The British Raj as the context for the emergence of a distinct, Ismaili community

The British Raj provided the social and linguistic backdrop for recent Ismaili history (Daftary Reference Daftary2007; Devji Reference Devji2009; van Grondelle Reference van Grondelle2009). Historically, the Ismaili population was spread over parts of South and Central Asia as well as in the Middle East (Devji Reference Devji2009:x). In 1840, the Aga Khan I (1804–1881) fled Persia for Sind in India (Clarke Reference Clarke1976:484). Aiding the British in the First Afghan War, he was rewarded financially and politically by being given the rank of ‘hereditary prince’ (Clarke Reference Clarke1976:484). By 1848, he had permanently settled in Bombay, an act denoting the beginning of the ‘modern period in the history of the … Ismailis’ (Daftary Reference Daftary2007:473). During his time in Bombay, and as a result of religious dues paid to him at his Bombay home, the Aga Khan I managed to establish headquarters and residences in Bombay, Poona, and Bangalore (Daftary Reference Daftary2007:473). Visited by the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII) during his trip to India, he also began to be addressed as His Highness by the British (Daftary Reference Daftary2007:474). The protection received from the British establishment both ‘strengthened his position and helped him in the exercise of his authority’ (Daftary Reference Daftary2007:474).

Yet the community was ‘disorganized’, ‘unsettled’, and rife with disputes concerning its identity and rightful leadership (Clarke Reference Clarke1976:485). This culminated in 1866, in the ‘Aga Khan Case’ (Daftary Reference Daftary2007; Purohit Reference Purohit2012), which was presided over by an English justice, Sir Justice Arnould. In his reflections on the Aga Khan I's suit against recalcitrant Ismailis in Bombay, Sir Justice Arnould raises questions about the identity of the Ismailis (e.g. ‘Who and what are the Shia imamee Ismailis?’; British Library record P/T 5580,Footnote ⁵ emphasis in original); and in providing answers forged on the basis of case evidence, he also constructs and codifies their identity. As stated by Clarke (Reference Clarke1976:485), together with a later judgment pronounced in Tanganyika in 1924, this case ‘must be considered to have played a very important role in shaping and structuring Modern Ismailism’. In addition to establishing the legal status of the Ismailis and declaring the Aga Khan I their only legitimate leader (Daftary Reference Daftary2007:476), the judgement bolstered the relationship between the Aga Khan and the British Empire (Steinberg Reference Steinberg2011:44). Indeed, the Ismailis ‘came to see themselves as Isma‘ili through the lens of the British construction of legal community’ (Steinberg Reference Steinberg2011:39).

The cooperation between the Ismaili elite and the colonial power was intensified during the reign of the Aga Khan III (1885–1957),Footnote ⁶ who was educated at Eton and Cambridge and made a member of the Imperial Legislative Council in 1902, and thus part of the British imperial administration (van Grondelle Reference van Grondelle2009:25). It is also evidenced in van Grondelle's (Reference van Grondelle2009) study of previously unanalysed records of private papers and correspondence between the Aga Khan III and members of the British colonial administration, in which he shows how both parties profited from the relationship. Whereas the Aga Khan III received support and legitimacy from the British colonial administration, the colonial administration benefited from the strategic location and loyalty to the crown of the Aga Khan III's followers in Afghan Badakhshan, Chinese Turkestan, the Northern Areas (of today's Pakistan), and British East Africa (van Grondelle Reference van Grondelle2009).

These bonds continued with the 1957 succession of the Aga Khan IV, who was ‘firmly established as a friend of Britain’ (van Grondelle Reference van Grondelle2009:87). This is evidenced, for example, by his ties to British royalty and the British government, and by the choice of London as the home for the Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS), a research institute devoted to the study of Muslim cultures and societies (Institute of Ismaili StudiesFootnote ⁷ ; see discussion below).

In addition to the close relationship between the Aga Khans and the British Empire/British elite, and the role played by the British Empire in distinguishing and fortifying a distinctly Ismaili identity, there is a third reason why the British Empire proved important to the emergence of English. This is related, however, not to actions on the part of the Empire, but rather to a key tenet of Ismaili ideology: that Ismailis be loyal to the place where they live. Since many Ismailis lived in the British Empire, this translated into a call for them to know English, as shown in example (1), from the Aga Khan III's memoirs, written in English, which refers to Ismailis in British East Africa.

