Like other post-Soviet Central Asian Republics, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have had different priorities of reform. There have been varied attitudes to reform. On the one hand, there is an appraisal of early achievements in the realm of politics and economy. On the other hand, there is a tendency to highlight internal contradictions like ethnic divergence and clan difference. The inabilities of the authorities to control internal fragmentation in these two republics have also been studied by scholars. The aspect of social transformation is reflected in people’s reactions to reform. There are indications that the people of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan were sensitized to a whole range of issues like ‘ethnic social distance’, education, media, migration and diasporas, social security, environment etc. The present study tries to shed the myopic view of Central Asia’s limitations and takes into consideration the factors that have shaped state-society relations. The themes of study are diversity and divergence and their representations in Central Asia. The purpose is to highlight the metamorphosis of Kyrgyz and Kazakh societies that otherwise seem to be riddled by contradictions like tribal and clan divisions, ethnic tension, regional disparities, urban-rural differences, social inequalities etc. The ‘permissive environment’ in these two republics has also been studied. The study analyzes the debatable issue of ethnicity and the feeling of cooperation in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan that cuts across ethnic categories. There is also an attempt to study Xinjiang as a Central Asian borderland and the cultural space that it shares with the Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and the Mongols. The generations of closeness between Xinjiang’s non-Han population and their ethnic brethren in Central Asia have also been taken into account. This aspect is relevant because there is a revival of interest in the role of Xinjiang in Central Asia’s ‘future’.
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