Muhajir people

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Muhajirs
مہاجر
Total population
Reported: 13,349,335 (2011)
Estimates: 20 million[1][2][3][4][5]
Regions with significant populations
Karachi Metropolitan Area, HyderabadSindh, Punjab
Languages
Urdu اردو Hindustani
Religion
Islam (Sunni, Shia)

Muhajir or Mahajir (Urdu: مہاجر‎, Arabic: مهاجر‎‎) is an Arabic-origin term used in Pakistan in some regions to describe Muslim immigrants and their descendants of multi-ethnic origin who migrated from regions of India and settled in the newly formed state of Pakistan after the Partition of India during the Independence of India and Pakistan from British rule in 1947.[6][7][8][9][10]

Etymology

The Urdu term muhājir (Urdu: مہاجر‎) comes from the Arabic muhājir (Arabic: مهاجر‎‎), meaning a "immigrant",[11][12][13] and the term is associated in early Islamic history to the migration of Muslims from Makkah to Madinah. After the independence of Pakistan, a significant number of Muslims emigrated or were out-migrated from territory that remained India. A large portion of these migrants came from East Punjab, and settled in Punjab (Pakistan). Sharing a common culture and with tribal linkages, many assimilated within a generation. Another significant percentage are of Gujarati ethnicity. In the aftermath of partition, a huge population exchange occurred between the two newly formed states. According to the 1951 Census in both India and Pakistan, about 14.5 million people crossed the borders, including 7,226,000 Muslims who came to Pakistan from India while 4,700,000 Hindus and Sikhs moved to India from West Pakistan and 2,600,000 Hindus and Sikhs moved to India from East Pakistan. Of the 6.5 million Muslims that came to West Pakistan (now Pakistan), about 5.3 million settled in Punjab, Pakistan and around 1.2 million settled in Sindh. The other 0.7 million Muslims went to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

Most of those migrants who settled in Punjab, Pakistan came from the neighbouring Indian regions of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Delhi while others were from Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and the United Provinces. Migrants who moved to Sindh, Pakistan migrated from what then were the British Indian provinces of Bombay, Bihar, Central Provinces, Berar, and the United Provinces, as well as the princely states of Hyderabad, Baroda, Kutch and the Rajputana Agency became commonly known as Muhajirs. Most of these Migrants settled in the towns and cities of Sindh, such as Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Mirpurkhas. Many spoke Urdu, or dialects of the language such as Dakhani, Khari boli, Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Mewati, Sadri and Marwari and Haryanvi. Over a period of a few decades, these disparate groups sharing the common experience of migration, and political opposition to the military regime of Ayub Khan and his civilian successor Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto evolved or assimilated into a distinct ethnic grouping.[14]

In the riots which preceded the partition in the Punjab region, between 200,000 to 2 000,000 people were killed in the retributive genocide.[15][16] UNHCR estimates 14 million Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims were displaced during the partition; it was the largest mass migration in human history.[17][18][19]

Migration

Even after the 1951 Census many Muslim families from India continued migrating to Pakistan throughout the 1950s and even early 1960s.

Research has found that there were three predominant stages of Muslim migration from India to West Pakistan. The first stage lasted from August–November 1947. In this stage of migration the Musim immigrants originated from East Punjab, Delhi, the four adjacent districts of U.P. and the princely states of Alwar and Bharatpur which are now part of the present state of Rajasthan.[20] The violence affecting these areas during partition precipitated an exodus of Muslims from these areas to Pakistan.

The second stage (December 1947-December 1971) of the migration was from what is U.P., Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.[20]

The third stage which lasted between 1973 to the 1990s was when migration levels of Indian Muslims to Pakistan was reduced to its lowest levels since 1947.

In 1959 the International Labour Organisation (ILO) published a report stating that between the period of 1951-1956, a number of 650,000 Muslims from India relocated to West Pakistan.[20] However, Visaria (1969) raised doubts about the authenticity of the claims about Indian Muslim migration to Pakistan, since the 1961 Census of Pakistan did not corroborate these figures. However, the 1961 Census of Pakistan did incorporate a statement suggesting that there had been a migration of 800,000 people from India to Pakistan throughout the previous decade.[21] Of those who had left for Pakistan, most never came back. The Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru conveyed distress about the continued migration of Indian Muslims to West Pakistan:[20]

''There has...since 1950 been a movement of some Muslims from India to Western Pakistan through the Jodhpur-Sindh via Khokhropar. Normallly, traffic between India and West Pakistan was controlled by the permit system. But these Muslims going via Khokhropar went without permits to West Pakistan. From January 1952 to the end of September, 53,209 Muslim emigrants went via Khokhropar....Most of these probably came from the U.P. In October 1952, up to the 14th, 6,808 went by this route. After that Pakistan became much stricter on allowing entry on the introduction of the passport system. From the 15th of October to the end of October, 1,247 went by this route. From the 1st November, 1,203 went via Khokhropar.''[20]

