New Book on Central Asia

Dilip Hiro’s new book, Inside Central Asia, provides an up to date look at
Central Asia, Turkey, and Iran. Hiro is an expert on India and the Middle East and has written more than 30 books. Inside Central Asia is aimed at those needing a quick rundown (~400 pages) of the region, whether they are actually traveling there or safely in
armchairs with no plans to get up. There is an introduction of the region’s history, from the earliest known empires on through to the Soviet period, followed by a chapter each on Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Iran, and Turkey, focusing on the culture and politics of the last twenty or so years.

Hiro succeeds in presenting colorful anecdotes along with facts and how historical contingencies have created the present. Central Asia is simply one of the most fascinating places in the world, and even as an academic, I learned many little details that academic historians typically excise in order to appear more serious.

In general, I wish there was not such a stark divide between ‘popular’ and academic works of history and politics. My criticisms of Hiro’s work could extend to most other popular books, and frankly, Hiro does a better job than most others do. He does not give in to orientalizing or caricuturizing the people, making it seem like some sort of demented DisneyLand. He is sympathetic towards the region’s people, who have lost so much in the 20th century, and yet he paints a fair portrait of the gains as well.

Unfortunately, like many popular works, he does not integrate academic works as much as he could have. There have been a few truly remarkable works on the region in the last ten or so years, and he does not seem to have consulted them as much as he should have. He makes a few problematic word choices, such as describing nomads as “marauding”, when they actually had fixed patterns of movement or the region in pre-Soviet times as “feudal” when there was no ownership of peasant labor. He shouldn’t have called the Uzbek masses “Islamist”, but rather explained they want any alternative to the status quo of mass corruption and state perpetrated violence. His analysis of the Jadids is simplistic to the point of inaccuracy, which a cursory reading of Khalid’s The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform would have prevented. Hiro could have brought to light some of the academic debates on the region and not made it seem so cut and dry, as if no competing interpretations existed.

However, although the small chapter on the region’s history is fraught with
simplifications, the chapters devoted to current politics are strong. He is
detailed and deftly illustrates his points with his personal experiences.
Unfortunately, writing a book on the constantly changing region is difficult. He concludes his work by arguing that the closing of Manas for US troops shows that “Russia was back in the saddle as the Big Brother of Central Asia (414)”. Ooops, actually, it shows that Bakiyev is firmly in the saddle of Kyrgyzstan, playing two powers against each other for profit. Overall, I would recommend  Inside Central Asia to someone who needs to know what has been going on in Central Asia since the 1980’s. I would just suggest they read the news as well.