1. (1) So far as their way of life is concerned, I have tried to vary the advice which I have given to my followers in accordance with the country or state in which they live. Thus in the British colony of East Africa I strongly urge them to make English their first language, to found their family and domestic lives along English lines and in general to adopt British and European customs—except in the matter of alcohol and slavery to tobacco. (Aga Khan Reference Khan1954:37)

This might also partially explain why a farman broadcast in PersianFootnote ⁸ from Delhi to Hunza in 1940 calls for Ismailis to ‘[t]ry to educate your children and strive to learn European languages and the English language’ (Hunzai Reference Hunzai and Bredi2004:12).

The Aga Khan III and Aga Khan IV's proficiency in and progressive use of English

The emergence of a modern, distinctly Ismaili community in direct interaction with the British Raj is related to the second reason why English became important: the fact that both the Aga Khan III and the Aga Khan IV became proficient in English from a young age. In The memoirs of Aga Khan: World enough and time, the Aga Khan III claims he was ‘taught English, French, Arabic and Persian’ (Aga Khan Reference Khan1954:7), qualifying that he received three and a half hours of English and French lessons per day, and three hours of Arabic (Aga Khan Reference Khan1954:40); and adding that he perused the family library for books in all four languages—English, French, Persian, and Arabic (Aga Khan Reference Khan1954:43). His memoirs also comment on language proficiency, with the Aga Khan III claiming that ‘by the time I was thirteen I could read and write English, tolerable French, perfect Persian and fair Arabic’ (Aga Khan Reference Khan1954:45). This indicates a hierarchy such that he claims to have felt most confident (writing) in English and Persian, followed by French and Arabic, an assertion evidenced by his tendency to use English (and to a lesser extent Persian) in writings, speeches, and farmans.

The Aga Khan IV, by contrast, seems to have been raised in mostly French and then later English, perhaps because he was born in Geneva, Switzerland, to a British mother. (His father, Prince Aly Khan, was the son of the Aga Khan III.) There is no conclusive evidence of his linguistic repertoire. Yet according to a UK press interview conducted in 1958, he can speak English and French ‘relatively fluently’, as well as ‘a smattering of Urdu, a smattering of Spanish and a little bit of Italian’;Footnote ⁹ and an entry about him on an Ismaili online siteFootnote ¹⁰ maintains that he was taught Arabic, Urdu, and Islamic history by a private tutor at home, alongside his schooling. A look at available speeches, interviews, and writings shows a clear preference for English with the Aga Khan predominantly using English, except when giving speeches or interviews in countries or regions where French is an official or widely used language; in these cases he uses French. Overall, however, English is prioritised, in the sense that whereas French speeches and interviews are translated into English, English ones tend not to be translated.

The same can be said for farmans, which are increasingly in English, although they are also translated into languages prominent in local Ismaili communities, for example, Arabic, Persian, Tajik, Urdu, Gujarati, Sindhi, and French (Asani Reference Ali and Daftary2011:120) by members of Tariqah and Religious Education Boards.Footnote ¹¹ Farmans are deemed to ‘embod[y] the ongoing and infallible guidance of the Imams’, and to thus be ‘obligatory’ for members of the community (Asani Reference Ali and Daftary2011:111). Moreover, while farmans are experienced as oral texts that are read aloud in Jamatkhanas (community centres), they also circulate in written form and can reach beyond one particular local community. As Asani (Reference Ali and Daftary2011:120) states: ‘[a]s farmans have become readily accessible through the medium of print, they have become the primary source of religious guidance shared universally by Ismailis’. Moreover, ‘[a] farman which the Aga Khan makes in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, may be read in a jama‘atkhana in Karachi, Mombasa, Toronto or Boston’ (Asani Reference Ali and Daftary2011:120). Clearly this process of distribution is facilitated if the farmans are issued in a common language, and then translated according to need by (local) members of the Tariqah and Religious Education Boards. By printing and circulating texts, they are made persistent and can more readily be distributed not only in space but also across time. Yet while this choice may be practicable, the fact that English is used gives it value in the eyes of the transnational community, particularly since the Aga Khan is the community's spiritual leader and sole authority. Since farmans are often seen as containing ‘religious’ guidance (Asani Reference Ali and Daftary2011:120), this exemplifies, too, the complex relationship between Ismaili identity and English.

