Introduction

In Part I (chapters 1–7) of this study we are concerned with the bearing of the premodem heritage of the societies of Inner Asia on their capacity to modernize in the twentieth century. More specifically, we are asking which aspects of the traditional heritage were assets to future change and which were liabilities. Which traditional structures were readily convertible to modem functions? Which requisites of modernity were so lacking in the heritage that adoption of foreign institutions rather than the adaptation of traditional ones proved to be necessary?