Significant Changes during the Interwar Period
Discuss about Arab World for Society, Culture, and Statethe .
Interwar period, in the context of modern history, refers to the time between the end of the World War I in November 1918 and the start of the World War II in September 1939[1]. Despite being a short period, this era brought significant changes in many aspects, such as, politics, economics and social life across the world. It gave rise to the petroleum associated mechanisms, economic prosperity for middle income group people and many more technological and social advancements, resulting in Golden or Roaring Twenties, and with over indulgence, this era gave way for the Great Depression, damaging many large economies of the world[2]. One of the most important events of the interwar period is the independence of Egypt and Iraq in the Middle East and the rise of Arab Nationalism.
Arab Nationalism refers to the ideology, which asserts that the Arabs constitute a united nation. This ideology represents a belief that says Arabs are a single nation and celebrates the glories of Arab culture, history, literature, arts along with political unity of all the countries[3]. The main purpose of this concept was to end the influence of the Western influence in the Arabian world, which is considered as a nemesis of the Arab strength and culture. Hence, the governments, which were dependent on the Western power, were removed by the Arab armies, as in case of the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century[4]. However, this ideology of a single nationalism experienced success as well as failure during the interwar period due to many factors. This essay will discuss the rise, success and failure of the Arab Nationalism during the interwar period.
The origin of the Arab nationalism can be traced back to period before and during the World War I when the Arab nationals of the Ottoman Empire started to revolt against the government. A sense of loyalty towards the Arab Fatherland was developed, which condemned the Ottoman Turks for betrayal towards Islam and Arab Fatherland for the West that followed Christianity[5]. The rich history and strong cultural heritage of the Middle East worked as a fundamental principle for the Arab patriots. The Ottomans deviated from the true Islamic values while reforming and attempted to borrow the western culture and practices, which the Arab patriots considered as corrupt. The desire for reviving the Islam influenced the Arab patriots in those regions, that is, Egypt and Levant and within the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire’s entry into the First World War in November 1914 provided the final spark for outright revolt. All of these led to a great rebellion against the Ottoman Turks[6].
Arab Nationalism: Its Rise and Purpose
In the beginning of the 20th century, the modern Arab Nationalism emerged when groups of Arabic speaking Muslims were influenced by the Islamic modernism and revive of the eminent Egyptian scholar, Muhammad Abduh. He showed that while Europe advanced by adopting the modernism of Islam, the Muslims failed as they abandoned and corrupted the ideas of true Islam[7]. Arab Nationalism focused on reviving the glory of the past. With more Arab nationalist parties emerging since 1911, the movements against the Ottomans started during the First World War. As stated by Dawisha (2016), the concept of ‘Arab nation’ only became pertinent after the World War I and the Arab nationalism eventually took the form of a political movement. It was seen that education played a crucial role in raising the political awareness among the mass, glorifying the Arabian past and history, and inflicting the nationalist spirit among the young Arab generations. Intellectuals, and not the politicians, led the movement, who borrowed the idea of nationalism from Europe and used in Arab to bring revolution[8].
Geogre Antonius highlighted that in the 19th century, a concept of national identity was started to develop among the Arabic speaking population in the Ottoman Empire and in World War I, and this led to a full-fledged revolutionary movement. On the other hand, Adeed Dawisha contradicted to this conventional view and pointed out that the Arab revolt was declared in the name of Islam, that is, religion and not for Arab nationalism. He stated that religious identity was more important for the revolt than the national identity. Hence, Arab Revolt should not be considered as a part of the Arab nationalism[9].