The emergence and anchoring of transnational infrastructure

As outlined by Steinberg (Reference Steinberg2011:49), the Aga Khan III set into motion the emergence of ‘a new system of translocal organization, and the beginnings of what might legitimately be called a global context’, consisting of ‘elaborately structured national councils and constitutions, the worldwide distribution of farman edicts, and a post-colonial system of global communication’. This infrastructure was complemented by a series of ‘community-building’ measures (Steinberg Reference Steinberg2011:49), including projects in the field of health (e.g. hospitals, pharmacies), education (e.g. schools, libraries), sport and leisure (e.g. clubs, libraries), and housing (Steinberg Reference Steinberg2011:50); as well as visits undertaken by the Aga Khan III for jubilee celebrations, which were key ‘for the formation of a sense of connection between subjects from different areas’ (Steinberg Reference Steinberg2011:49).Footnote ¹²

When the Aga Khan IV became Imam in 1957, he expanded these ventures initiated by his grandfather, shaping the ‘community-based transnational infrastructure into one of the world's largest nongovernmental organizations’ (Karim Reference Karim, DeBardeleben and Hurrelmann2011:214), the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN). According to its website, the AKDN is active in thirty countries, employing ca. 80,000 individuals, ‘the majority of whom are based in developing countries’, and with an annual budget for ‘non-profit development activities’ of ca. US $600 million.Footnote ¹³ The AKDN is subservient to the Imamate, and thus currently to the Aga Khan IV, and it has mandates in diverse fields, including health, architecture, and education. Of particular relevance in this article is the rubric of ‘social development’, which includes the Aga Khan University, the University of Central Asia, and the Aga Khan Education Services. These institutions strongly rely on English in official publications, and promote English as a major (in select cases only) medium of instruction. The schools and universities position themselves as nondenominational (i.e. open to all pupils irrespective of their religious background), and during fieldwork in Hunza, for example, I was told about a small minority of non-Ismailis who used to attend school with some of my interlocutors. At the same time, since both central Hunza and Khorog have majority Ismaili populations, in both places English instruction in these institutions is thus predominantly made available to Ismailis.

Since 1991 these institutions have also been active in the Soviet Union. Indeed the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 facilitated the institutional embedding of Central Asian Ismailis who had been cut off from the wider community for much of the Soviet Union and particularly since the 1930s. With respect to the spread of English, this, too, had important consequences. English became a language of instruction in Aga Khan Schools in Kyrgyzstan (alongside Russian) and Tajikistan (alongside Tajik and Russian); and it was selected as the medium of instruction for the University of Central AsiaFootnote ¹⁴ (cf. also Bolander Reference Bolander, Barakos and Unger2016).

In addition to launching the AKDN, the Aga Khan IV enforced and solidified both his authority and the community's transnationalism via a global constitution launched in 1986. This constitution ‘was to be in effect for all Ismaili communities world-wide, superseding numerous local or regional ones’ (Asani Reference Ali and Daftary2011:121). One of its prime objectives appears to have been the specification of the organisational structure of the community, an earlier version of which was recorded by Sir Justice Arnould during the Aga Khan Case (as mentioned above; cf. also Clarke Reference Clarke1978), and modified under the Aga Khan III. In addition to further cementing the status of the Aga Khan IV as the community's sole authority, the constitution outlines the role of national, regional, and local councils, which are responsible for the ‘social governance of the Jamat [community]’ (Ismailia Constitution 1986Footnote ¹⁵ :article 5), and Tariqah and Religious Education Boards, which are responsible for ‘the training of religion teachers and waezeen [trained preachers], for research and publication, and for the performance of such functions in relation to the Ismaili Tariqah as Mawlana Hazar Imam may deem necessary’ (Ismailia Constitution 1986:article 8).

The constitution also contains a language article—article 20 ‘Governing Language and Publication’—which names English as its sole authoritative language (example (2)).

1. (2) 20.1 This Constitution is published in English, which shall alone be recognized and accepted as its authoritative language.

