Islam in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives - Islamic Books ...

1 7 4Islam i n World Cult u r e sdifferent attempts at independence: the proclamations of an “East Tu r k i s t a nRepublic” in Kashgar in 1933 and another in Yining in 1944 (Benson 1990). AsAndrew Forbes has noted, these rebellions and attempts at self-rule did little tobridge competing political, religious, and regional differences among the Tu r-kic people who became known as the Uyghur (Forbes 1986, 29). Furthermore,Justin Rudelson’s (1997) research suggests that regional diversity persistsalong three, and perhaps four, macro-regions of Uyghuristan: the northwesternZungharian plain, the southern Tarim basin, the southwest Pamir region,and possibly the eastern Kumul-Turpan-Hami corridor.Uyghur Indigeneity and the Challenge to Chinese SovereigntyThe Chinese Nationalists, in a Soviet-influenced policy of nationality recognition,identified five nationalities (minzu) of China, with the Han in the majority.The “ethnogenesis” of the concept of “Uyghur” as a bona fide nationalityand the recognition of the Uyghur as an official Chinese nationality (minzu)has contributed to today’s widespread acceptance of the idea that there iscontinuity with the ancient Uyghur kingdom. The minzu policy was continuedunder the Communists, who eventually recognized fifty-six nationalities, withthe Han occupying a 91 percent majority in 1990. The “peaceful liberation”of Xinjiang by the Chinese Communists in 1949, and its subsequent establishmentas the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region on October 1, 1955, perpetuatedthe Nationalist policy of recognizing the Uyghur as a minority nationalityunder Chinese rule (Shahidi 1984). However, the designation of theUyghur as a “nationality” masks tremendous regional and linguistic diversity.For it also includes groups, such as the Loplyk and Dolans, that have very littlein common with the oasis-based Turkic Muslims who had come to beknown as the Uyghur. At the same time, contemporary Uyghur separatistslook back to the brief periods of independent self-rule under Yakub Beg andthe East Turkistan Republics, in addition to the earlier glories of the Uyghurkingdoms in Turpan and Karabalghasan, as evidence of their rightful claimsto the region.To d a y, in 2004, a number of Uyghur separatist organizations exist, basedmainly in foreign cities, including Istanbul, Ankara, Almaty, Munich, Amsterdam,Melbourne, and Washington, D.C. These groups may differ on their politicalgoals and strategies for the region, but they all share a common vision ofa unilinear Uyghur claim on the region that has been disrupted by Chineseand Soviet intervention. The achievement of independence by the former SovietCentral Asian republics in 1991 has done much to encourage theseUyghur organizations in their hopes for an independent “Turkistan,” despitethe fact that the new, mainly Muslim, Central Asian governments all signed