Minority Question Research Articles

From Paris to Ṭā’if: Sovereignty, Borders, and the Question of Minorities in the Arabian Peninsula

From Paris to Ṭā’if: Sovereignty, Borders, and the Question of Minorities in the Arabian Peninsula

Denying “The Right to Have Rights”: Europe’s Imposition of Mandates in Greater Syria and the Rise of Islamist Movements

Abstract In 1920, the Syrian Congress at Damascus ratified a democratic constitution that would have been beyond the dreams of activists in the 2011 Arab Spring. Under the leadership of the leading Islamic reformer of the day, Sheikh Rashid Rida, the constitution disestablished Islam as a state religion, guaranteed one-third of parliamentary seats to non-Muslim minorities, and promised autonomy to the majority Christian territory of Mount Lebanon. Unlike the Ottoman constitution that had once reigned in Greater Syria, the Syrian document granted the preponderance of power to parliament, not the monarch. Nonetheless, the British and French colluded in the willful destruction of this nascent democracy. And with League of Nations’ support, they divided the Syrian Arab Kingdom into sectarian mandatory states. By stripping Syrian Arabs of a self-determined political community, Europeans denied them the “right to have rights,” as Hannah Arendt argued. The political backlash against European rule transformed the minority question in Syria into a polarized and violent contest, leading to the sectarian conflicts that overwhelmed Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine in the remainder of the 20th century.

A nemzeti kisebbségekkel kapcsolatos ukrajnai jogalkotás rövid foglalata (1989–2023)

Short Overview of Legislation on National Minorities in Ukraine (1989–2023) The study examines the basic legislation on minorities in Ukraine from 1989 until 2023, when the decision was taken to allow Ukraine (together with Moldova) to begin accession negotiations with the European Union. The early policy of lenient legislation was followed by a policy of tightening and restricting rights from 2014 in response to Russian aggression, which was reversed from 2022 when Ukraine became a candidate for EU membership. The kin states of the two most comparable minorities have reacted differently to the changes. While Hungary does not see this turnaround as a step forward in securitising minority rights and is therefore an obstacle to Ukraine's integration, Romania seeks a broad partnership and believes that the question of the national minorities would be resolved if all Romanians, including those living in Ukraine, lived on equal terms, equal rights, which requires Ukraine to become a member of the EU.

The Conundrum of Being a Minority: Choosing a Collective Identity in the Era of Neoliberal Globalism

This paper argues that by portraying minority concerns primarily as cultural concerns and by discussing minority existence independently of capitalism, neoliberalism, feminism, environmentalism, globalization, and the distinction between the Right and the Left, the dominant discourse on ethno-cultural minorities, namely multiculturalism, may lead to the reduction of minority communities to cultural entities in the collective consciousness of the dominant majority. Such reductionism endangers minority existence by identifying the question of minorities with the question of culture to the point that minorities voicing their noncultural political concerns increasingly appear unintelligible, presumptuous, or even destructive to wider society. Against this background, the paper discusses why and how ethno-cultural minorities may find their collective identity in different, not necessarily ethno-cultural, political formations in the age of neoliberal globalism, such as anti-neoliberal, anti-globalist, cosmopolitan, environmentalist, anti-capitalist, feminist, radical democratic, republican, and anti-imperialist. This discussion is based on Ernesto Laclau’s and Chantal Mouffe’s understanding of hegemony and social antagonism.

The Achilles Heel of Constitutional Jurisprudence: Conceptualization of Minority Rights by Constitutional Courts in Central and Eastern Europe

AbstractThe minority question has long been a hot topic in Central and Eastern Europe. Whereas most CEE countries guarantee the privileged position of the dominant nation, they also recognize the existence of national minorities and provide special rights for them. Hence there is an apparent contradiction between the values of the nation-states: unity and diversity. This article proposes that to resolve this contradiction, it is necessary to define the concept, scope and limitations of group-specific minority rights, as well as their relationship with other human rights and the nation-state. Constitutional courts are appropriate candidates for this task. However, based on our analysis of the relevant constitutional jurisprudence of five CEE countries – Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia – it seems that constitutional courts in the region have failed to properly conceptualize minority rights. Instead of developing appropriate tests for assessing the constitutionality of legal regulations, they have only superficially touched upon the conceptual issues of minority rights, using incidental, case-by-case arguments to justify the (un)constitutionality of the legal provisions. Therefore, this article also attempts to outline a constitutionality test that may be suitable for constitutional courts to consistently evaluate submissions that challenge the constitutionality of laws on minority rights.