   20.2  Publication of this Constitution in any other language shall be treated as a translation only.

For Leonard (Reference Leonard2009:183) the introduction of a global constitution constitutes an act of ‘replacing regionalism with a vision of a pan-Ismaili global community’ (cf. also Asani Reference Ali and Daftary2011). In light of the emphasis on English, this act clearly infuses English with value and gives it official status on a transnational scale. English becomes integral, in other words, to the Aga Khan's ‘vision of a pan-Ismaili global community’.

Ideologies of English as a global language of progress

While one might argue that reasons (i), the importance of English for the community can be traced back to the British Raj, and (ii), the Aga Khan III and Aga Khan IV knew/know and widely used/use English, paved the way for English to become key to the emergence and anchoring of a particular form of Ismaili transnationalism (reason (iii)), it is important to underscore that its adoption was and continues to be fuelled by ideologies of English as a global language associated with progress. This is evidenced in various speeches and interviews given by the Aga Khan IV, as well as in brochures disseminated by AKDN and AKES institutions. Thus, example (3), the official translation of an extract taken from an interview given in French to the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation in 2011, shows the Aga Khan IV employ the term language policy in connection with development potential to explain the adoption of English.

1. (3) The vast majority of the community is not in the West, and its first language is not a Western language. We have made English our second language. That yes! Because, in the sixties, in the seventies, we needed to have a language policy. If a community was without a language policy, it would dissociate itself from its development potential. And English is the language that we chose. So today, the Ismaili community speaks Farsi, Arabic, Swahili, English, French, Portuguese, etc. And then, there is a language that is more and more common, it's their second language, for a large majority it is English.Footnote ¹⁶

By casting English into the role of the community's second language, the Aga Khan allows for both heterogeneity (different Ismaili communities know and, as other official discourse makes manifest, should know and continue to learn different languages) as well as unity (English is the language Ismailis share and are all encouraged to learn). He thereby underscores his vision of a global community which is economically productive: a vision which couples English with progress, and by implication with the infrastructure of the AKDN put in place to further the community's economic success.

Typically mentioned in connection with themes like ‘development’, ‘research’ and ‘education’, speeches and interviews given by the Aga Khan show that English becomes reified as the language of possibility for the developing world. Prominent keywords used to describe English in speeches, interviews, and writings of the Aga Khan IVFootnote ¹⁷ include access, opportunities, essential, global language, development, a necessity, connecting language, primary language of global connection, and international language. The notion of connection also features in Aga Khan Education Services discourse, as shown, for example, in (4), taken from an Aga Khan Academies brochure (cf. also Bolander Reference Bolander, Bolander and Mostowlansky2017 for a discussion of this example).

1. (4) The Academies will provide an education that fosters multilingualism, starting with a policy of dual-language instruction in the Junior School, with English as the lingua franca across the network of Academies combined with local language instruction at each Academy, thus bridging the global with the local.Footnote ¹⁸

Considered ‘a vehicle of progress and a language which surpasses borders’ (Roch Reference Roch2005:22, my translation), English serves as the language that binds the academies (and schools) together and that facilitates inter-institutional and thus intra- and international mobility. As a global language associated with ‘access’, ‘development’, and ‘opportunity’, the Aga Khan's ‘English plus policy’ clearly privileges English while recognising the importance of multilingualism.

English, the Aga Khan, and Ismaili identity

The Aga Khan IV is often explicitly mentioned as the transnational source for local individual or community aspirations to learn English (cf. also Bolander Reference Bolander, Barakos and Unger2016, Reference Bolander, Bolander and Mostowlansky2017). This becomes apparent through references my interlocutors make to the Aga Khan's farmans on the importance of English, and to the Aga Khan's own use of English in speeches and farmans. Thus in example (5), taken from an interview conducted in English with KarimFootnote ¹⁹ and Sultan from Hunza, Karim explicitly links attempts to learn English with the farmans of the Aga Khan.