The religious sentiment, nationalist spirit and the urge to break free from the British colonialism had helped the movement to gain success during the interwar period. The Iraqi revolt in 1920 against the British rule was a success for the Arab patriots. The revolt in Syria in 1925 against the French rule was another milestone towards the Syrian independence. Egypt also revolted against the British under the leadership of Nasser after the World War I and earned independence in 1922. However, the historians state that Egypt revolution was backed by Egyptian nationalism, rather than Arab nationalism[10]. These events provided the boost to the Arab nationalist movements. The movements and parties grew in huge numbers in almost all the Arab countries, like Syria, Kuwait, Iraq and Palestine in the 1930s and solidarity among governments developed. Arab Independence Party was established by the Iraqi and Palestinian activists in 1932 for Arab unity and solidarity. In 1933, League of Nationalist Action (LNA) was established to reduce customs barrier among the Arab countries and establish a common market for the Arab nations. However, the LNA lost its foothold in the 1940s, around the World War II[11]. Developments of many activist parties and many issues regarding the solidarity of the Arab nations, Jewish settlement in Palestine and independence from the British and French rule contributed in the growth and success of the Arab nationalism during the interwar period[12].
Success and Failure of Arab Nationalism during the Interwar Period
However, the Arab national movement faced quite formidable obstacles in its course. There were conflicting identities between religious and nationalist ideologies, competing loyalties to the region, tribes and religions, tension between the Syrian, Iraqi, Egyptian and other identities and the encompassing Arab identity, and the linguistic diversity in the region, creating obstacle to concept of coherent Arab nation[13]. In the interwar period, Iraq was at the forefront of the Arab nationalism movements. Sati’ al-Husri, one of the major proponents of Pan-Arabism, had hopes to turn Iraq into a nationalist model to the Arab world[14]. However, Iraq was an extremely fragmented country, as it had provinces out of the Ottoman Empire and British colony and thus lacked of religious or ethnic rationale. Hence, the national bond was missing. The Kurds, living in the north of Iraq, spoke Indo-European language, were non-Semitic and had very little in common with the Arab Iraqis, except for the Sunni Muslim faith. They wanted to gain political independence from Iraq and build Kurdistan. They considered themselves completely different in ethnicity from the Arabs, and hence, it was impossible to bring them under the notion of a single Arab nation[15]. At the same time, the Shia Muslims in the south used to view the Arab nationalism movements as the Sunni project that aimed to reduce them into minority in an expanded Sunni domain in the Arab nations. Although half of the population was Shia Muslims, the Sunnis formed the politically dominant group. These conflicting issues formed the ground reasons for the failure of the Arab nationalism during the interwar period. Not only in Iraq, the divisions and conflicts among different ethnicities in different Arab nations created obstacles in achieving the objectives of solidarity and independence. As stated by Barakat (1993), Arab society is not a simple mosaic of ethnic groups, sects, tribes, regional entities and local communities. Rather, it carries within it the potential for both divisiveness and unity[16]. Regional interests were more advocated than the bigger interest of a common Arab nation. Apart from that, the religion interest were started to become more prominent than the nationalist spirit. This led to the revival of Islam and Arab nationalism started declining. Kramer (1993) stated in his paper that over the years Arab nationalism had turned into a mistaken identity. The revolution started with the spirit for independence and unity of the Arab nations, but with various internal problems regarding ethnicity and political interests, the ideology of Arab nationalism was turned into a mistaken identity, based on religion[17].
Internal Conflicts Leading to the Decline of Arab Nationalism
Conclusion
Arab nationalism was one of the major movements that started in the latter half of the 19th century. The Ottoman Empire ruled over the Arabia since early 16th century. However, during the era of World War I, many Arabs were inspired by the 19th century nationalist ideas of the western countries and launched the Arab nationalism to unite the Arab nations and gain independence from the Ottoman Empire. During the interwar period, many such revolt activities took place in Egypt, Syria and Iraq leading to their independence from the British and French rules. However, the internal conflicts regarding political interests and religious beliefs had led to the decline and failure of the movements to establish a single and united Arab nation. During the interwar period, the Arab nations faced the rise of the ideology, its success as well as fall and finally encountered shattered hope due to the lack of focus and consciousness, which is described as a mistaken identity by Kramer.
References:
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