When Religious, Civil, and National Representations Clash : A Decolonial View on Georgian Muslims as Internal Others

Abstract: The othering and exclusion of religious minority groups in Georgia is often understood through the prism of religious nationalism, which is argued to have developed as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the respective need to fill up the leftover systemic void. Ethno-national and religious identity markers were used to create the image of true, pre-Soviet Georgian – Christian, ethnically Georgian group. Although, this understanding offers an explanation for the current social position of religious minority groups of the country, it fails to account and understand the link with and the impact of the Soviet regime, and how the collapse of a secular system produced highly religious discourses. Therefore, the work presented here seeks to understand the role and impact of Russian/Soviet colonization on the current social position of religious minority groups in Georgia. In order to answer the research aim, this thesis employs a decolonial approach and situates Soviet Russia as a colonial power, a successor of Tsarist Imperial Russia and its colonial practices of subjugation, classification, and social hierarchies. The empirical focus of the study is Adjarian Muslims, as they constitute ethnically Georgian religious minority, therefore holding a peculiar place of intersection of identities. The primary sources of the research are dialogical interviews with self-identifying Adjarian Muslims, while the secondary sources, such as the existing publications and research surrounding the social position of the group are analyzed by utilizing the ethnographic content analysis method. The findings of the study suggest that the remnants of colonial past still have an effect on the current social structures and social developments. The exclusion and othering of Adjarian Muslims in Georgia is similar and can be traced back to the practice of ethnicization of Islam, which is rooted in the Soviet/Socialist modernity and the enactment of Muslim groups as the inherent others to the civilized Russians. Due to this, Adjarian Muslims are marked by Islam notwithstanding their personal religious affiliation, and are thus excluded from the dominant understanding of Georgianness and the respective discussions. In addition, the study findings suggest that the region of Adjara is often regarded as the orient to the capital, and Adjarian Muslims are viewed as objects to be saved and civilized, rather than the equal subjects of the state.