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THE JADIDS’ STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE
Eldor Boratov
Researcher of Karshi State University
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15401716
Annotation:
The Jadidism movement, its function in education, and its
progressive ideals of enlightenment are highlighted in this article. In the late 19
th
and early 20
th
centuries, the Jadidism movement arose in Central Asia as an
enlightenment movement. Its founders wanted to eradicate illiteracy and
advance society by combining secular and religious knowledge. The article
examines Mahmudhoja Behbudi’s and other Jadids’ attempts to educate and
increase public awareness through the creation of new-method schools,
newspaper and journal publishing, and play staging. The Jadids’ fight against
colonialism, the persecution and repression they endured under the Soviet
Union, and their goals for national liberation are also covered. The significance
of researching and taking lessons from the Jadids’ legacy in contemporary
Uzbekistan is emphasised in the article.
Key words:
jadidism, enlightenment, education, spirituality, justice,
freedom, culture, human dignity, revolution.
The Jadidism movement is a cultural-educational and social-political
movement that made a fundamental turn in all directions for its time. A layer of
national intellectuals capable of making a historical turn had emerged. At first,
they put forward the idea that it is possible to join the ranks of progressive
countries through the awakening of the people, modern education and training.
Along with religious subjects, they began to organize the teaching of secular
subjects in educational institutions, to compile and publish the curricula of these
subjects. They made the issue of education and training their main task.
Mahmudhoja Behbudi emphasized how necessary secular sciences are for the
people and said: “To survive in the world, secular science and knowledge are
necessary, a nation without modern science and science will be destroyed by
others” [1].
In order to reform the education system, the Jadids jointly organized a fund
with the support of wealthy intellectuals and sent young people to study abroad.
Unfortunately, the fate of those who studied abroad was miserable during the
Soviet era. At first, those who returned after completing their studies were
imprisoned, they were punished for fabricating various political fabrications.
The last group could not return home.
In order to awaken the people, modern writers widely used social satire
and humor. They read and wrote about how illiterate and uninterested in
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science the people are, and how they spend their time on meaningless activities.
In particular, Abdulla Qadiri wrote in his poem “Our situation”:
“Behold our plight, how we lie in ignorance,
We sell conscience for money when it comes.
Neither manners, nor science, nor good words to our son,
Nor do we teach the people who have the command of God.
Our work consisted of this at this time,
We spend ten days raising quails in summer and winter.
And smoking weed poppy seeds every day,
Let’s put a mold on the baby and play with oh-oh-oh.
We’re old, we’re old, maybe we’re in a good time,
If we suddenly see, we will kill a man.
If it turns out to be good for the nation,
We count it as a moment and shoot together until the storm.
Come on, young people, intellectuals, be enthusiastic this day.
We will wake up those who are sleeping if we can” [2].
After Tsarist Russia conquered Central Asia and incorporated a large part of
it into its structure, the progressive thinkers of the nation thought about the
reasons for defeat and colonization. Even the common people began to think
that why divine justice did not protect the believers from the infidels, that means
they forgot some of Allah’s requirements. Advanced intellectuals and even
progressive religious scholars came to the conclusion that Islam is a religion of
science, that we have forgotten science, development, work aimed at creativity,
and we have remained in the grip of backward customs, misinterpreted lust,
contentment, and patience. They put forward the idea of educating and
enlightening the people, reforming the educational system in general.
The idea of Jadidism is based on the desire to establish justice, educate the
people in order to free them from darkness and tyranny, and make them legally
and politically enlightened. The Jadids worked to establish a just state where
people live independently and freely.
Tsarist Russia considered the Jadidist movement in the Muslim lands as an
enemy of its policy. He persecuted them throughout his life with all kinds of
slanders, arrested them by organizing conspiracies, and exiled them. The Soviet
state even sentenced most of them to be shot. Jadid killed his leaders and did not
reveal their graves, or if they had died and buried before, he insulted them in
their graves. An example of this is the grave of Ismail Gasprinsky, a son of the
Crimean Tatar people, the founder of Jadidism. Begali Kasimov writes in the
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book “Enlightenment of the Awakened Nation” that the Soviet state: “Destroyed
his grave in Salachik (Bokghasaray) and built a piggery on top of it. He placed a
“lunatic asylum” in a legendary, beautiful and holy corner... “Zanjirli” madrasa,
where he worked... was turned into a toilet” [3]. Why was it necessary to
humiliate this person so much? The fact is that Ismail Gasprinsky founded
Jadidism, which gradually turned into a national liberation movement, called for
unity among the Russian Empire and neighboring Turkic peoples, and for this
purpose founded the newspaper “Interpretator” (Tarjimon), which was
distributed among these peoples.
