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Paper abstract:

My paper approaches identity shifts among Uzbeks, Tajiks and Afghans, from a comparative angle by critically examining how these groups were represented in the precolonial, colonial and nationalist historiographies. This paper is part of my PhD dissertation research, which is about "language and nationalism in Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan". A detailed examination of precolonial historiographies reveal that Mawara al-Nahrian and Khurasani identities as well as other forms of belonging such as identification with a city, region or clan prevailed in both Central Asia and Afghanistan. The Arrival of Western (both British and Russian) orientalists offered the possibility to re-imagine self and others from a fresh angle. Groups depending on their degree of exposure to colonial/orientalist knowledge were internalizing and recycling orientalists; thoughts about self and others. At the start of the twentieth century, the rise of constitutionalist movements in the Ottoman, Iran and Russia, and access to print-capitalism created an opportunity for the literati and members of the ruling group to mobilize people around new ideas. Nationalist historiographies deploying colonial knowledge (in adapted, mediated and appropriated manner) helped fixate identities which were fluid, multiple and at places very hybrid.

For this research, I have studied numerous Persian manuscripts produced in Bukhara, Khuqand, Khwarezm, Kabul, Tehran, and British India within the time frame of the nineteenth century. I have also studied travelogues written by Iranian, British and Russian writers to add the orientalist perspectives. I have then delved into leading newspapers such as Bukhara-i Sharif, Shu‘lah-i Enqilab, Siraj al-Akhbar, Ayinah and Aman-i Afghan. At last, I have compared publications of leading pioneers of Uzbek, Tajik and Afghan nationalism (Abd al-Ra’uf Fitrat, Sadr al-Din ‘Ayni and Mahmud Tarzi) in order to grasp the identity shift in intelligentsia of three eras. This is not attempted before. I believe that my paper endorses a fresh way of looking at identity in the context of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan. It would also contribute to the comparative study of Persian/Perisianate literature.