Indian Muslim migration to West Pakistan continued unabated despite the cessation of the permit system between the two countries and the introduction of the passport system between the two countries. The Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru once again expressed concern at the continued migration of Indian Muslims to West Pakistan in a communication to one of his chief ministers (dated 1, December 1953):

''A fair number of Muslims cross over to Pakistan from India, via Rajasthan and Sindh daily. Why do these Muslims cross over to Pakistan at the rate of three to four thousand a month? This is worth enquiring into, because it is not to our credit that this should be so. Mostly they come from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan or Delhi. It is evident that they do not go there unless there is some fear or pressure on them. Some may go in the hope of employment there. But most of them appear to feel that there is no great future for them in India. I have already drawn your attention to difficulties in the way of Government service. Another reason, I think, is the fear of Evacuee Property Laws [EPL]. I have always considered these laws both in India and Pakistan as most iniquitous. In trying to punish a few guilty persons, we punish or injure large numbers of perfectly innocent people...the pressure of the Evacuee Property Laws applies to almost all Muslims in certain areas of India. They cannot easily dispose of their property or carry on trade for fear that the long arm of this law might hold them down in its grip. It is this continuing fear that comes in the way of normal functioning and normal business and exercises a powerful pressure on large numbers of Muslims in India, especially in the North and the West.''[20]

In 1952 the passport system was introduced for travel purposes between the two countries. This made it possible for Indian Muslims to legally move to Pakistan. Pakistan still required educated and skill workers to absorb into its economy at the time, due to relatively low levels of education in the regions which became part of Pakistan. As late as December 1971, the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi was authorized to issue documents to educationally qualified Indians to migrate to Pakistan.[20] The legal route was taken by unemployed but educated Indian Muslims seeking better fortunes, however poorer Muslims from India continued to go illegally via the Rajasthan-Sindh border until the 1965 India-Pakistan war when that route was shut. After the conclusion of the 1965 war, most Muslims who wanted to go to Pakistan had to go there via the India-East Pakistani border. Once reaching Dhaka, most made their way to the final destination-Karachi. However, not all managed to reach West Pakistan from East Pakistan.

The 1951 census in Pakistan recorded 671,000 refugees in East Pakistan, the majority of which came from West Bengal. The rest were from Bihar.[22] By 1961 the numbers reached 850,000. In the aftermath of the riots in Ranchi and Jamshedpur, Biharis continued to migrate to East Pakistan well into the late sixties and added up to around a million.[23] Crude estimates suggest that about 1.5 million Muslims migrated from West Bengal and Bihar to East Bengal in the two decades after partition.[24]

Over on the India-West Pakistan border, in the aftermath of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, 3,500 Muslim families migrated from the Indian part of the Thar Desert to the Pakistani section of the Thar Desert.[25] 400 families were settled in Nagar after the 1965 war and an additional 3000 settled in the Chachro taluka in Sind province of West Pakistan.[26] The government of Pakistan provided each family with 12 acres of land. According to government records this land totalled 42,000 acres.[26]

Indian Muslim migration to Pakistan declined drastically in the 1970s, a trend noticed by the Pakistani authorities. On June 1995, Pakistan's interior minister, Naseerullah Babar, informed the National Assembly that between the period of 1973-1994, as many as 800,000 visitors came from India on valid travel documents. Of these only 3,393 stayed back.[27] In a related trend, intermarriages between Indian and Pakistani Muslims have declined sharply. According to a November 1995 statement of Riaz Khokhar, the Pakistani High Commissioner in New Delhi, the number of cross-border marriages has declined from 40,000 a year in the 1950s and 1960s to barely 300 annually.[27]

Reasons for immigration

The Pakistan movement, to constitute a separate state comprising the Muslim-majority provinces, was pioneered by the Muslim elite of the region and many notables of the Aligarh Movement. It was initiated in the 19th century when Sir Syed Ahmed Khan expounded the Muslim autonomy in Aligarh. Many Muslim nobles, Nawabs (aristocrats and landed gentry) supported the idea. As the idea spread, it gained great support amongst the Muslim population and in particular the rising middle and upper classes.

The Muslims had launched the movement under the banner of the All India Muslim League and Delhi was its main centre. The headquarters of All India Muslim League (the founding party of Pakistan) was based here since its creation in 1906 in Dhaka (present day Bangladesh) and up to August 1947. The participation in the movement on ideological grounds and supporting its Muslim cause with approximately half of the entire mandate in 1945–46 elections.[28]

The independence of Pakistan in 1947 saw the settlement of Muslim refugees fleeing from anti-Muslim pograms from India. In Karachi, the Urdu-speaking Muhajirs form the majority of the population and give the city its northern Indian atmosphere.[29] The Muslim refugees lost all their land and properties in India when they fled and some were partly compensated by properties left by Hindus that migrated to India. The Muslim Gujaratis, Konkani, Hyderabadis, Marathi, Rajasthani, Punjabi fled India and settled in Karachi. There is also a sizable community of Malayali Muslims in Karachi (the Mappila), originally from Kerala in South India.[30]

