On January 19, this year, an international online conference “Mahmudhoja Behbudi and the Jadid Press” dedicated to the 146th anniversary of Mahmudhoja Behbudi was held at the Ministry of Innovative Development of the Republic of Uzbekistan jointly with the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education, the University of Journalism and Mass Communications of Uzbekistan and the Research Support Center.
Minister of Innovative Development Ibrohim Abdurakhmonov noted that the international conference once again gave an opportunity to remember the father and leader of the Turkestan Jadids, public figure, playwright – Mahmudhoja Behbudi.
“If you pay attention, the life and creativeness of Mahmudhoji Behbudi can be described as striving for innovation, – said I. Abdurakhmonov. – New schools were founded in Samarkand in 1903 by Behbudi, who believed that the only way to save people from tyranny and ignorance was education, knowledge and science. Behbudi and his followers made efforts to improve the social and political systems of the country and change their way of life. Mahmudhoja Behbudi and the Jadids under his guidance can be undoubtedly called the first innovators of our republic. This is the opening of new schools with modern teaching methods, the creation of new theatre troupes to promote education in the absence of the Internet and television. The fact that setting of required conditions to educate the youths of Turkestan is consistent with our goal, which we now call the development of human capital, also proves the importance and topicality of this conference.
I would like to note that the Ministry of Innovative Development has announced a competition for projects to study the history of the Jadids’ movement in Turkestan, the legacy of the Jadids under the guidance of Mahmudhoja Behbudi. The numerous projects submitted by historians, philologists, linguists and art critics of the republic to the competition of innovative projects on “Creation of an electronic platform “jadid.uz” in the direction of Philology, Pedagogy and Psychology, shows the great interest of our scientists in this topic.