely ethno-nationalism, social identity theory, and the concept of ethnocracy, whereby the state is controlled by a dominant ethnic group to further its interests, power, and resources. There are three stages to this argument. I start by addressing the conflicting hypotheses for the disappearance of the Uyghur minority. In contrast to the Soviet era, there is a paradoxical link between increased democratization and the disappearance of a minority (i.e. Uyghurs). The literature on ethnocracy and its relationships to nation- building, nationalism, and culture served as a major source of inspiration for my conceptual framework, which I will go on to propose in light of the lack of a compelling response to this contradiction in the mainstream discourse. To better comprehend the connections between democratization (or at least the lack of repression) and yet another cultural group that is vanishing, I evaluate the results of my field study in the third section (i.e. Uyghurs). My three key findings are as follows:

1. Type of nationalism (ethno-nationalism) in Uzbekistan lead to favoritism towards dominant ethnic group – Uzbeks, thus enabling ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs to alter their formal nationality.

2. The change of formal nationality in the passport does not necessarily mean cultural assimilation, but paradoxically, the preservation of Uyghur culture in a tacit way. 3. The change of nationality seems to be neither an act of resistance, nor submission to the state, but rather an act of finding freedom or the room of manoeuvre in the shadow of China’s global persecution and repressions of Uyghurs. 4. Paradoxically, the change of formal nationality gives the sense of belonging to a historically same cultural roots (Chagatai), and allow to avoid the trap of “self” vs. “other” implied by the crystallization of a group’s social identity, (which makes the Uyghur case in Uzbekistan so more fascinating). As a result, it demonstrates how the process of nation-building, which started during the Soviet times has become significantly influenced by ethnocentric statecraft methods that have unintentionally led to dynamics of dominance and exclusion. This work utilizes the exploratory research methodology, inductive and qualitative to address the questions posed by this work since the topic is not well studied previously. Analysis of secondary sources and interviews will be conducted with the Uyghur community in Uzbekistan, to explore the reasons behind changing formal nationality. This thesis contends that the Uyghur community has been steadily disappearing because of the nation-building process.