Most of the Muhajirs now live in Karachi which was the first capital of Pakistan. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, the minority Hindus and Sikhs migrated to India while the Muslim refugees from India settled in Karachi.[31]

Origin and conversion theories

Considerable controversy exists both in scholarly and public opinion as to how conversion to Islam came about in the Indian subcontinent, typically represented by the following schools of thought:[32]

  1. Conversion came from Buddhists and the masses of conversions of lower caste Hindus as they were the vulnerable and enticed by uniformity under Islam. (See Indian caste structures).[33]
  2. Conversion was a combination, initially by violence, threat or other pressure against the person followed by a genuine change of heart.[32]
  3. As a socio-cultural process of diffusion and integration over an extended period of time into the sphere of the dominant Muslim civilization and global polity at large.[33]
  4. That conversions occurred for non-religious reasons of pragmatism and patronage such as social mobility among the Muslim ruling elite.[32][33]

Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire

Delhi Sultanate

The Hindustani-speaking people of Pakistan and India have diverse roots.[citation needed] Many Sufi missionaries from the Middle East and Central Asia migrated, settled and converted locals to Islam. During the Delhi Sultanate and later Mughal Empire they attracted Muslim refugees, nobles, technocrats, bureaucrats, soldiers, traders, scientists, architects, artisans, teachers, poets, artists, theologians and Sufis from the rest of the Muslim world and they migrated and settled in the area. At the court of Sultan Iltemish in Delhi, the first wave of these Muslim refugees, escaping from the Mongol invasion of Central Asia by the hordes of Genghis Khan, brought individuals to the subcontinent from the aforementioned region.[citation needed] The Muslims from various provinces such as Hyderabad Deccan, Kerala, Balochistan, Sindh, Gilgit, Gujarat, Kashmir and other parts of South Asia also moved to capitals of Muslim empire in Delhi and Agra. Millions of natives converted to Islam during the Muslim rule. After the Battle of Panipat (1526) Mughal Emperor Babur defeated the Lodi dynasty with Tajik, Chagatai and Uzbek soldiers and nobility. These Central Asian Turkic soldiers and nobles were awarded estates and they settled with their families in the northern India. These diverse ethnic, cultural and linguistic groups merged over the centuries to the form the Urdu-speaking Muslims.[citation needed]

Mughal Empire

The Rohilla leader Daud Khan was awarded the Katehar (later called Rohilkhand) region in the then northern India by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir (ruled 1658–1707) to suppress the Rajput uprisings, which had afflicted this region. Originally, some 20,000 soldiers from various Pashtun tribes (Yusafzai, Ghori, Ghilzai, Barech, Marwat, Durrani, Tareen, Kakar, Naghar, Afridi and Khattak) were hired by Mughals to provide soldiers to the Mughal armies. Their performance was appreciated by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir, and an additional force of 25,000 Pashtuns were recruited from modern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Afghanistan and were given respected positions in Mughal Army. Nearly all of Pashtuns settled in the Katehar region and also brought their families from modern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Afghanistan.[citation needed] In 1739, a new wave of Pashtuns settled increasing their population to over 100,0000.[citation needed][dubious – discuss] Due to the large settlement of Rohilla Afghans, the Katehar region gained fame as Rohilkhand.[citation needed] Bareilly was made the capital of the Rohilkhand state and it became Pashtun majority city with Gali Nawaban as the main royal street. Other important cities were Moradabad, Rampur, Shahjahanpur, Badaun, and others.[34][35] After the Third Battle of Panipat fought in 1761 between the Ahmad Shah Durrani and Maratha Empire thousands of Pashtun and Baloch soldiers settled in the northern India. These diverse ethnic, cultural and linguistic groups merged over the centuries to the form the Urdu-speaking Muslims.[citation needed]

Sub-groups also includes the Hyderabadi Muslims, Memon Muslims, Bihari Muslims etc. who keep many of their unique cultural traditions.[36] Muslims from what are now the states of Delhi, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh were themselves of heterogeneous origin.[citation needed]

The Kayastha community has historically been involved in the occupations of land record keeping and accounting. Many Hindu Kayasth found favour with Muslim rulers for whom they acted as Qanungos. This close association led to the conversion of many members of the Kayastha community to Islam. The Muslim Kayasths speak Urdu[37] while they also speak Sindhi in Pakistan. The Kayasth sometime use Siddiqui, Khan, Shaikh, Usmani and Farooqi as their surnames, and consider themselves as belonging to the Shaikh community.[38]

The independence of Pakistan in 1947 saw the migration of Urdu-speaking refugees from India fleeing from the anti-Muslim pogroms. The majority of the Urdu-speaking and other non-Punjabi Muslim refugees that fled from various Indian states settled in Karachi.

