Muhajir people
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The
Muhajir people (also spelled
Mahajir and
Mohajir) (
Urdu:
مہاجر,
Arabic:
مهاجر) are
Muslim immigrants, of multi-ethnic origin, and their descendants, who migrated from various regions of
India after the
Partition of India to settle in the newly independent state of Pakistan.
[7][8][9][10][11] Although some of them speak different languages at the native level, they are primarily identified as native
Urdu speakers and hence are called Urdu-speaking people.
Etymology
The Urdu term
muhājir (
Urdu:
مہاجر) comes from the Arabic
muhājir (
Arabic:
مهاجر), meaning an "immigrant",
[12][13][14] and the term is associated in early
Islamic history to the
migration of
Muslims. After the
independence of Pakistan, a significant number of Muslims emigrated or were out-migrated from territory that remained
India.
In the aftermath of partition, a huge population exchange occurred
between the two newly formed states. In the riots which preceded the
partition in the Punjab region, between 200,000 and 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]
Most of those migrants who settled in the Punjab province of 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 the
Sindh province of
Pakistan came from what then were the British Indian provinces of
Bombay,
Central Provinces,
Berar, and the
United Provinces, as well as the
princely states of
Hyderabad,
Baroda,
Kutch and the
Rajputana Agency. 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,
Khariboli,
Awadhi,
Bhojpuri,
Mewati,
Sadri and
Marwari
and Haryanvi and became commonly known as Muhajirs. 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.
[20]
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:
[21]
- 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).[22]
- Conversion was a combination, initially by violence, threat or other
pressure against the person followed by a genuine change of heart.[21]
- 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.[22]
- That conversions occurred for non-religious reasons of pragmatism
and patronage such as social mobility among the Muslim ruling elite.[21][22]
Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire
Muslims from Northern India in areas that are now the states of
Delhi,
Bihar and
Uttar Pradesh were of heterogeneous origin. The
Hindustani-speaking Muslim people of Pakistan and India have diverse roots.
[citation needed] During the era of
Delhi Sultanate and later the
Mughal Empire,
large parts of the Indian Subcontinent came under the direct or
indirect rule of Muslim dynasties of the foreign Turkic origin from
Central Asia. This era saw conversion of part of native lower caste
Hindu population(See
Indian caste structures) to Islam.
[21]
Conversion was a combination of various factors such as violence,
threat or other pressure by the foreign, Muslim ruling class on the
natives, followed by a genuine change of heart.
[21]
Conversions also happened as a socio-cultural process of diffusion and
integration over an extended period of time into the sphere of then
dominant Muslim civilization and global polity at large.
[22] and for non-religious reasons of pragmatism and patronage such as social mobility among the Muslim ruling elite.
[21][22]
In addition to conversions, a population of Muslim refugees,
nobles,
technocrats,
bureaucrats, soldiers,
traders, scientists, architects,
artisans, teachers, poets, artists, theologians and
Sufis from the rest of the
Muslim world 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] Mughal Emperor
Babur defeated the
Lodi dynasty with
Tajik,
Turkic and
Uzbek soldiers and nobility.
The Rohilla leader Daud Khan was awarded the
Katehar (later called
Rohilkhand) region in the then
northern India by Mughal emperor
Aurangzeb (ruled 1658–1707) to suppress the Hindu
Rajputs,
who were earlier allied with the Mughals. Originally, some 20,000
soldiers from various Afghan Pashtun tribes 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
Afghanistan, Many of these Afghan Pashtuns settled in northern India and also brought their families from Afghanistan.
[citation needed] 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 Afghan majority city with
Gali Nawaban as the main royal street. Other important cities were
Moradabad,
Rampur,
Shahjahanpur,
Badaun, and others.
[23][24]
These diverse ethnic, cultural and linguistic Muslim groups of foreign
and native origin, merged over the centuries to the form the
Urdu-speaking Muslim population.