1. (5) Karim:  And specially in these areas people … ah people are trying, people are trying to learn English. Like they want to have a good ah grip on English and that's because- ah only because the farman of Hazir Imam, Prince Karim Aga Khan, he has a- a strongly- like he strongly wants us to speak English, like on many platforms, on many forums, he has been saying this on his farmans…Footnote ²⁰

Many of my examples similarly suggest that Ismailis are striving to learn English because the Aga Khan has ordered them or asked them to do so; and by virtue of his authority and status as Imam, it is likely that his encouragement has fuelled the learning of English amongst his followers. Yet while examples like (5) link the Aga Khan's transnational language policy to local practice, in drawing attention to the centrality of the Aga Khan, they also highlight issues of identity. Indeed, in referring to the role played by the Aga Khan for individual and community aspirations to learn English, my interlocutors also position themselves as Ismaili. In such encounters, they construct their identity as Ismaili not by overtly labelling themselves as Ismaili, but by identifying with the Aga Khan and ratifying his role as their leader.

Such positioning is made explicit in (6), where Gulnoz foregrounds the Aga Khan's own use of English during his first visit to Khorog in 1995 as the reason for her desire to learn English.

1. (6) Gulnoz:  It was 1995 when the Aga Khan come he-- here and he speech and I really wa- I don't know what he's talking about and uh he should come- he say in 1995 he came and he promise to come 98 and in mys-- in my heart I make like a promise that second time when he will be here I will understand whatever he will tell people. … Yeah. This is the- this is um how uh my English open.

For Gulnoz the Aga Khan's promise to return to Khorog in 1998 becomes the source of her own promise to understand him when he does. The Aga Khan's use of English, in other words, becomes tied to her ‘imagined identity’ (Norton Reference Norton2013; Darvin & Norton Reference Darvin and Norton2015), to her wish or aspiration to be an individual who can understand her spiritual leader when he visits his community, and who does not need to rely on a translation to do so. This same idea is at the heart of the phrase direct access, used by a young woman from Khorog to explain to me why local people are trying to learn English. English, in other words, is seen to grant these Ismailis direct access to their spiritual leader, the Aga Khan. As a result, these desires and wishes to learn English become linked both with attempts to obey the Aga Khan, and attempts to become closer to him.

While learning English or motivations to learn English are not exclusive to the local Ismaili community, such explicit references to the Aga Khan (as shown in examples (5) and (6)) clearly suggest ties between English and Ismaili identity. This argument is given further weight via implicit or explicit suggestions that English is compatible with Ismaili doctrine. Indeed, according to Zafar, considered an authority in Hunza, English has ‘almost become a matter of faith for every Ismaili around the world’. Its ready adoption can, as he explained it to me, be associated with the Ismailis’ ‘intellectual faith’, which emphasises ‘process’ not ‘product’. While Zafar is quick to point to the continued importance of local and regional languages (a claim that is compatible with the Aga Khan's English plus policy outlined above), Ismailis are said to be open to learning English because they are receptive to change (process). This same argument is illustrated in (7), taken from an interview with an elderly man in Hunza (and translated from Burushaski into English by my research assistant). Here Nasir links a preference for English with the status of English as an international language and the importance of adapting to change in the world.

1. (7) Nasir:  but we prefer more um English, because uh our Hazir Imam Prince Aga Khan in his farmans he- he um- he uh- he uh tell us- um he orders us to speak English, because it's an international language, and we follow him. So that's why uh we speak uh English, because it's international language and our Imam ask us [ uh to go with the change in time um um- according to the world, where it goes, how it works, and um be up to date, so that's why we are following English.

While underscoring the validity of the Aga Khan's emphasis on English through reference to its status as an “international language”, Nasir also links the importance of English with being “up to date”. In doing so, he makes manifest that the two cannot be severed.

While Zafar and Nasir connect Ismaili identity to English through reference to what is shared by Ismailis, or to ‘sameness’, Salma also does so via reference to ‘difference’, as shown in example (8).

1. (8) Salma:  I think those n-- you know, other non-Ismailis, they have- they are with the passage of time, they are realising the importance of English as well, but our community, you know, our community h-- has left other communities far behind in this um- in this race of learning.