What defines a Muhajir now is education, urbanism and the Urdu language. Gujratis, Burmese, Memons, Bohras, Ismailis, Bengalis, Rajasthani Muslims, Marathi Muslims, Marwari Muslims, Konkani Muslims, people from Goa, people from Bombay State, Malwaris who were in India were counted as Muhajirs in Pakistan as they migrated to Pakistan after or during independence.[citation needed]

Decline of Mughal rule

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See also: Maratha Empire and Sikh Empire

The Maratha Empire (1674–1818) ruled large parts of India following the decline of the Mughals. Mountstart Elphinstone termed this a demoralizing period for the Muslims, as many of them lost the will to fight against the Maratha Empire.[39][40][41] The Maratha empire at its peak stretched from Tamil Nadu in the south to the Afghan border in the north.[42][43][44] In early 1771, Mahadji, a notable Maratha general, recaptured Delhi and installed Shah Alam II as the puppet ruler on the Mughal throne. In north India, the Marathas thus regained the territory and the prestige lost as result of the defeat at the Panipat in 1761.[45] Mahadji ruled the Punjab, as it used to be a Mughal territory, and Sikh sardars and other rajas of the cis-Sutlej region paid tributes to him.[46] A considerable portion of the Indian subcontinent came under the sway of the British Empire after the Third Anglo-Maratha War, which ended the Maratha Empire in 1818.

Sikh Empire, established by Ranjit Singh in North-west India.
Maratha Empire at its zenith in 1760 (yellow area) stretching from the Deccan into present Pakistan. The discussed abolishing the Mughal Empire and placing Vishwasrao on the Mughal imperial throne in Delhi.

In northwest India, in the Punjab, Sikhs developed themselves into a powerful force under the authority of twelve Misls. By 1801, Ranjit Singh captured Lahore and ended Afghan rule in North West India.[47] In Afghanistan, Zaman Shah Durrani was defeated by powerful Barakzai chief Fateh Khan, who appointed Mahmud Shah Durrani as the new ruler of Afghanistan and appointed himself as Wazir of Afghanistan.[48] The Sikhs, however, were now stronger than the Afghans and started to annex Afghan provinces. The biggest victory of the Sikh Empire over the Durrani Empire came in the Battle of Attock, fought in 1813 between the Sikhs and the Wazir of Afghanistan Fateh Khan and his younger brother Dost Mohammad Khan. The Afghans were routed by the Sikh army and the Afghans lost over 9,000 soldiers in this battle. Dost Mohammad was seriously injured, whereas his brother Wazir Fateh Khan fled back to Kabul fearing that his brother was dead.[49] In 1818 they[who?] slaughtered Afghans and Muslims in the trading city of Multan, killing Afghan governor Nawab Muzzafar Khan and five of his sons in the Siege of Multan.[50] In 1819 the last Indian Province of Kashmir was conquered by Sikhs who registered another victory over weak Afghan General Jabbar Khan.[51] The Koh-i-Noor diamond was also taken by Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1814. In 1823, a Sikh Army routed Dost Mohammad Khan, the Sultan of Afghanistan, and his brother Azim Khan at Naushera (near Peshawar). By 1834, the Sikh Empire extended up to the Khyber Pass. Hari Singh Nalwa, a Sikh general, remained the governor of Khyber Agency till his death in 1837. He consolidated Sikh control in tribal provinces. The northernmost Indian territories of Gilgit, Baltistan and Ladakh was annexed between 1831–1840.[52]

British Raj

During British Raj, the Muslim aristocracy remained above the common Muslims.[citation needed]

Karachi

In 1947, Karachi was chosen as the capital of the newly independent state of Pakistan. Before the independence of Pakistan in 1947, the population of Karachi was 450,000 and had a small majority of 51% Sindhi and Balochi Muslims. Nearly all of the Hindu and Sikh population of Karachi migrated to India after the independence of Pakistan. By 1951, Karachi’s population had increased to 1.137 million because of the influx of nearly 1 million Muslim refugees from India and the population of Karachi was over 96% Muslim.

Demographics and distribution within Pakistan

[53]

Census History of Urdu Speakers in Pakistan
Year Population of Pakistan Percentage Urdu Speakers
1951 33,740,167 07.05% 2,378,681
1961 42,880,378 07.56% 3,246,044
1972 65,309,340 07.60% 4,963,509
1981 84,253,644 07.51% 6,369,575
1998 132,352,279 07.57% 9,939,656
2011 173,593,439 07.69% 13,349,335
Provinces of Pakistan by Urdu speakers (1998)
Rank Division Urdu speakers Percentage
– Pakistan 9,939,656 07.57%
1 Sindh 6,407,596 21.05%
2 Punjab 3,320,320 04.07%
3 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 100,320 00.95%
4 Islamabad Capital Territory 81,409 10.11%
5 Balochistan 63,032 00.96%
6 Federally Administered Tribal Areas 5,717 00.18%