The 1939 Option Agreement and the ‘Consistent Ambivalence’ of Fascist Policies towards Minorities in the Italian New Provinces

AbstractThe 1939 Option Agreement between Italy and Germany concerning South Tyrol was the first population transfer agreement in western European history. Its analysis offers a unique opportunity to shift the focus of the historiography on interwar minority questions from eastern to western Europe, thus challenging the lingering view of eastern Europe as a land of endemic ethnic heterogeneity and conflict. Furthermore, the 1939 Option illuminates a form of ‘consistent ambivalence’ that problematizes dominant analytical frameworks concerning the management of ethnic differences. Italian fascists consistently affirmed the inevitable assimilation, and therefore inclusion, of minorities within the Italian nation, but they also deeply distrusted them. As this ambivalent attitude reached a climax in the 1939 Option, in order to understand fascist behaviour during the implementation of the agreement we need to consider the longer history of fascist attempts to homogenize the new provinces. Three features structured these attempts: a belief that the assimilation of these minorities would be inevitable; the absence of means to carry out radical solutions; and a deep-seated distrust of the minorities. Fascist policy during the Option was simultaneously more ambivalent than the current historiography suggests and more consistent with the regime's interwar homogenization policies.

Not viable, yet desirable? The politics of state creation in Nigeria

Nigeria has had both civilian and military administrations with abundant human and material resources. However, the presence of the aforementioned has not transformed the quality of life of her citizens. Nigeria is still being plagued with the crisis of insecurity, unemployment, energy challenges, and economic underdevelopment etc., several efforts to remedy the crisis of poor governance is the clamour or agitation for state fragmentation which has become unresolved and unabated. Major actors in the clamour opined that restructured Nigeria is a worthy and desirable venture for statecraft which is capable of unleashing an enabling environment for the sub-national governments to thrive in the delivery of effective governance. This paper made use of secondary data to explore the nature and context of the subject matter. While the state-centred thesis and the theories of cooperative federalism were deployed to navigate the topic. The research avers the character of the political elites, the minority question, and the fiscal posture of the existing state to issue the proponents of state fragmentation need to address. Moreover, the following recommendations were made to allay the endless clamour for restructuring; the clamour for restructuring should start with the ethical reorientation of the drivers of the machinery of government to see public offices as an avenue to render selfless service and contribute their quota to national development. Moreover, efforts should be geared towards the institutional restructuring of the agencies saddled with the responsibility of combating corruption without let or hindrances. The constitutional instruments for inter-group relations that promote the accommodation of conflicting interests and inclusivity should be embraced. The Nigerian federation should emphasize revenue generation rather than revenue sharing through the review of the revenue sharing formula that favours derivation. This will strengthen the financial capability of the state governments to be in a better standing to discharge their governance responsibilities to their constituents.

Visibility or Impact? International Efforts to Defend LGBTQI+ Rights in Africa

Abstract Most struggles for LGBTQI+ rights play out at the national level. However, the question of sexual and gender minorities’ rights periodically appears as a point of friction in international relations as well. This article analyses the question of international efforts to defend LGBTQI+ rights in countries of the Global South, with a particular focus on Western countries’ endeavours in Africa. Combining policy analysis, critique and recommendations, it asks how and when international actors should and should not intervene. It recognizes that motives for intervening can be problematic and the means often counterproductive, especially when exhibiting neo-imperialist tendencies and constituting ad hoc reactions to events in the media. Countering essentialist arguments about ‘authentic’ African culture and values, influenced by religious beliefs, is also a significant challenge. I argue that more fruitful efforts should instead be centred on local rights defenders’ perspectives and supporting their priorities and initiatives, based on concerted, long-term, principled strategies. International actors, however, are reluctant to adopt such approaches because of a desire for short-term visible action, even if less effective or not effective at all. This conundrum is a fundamental problem in the area of foreign aid writ large, as greater impact often requires less visibility on the part of international actors, but donor countries want domestic and international recognition of their efforts. The article distils key lessons learnt and principles for action that have emerged over the past 15 to 20 years, brought together in one place for the first time. It aims to stimulate discussions among practitioners and academics. It should be of particular interest to human rights practitioners, especially those who are involved or contemplating getting involved in defending the rights of sexual and gender minorities internationally.

