JADIDISM AND MODERNISM IN CENTRAL ASIA: INTELLECTUAL TRANSFORMATION, EDUCATIONAL REFORM AND THE QUEST FOR NATIONAL IDENTITY

• Farrux Mirzapo’lat O’g’li Ergashev

  Author

This article examines the Jadidist movement as a distinct expression of modernism in Central Asia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Rooted in Islamic reformism and influenced by pan-Turkic intellectual currents, Jadidism sought to reconcile traditional Muslim values with the imperatives of modern education, scientific rationalism, and civic transformation. Drawing upon archival sources, contemporary periodicals, and recent historiographical scholarship, this study analyzes the intellectual foundations of Jadidism, its pedagogical innovations through the usul al-jadid (new method) schooling system, its engagement with colonial Russian power, and its lasting impact on national identity formation across Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. The article argues that Jadidism constitutes a regionally specific variant of modernism that cannot be reduced to either Western liberal modernity or Soviet-imposed transformation, but rather represents an endogenous reformist tradition with profound contemporary relevance. The findings contribute to broader debates on non-Western modernities and decolonial intellectual history.

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