Muhajir diaspora

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Main article: Muhajir diaspora

Many Muhajirs have emigrated from Pakistan and have settled permanently in Europe, North America and Australasia. There are also significant number of Muhajirs who are working in the Middle East, especially in the Persian Gulf countries:

Regions with significant populations of Urdu Speaking

Culture and lifestyle

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Main article: Muhajir culture

Clothing

Before the independence of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah frequently wore the Karakul hat, Kurta, Pajamas and Sherwani and made it the national dress of Pakistan.[54]

Heritage

The rich heritage brought by migrants from the urban centres of India, such as Lucknow, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bombay, which had been seats of Islamic culture and learning for centuries, was to have a major influence on the cities of Pakistan, especially Karachi. The notable 20th-century Islamic scholar/author Muhammad Hamidullah was involved in formulating the first Constitution of Pakistan.

Politics

1947–1958

Upon arrival in Pakistan, the Muhajirs did not assert themselves as a separate ethnic identity but were at the forefront of trying to construct an Islamic Pakistani identity. Muhajirs dominated the bureaucracy of the early Pakistani state, largely due to their higher levels of educational attainment. Gradually, as education became more widespread, Sindhis and Pashtuns, as well as other ethnic groups, have started to take their fair share of the pool. However, the critical early years of Pakistan were facilitated by the experience that many Muhajirs had both in politics and in higher education.

Many Urdu-speaking people had higher education, Aligarh Muslim University, and civil service experience working for the British Raj and Muslim princely states. From 1947 to 1958, Urdu-speaking Muhajirs held many more jobs in the Government of Pakistan than their ratio of only 3.3 percent of the country's population. In 1951, of the 95 senior civil services jobs, 33 were held by the Urdu-speaking people and 40 by the Punjabis.

1958–1970

On 27 October 1958, General Ayub Khan stage a coup and imposed martial law across Pakistan.[55] The percentage of the Urdu-speaking people declined in the civil service as the percentage of Pashtuns increased. In the presidential election of 1965, the Muslim League split in two factions: the Muslim League (Fatima Jinnah) supported Fatima Jinnah, the younger sister of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, while the Convention Muslim League supported General Ayub Khan. The Urdu-speaking people had supported the Muslim League since before the independence of Pakistan in 1947 and now supported the Muslim League (Fatima Jinnah). The electoral fraud of the 1965 presidential election and a post-election triumphal march by Gohar Ayub Khan, the son of General Ayub Khan, set off ethnic clashes between Pashtuns and Urdu-speaking people in Karachi on 4 January 1965.[56][57]

Four years later on 24 March 1969, President Ayub Khan directed a letter to General Yahya Khan, inviting him to deal with the tense political situation in Pakistan. On 26 March 1969, General Yahya appeared on national television and proclaimed martial law over the country. Yahya subsequently abrogated the 1962 Constitution, dissolved parliament, and dismissed President Ayub's civilian officials.[58]

1970–1977

The Pakistani general election, 1970 on 7 December 1970, Awami League won the elections. The Urdu-speaking people voted for the Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan and Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan. The Pakistan Peoples Party government nationalization the financial industry, educational institutions and industry. The nationalization of Pakistan's educational institutions, financial institutions and industry in 1972 by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan Peoples Party impacted the Muhajirs hardest as their educational institutions, commerce and industries were nationalized without any compensation.[59] Then the quota system was introduced that limited their access to education and employment. Karachi is the largest commercial city of Pakistan and the Muhajirs are the main stakeholder in this city. The 1972 language riots were caused by the passage of "Teaching, Promotion and use of Sindhi Language" bill on 7 July 1972 by the Sindh Assembly declaring Sindhi to be the only official language of Sindh.[60] Due to the clashes, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto compromised and announced that Urdu and Sindhi will both be official languages of Sindh. The making of Sindhi as an equal language to Urdu for official purposes frustrated the Urdu-speaking people as they did not speak the Sindhi language.[61]

1977–1988

In the Pakistani general election, 1977, Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan and Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan joined in a coalition named Pakistan National Alliance. The Urdu-speaking people voted mostly for the Pakistan National Alliance. The Electoral fraud by Pakistan Peoples Party caused protests around the country. On July 5, 1977, Chief of Army Staff General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq imposed Martial Law.

Mr. Zain Noorani a prominent member of the Memon community was appointed as Minister of State for Foreign affairs with status of a Federal Minister in 1985.