Associations between sexual orientation and early adolescent screen use: findings from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study

PurposeTo assess the association between sexual orientation and screen use (screen time and problematic screen use) in a demographically diverse national sample of early adolescents in the United States. MethodsWe analyzed cross-sectional data from year 2 of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (N = 10,339, 2018–2020, ages 10–14 years). Multiple linear regression analyses estimated the association between sexual orientation and recreational screen time, as well as problematic use of video games, social media, and mobile phones. ResultsIn a sample of 10,339 adolescents (48.7% female, 46.0% racial/ethnic minority), sexual minority (compared to heterosexual) identification was associated with 3.72 (95% CI 2.96–4.47) more hours of daily recreational screen time, specifically more time on television, YouTube videos, video games, texting, social media, video chat, and browsing the internet. Possible sexual minority identification (responding “maybe” to the sexual minority question) was associated with 1.58 (95% CI 0.92–2.24) more hours of screen time compared to heterosexual identification. Sexual minority and possible sexual minority identification were associated with higher problematic social media, video games, and mobile phone use. ConclusionsSexual minority adolescents spend a disproportionate amount of time engaging in screen-based activities, which can lead to problematic screen use.

Minorities or citizens in the Middle East? Locating the ‘minority question’ in the intersecting histories of collective national belonging and state‐building

AbstractThis article contributes to the growing scholarship on minority politics in the Middle East by arguing that if minorities are socially or politically constructed then the meaning and implications of minority terminology requires greater historical contextualisation. Focusing on the experience of minority‐ness rather than the deployment of the terminology, which only became prevalent after World War I, this article offers additional insights into the historical roots of contemporary minority politics, as well as the (un)making of national minorities. It explores how debates and reforms pertaining to inclusion/exclusion in the period preceding and during the shift from empire to nation‐state directly contributed to the reception and understanding of who is a minority in the modern Middle East. This is particularly examined through the cases of Chaldean Christians in Iraq and Coptic Christians in Egypt. Many of the leaders of these communities publicly reject minority identification and instead favour locating their communities in the nation‐state through the notion of inclusive citizenship (al‐Mowāṭana). According to this narrative, belonging as citizens erases the meaning of minority. The article suggests that the framing of citizen and minority as mutually exclusive notions is one contemporary expression of an enduring tension around constructing belonging in political communities.

The question of nationalities and minorities and the fragmentation of the Middle East Critical readers in geopolitics

Education received the attention of the monarchy in Iraq, especially after the developments that the country witnessed after World War II in all political, economic and cultural aspects. The interest is no longer limited to primary education only, but also includes secondary education, and Dulaim District is important in that area due to geographical factors in terms of The area and proximity to the capital, Baghdad, increased, so it witnessed an interest in secondary education during the period from 1945 to the end of the royal era in 1958.

Home‐rule versus non‐territorial autonomy? Western European national movements and their views on the minority question, 1919–1939

AbstractThe leading elites of the ethnonationalist movements that developed in the aftermath of World War I in Western Europe usually refused to see their nations and territories as ‘national minorities’. In their view, they were stateless nations or nationalities. However, in the aftermath of World War I, the prior international discussion on the nationality principle was increasingly replaced with the notion of ‘minority rights’, enhanced by the implementation of the Minorities Treaties by the League of Nations. Thus, the term ‘national minority’ emerged as a label that permitted ethnonationalist activist to present their claims on the international stage. This became evident in the participation of some Western European national movements in the activities of some transnational non‐governmental organisations, such as the Congress of European Nationalities (1925–1939). However, the general programme advocated by the most influential leaders of East‐Central ethnic minorities, based on the extension of the personal principle and the implementation of non‐territorial autonomy all over Europe, was hard to accept for ethnonationalist elites from Western Europe, which were interested in territorial home‐rule and believed that their homelands did not fit in the category of ‘minority’. This article explores the modalities and limits of that cultural and political dialogue.

Probing the Minority Conundrum: Sardar Patel and Minorities in India

Indian Constitution is a progressive document based on liberal ethos of equality and freedom. Secularism, as imbibed in the document gives freedom of religious practices and believes and even propagation to people of all faith. This is also considered as the fundamental characteristic of the Indian Constitution which cannot be altered. Given the image of Vallabhai Patel it looks astounding to find out that he was the head of the advisory committee on minorities in the constituent assembly which proposed special protection to minorities in particular. This chapter is an attempt to understand the depth of the contribution of Patel in shaping the minority rights in India and establishing secular polity. The chapter is divided in two major parts; one is dealing with the theoretical basis on which the minority questions are generally seen. This also deals with the peculiar provisions in the legal and political setups which makes India a secular polity. Second is examining the role and interventions of Patel in the constituent assembly on the issue.

