Manipulating the Census: Ethnic Minorities in the Nationalizing States of Central Asia

Since independence, Central Asian republics have been facing the paradox of developing nation-state ideologies on the basis of a multinational population, inherited from their colonial and Soviet past. This ideology claims historical ownership over the territory, the so-called homeland ( rodina in Russian or vatan in local languages). Central Asian governments do perceive the need to assert their sovereign rights on the land. In political terms, it becomes a quest to ensure that the territories claimed contain a majority of titular members of the nation and a minority of other ethnic groups. The census appears here to be the key instrument to measure people and legitimate the power of the titular nation.

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