1988–1993

The Mohajirs (Urdu-speakers) of Pakistan are largely settled in the Sindh province. In the province’s capital, Karachi (that is also Pakistan’s largest city), the Mohajirs have for long been a majority. As a result of the mass migration and such a major change in the linguistic demographics of the Sindh region in such a short period, there have been tensions between Mohajirs and other communities. A majority of them began arriving from cities and towns (especially from North Indian regions) after the division of India into two separate states in 1947. They mostly settled in Karachi and soon became a part of the otherwise Punjabi-dominated ruling elite of the new-born country due to the high rates of education found in the Mohajir community, its urbane tenor and the required expertise it possessed in running Pakistan’s nascent bureaucracy and economy. Socially, the Mohajirs were urbane and liberal. But politically they sided with the country’s only religious party:Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan (JUP). The dichotomy between the Mohajirs’ social and political dispositions was a result of the sense of insecurity that the community felt in a country where the majority of its inhabitants were ‘natives.’ Lacking a political constituency tied to the historical and cultural aspects of ethnicities of the ‘people of the soil’, the Mohajirs naturally backed the state’s project of constructing a homogenous national identity that repulsed ethnic sentiment. The Mohajirs also echoed the views of the religious parties that eschewed pluralism and ethnic identities and propagated a holistic national unity based on the commonality of the faith followed by the majority of Pakistanis. As time would eventually render such projects and demands obsolete and artificial in a multi-ethnic country like Pakistan, by the arrival of Pakistan’s first military regime (Ayub Khan, 1958), the Mohajirs had already begun to lose their influence in the ruling elite. With the Baloch, Bengali and Sindhi nationalists distancing themselves from the state’s narratives of nationhood, Ayub (who hailed from what is now the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, slowly began to pull the Pakhtuns into the mainstream areas of the economy and politics. This is one reason why the Mohajirs’ began to agitate against the Ayub dictatorship from the early 1960s onwards.

Mohajirs had decisively lost their place in the ruling elite, but they were still an economic force to reckon with (especially in urban Sindh). When a Sindhi, Z.A. Bhutto, became the country’s head of state (and then government) in December 1971, the Mohajirs feared that they would be further side-lined, this time by the economic and political resurgence of Sindhis under Bhutto. In response the Mohajirs enthusiastically participated in the 1977 right-wing movement against the Bhutto regime (that was largely led by the religious parties). The movement was particularly strong among Karachi’s middle and lower-middle-classes (and aggressively backed by industrialists, traders and the shopkeepers). This was also the first time when the Mohajirs compromised their social liberalism to supplement their backing for a movement based on populist religious dispositions. But the success of the PNA (Pakistan National Alliance) movement did not see the Mohajirs finding their way back into the ruling elite, even though the Jamaat-i-Islami became an important player in the first cabinet of Gen Zia regime that came to power through a military coup in July 1977. Disillusioned, some young Mohajir politicians came to the conclusion that their community had been exploited by religious parties, and that these parties had used the shoulders of the Mohajirs to climb into the corridors of power. This galvanised the formation of the All Pakistan Mohajir Students Organisation (in 1978) and then the Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM) in 1984. Its founders, Altaf Hussain and Azeem Ahmed Tariq, decided to organise the Mohajir community into a cohesive ethnic whole. For this, they found the need to break away from the community’s tradition of being politically allied to the religious parties, and politicise the Mohajirs’ more liberal social dynamics and character. The Mohajir dichotomy between social liberalism and political conservatism was dissolved and replaced with a new identity-narrative concentrating on the formation of Mohajir ethnic nationalism that was socially and politically liberal but fiscally conservative and provincial in outlook. The project was a success; first expressed in the manner the MQM broke the electoral hold of the religious parties in Karachi and the subsequent invention of the Mohajirs of Sindh as a distinct ethnic group. By 1992, the MQM had become Sindh’s second largest political party (second to the PPP). But as the city’s economics and resources continued to come under stress due to the increasing migration to the city from within Sindh, KP and the Punjab, corruption in the police and other government institutions operating in Karachi grew two-fold. The need to use muscle to tilt the political and economic facets of the city towards a community’s interests became prominent. Thus emerged the so-called militant wings in the city’s prominent political groups. These cleavages saw the MQM ghettoising large swaths of the city’s Mohajirs in areas where it ruled supreme. The results were disastrous. It replaced the pluralistic and enterprising disposition of the Mohajirs with a besieged mentality that expressed itself in an awkwardly violent manner attracting the concern and then the wrath of the state and two governments (in the 1990s).

In 2002 MQM began to regenerate itself after the crises of the preceding decade when it decided to end hostilities with the state by allying itself with the General Musharraf dictatorship (1999–2008). The party had already weaned away the Mohajir community from the concept of Pakistani nationhood propagated by the religious parties. Now it added two more dimensions to Mohajir nationalism. It began to explain the Mohajirs as ‘Urdu-speaking Sindhis’ who were connected to the Sindhi-speakers of the province in a spiritual bond emerging from the teachings of Sindh’s ‘patron saint’, Shah Abdul Latif. This was MQM’s way of resolving the Mohajirs’ early failures to fully integrate Sindhi culture. The other dimension that emerged during this period among the Mohajir community (through the MQM), was to address the disposition of Mohajir identity in the (urban) Mohajir-majority areas of Sindh. This dimension explains Mohajir nationalism in the context of Pakistan’s status of being a Muslim-majority state. It expresses Mohajir nationalism through a version of socio-political liberalism based on the modern reworking of 19th century ‘rational and progressive Islam’ (of the likes of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan). It sees spiritual growth as a consequence of material growth (derived from modern free enterprise, science, the arts and the consensual de-politicisation of faith).