Toward a Global Intellectual History of “Minority”

Abstract The term minority is today applied to describe beleaguered, persecuted, and exiled people whose subordination is preserved or merely “tolerated” by majoritarian politics inherent to modern states. As this introduction indicates, however, during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries minority politics became a rubric for sociopolitical emancipation, providing a framework for intellectuals in colonized Asia and Africa to question European powers' treatment of marginalized communities. Bar Sadeh and Houwink ten Cate contend that “minority” has unique value as an instrument for historical analysis that is restricted neither solely to minority-majority relations nor to debates about (political) representation. Instead, the authors propose a global intellectual history of “minority” as a concept and experience, which is explored in the essays compiled in this special section, “Minority Questions.” By examining the diverse genealogies of the concept of minority, the essays that follow provide a valuable contribution to efforts to redress historical wrongs, even as they offer a range of explanations for the enduring legacy and power of this multifaceted concept.

Editors' Note

We remain in uncertain times. The crisis in Tigray and the vicious bombardment of Gaza create ever-greater horrors. The COVID crisis continues, and in some places it is now taking on a too-familiar form. Countries like India, previously relatively lightly affected, now face catastrophe; many more grimly await a third wave. While many countries in the global North anticipate the end of the crisis as their vaccination programs ramp up and COVID recedes, many countries of the global South still find the vaccines almost inaccessible. The medical crisis is embedded in moral and ethical catastrophe. It is surrounded by fierce debates about access to care, artificial scarcity of vaccines, counting and reporting COVID deaths, and the balance between biosafety and dignity in suffering, loss, and death.At this unpropitious moment, we are grateful for the response we received to our editorial in CSSAAME 40:3 on COVID-19 and the Movement for Black Lives, a first installment of which appears here. The issue opens with a poem by Hasan Mujtaba and a roundtable convened by CSSAAME editorial board member Kavita Sivaramakrishnan with Sunil Amrith, Omar Dewachi, Julie Livingston, and Banu Subramaniam. Their wide-ranging discussion points to the provocative possibility that the current crisis brings into question contemporary states' biopolitical conceits. What refigured forms of state power and political community will emerge? Their conversation is followed by a set of essays: Harris Solomon's story of an Indian hospital, Joelle Abi-Rached on vaccine passports, and Dwaipayan Banerjee on intellectual property.Our next section reflects on how the concept of “minority” and the problem of minority rights was used in novel and often unpredictable ways throughout the twentieth century. “Minority Questions” develops case studies and reflections first explored in a workshop organized by Anupama Rao at Columbia University (2018). Roy Bar Sadeh and Lotte Houwink ten Cate organize and introduce a set of essays by Paul Werth, Laura Robson, Cindy Ewing, On Barak, Amal Ghazal, Aaron Glasserman, SherAli Tareen, Shaunna Rodrigues, Kelvin Ng, Orit Bashkin, and Judith Surkis, which address the enduring reach and relevance of minoritarian thinking for the political present.Finally, our last two sections consider issues around intimacy and estrangement and vernacular politics. In the former, Emma Parks investigates the blurring of corporate and nationalist politics around Safaricom in Kenya, while Beeta Baghoolizadeh considers race, religion, and nationalism in twentieth-century Iran, and Trishula Rachna Patel follows the work of Indian diplomats in twentieth-century southern Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. In “Vernacular Politics,” John Chalcraft explores the possibilities for a theoretical framework to research popular politics in the Middle East using Gramsci's philosophy of praxis as a starting point. Lastly, Sravanthi Kollu traces how debates over how Telugu moved from discourses of it as “vulgar speech” to a vernacular “common speech” in early twentieth-century India.

Thinking the Question of Religious Minorities in Colonial South Asia

Abstract This conceptual essay pivots on the following problem: Tethered to a context of Muslim empire, how is the legacy of the premodern Islamic legal tradition engaged and negotiated in the modern colonial moment in South Asia, marked by the loss of Muslim political sovereignty and the emergence of South Asian Muslims as a minority community? It engages this question through the example of intra-Muslim debates and contestations on the boundaries of friendship between Muslims and non-Muslims in modern South Asia, with a focus on the thought of certain prominent traditionalist ‘ulama’.

Stephen Pericles Ladas and the 1923 Greco-Turkish Exchange of Populations: the making and unmaking of a narrative

This article focuses on the narrative of the 1923 Greco-Turkish Exchange of Populations with a focus on the role of a prominent figure in the making of this narrative, namely, Stephen Pericles Ladas. His 89-year-old book is still considered the standard text on the event and is unsurpassed in terms of its coverage of facts and figures. The article contextualizes and briefly examines this highly influential text on the Exchange of Minorities with a view to showing how it came to constitute the dominant narrative of the Greco-Turkish Exchange of Populations. It is argued that Ladas appropriated the findings and arguments about this event from the publications of his contemporaneous Greek intellectuals and then framed them within the parlance of international law to craft a narrative favorable to the nation-state and the League of Nations. In the absence of any challenging opinions and publications, this narrative, which was largely inattentive to the human and moral consequences of the event, became the standard account of the Greco-Turkish case to be widely quoted by the international political and scholarly circles preoccupied with the question of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities during the interwar period and after.

