In Central Asian centers outside the conservative cities of Bukhara and Khiva, a small but vigorous expression of dissent emerges in the form of an active reform movement.
Among other causes, the reformers seek to end drug addiction, alcoholism, and pederasty.
The reformers, who refer to themselves as Jadids, are centered in Samarkand but are also present in Bukhara, Tashkent, and Fergana.
Inspired and assisted by Crimean Tatar reformers such as Ismail Bey Gaspirali, Jadids organize "New Method" schools at the primary and secondary level, teaching pupils by modern pedagogical methods rather than by the rote learning that had been used in traditional schools.
For the literate, Jadids publish numerous short-lived newspapers and lithograph or print many booklets.
To reach the illiterate, Jadids create Central Asia's first modern indigenous theatre, performing didactic plays intended to promote moral behavior.
These plays reach most of the principal towns of Turkistan, though in Bukhara and Khiva conservative Muslims delay the entry of reformist theatre.
Among the many ideas new to the region and disseminated by the Jadids are women's emancipation, the improvement of public health, and local modernization and entrepreneurship.
Enjoying sporadic protection by czarist governors in Turkistan, the Jadids are able to prepare numbers of young urban intellectuals for moderate change in their society and culture.
Modernization also comes to Turkistan with the advent of the telegraph, telephone, and press; railroads reach Samarkand and Tashkent by 1905.
