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" Aliens in Uniforms and Contested Nationalisms: The Role of the Iraq Levies In Shaping Aspects of Iraqi Nationalism Under the British Mandate of Iraq "
Sopanit Angsusingha
Tucker, Judith
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Latin Dissertation
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| Language of Document
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English
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| Record Number
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805038
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| Doc. No
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TL49879
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| Call number
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2038970017; 10790637
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| Main Entry
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Smith, Ruth Marie
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| Title & Author
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Aliens in Uniforms and Contested Nationalisms: The Role of the Iraq Levies In Shaping Aspects of Iraqi Nationalism Under the British Mandate of Iraq\ Sopanit AngsusinghaTucker, Judith
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| College
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Georgetown University
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| Date
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2018
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| Degree
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M.A.
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| field of study
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Arab Studies
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2018
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| Page No
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204
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| Note
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Committee members: Sassoon, Joseph
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| Note
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Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-0-355-87527-0
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| Abstract
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The Iraq Levies were formed by the British authorities to secure imperial order and maintain stability in the British Mandate of Iraq (1921-1932). The social composition of the Iraq Levies which consisted mainly of Assyrian recruits and its association with the British not only generated competition with the Iraqi army, but also instigated communal tension between the Assyrians and the rest of the Iraqi population. Based on archival research, this study examines the recruitment and operations of the Iraq Levies in order to understand how they led to the Assyrian massacre in 1933 and shaped Iraqi nationalism as militant and exclusionary. The main research questions are: How did British colonial policy and the Iraq Levies alienate the Assyrians from the rest of the Iraqi population? How did the deployment of the Iraq Levies cause communal conflicts with other ethnic communities in Iraq? And how did the Iraq Levies promote an exclusive definition of Iraqi nationalism that led to the massacre of the Assyrians in 1933? I argue that British use of the Iraq Levies as a tool of “divide and rule” in Iraq shaped the role of the Iraq Levies in producing the Assyrian as “other,” causing communal conflicts and shaping aspects of Iraqi nationalism in the following ways. First, the “martial race theory” used to form an Assyrian Levy force made the Assyrians appear as alien in Iraqi society. Secondly, the class regimental system that deployed the Assyrian forces against Kurdish rebellions generated inter-communal conflicts and generated suspicion of the Assyrian community. Thirdly, a symbiotic relationship between the British and the Assyrians, through the Iraq Levies, promoted the Assyrian nationalist movement that challenged the integrity of the Iraqi state. Consequently, the Iraq Levies aroused anger and hatred of the Iraqi state toward the Assyrians, and resulted in the 1933 Assyrian massacre by the Iraqi army that shaped Iraqi nationalism as exclusive, militaristic and anti-minority.
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| Subject
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Middle Eastern history; Middle Eastern Studies; Military history
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| Descriptor
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Social sciences;Assyrians;British mandate of iraq;Iraq levies;Iraqi nationalism
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| Added Entry
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Tucker, Judith
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Arab StudiesGeorgetown University
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