BULGARIAN-SPEAKING MUSLIMS - Lalev

sense that assimilation of dichotomous groups may prove crucial to the successful consolidation of
every early nation-state, and subsequently to that nation’s continuing process of popular solidarity,
ruling elites generally attempt assimilation of diverging communities, including by force. Where
assimilation fails, exclusion and marginalization follows. Where partial assimilation is the end
product, partial marginalization complements it. 20 Ultimately, the use of one or another form of
coercion (violence) in achieving national cohesion seems to be a constant in the process of nationmaking.
In the sense that nationalism often – if not always – operates through violence in the name of
territorial and cultural consolidation, I propose the following model of nationalism that is likely to be
operational within a previously subjugated nation like my native Bulgaria, in regard to one or more
of its differing minorities like the Pomaks: (1) Nationalism in a previously subjugated nation
originates in exclusion or forced assimilation of dichotomous minorities as a way to affirm
sovereignty. (2) The policy of exclusion or assimilation is particularly directed at communities
affiliated with the former oppressor in some way. (3) Nationalism in such a newly independent nation
asserts identity that distinguishes it from the former oppressor in terms of religion, language, race,
and/or ethnicity, whereby, (4) in the process of nation-making, the nation-state’s majority glorifies
its own (imagined) identity and denigrates that of the oppressor. (5) If the divergent groups share
identity traits with the dominant cultural community in the nation such as language, race, or religion,
the efforts are directed toward assimilating these minorities rather than excluding them; and (6) the
more closely shared such traits are, the more likely the attempted assimilation will be. As a rule,
however, (7) divergent groups, affiliated with former oppressors in whatever ways, are generally
kept in check and treated with a degree of suspicion at all times regardless of shared ties.
In this chapter, I undertake a study of coercive nationalism through analyzing the
pokrastvane (religious conversion through baptism and name replacement) of the Slavic (Bulgarian)-
speaking Muslims (Pomaks) in Bulgaria at the height of the Balkan Wars of 1912-1914. It was a
20 This has been the case with the Pomaks in Bulgaria – as it shall be seen – where the Bulgarian authorities’
persistent attempts to assimilate this Muslim community resulted in acceptance of those who have embraced
the assimilation and marginalization of the majority who have resisted it.
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