Akhil Bakshi: Orphans of History (Uighurs)
[Akhil Bakshi is a staff writer for Indian Express.com.]
Uighurs are unlike any other people in the annals of mankind: they do not trace their origins to neolithic times. They do not claim that antiquity is littered with their linguistic and cultural traces. Or that they have cantered, sabres drawn, the length and breadth of Asia. They have no enviable history, rich in incident, worth recording or writing about. This vacuum in Uighur history has invariably led their Chinese masters to write their own version and use it to perpetuate power. At every turn the Uighurs are told that it is only China that prevents them from falling prey to foreign aggressions of the kind they endured in days gone by.
A large part of known Uighur history has been their disagreeable brush with China. About 2,000 years ago, when the earliest reference was made to Kashgar, the region was under Chinese domination. Off and on the Chinese lost power over the region. Tibetans, the Kharakhanid Khanate, Mongols under Chingiz, and Uzbeks under Timur — all held sway over the region during different periods. Himalayan Buddhism flourished here from 2nd to 10th century. In the 16th century, Kashgar was ruled by the Khojas of Uzbekistan. The ensuing theological split was exploited by the Qing Dynasty of China that intervened and moved into the region in the 1800s. The instinctive determination of the Chinese to bring the Uighur under central control provoked an Uighur uprising. Yakub Beg, a boy dancer-cum-soldier, organised the Muslims and ruled lavishly from Kashgar to Urumqi, Turfan and Hami from 1866-1877. He declared independence and concluded treaties with both Britain and Russia. It took a 60,000-strong Chinese Army three years to evict Yakub Beg, now a symbol of Muslim separatism in Xinjiang.
Time has not silenced the voices of separatism. As the recent ethnic violence in Urumqi shows, the eagerness of the Uighurs to cut loose from China has not waned. Fifteen years ago I had entered Xinjiang from Kyrgyzstan, across the Tien Shan Mountains. At the border post Mohammed Ali sought my acquaintance. He could speak some Urdu and practiced it on the busloads of Pakistanis that arrived daily from Gilgit, 450 km away. Proudly proclaiming that he was a Mohammedan Turki and not a Chinese, he complained that the Chinese were harassing the Muslims. Today was Friday and he was not allowed to read the namaaz, for Chinese do not encourage Muslims to pray in the mosque. ...
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Uighurs are unlike any other people in the annals of mankind: they do not trace their origins to neolithic times. They do not claim that antiquity is littered with their linguistic and cultural traces. Or that they have cantered, sabres drawn, the length and breadth of Asia. They have no enviable history, rich in incident, worth recording or writing about. This vacuum in Uighur history has invariably led their Chinese masters to write their own version and use it to perpetuate power. At every turn the Uighurs are told that it is only China that prevents them from falling prey to foreign aggressions of the kind they endured in days gone by.
A large part of known Uighur history has been their disagreeable brush with China. About 2,000 years ago, when the earliest reference was made to Kashgar, the region was under Chinese domination. Off and on the Chinese lost power over the region. Tibetans, the Kharakhanid Khanate, Mongols under Chingiz, and Uzbeks under Timur — all held sway over the region during different periods. Himalayan Buddhism flourished here from 2nd to 10th century. In the 16th century, Kashgar was ruled by the Khojas of Uzbekistan. The ensuing theological split was exploited by the Qing Dynasty of China that intervened and moved into the region in the 1800s. The instinctive determination of the Chinese to bring the Uighur under central control provoked an Uighur uprising. Yakub Beg, a boy dancer-cum-soldier, organised the Muslims and ruled lavishly from Kashgar to Urumqi, Turfan and Hami from 1866-1877. He declared independence and concluded treaties with both Britain and Russia. It took a 60,000-strong Chinese Army three years to evict Yakub Beg, now a symbol of Muslim separatism in Xinjiang.
Time has not silenced the voices of separatism. As the recent ethnic violence in Urumqi shows, the eagerness of the Uighurs to cut loose from China has not waned. Fifteen years ago I had entered Xinjiang from Kyrgyzstan, across the Tien Shan Mountains. At the border post Mohammed Ali sought my acquaintance. He could speak some Urdu and practiced it on the busloads of Pakistanis that arrived daily from Gilgit, 450 km away. Proudly proclaiming that he was a Mohammedan Turki and not a Chinese, he complained that the Chinese were harassing the Muslims. Today was Friday and he was not allowed to read the namaaz, for Chinese do not encourage Muslims to pray in the mosque. ...