[citation needed]
The
Kayastha community had historically been involved in the occupations of land
record keeping and accounting. Many Hindu Kayasthas found favour with the Mughal elite for whom they acted as
Qanungos. This close association led to the conversion of some members of the Kayastha community to
Islam. The
Muslim Kayasths speak local dialects, in addition to the Urdu language
[25] while they also speak
Sindhi in Pakistan. The Kayastha converts, incidentally uses
Siddiqui,
Shaikh,
Usmani and
Farooqi as their surnames, and claim themselves as belonging to the Shaikh community.
[26]
Decline of Mughal rule
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.
[27][28][29] The Maratha empire at its peak stretched from Tamil Nadu in the south to the Afghan border in the north.
[30][31][32]
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.
[33] 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.
[34] 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.
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.
[35] 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.
[36] 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.
[37] 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.
[38] In 1819 the last Indian Province of
Kashmir was conquered by Sikhs who registered another victory over weak Afghan General Jabbar Khan.
[39] 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.
[40]
British Rule
Prior to 1857, British territories were controlled by the
East India Company.The company maintained the fiction of running the territories on behalf of the Mughal empire.The crushing defeat of
Mutineers
in 1857 -1858 led to the abolition of the Mughal empire and the British
government taking direct control of the Indian territories
[41].
In the immediate aftermath of the rebellion, upper-class Muslim were
targeted by the British, as some of the leadership for the war came from
this community based in areas around Delhi and what is now Uttar
Pradesh; thousands of them and their families were shot, hanged or blown
by canon.Per Mirza Ghalib, even women were not spared because the rebel
soldiers disguised themselves as women
[42].
The
Pakistan movement,
to constitute a separate state comprising the Muslim-majority
provinces, was pioneered by the Muslim elite and many notables of the
Aligarh Movement. It was initiated in the 19th century when Sir
Syed Ahmed Khan expounded the cause of Muslim autonomy in
Aligarh. Many Muslim nobles such as
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 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 there since its
creation in 1906 in
Dhaka
(present day Bangladesh). The Muslim League won 90 percent of reserved
Muslim seats in the 1946 elections and its demand for the creation of
Pakistan received overwhelming popular support among Indian Muslims.
[43][44][45]
Migration
The independence of Pakistan in 1947 saw the settlement of Muslim refugees fleeing from
anti-Muslim pogroms from India
[citation needed]. 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.
[46] In Karachi, the Urdu-speaking Muhajirs form the majority of the population and give the city its
northern Indian atmosphere.
[47]
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,
Marathis and
Rajasthanis 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.
[48]
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.
[49] 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 areas currently in Indian states of
U.P.,
Delhi,
Gujarat,
Rajasthan,
Maharashtra,
Madhya Pradesh,
Karnataka,
Telangana,
Andhra Pradesh,
Tamil Nadu and
Kerala.
[49]
The third stage which lasted between 1973 and the 1990s was when
migration levels of Indian Muslims to Pakistan was reduced to its lowest
levels since 1947
[citation needed].
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.
[49]
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.
[50]
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:
[49]
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.[49]
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.[49]
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.
[49]
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.
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.
[49]
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.
[49]
A large number of Urdu-speaking muslims from Bihar went to
East Pakistan
after independence of India and Pakistan in 1947.After the formation of
Bangladesh in 1971, the Biharis maintained their loyalty to Pakistan
and wanted to leave Bangladesh for Pakistan. Majority of these people
are still waiting,however, 178,00 have been repatriated. In 2015, the
Pakistani government stated that the remaining '
Stranded Pakistanis' are not its responsibility but rather the responsibility of Bangladesh.
[51]
Upon arrival to West Pakistan, many refugees hastened to change their surnames, taking on the names
Sayyid or
Qureshi,
for example, in order to lay claim to a more prestigious lineage.