Language

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The phrase Zaban-e Urdu-e Mualla ("The language of the exalted") written in Nastaʿlīq script.

The original language of the Mughals had been Turkish. After their migration to the area, they came to adopt Persian and later Urdu. Urdu is an Indo-European language, and in the Indo-Aryan subdivision. The word Urdu is believed to be derived from the Turkish word 'Ordu', which means army (Hence Urdu is sometimes called "Lashkarī zabān", Persian for "the language of the army"). It was initially called Zaban-e-Ordu or language of the army and later just Urdu. The word 'Ordu' was later Anglicised as 'Horde'. Urdu was heavily influenced by Persian and Arabic and somewhat by Turkish; however, its grammatical structure is based on old Parakrit or Sanskrit. Urdu speakers have adopted this language as their mother tongue for several centuries.

Autograph and a couplet of Last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah II, dated 29 April 1844

Urdu has been the medium of the literature, history and journalism of Muslims in the area during the last 400 years. Most of the work was complemented by ancestors of native Urdu speakers in the region. The Persian language, which was the official language during and after the reign of the Mughals, was slowly starting to lose ground to Urdu during the reign of Aali Gohar Shah Alam II. Subsequently, Urdu developed rapidly as the medium of literature, history and journalism of South Asian Muslims. Most of the literary and poetic work was complemented by various historic poets of mughal and subsequent era, among which Mir Taqi Mir, Khwaja Mir Dard, Mir Amman Dehalvi, Mirza Ghalib, Bahadur Shah II Sir Syed Khan and Maulana Hali are the most notable ones. The Persian language, which had its roots during the time of Moguls, was then replaced later by Urdu. Mogul kings like Shah Jahan rendered patronage as well as support. Many poets in Pakistan such as Zafar Iqbal, Sir Mohammed Iqbal, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Munir Niazi and Saifuddin Saif contributed their efforts for the Urdu language.

Dialects and languages

After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, when the Muslims refugees arrived in Pakistan, the values the migrants brought with them varied from region to region, depending on their origin. The Muslims refugees arrived from different regions often speaking different dialects of the Urdu language such as Awadhi, Khariboli, Braj, Bhojpuri,[62] Bundeli, Rekhta, Hyderabadi or Dakhni, etc. These Urdu dialects were distinguished by their vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation (phonology, including prosody), humor and slangs. Many Muslims refugees spoke regional languages such as Gujarati, Kutchi, Marathi, Konkani, Telugu, etc. The Urdu syllabus taught in the Karachi schools with its strong emphasis on poetry and literature helped to standardise Urdu in Karachi. These dialects and languages slowly merged to form a standard dialect closer to the Awadhi dialect of the Urdu language over the decades. Even the Urdu dialect of Karachi is very diverse, and some neighborhoods such as Nazimabad has its own accent that is different from the Orangi speech; family background, educational level and everything else has an influence.

The Urdu language spoken in Karachi has become gradually more divergent from the Indian dialects and structure of Urdu, since it has engrossed many words, proverbs and phonetics from the regional languages likePunjabi Sindhi, Pashto, and Balochi. The pronunciation pattern of Urdu language also differs in Pakistan and the cadence and lilt are informal compared with corresponding Indian dialects. The Urdu speakers in Karachi consider their accent as the standard dialect of the Urdu language.

Contributions to literature

Ghalib poem in Nastaliq

Poetry

Muhajirs brought their rich poetic culture along with them which they held in their original states centuries ago prior to independence. Some of the most notable ones historic poets are Mir Taqi Mir, Mir Aman Dehalwi, Khawaja Mir Dard, Jigar Muradabad etc. Subsequent to independence, many notable Urdu poets migrated to Pakistan, besides a large number of less famous poets, authors, linguists and amateurs. Consequently, Mushaira and Bait Bazi became a part of the national culture in Pakistan. Josh Malihabadi, Jigar Moradabadi, Akhtar Sheerani, Tabish Dehlvi, Nayyer Madani and Nasir Kazmi are a few of the noteworthy poets. Later, Jon Elia, Parveen Shakir, Dilawar Figar, Iftikhar Arif, Rafi Uddin Raaz and Raees Warsi became noted for their distinction.

