Abstract (Swe)

Inner Mongolia is an important minority area in the People's Republic of China, but has not received the same attention in the West as Tibet and East Turkestan (Xinjiang). At the same time, the social development of Inner Mongolia since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 has much in common with these areas.

Inner Mongolia, with its 1.17 million square kilometers, constitutes 2/5 of the Mongolian area. The division of ethnic Mongolia into three parts – (independent) Mongolia, Inner Mongolia (in the People's Republic of China) and Buryatia (in the Russian Federation) began with political entanglements in the 17th century. In Inner Mongolia, there is an official ethnic Mongolian population that is larger than that of Mongolia, just over 4 million, compared to just over 3 million in Mongolia. Already at the turn of the century in 1900, however, the Han Chinese became the largest group in the area and the ethnic Mongols currently make up about 17% of the population in Inner Mongolia.

After 1949, the linguistic and cultural influence of the central power (read: Han Chinese) has strengthened, and during part of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), Inner Mongolia was effectively abolished as an administrative unit. After the restoration, however, the position of the Mongolian language and Mongolian culture has further weakened, and in recent years assimilationist tendencies have strengthened even more. 

Joakim Enwall is professor of Chinese at Uppsala University. He wrote his dissertation on the history of the Miao script and has since worked with several ethnic minority languages ​​in China: Miao, Mongolian, Tibetan and Uyghur.