‘Unfettered Freedom’ Revisited: Hungarian Historical Journals between 1989 and 2018

In his 1992 article, ‘Today, Freedom is Unfettered in Hungary,’ Columbia University history professor István Deák argued that after 1989 Hungarian historical research enjoyed ‘unfettered freedom. Deák gleefully listed the growing English literature on Hungarian history and hailed the ‘step-by step dismantling of the Marxist-Leninist edifice in historiography’ that he associated with the Institute of History at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS) under the leadership of György Ránki (1930–88). In this article he argued that the dismantling of communist historiography had started well before 1989. Besides celebrating the establishment of the popular science-oriented historical journal, History (História) (founded in 1979) and new institutions such as the Európa Intézet – Europa Institute (founded in 1990) or the Central European University (CEU) (founded in 1991) as turning points in Hungarian historical research, Deák listed the emergence of the question of minorities and Transylvania; anti-Semitism and the Holocaust; as well as the 1956 revolution. It is very true that these topics were addressed by prominent members of the Hungarian democratic opposition who were publishing in samizdat publications: among them János M. Rainer, the director of the 1956 Institute after 1989, who wrote about 1956. This list of research topics implies that other topics than these listed before had been free to research and were not at all political. This logic interiorised and duplicated the logic of communist science policy and refused to acknowledge other ideological interventions, including his own, while also insisting on the ‘objectivity’ of science. Lastly, Deák concluded that ‘there exists a small possibility that the past may be rewritten again, in an ultra-conservative and xenophobic vein. This is, however, only a speculation.’ Twenty years later Ignác Romsics, the doyen of Hungarian historiography, re-stated Deák's claim, arguing that there are no more ideological barriers for historical research. However, in his 2011 article Romsics strictly separated professional historical research as such from ‘dilettantish or propaganda-oriented interpretations of the past, which leave aside professional criteria and feed susceptible readers – and there are always many – with fraudulent and self-deceiving myths’. He thereby hinted at a new threat to the historical profession posed by new and ideologically driven forces. The question of where these ‘dilettantish or propaganda-oriented’ historians are coming from has not been asked as it would pose a painful question about personal and institutional continuity. Those historians who have become the poster boys of the illiberal memory politics had not only been members of the communist party, they also received all necessary professional titles and degrees within the professional community of historians.

The Empire Strikes Back from Within: Colonial Liberation and the Korean Minority Question at the Birth of Postwar Japan, 1945–47

Abstract The recent historiography of empire has discussed the impact of decolonization on metropolitan society, or how the “empire strikes back.” A growing literature also examines the postcolonial return migration of colonial settlers and its multifaceted aftereffects on the “home” country, bringing fresh insight into how decolonization is experienced “when empire comes home.” This article adds a different question for exploration: What does decolonization look like on the empire’s home front when colonial liberation takes place within, or when the empire strikes back from within? By examining the “liberation” of Korean imperial subjects in Japan after World War II, this article provides a unique vantage point for analyzing decolonization’s impact on metropolitan society. I will demonstrate how Japanese history can offer new insight into the convergence of two critical social phenomena regarding decolonization, namely, empire’s homecoming and colonial liberation on the empire’s home front. Moreover, this article also aims to challenge the historiographical “amnesia of empire” in the study of US-occupied Japan. I will discuss how the Korean minority question became a critical locus where US-led democratization and the postimperial transition from a multiethnic empire to the so-called monoethnic nation intersected and shaped the formation of postwar Japan.

Introduction: Creative Minorities

ABSTRACT The calcification of permanent minorities during and after the colonial period continues to haunt the modern nation-state. Islamist thinkers in the twentieth century tended to accept this status, often giving up sovereignty to God and making Muslim subjects legible only in terms of their religion. By contrast, this special issue focuses on those Muslims who endeavoured to escape or refuse their minority status and in doing so claimed sovereignty for themselves. Rather than track their persecution by the state, this issue presents a global intellectual history of engagement, contestation, and departure by following the question of minorities and Islam in India, China, and East Africa. The issue traces how Muslim political thinkers in those contexts rejected their minority status either by withdrawing to a form of regionalism or, conversely, by escaping the region altogether to find solace in a renewed idea of the universal, recasting Islam in the process.