CHAPTER 3 Politicization of National Discourse (1930s)

This chapter explores the transformation of the early modern Turkic intelligentsia’s national agitation during the 1910s and 1920s into a discourse of national interest anchored in political and nationalist terminology in 1930s. The shift was related to the rebellion that broke out in Komul in 1931 and even- tually led to the brief establishment of the Republic in 1933–34 in . The East Turkestani nationalist creed was dispersed through publi- cations that contained a rich discourse on the national identity and interest of Xinjiang Turkic Muslims. This chapter first draws on research done on Turkic magazines published in Kashgar in 1933–34, namely the Life of East Turkestan (Sherqiy Türkistan Hayati), Free Turkestan (Erkin Türkistan), and Independence (Istiqlal). It also draws on the History of East Turkestan (Sherqiy Türkistan Tarikhi), the first modern history of the region, written by Muhemmed Imin Bughra, a very important figure in the early modern intellectual and political history of the Xinjiang Turks. Another source is an unpublished text, Memoir of the Revolution (Inqilab Khatirisi), written by Emin Wahidi, an eye witness to the Turkic insurgent and nationalist movement of the 1930s. This chapter further explores both the continuity and shift in the discourse of communal identity and interest after the defeat of the East Turkestani insurgency and the assump- tion of Xinjiang power by Shicai in 1934. The source for this section is the periodical, New Life (Yéngi Hayat), published in Kashgar from July 1934 to May 1937. This chapter also traces the rhetorical emergence of political national interests, such as nation-state, political autonomy, civil rights, national rule, and equality among members of a nation or modernity, and it also traces the process of the construction of East Turkestani national traditions and symbols.

3.1 Turkic Insurgency (1930–34)1

Jin Shuren’s administration caused a grave deterioration of relations between the provincial administration and the native Turkic Muslims during the 1920s and 1930s. The situation was especially tense in Komul (in Chinese 哈密), a strategically important location at Xinjiang’s gate to proper

1 Contents of this section were published as an article in Central Asian Survey on November 3, 2014, under the title “Nationalism and Modernism in the East Turkestan Republic, 1933–34.” Available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2014.976947.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���5 | doi ��.��63/9789004288096_005 Politicization of National Discourse (1930s) 121 where a semiautonomous khanate was ruled by an autochthonous Turkic aristocrat. After Komul’s Khan Maqsud died in 1930, Shuren abolished the khanate’s autonomy and permitted waves of Han refugees from the neighbor- ing province to settle in the municipality. He also imposed direct taxes on local Turkic Muslims and expropriated their land (or compensated them with inferior land) to accommodate the Gansu newcomers. Moreover, the Han settlers were exempt from taxation for two years, while one year’s tax amount was levied retroactively for local Muslims. Jin also ignored any Muslim popu- lar discontent, which further increased due to the misconduct of a local Han official. As in the case of the Muslim rebellion of 1864–78, economic disparity and communal conflict between indigenous Turkic and exogenous Han pop- ulations (as well as the Han ruling strata), in which both sides were distinct in regards to religion, language, culture, and other identity markers, quickly bred a large-scale native Turkic insurgency. The spark of rebellion was struck in the village of Shopul in early April 1931, when local Han administrators, their bodyguards, and some Gansu Han immigrant families were massacred by local Turkic Muslims. The rebels then fled to nearby mountains, and Khoja Niyaz Haji (1889–1937) and Yolwas (1888–1971) became leaders of the uprising. Pressed by provincial troops, the rebels were assisted by the troops of a young and ambitious Gansu Tungan Zhongying (馬仲英; 1910– unknown). As a result, the rebels held out, and in 1931 and 1932, the uprising gradually spread throughout the whole Yettishahr region. In the Turfan area, a large portion of insurgent activities were carried out by a secret organiza- tion led by Mahmud Muhiti (1887–1944), the brother of the Jadidist activist Mekhsut, who was himself killed in the warfare. Later, Tungans and Kazaks in northern Xinjiang also rebelled. In the winter of 1932, some rebel troops were preparing an attack on Urumchi. One of the two most powerful factions in the city were the White , who made up a small but influential minor- ity after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution and were paradoxically supported by the Soviets by the 1930s. Another major power in the capital was the Chinese troops, originally based in northeastern China, who arrived in Xinjiang via Siberia after the Japanese occupation of in 1931. This well-trained Chinese force was commanded by (1895–1970), an able gradu- ate of military academies in China and Japan, who was charged by with suppressing the Turkic rebellion in eastern Xinjiang. However, Jin was deposed in a coup staged by White Russians on April 12, 1933, and eventually Sheng Shicai took over Jin’s position. At the same time, he pleaded for Soviet help against ’s Tungan troops, who were pressing Urumchi from both the east and north. The Soviet military intervention in early 1934 cemented Sheng Shicai’s position as the ruler of Xinjiang (Forbes 1986, 52–62, 97–106).