Paper short abstract:

This paper examines historical narratives and collective memory of Azerbaijan society in the 1950s-60s to understand how social dissatisfaction and grievances interpreted as nationalism by political establishment of modern Azerbaijan.

Paper long abstract:

Modern Azerbaijan historiography claims that the last two centuries Azerbaijani nation was in struggle against the Russian invasion that brought ethnic and religious tension, especially long-term Azerbaijan-Armenian confrontation, into the region. National narratives argue that oppression of the local Moslem community, which reached its highest-level during Stalin’s repressions, was caused strong anti-Russian sentiments and nationalistic feelings at the Khrushchev Thaw. However, primary sources both written and oral, don’t support these claims and reveal social rather than national nature of main discontent. This paper examines historical narratives and collective memory of Azerbaijan society in the 1950s-60s to understand how social dissatisfaction and grievances interpreted as nationalism by political establishment and national historiography; and how this interpretation strengthens present-day political elite. I argue that political establishment of the soviet Azerbaijan encouraged misinterpretation of social thoughts at least for two reasons: (1) to justify its failed governance in the eyes of the native population; and (2) to demonstrate its importance as a strong intermediator between periphery and center in the eyes of Kremlin. Various types of archival documents historical narratives were applied in this research for assessing the significance of the different sources in shaping collective memory. Interviews and survey conducted with the different social groups of modern Azerbaijan society are proving how effectively political power correcting national memory. The findings demonstrate that political elite of modern Azerbaijan having deep connection with former communist leadership effectively conceptualizes collective memory through official historiography to achieve consensus between power and society.

Paper short abstract:

The paper examines the philosophical paradigm that guides the engagement of the Ismaili Imamat institutions in the rebuilding of Afghanistan and strategies that helped the agencies to make significant contribution to improving the quality of life of poor people in rural and urban areas.

Paper long abstract:

Proposal for Paper Submission

Central Eurasian Studies Society

CESS 7th Summer Conference in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

June 23-26, 2022

The Role of the Ismaili Imamat in Rebuilding Afghanistan’s Shattered Infrastructure: 1996 to Present

Hafizullah Emadi, Ph.D.

Former academician and scholar and consultant

E-mail address: hafizullah_emadi@yahaoo.com

Abstract

The paper examines the philosophical paradigm that guides the Ismaili Imamat approaches in provision of humanitarian assistance to communities affected by natural disaster and war and examines how the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) despite continued political instability and ethno-sectarian conflicts in Afghanistan manages to work with marginalized communities and establishes partnership with the national government and international community to rebuild Afghanistan’s shattered infrastructures.

Although a number of International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) were involved in development projects in Afghanistan, their efforts neither yielded tangible results in improving the quality of life nor gained the support of the local communities and they were forced to close down their offices when the Taliban seized power in August 2022. INGOs driven by sectarian beliefs such as Shelter Now International and others used development aid as instruments to convert people to the Christian faith. These agencies failed to establish organic links with the community because people did not appreciate their condescending and patronizing attitudes toward them and rejected aid with strings attached. In contrast to such approaches, the Ismaili Imamat institutions had adopted an inclusive policy with respect to the local values and way of life and seeking peoples’ views and making them part of the decision-makers and implementers of the projects. Pluralism and diversity constitute the guiding principle of the Ismaili Imamat approach to development and engagement with local communities irrespective of their respective belief system.

The paper is based on review of existing published and unpublished materials. A dialogical approach supplemented the conventional research methodology involving discussions with both people in charge of development agencies and beneficiaries of the projects in urban and rural areas in Afghanistan. Such an open-ended dialogical approach helps to avoid too much of a reliance on published materials; such reliance on literature alone would encourage acceptance of existing interpretations of developments and change in the country.

The paper’s main contribution to the existing literature on the community and regional development is that how the values of integrity and dignity and respect are at the forefront of AKDN’s work, with the traditional Muslim concepts of cosmopolitanism and social justice guiding its response to the stark challenges of the modern age.

Paper short abstract:

This thesis is devoted to the process of Soviet secularization of Uzbekistan and its consequences in the modern period. This analysis reveals the fact that the Soviet government, under the guise of secularization, pursued a completely opposite policy in relation to the trend that was in the world.

Paper long abstract:

Secularism as an element of European civilization was introduced into the life of Turkestan during the course of colonial policy.

In the interest of the colonial countries in relation to Turkestan, the factor of Islam has always been a difficult task requiring special experience, knowledge and a policy on which the entire content of colonization depended. Secularism as a process in the practice of Western countries is understood as a balancing process of rapprochement of religion and the construction of the state in the name of combining common interests, in the name of the nation and nation-building. Or rather, according to J. Habermas, the “two-way and complementary learning process” between the religious and secular part of society, sometimes even through mutual self-restraint". Because secularism was not initially understood as atheism as it was in the Soviet ideology. On the contrary, "Secularity is not atheism and not the dominance of only secular discourse, but the equality of the religious and secular sides of society" (Dialectics of Secularization. About Mind and religion, 2006).

The Soviet type secularism, which was accompanied by the Russification of the indigenous system of education, culture, collectivization, repression, starvation, through the system of atheism, strangled not only the spiritual values that lay on the basis of religious identity, but also the national elements of this identity.

This analysis reveals the fact that the Soviet government, under the guise of secularization, conducted a completely opposite policy in relation to the trend that was happening around the world. For the secularization of the West did not contradict the self-improvement of the qualitative religious identity of the builders of nation states. It is this approach that answers the question most of all, why is the state building process very difficult in independent Uzbekistan today.