Others played on the proximity of the names Ansars (descendents of
Medina, ashrafs) and Ansaris (caste of weavers, ajlafs). The partition
brought about quite exceptional circumstances that facilitated the
implementation of these strategies.
[52]
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.
[53]
Muhajirs dominated the bureaucracy of Sindh in the early years of the
Pakistani state, largely due to their higher levels of educational
attainment.
[54]
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 and civil service experience from working for the
British Raj and
Muslim princely states. From 1947 to 1958, Urdu-speaking Muhajirs held more jobs in the
Government of Pakistan
than their proportion in the country's population (3.3%). In 1951, of
the 95 senior civil services jobs, 33 were held by Urdu-speaking people
and 40 by
Punjabis.
Gradually, as education became more widespread,
Sindhis and
Pashtuns, as well as other ethnic groups, started to take their fair share of the pool in the bureaucracy.
[55]
1958–1970
On 27 October 1958,
General Ayub Khan stage a
coup and imposed
martial law across Pakistan.
[56] The percentage of Urdu-speaking people in the
civil service declined while the percentage of Pashtuns in it 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 before the independence of Pakistan in 1947 and now
supported the
Muslim League of 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.
[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] Subsequently, the quota system was introduced and this limited their access to education and employment.
In 1972 language riots broke out between Sindhis and Urdu-speakers
after the passage of the "Teaching, Promotion and use of Sindhi
Language" bill in July 1972 by the
Sindh Assembly; which declared
Sindhi as the only official language of Sindh. Due to the clashes, Prime Minister
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto compromised and announced that
Urdu and
Sindhi
would 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.
[55]
1977–1988
In the
1977 Pakistani general election,
Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan and
Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan joined in a coalition named the
Pakistan National Alliance. The Urdu-speaking people voted mostly for the Pakistan National Alliance.
[60] The
electoral fraud by Pakistan Peoples Party caused protests across the country. On July 5, 1977,
Chief of Army Staff General
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq led a coup d'etat against Bhutto and imposed
martial law.
Zain Noorani, a prominent member of the
Memon community, was appointed as Minister of State for Foreign affairs with the status of a Federal Minister in 1985.
1988–1993
The Muhajirs (Urdu-speakers) of Pakistan were largely settled in the
Sindh province,
particularly in the province's capital, Karachi, where the Muhajirs
were in a majority. As a result of their domination of major Sindhi
cities, there had been tensions between Muhajirs and the native Sindhis.
The Muhajirs, upon their arrival in Pakistan, soon joined the
Punjabi-dominated ruling elite of the new-born country due to their high
rates of education and urban background.
[54] They possessed the required expertise for running Pakistan's nascent bureaucracy and economy.
[citation needed] Although the Muhajirs were, socially, urbane and liberal they sided with the country's religious political parties such as
Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan (JUP).
[60]
The dichotomy between the Muhajirs’ 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
the historical and cultural roots of native Pakistani ethnicities, the
Mohajirs backed the state's project of constructing a homogenous
national identity that repulsed ethnic sentiment.
[61]
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 Islamic faith followed by
the majority of Pakistanis. By the time of Pakistan's first military
regime (Ayub Khan, 1958), the Muhajirs had already begun to lose their
influence in the ruling elite.
[60][61] 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 caused the Muhajirs’ to agitate against the
Ayub dictatorship from the early 1960s onwards.
[57]
Muhajirs 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, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, became the country's head of
state in December 1971, the Muhajirs 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 (which 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).
[55]
But the success of the PNA (Pakistan National Alliance) movement did
not see the Muhajirs finding their way back into the ruling elite, even
though the Jamaat-i-Islami became an important player in the first
cabinet of
General Zia regime that came to power through a
military coup
in July 1977. Disillusioned, some young Muhajir politicians came to the
conclusion that their community had been exploited by religious
parties, and that these parties had used the shoulders of the Muhajirs
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 Muhajirs’ more liberal social dynamics and character. The
Muhajir dichotomy between social liberalism and political conservatism
was dissolved and replaced with a new identity-narrative concentrating
on the formation of Muhajir ethnic nationalism that was socially and
politically liberal but fiscally conservative and provincial in outlook.
