Central Asia under Soviets; A paradigm shift to Bilingualism

Central Asia from the dawn of civilization has been influenced by many foreign influences. During the seven decades of Soviet rule, language was dramatically influences. Language is the vehicle of communication and a potential symbol of ethnic or cultural identity. Prior to Russian revolution the use of language in central Asia had been marked by two trends acceptance and assimilation. While both nomadic and sedentary people came in contact with variety of cultures, languages and religions, the contact laid its great influence on the language of the region. According to the findings of the paper, most of the Central Asian native languages were catastrophically affected by making Russia as lingua franca. The paper will delineate the status of vernacular languages and the impact of alien language (Russia). Eminent German historian, Frichrich Meinecke (d.1954) while analysing the soviet civic and ethnic nationalism said USSR promoted nations on the basis of their own history, culture and language. The Soviet ideology aimed at building a Socialist union by denationalized its people. The language family of the Soviet Union was remarkably diverse, multi ethnic and multi lingual world itself. In this paradoxical duality soviet communists radically altered its attitude towards central Asian indigenous languages. With the assuming power, Bolsheviks, a dramatic change took place in order to re-construct the Soviet identity; language was often allotted a central place. After the process of delimitation, Soviets viewed language to be main criteria for nationality. Lingualistic identification was equated with ethnic identification. Soviets took some measures like Russification, Narkomats, Korenizatsiia (Nativization), in order to maintain their communist identity alive.