Salma's performance of an individual Ismaili identity is achieved here via juxtaposition of “our community” with “non-Ismailis”. Yet since she uses the plural—“our” and “non-Ismailis”—this performance of difference is simultaneously (Levitt & Glick Schiller Reference Levitt and Glick Schiller2004) also achieved on a higher scale (Blommaert Reference Blommaert2007, Reference Blommaert2015), namely that of the community as a whole. Importantly, this affords a mapping of Ismaili identity onto learning more generally, and English more specifically. In other words, as an Ismaili Salma is different from non-Ismailis with respect to recognition of the importance of English, as are all Ismailis (who belong to “our community”, probably local Ismailis in the Hunza region where she lives) compared with non-Ismailis—in this instance (as becomes apparent later in the interview) a local Twelver Shia community (cf. also Harlech-Jones, Sajid, & ur-Rahman Reference Harlech-Jones, Musa, Sajid and ur-Rahman2003; Mostowlansky Reference Mostowlansky, Kreutzmann and Watanabe2016).

Such examples suggest that the notion of English as a common language is not constrained to official transnational discourse imparted top-down, but also emergent in local discourse, where it becomes connected with issues of Ismaili identity and the figure of the Aga Khan. Yet issues of identity are only one side of the coin; and they cannot be severed from the provision of infrastructure.

The Imamate and infrastructure: Education and English in Hunza and Khorog

A look at secondary literature shows that the Aga Khan III and the Aga Khan IV began to heavily invest in Hunza as early as the 1940s, when the Aga Khan III established a ‘Diamond Jubilee Investment Trust’ with funds he had been gifted from his followers for his Diamond Jubilee (i.e. his sixtieth year anniversary as Imam, for which he received his personal weight in diamonds; Benz Reference Benz2014:128). In Hunza (and neighbouring areas of Ismaili settlement), funds from this trust were used to establish Diamond Jubilee schools, which aimed to ‘bring an end to the restrictive permission system which controlled and limited access to formal education, and to allow school attendance for all children, irrespective of their class and family background’ (Benz Reference Benz2014:128). By 1960, Diamond Jubilee schools in Gilgit-Baltistan also catered to girls’ education (Benz Reference Benz2014:129). While instruction was originally provided in Urdu, in 1997 the schools became English-medium schools; and in the same year, the Aga Khan Education Services, Pakistan (AKES, P) also established English-medium secondary schools.

These private Aga Khan Higher Secondary Schools are known for their ‘high quality standards’ (Benz Reference Benz2013:130), and were frequently mentioned during my fieldwork with respect to the quality of teaching in English. While the most reputable English-medium schools in Gilgit-Baltistan at the secondary level are costly and unaffordable for the majority of local residents, ‘the beginning of the age of mass education in Gilgit-Baltistan’ for boys (Benz Reference Benz2014:128), and later for girls (Benz Reference Benz2014:129; cf. also Benz Reference Benz2013) is the result of efforts on the part of the Aga Khan III who used his authority to make local rulers of Ismaili settlement areas, who were themselves Ismaili, open up the educational system to children from various backgrounds. These efforts have been continued by the Aga Khan IV and the AKDN, who have contributed widely both to a general increase in literacy in largely rural Gilgit-Baltistan as well as to an increase in access to English.Footnote ²¹

During fieldwork in Hunza, it became apparent that the Aga Khan's farmans and speeches on the importance of English also need to be seen in connection with this infrastructure. To return to example (5), repeated here as the first part of (9), after mentioning the importance of farmans for Ismailis learning English in the region, Karim goes on to underscore the Aga Khan's role in creating educational opportunities (marked in italics in example (9)).

1. (9) Karim:  And specially in these areas people … ah people are trying, people are trying to learn English. Like they want to have a good ah grip on English and that's because- ah only because the farman of Hazir Imam, Prince Karim Aga Khan, he has a- a strongly- like he strongly wants us to speak English, like on many platforms, on many forums, he has been saying this on his farmans, and you can see the schools here. You don-- ah you- you must have seen there is no government school here and there's not even primary school. Every set up is by ah the Aga Khan AKDN, you can see the Diamond Jubilee schools, and this system in the Hunza again.