Prose

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See also: Urdu literature

With the emergence of Muhajirs in urban areas of Pakistan, Urdu virtually became the lingua franca. The country's first Urdu Conference took place in Karachi in April 1951, under the auspices of the Anjuman Taraqqi-i-Urdu. The Anjuman, headed by Maulvi Abdul Haq, not only published the scattered works of classical and modern writers, but also provided a platform for linguists, researchers and authors. Among them Shan-ul-Haq Haqqee, Shahid Ahmed Dehlvi, Josh Malihabadi, Qudrat Naqvi, Mahir-ul-Qadri, Hasan Askari, Jameel Jalibi and Intizar Hussain are significant names. Whereas Akhtar Hussain Raipuri, Sibte Hassan and Sajjad Zaheer were more inclined to produce left-winged literature. Among women writers, Qurratulain Hyder, Khadija Mastoor, Altaf Fatima and Fatima Surayya Bajia became the pioneer female writers on feminist issues.

Contribution in science and technology

Muhajirs have played an extremely important and influential role in science and technology in Pakistan. Scientists such as Ziauddin Ahmed, Raziuddin Siddiqui and Salimuzzaman Siddiqui, gave birth to Pakistan Science and later built the integrated weapons program, on request of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Muhajir later forwarded to developed the Pakistan's space program and other scientific and strategic programs of Pakistan. Many prominent scientists come from the Muhajir class including Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, Dr. Ishfaq Ahmad, Ghulam Murtaza, Raziuddin Siddiqui, Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy, Dr. Salimuzzaman Siddiqui, and Atta ur Rahman to name a few.

Contribution in art and music

The Muhajir community brings a rich culture with it. Muhajirs have and continue to play an essential role in defining and enriching Pakistani culture and more significantly, music. Some famous Muhajir Pakistani musicians include: Nazia Hassan, Mehdi Hassan, Munni Begum, Ahmed Jahanzeb and Maaz Moeed. Muhajirs contribution has not been limited to pop but has spanned various music genres, from traditional Ghazal singing to rock. Muhajirs in Pakistan are also famous for their contribution towards the art of painting. Syed Sadequain Ahmed Naqvi, one of the most famous painter of the world, was a Pakistani painter who was born in Amroha, India.

Contribution in business and industry

After partition in 1947 by the then British Government through Indian Independence Act 1947; the Muslims who immigrated to Pakistan were well educated and consisted of journalists, urban intellectuals, professors, bureaucrats, lawyers, teachers, academics and scholers etc. Although there were those that had migrated who were the bourgeoisie consisting of merchants, industrialists or capitalists, a large number of those who immigrated from the rural areas and villages also consisted of labourers and artisans. The eminent business groups that shifted from India to Pakistan were Habib Bank, Muslim Commercial Bank, Orient Airways, among others. Other businesses were established in Pakistan by some of the notable figures as United Bank Limited, Hamdard Pakistan Limited, Schon group. It is also known that besides founding several Governmental organizations like State Bank of Pakistan, they played an influential role in initiating the Atomic Energy Commission, Kanup, and several other institutions. Muhajirs were also found in administration, establishment and politics.[63]

The initial business elites of Pakistan were Muhajirs. Prominents example of businesses started by them include Habib Bank Limited, Hyesons, M. M. Ispahani Limited, Schon group etc. Nationalization proved to be catastrphpic for Muhajir-owned businesses, and the final blow was delivered as a result of discriminatory policies during the dictatorship of Gen. Zia-ul-Haq. In recent years, many Muhajirs have established their businesses in Pakistan, with a focus on textile, garment, leather, food prodcts, cosmetics and personal goods industries. Many of Pakistan's largest financial institutions were founded or headed by Muhajirs, including the State Bank of Pakistan, EOBI, Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation, United Bank Limited Pakistan, First Women Bank et cetera.

Contribution in sports

Muhajir are active in many sports in Pakistan. Muhajir are playing in the Pakistani cricket team with well-known players such as Javed Miandad, Saeed Anwar, Mohsin Khan, Sikhander Bakht, Rashid Latif, Basit Ali and Moin Khan.[64] There are now younger players like Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Khurram Manzoor playing for the international side. Muhajirs are notably involved hockey, tennis, squash and badminton. Bodybuilding and weightlifting are increasing in popularity among younger members of the Muhajir community.

Cuisine

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Main article: Muhajir cuisine

Muhajirs clung to their old established habits and tastes, including a numerous desserts, savoury dishes and beverages. The Mughal heritage played an influential role in the making of their cuisine. In comparison to other native Pakistani dishes, Muhajir cuisine tends to use traditional royal cuisine specific to the old royal dynasties of now defunct states of ancient India. Most of a dastarkhawan dining table include chapatti, rice, dal, vegetable and meat curry. Special dishes include biryani, qorma, kofta, seekh kabab, Nihari and Haleem, Nargisi Koftay, Roghani Naan, Naan, sheer-qurma (sweet), qourma, chai (sweet, milky tea), paan and Hyderabadi cuisine, and other delicacies associated with Muhajir culture.

Intermarriages

Since Pakistan's independence in 1947, there has been a steady rise in intermarriages that have taken place between Punjabis, Kashmiris, Sindhis, Balochs, Pashtuns, Brahuis and Muhajirs.

See also

Notes

References

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External links

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