He tried to preserve the language and culture of the Turkic peoples,
introduce them to their history, develop their worldview and teach them to
think modernly. For this, first of all, he opened schools under the new name
“Usuli Jadid” to enlighten the people and teach secular subjects to students.
Mahmudhoja Behbudi, the leader of Turkestan Jadids, established a press
and a theater with the aim of informing the people about the lack of schools that
are being established in order to share enlightenment, to express their identity,
that the people are trapped in their ignorance due to ignorance, and also about
the events happening in the world.
Behbudi founded “Samarkand” newspaper and “Oyna” magazines and
published articles devoted to legal and political enlightenment of the people.
Through the drama “Padarkush”, he called on parents to educate their children
in an educated and moral manner.
The progressives of the Jadids put forward the idea that it is difficult to
achieve justice and freedom only through enlightenment, and that it is necessary
to prepare the people for direct struggle. These were ardent fighters like
Abdurauf Fitrat, Munavvar Qori Abdurashidkhanov, Cholpon.
Abdurauf Fitrat said in one of his famous poems “The Star of Mirrih”:
Do people like us exist?
Two-faced criminals, devils.
Leeches who drank the blood of their comrades without bleeding,
Brother carnivorous tigers?
Do you have the blood of the poor?
Those who drank like chumps?
Do you have the whole world?
Those who broke their wallets?
Have you burned a country?
Hogans who boil their own pot?
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Do you have a stomach, on the way to the stomach?
Those who sold your family, your country, everything?” [4].
One of the representatives of Jadid, the poet Cholpon, considered the task of
fiction, his poetic duty, to awaken the people from the sleep of ignorance, to call
them to fight for freedom:
Who are the angels crying in my heart?
Mothers and youths of the East?
Who are these souls that cry before me?
Are slaves the people of your country?
Injustice is not only when the human dignity of the people was destroyed
by the colonizers, but it also reveals that the people are suffering from the pain
of bigotry, ignorance and slavery within us:
It’s others who laugh, I’m the one who cries
Others who play, I’m the one who moans.
The other who heard the tales of men,
I’m the one who listened to the song of slavery... [5].
The Jadids had high hopes for the February Revolution in Russia, and then
for the October Revolution. He considered the thesis of the Bolsheviks, especially
Lenin, that “every nation should determine its own destiny” to be very fair. But
their hopes faded after the “Kokan Autonomy” was crushed and soaked in blood.
Jadids themselves were persecuted. The Soviet state, Marxist ideology looked at
the concept of justice with the eyes of classism and partisanship. Whatever
benefits the proletariat is fair. He considered that law is a relative concept, there
is no abstract fair law, it is a bit of nonsense. Based on these views, Jadid
persecuted the enlightened ones and forced them to sympathize with their
policies. Those who did not follow this path were punished with various
fabrications, most of them were shot.
In new Uzbekistan, the study of the scientific heritage of our ancestors is
being encouraged again. “Jadid” newspaper has been launched since January 1,
2024. The more we study the scientific heritage of the ancient enlighteners, the
more our thinking grows.
References:
1.
Islam Karimov. High Spirituality – An Invincible Force. Spirituality. 2016.
P. 95.
2.
Jadid Newspaper. January 1, 2024, No. 1(1). P. 7.
3.
Begali Qosimov. The Enlightenment of the Awakened Nation. -Tashkent:
“Ma’naviyat”, 2011. P. 181.
4.
Fitrat // https://e-tarix.uz/milliyat-insholari/maqolalar/749-maqola.html
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5.
Uzbek Literature of the National Awakening Period. Ma’naviyat – T. 2004.
P. 287.
6.
Sobirovich, T. B. (2024). Renewal of Societal Ideosphere: An Analytical
Study of Medieval Philosophical Thought. Philosophy, 8(3), 12-18.
7.
Turdiev, B. S. (2024). Balancing national and universal perspectives: the
dialectical dynamics in society’s ideosphere. Asian Journal of Basic Science &
Research, 6(3), 59-65.
8.
Sobirovich, T. B. (2020). Evolution of ideas and views on the development
of democratic society and spiritual renewals. Scientific Bulletin of Namangan
State University, 10, 243-250.