Referring here to the school situation in upper Hunza, Karim conjoins the Aga Khan's farmans on the need to learn English with his setting up of schools in the area, where previously there were none. If we think back to the notion of infrastructure outlined in the introduction, we see here how the Aga Khan's speeches and farmans on English (infrastructure as ‘concrete semiotic and aesthetic vehicles oriented to addressees’; Larkin Reference Larkin2013:329) are linked with infrastructure in the sense of a ‘built network’ of schools (Larkin Reference Larkin2013:328), through which English can be disseminated, and which also channels the movement of Ismailis (cf. also Bolander Reference Bolander, Bolander and Mostowlansky2017).

In Khorog, too, despite widespread differences in the degree of English expansion as a result of language policy and practice during the Soviet Union, an upsurge in English-medium instruction is strongly connected with efforts on the part of the Aga Khan. Overall in Tajikistan, English has the status of a foreign language, although it is hard to find sources on its’ role and spread. It began to be taught as a foreign language in the Soviet Union, and its importance grew strongly in the aftermath of World War II (Pavlenko Reference Pavlenko2003). Recently, it has become more significant in Tajikistan overall, with the government launching a program in 2003 to improve the teaching and learning of both Russian and English during 2004 to 2014 (Nagzibekova Reference Nagzibekova2008:506). Further, in the school year of 2004–2005, 0.04% of students (N = 1,673,745) did their secondary schooling in English, a factor Nagzibekova (Reference Nagzibekova2008:504) describes as ‘a new tendency in Tajik education’. Yet in Khorog, the Aga Khan Lycée is the only school to offer English-medium instruction (along with instruction in Tajik and Russian, with students competing for entry into the different streams), and most local institutionsFootnote ²² providing English-language training or English-medium instruction are run or facilitated by the Aga Khan Development Network.

Speaking with Bahtibek, an authority connected with the Aga Khan Lycée, I was told that the decision to open the school was already made in 1996, in connection with the establishment in the same year of an Aga Khan Education Services office (example (10)).

1. (10) Bahtibek:  It was in uh 1996. [ From 1996 uh the AKES office had been established here in Khorog. In Tajikistan, in Dushanbe it was [ and they started uh to find out uh possibilities uh to open uh … a school which will be belong to AKES, Aga Khan Education Service, and uh within this two year they mhm started preparing the teachers, uh find out place which will be appropriate to uh demands of uh modern schools, and uh … uh because uh uh if you remember that uh time was uh uh very difficult for uh Tajikistan and the Civil War, and some other challenges, uh to build a new school was uh really difficult that time. Therefore the government uh decided uh uh to build this school on the basi-- of the basis of the uh old government school. [ Before it was the government school number 3. And uh uh … the decision came to that that uh this building should be renovated, totally renovated and the AKES can um open the school in this building.

Established just five years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and during the Tajik Civil War (1992–1997), the Aga Khan Lycée took the place of ‘government school number 3’, and was ‘totally renovated’ to fit the demands of ‘modern schools’. Opened in 1998, in 2001 the school began to introduce English-medium instruction, along with Tajik- and Russian-medium instruction, because, as pointed out by Bahtibek in example (11).

1. (11) Bahtibek:  it was a requirement from the … uh … AKES, Aga Khan Education Service, that in order … students of Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast uh will be able to admit to the international universities, especially to the Central Asia University.

Thus the language policy adopted in the Aga Khan Lycée seems to have directly emerged from aims to further the mobility of local students, particularly between Khorog and the University of Central Asia, which was established in 2001, with town campuses planned for Khorog in Tajikistan, for Naryn in Kyrgyzstan, and for Tekeli in Kazakhstan. By virtue of its choice to implement English as its medium of instruction, knowledge of English emerges as important to the flow of pupils from the Aga Khan Lycée to the University of Central Asia.

Similarly, the establishment of the Khorog English Program (KEP) in the same year aimed to provide English instruction to local graduate students from Khorog so as to facilitate them entering masters programs at the Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS) in London.Footnote ²³ These exchange opportunities also facilitate community building, since Ismailis from all around the world meet at the IIS, as I observed when I spent time with Ismaili students of diverse backgrounds studying at the IIS in London in 2015. Thus, as I argue in Bolander (Reference Bolander, Bolander and Mostowlansky2017) with respect to education, while ‘English is not a sufficient condition to be part of the transnational Ismaili community’, ‘Ismaili transnationalism which is institutionally organised and facilitated often does depend on knowing English’.