IEvery spring, as the figs ripen, a small army of gamblers, thieves, kings, sex workers, fruit-sellers, bakers and cooks emerged from the vast emptiness of the Taklamakan desert. “Whoever is in need and makes a pilgrimage to this blessed tomb and enlivens the place and boils the pots, and lights the lamps, and prays and praises,” an ancient devotional text promised People, “their needs in the world and in the afterlife will be met.”
“They are busy, not making pilgrimages or circumambulating the temple,” historian Ryan Thum has recorded A holy Kashgar writer murmured a century ago, “but with his own professions and business.” “For them, it’s the same whether they’re in a chinaman’s coat or in a temple.”
Over the centuries, these shrines helped cement the identity of the Uighurs—the Turkic Muslim people living in Xinjiang, China. Then, at the beginning of this century, they began to disappear. In late 2007, when Tham tried to visit the Ordam Padshah Temple, he was stopped by the police, who told him that there was “some secret” in the desert. Imam Asim Ali Dargah near Hotan literally disappeared, satellite imaging shown,
For some, the policies of the People’s Republic of China in Xinjiang-hijab ban And other displays of personal religiosity, bans on madrassas, demolition and harsh sentences for sedition—may seem like a model for how India should deal with its own struggles over identity and Islam. However, instead of bringing about unification, China’s policies have devastated a people and created an autocracy – thus laying the foundation for the hatred of future generations.
The destruction of the Uighuru
Earlier this week, a report by the United National High Commissioner for Human Rights accused China of systematically using state power. Uyghur identity erasure, China’s government declined to share figures with the UNHCR, but its report points to expert estimates that one in five ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang were detained in 2017-2018. UN investigators were told that sexual violence was endemic in the camps, as well as inmates held in the so-called ‘tiger chairs’.
The camps were designed as production lines for patriotism: “We were forced to sing patriotic song after patriotic song every day,” said one former prisoner, “as long as possible and for as long as it hurts.” Not until our faces turn red and our veins are visible.”
Xinjiang’s mass incarceration program has targeted individuals suspected of extremist sympathies: long beards, refusal to watch television, or wearing certain types of clothing can lead to prison sentences. In a bizarre case, documented in a report to the United Nations by Researcher Bahram SintashiThe Islamic dome of the Bahar Department Store was first concealed under a less-Islamic octagonal structure, and then completely removed.
Even though the Chinese government insists it remains committed to bilingual education, UNHCR investigators record the existence of documents urging schools to teach only Mandarin in primary, primary and middle school.
Chinese government in UNHCR’s response The report dismisses the allegations as “false and fabricated”. The response claims that extraordinary measures were needed because terrorists carried out “several thousand terrorist attacks in Xinjiang from 1990 to 2016”, in which “a large number of innocent people were killed and several hundred police officers were killed.”
Faced with a growing jihadist movement, it is argued, China was left with no option but to restructure itself. Secular, national culture.
Read also: New study sheds light on ‘central role’ of Xinjiang paramilitary group in Uyghur genocide
Xinjiang’s turbulent modernity
Like much hype, this story is notable for its omissions. From the late 1950s, millions of ethnic Han workers began arriving in Xinjiang, mainly to work on roads and infrastructure of strategic value. Economic development across China led to a sharp increase in investment in Xinjiang in the 1990s as part of government-run modernization plans. from 2000 to 2009 alone, Fixed investment in Xinjiang That added up to 1.4 trillion yuan, or $200 billion – of which more than 80 percent was provided by the government.
The tidal wave of cash also increased ethno-religious tensions. Xinjiang’s booming cotton industry eroded the aquifers on which local farmers depended. It has become easier for educated migrants to get high paying jobs. The local business elite were displaced by the new settlers. Uighurs became a minority.
For many of them, experts Graham Fuller has conceptually notedUrumqi’s new horizon was “not as a symbol of national pride, but as a symbol of their ethnic and religious humiliation, and as a monument to their own eventual displacement.”
Since the early 20th century, Xinjiang has been influenced by Islamist movements in southern and western Asia. Indian Educated Han Weilong, The demographic and economic crisis faced by the Uighurs empowered the religious right. In 2009, large-scale ethnic riots broke out, in which a knife-wielding mob killed 197 people. This was followed by a suicide attack in 2014.
From May 2014, the government launched a hard strike on the Uighurs. it followed a secret speech by President Xi Jinping, where he urged the authorities to act without mercy.
The Chinese government claims that its policies are successful. Since 2016, there has been no terrorist violence in Xinjiang, and the government claims that the last intern “Graduate” from retraining three years later. However, the widespread repression in Xinjiang shows that the regime is still concerned. Large numbers of Uighur jihadists jihadi appeared on the battlefield From Syria to Afghanistan, and China knows they may one day return.
Read also: Monitoring state is not secure. Indian governments need to get this
tension of faith
Led by drummers, thousands of processions gathered in Ordum Padshah every year to mark the martyrdom of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the first imam of Shia religion. Waving flags from their hometowns, great processions would march towards the temple using music, dance and chanting to transport its members to blissful states. Swedish diplomat Gunnar Jaring celebrated “Weeping and weeping in honor of the holy martyrs” with some disdain: “religious bigotry,” he recorded.
Pandit Rahil Daut offer This alternative reading: For the vulnerable peasant people besieged by drought and hardship, he said, the temple was a place “that could save them from calamity, where they could bring out their innermost feelings, where they seek cures for diseases”. where their souls may be saved, and also as a place they may seek bliss.”
There is little clarity on why the Chinese authorities launched their campaign against the shrines. journalist Alice Su has noted That political Islam has also been tolerated among ethnic Hui Muslims, with neo-radical magazines and academic circles flourishing on the fringes. The reasons may lie in politics. The Hui, unlike the Uighurs, never sought independence and the study of their leadership has been apolitical.
Some happened clerics, A worker told Sueare related to jihad, focusing instead on the questions: “Is your iPhone 6 or 6S? What kind of car are you driving?”
The wrath of the People’s Republic, Rian Tham speculates, may also have descended on Xinjiang’s temples and mosques because of their ability to mobilize large groups of people—not because of a specific ideological problem.
As in Tibet, the Chinese state may well succeed in crushing Xinjiang: the brutal realities of demography and police power mean that a real threat to the state is unlikely to ever emerge. Victory is not without consequences, however. The equipment manufactured and honored by the Chinese state in Xinjiang will have consequences for all the people of the country. Furthermore, efforts to eliminate Uighur identity have not resulted in much integration or equality.
“They made the desolation and called it peace,” Roman The historian Tacitus wrote About the royal victory over Britain. This is how Xi’s victory in Xinjiang will be remembered.
The author is ThePrint’s National Security Editor. He tweeted @praveenswami. Thoughts are personal.