Abstract

This article examines the ideas of equality, people-centeredness, and social justice in the works of nineteenth-century Karakalpak thinkers, focusing on Kunxoja, O‘tesh, Ajiniyaz, Berdaq, and O‘mar. The study treats their poetic works not merely as literary texts but as sources of social-philosophical reflection on labour, taxation, public authority, human dignity, and the moral responsibilities of officials. A comparative and contextual approach is used to identify both shared concerns and distinctive models of justice. The analysis shows that Kunxoja interprets injustice primarily through the devaluation of labour and the disproportion between work and remuneration; O‘tesh connects unpaid labour with both economic oppression and moral disgrace; Ajiniyaz emphasizes impartial judgment, equality of rich and poor before public authority, and the ethical duties of rulers and judges; Berdaq exposes unequal taxation and coercive collection practices; and O‘mar presents truth-telling in the face of official violence as a civic and moral obligation. The article argues that these thinkers conceptualized justice through concrete social relations rather than through abstract doctrine. Their works reveal a normative vision in which labour must be fairly recognized, public power must be accountable, taxation must not become a mechanism of arbitrary domination, and every person’s dignity must be respected. In this sense, nineteenth-century Karakalpak intellectual heritage constitutes an important source for reconstructing regional traditions of social thought and popular conceptions of a just society.