The project was a success. The MQM successfully broke the electoral
hold of the religious parties in Karachi and subsequently re-invented
the Muhajirs 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, Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa and the Punjab, corruption in the police and other
government institutions operating in Karachi grew two-fold.
The need to use power to tilt the political and economic facets of
the city towards the Urdu-speaking community's interests became visible.
Thus emerged the militant wings from the city's prominent political
groups. These cleavages saw the MQM ghettoising large swaths of the
city's Muhajirs in areas where it ruled supreme. This had an adverse
impact. It replaced the pluralistic and enterprising disposition of the
Muhajirs 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, the MQM began to re-invent 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 Muhajir
community from the concept of Pakistani nationhood propagated by the
religious parties. Now it added two more dimensions to Muhajir
nationalism. It began to explain the Muhajirs 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 the
MQM's way of resolving the Muhajirs’ early failures to fully integrate into
Sindhi culture.
The other dimension that emerged during this period among the Muhajir
community (through the MQM), was to address the disposition of Muhajir
identity in the (urban) Muhajir-majority areas of Sindh. This dimension
explains Muhajir nationalism in the context of Pakistan's status of
being a Muslim-majority state. It expresses Muhajir 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).
Demographics and distribution within Pakistan
Census History of Urdu Speakers in Pakistan[62]
| 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 |
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
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 speakers
Culture and lifestyle
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.
Language
The phrase
Zaban-e Urdu-e Mualla ("The language of the exalted") written in
Nastaʿlīq script.
The original language of the Mughals had been a
Turkic language. 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.
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,
[63] 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, and educational level also has an influence on the language spoken by a person
[citation needed].
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 like
Punjabi Sindhi,
Pashto, and
Balochi[citation needed]. The pronunciation pattern of Urdu language also differs in
Pakistan and the
cadence and lilt are informal compared with corresponding Indian dialects
[citation needed]. The Urdu speakers in Karachi consider their accent as the standard dialect of the
Urdu language[citation needed]
Contributions to literature
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
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 Zoheb Hassan. 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 scholars 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.
[64]
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 products,
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. Muhajirs are playing in the
Pakistani cricket team with well-known players such as Javed Miandad,
Saeed Anwar, Asif Iqbal, Mohsin Khan, Sikhander Bakht, Rashid Latif,
Basit Ali and Moin Khan.
[65]
There are now younger players like Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Sarfaraz
Ahmed, Khurram Manzoor playing for the international team. Muhajirs are
notably involved in hockey, tennis, squash and badminton. Bodybuilding
and weightlifting are increasing in popularity among younger members of
the Muhajir community.
Cuisine
-
Nihari, the national dish of
Pakistan was brought to Pakistan by the Muhajir people from India
[66]
-
-
-
Kebabs are an important part of the ancient Muslim cuisine.
-
Faluda, an ancient Hyderabadi dessert.
-
-
-
-
-
-
Korma, a traditional cuisine originated from ancient Lukhnow royals.
-
Bihari Kabab, a traditional cuisine originated from
Bihar.
-
Chilli Sauce and Yougurt chutney – Biryani Accompaniments
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.
See also
References
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Understanding the Cultural Landscape.
Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities
The Man who Divided India: An Insight Into Jinnah's Leadership and It.
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"Karachi Bloodbath: It is Mohajir Vs Pushtuns". Rediff. 20 September 2011.
"Don’t label me ‘Mohajir’". tribune.com.pk.
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cent of the population of Karachi [being Muhajirs] ... [They] 'were more
educated than the province's original Muslim population' ... It was
inevitable that a sense of competition and hostility between the two
communities would develop. As the Muhajirs made their presence felt in
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urbanised Muhajirs ... quickly established themselves.
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