“Indians”: When there is a culture and no civil society

One of the problems of the Tatar and Bashkir is that millions of our compatriots live abroad, but the Tatar and Bashkir diaspora is almost nowhere. There are people jumping in sacks and carrying table tennis balls in their mouths.

All this is happening at a time when Moscow is erasing the last vestiges of republics’ sovereignty, mining profits are being confiscated by the federal center, our languages are being forced into the kitchen space, mosques are being turned into FSB and E Center, and Tatar boys are being sent to die in yet another colonial war.

The Tatars in exile live in their own parallel world, where Sabantui is always the “day of the raccoon”.

Just imagine for a moment that this whole Sabantui battalion would go to a rally in Washington or New York with national slogans, demanding recognition of the independence of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan. How much use can be made to support the Tatar and Bashkir national movements, for international resonance!

Against this background, especially valuable efforts of the Government of Independent Tatarstan in Exile and the BPC. People work almost in the conditions of the “desert” – the absolute indifference of compatriots.

This is how our author Ilyas Valeev commented on it: “Our countrymen-Indians do not work.. I’m sorry, it’s me by mistake… our brothers, so, uh, Tatars. Faint-sighted some holiday comes out, unattractive. This run in bags – will such a good rich tourist bite, will he pay his blood dollars… sorry, rubles? No, it won’t! You need something creative, such that the tourist immediately on the forehead and off his feet. Well, for example, for our wise leaders to sit in a circle and smoke the pipe of peace together… something like that. What? Isn’t it customary for Tatars to smoke a pipe of peace? What do you mean? What, all non-smoking? What’s the difference to shaitan? If he smokes cigarettes, what is it hard for him to smoke a pipe? Is it hard to sit in a circle? All the Indians in the movies sit in Tatar, so there’s a connection! Are we doing this whole sabbath thing? For yourself, or what? First, we don’t want our superiors to scold us, we don’t want to be the worst in the neighborhood. And let the tourists know that our Indians are still alive… you, our Tatars, that we cherish the customs of our ancestors, we wear national costumes… when tourists come. Sing our native battle songs in the native language of our tribes to this one, to the big drum. And why don’t I see a single drum? What was the department spending money on anyway? No drum, no feather headdress, no spears, no tomahawks… Why do I hardly see anyone in combat coloring? Except there, these two 50-year-old warriors… the coloring is good, it’s terrifying. They are closer to here, in the front row should be put, that they with the ferocity of their tourists enticed. What? As not warriors, but women… what makeup, cosmetics? Did they just walk down the street? Well, for the future, you’ll remember these women, very colorful warriors, easily scalped…

Can I entrust you with anything? Fail it, you fools, you don’t know anything about your native people and you don’t want to know! You already count the prizes in advance for the organization of a tourist mess! Sabantua, I meant. That’s how you preserve national traditions, how you maintain a connection between generations? How can we prove to the superiors that we honor and develop ethnographic uniqueness? That’s how to be with those? With the nonsense and these… forgot that… Well that word, it’s often now… Well… a maniac, an envelope,… Oh, look, MANKURTS you have no roots, that’s who you are!»