History of Hyderabad, Pakistan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The city of Hyderābād traces its early history to Neroon, a Hindu ruler of the area from whom the city derived its previous name, Neroon Kot نيرون ڪوٽ. Neroon Kot literally means the place of Neroon. Its history dates back to pre-Islamic times, when Ganjo Takker (Barren Hill), a nearby hilly tract, was used as a place of worship. Lying on the most northern hill of the Ganjo Takker ridge, just east of the River Indus, it is the third largest city in the province of Sindh in Pakistan built over three hillocks.
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[edit] Early history
[edit] The Kalhora rule
The present day city of Hyderabad was founded in 1768 on the site of the ancient town of Neroon Kot by Mian Ghulam Shah Kalhora, the saintly ruler of Sindh under the Kalhora Dynasty. It was named after the prophet Mohammed's son-in-law, Ali, also known as Haidar.
A small fishing village on the banks of River Indus the city was called the heart of the Mehran whilst thriving upon the fresh river water's banks. Ghulam Shah loved the city so much that in 1766, he ordered a fort to be built on one of the three hills of Hyderabad to house and defend his people. The massive half-a-square kilometer garrison was completed by 1768. Since then, it stands in place and is called the Pacco Qillo پڪو قلعو or the strong fort. The Kalhora rule ended for two more decades until the demise of the great Ghulam Shah.
[edit] The Talpur rule
After the death of the great Kalhora, started the Talpur Rule. Mir Fateh Ali Khan Talpur left his capital Khudabad, the land of God and made Hyderabad his capital in 1789. He made the Pacco Qillo his residence and also held his courts there. Mir Fateh Ali Khan Talpur along with his three other brothers was responsible for the affairs that persisted in the city of Hyderabad in the years of their kingdom. The four were called Chār Yār, Sindhi for four friends. The rulers of Sindh were named Ameers, Arabic for leaders.
It remained the capital of Sindh under the Talpur rulers who succeeded the Kalhoras till 1843, a rule lasting almost half-a-century when Talpurs faced a greater threat - the British.
[edit] The British rule
The British came face-to-face with the Talpurs at the battle of Miani on 17 February, 1843. It is said that even in rigor mortis the Ameers (Mirs) held their swords high fighting the British. The battle ended on 24 March where the Mirs lost and the city came into the hands of the British. The battle at Dabo landed an even greater part of Sindh in the laps of the British regime and the city surrendered to the British. Being the last stronghold in the way of the British, the city once conquered, completed the British Conquest of Sindh.
The crown of being a capital of the emirate of Sindh was then transferred to Karachi when the British general Sir Charles Napier conquered Sindh in 1843, mainly because the East India Company had headquarters in Karachi.
The British demolished most of the buildings around to accommodate their troops and their military stores. Hyderabad lost its glory. No longer were the roads washed with perfume. In 1857, when the First War of Indian Independence raged across the sub-continent, the British held most of their regiments and ammunition in this city.
[edit] Modern times
[edit] Partition and Exodus of Hindus from Sindh
Prior to Partition in 1947, Hyderabad had a large population of Hindu Sindhi who were mainly involved in trade and commerce. The community contributed significantly to the economy of Sindh. When partition of India occured, the Hindu Sindhis expected to remain in Sindh. There was good communal relation between the Hindu and Muslims Sindhis. When waves of Mohajirs started to pour into Hyderbad, violence erupted on the streets. The Hindu Sindhis were forced to flee leaving everything behind. Many Hindu Sindhis wanted to return to their native Sindh, when the violence had settled down, but it was not possible. The Mohajirs were given land mostly in the town of Hirabad which belonged to the Hindus. While the population of the people grew with the migration in progress, the then-Government of Pakistan proposed the creation of two more towns, namely Latifabad (in honour of the famous poet of Sindh) and Qasimabad.
[edit] Re-capitalization
With the influx of people from across the borders, the city saw its numbers increasing in population and was deemed to be the largest city according to population statistics at the time. Owing to the new-found glory, the city regained its title of being a capital from 1947 to 1955.
Government institutions like the University of Sindh, moved its campuses from the city of Karachi to settle in the new capital in 1951 along the banks of Indus. During this time, Hyderabad was incorporated as a municipality in 1953.
[edit] Post-modern age
Hyderabad, twice the capital of Sindh and now the eighth largest city of Pakistan, is one of the oldest cities of the sub-continent. Being the fifth largest city of Pakistan, Hyderabad is a communication center, connected by rail with Peshawar and Karachi. The third largest city of the province of Sindh, it has over 6 million people dwelling in it.
[edit] Diverse ethnic settlements
People migrated from across the border into Pakistan were all ethnically diverse. Migrants that settled in the province of Punjab were predominantly Punjabi speaking people and ammalgamated well with the natives, whilst the people that came into the territories of the province of Sindh found no bond with the natives of Sindh, neither cultural nor racial, not even religious at times. Most Sindhi natives were Hindus. The new emigrants found difficult to mingle with the native neighbours in their newly alloted homes. And even decades after the partition, the tensions seems to rise even steeper limits. The emigrants were given a new identity, a new name – Mohajirs.
[edit] Mohajirs: a people without identity
Towards the end of the 1970s and the beginning of 1980s, Karachi was a haven for refugees from India, known merely as Mohajirs, the word having decent from Hijr, the exodus of early Muslims along with the prophet from Mecca to Medina to escape persecution due to religious beliefs. With Karachi overflowing with migrants, the influx reached the ends of the Hyderabad city at the south, where Latifabad is.
The refugees that traveled across the border spoke Urdu and had cultural and social traditions different from that of the feudal counterparts the Sindhis adopted. With the adoption of Urdu as a National language, it was apparent that the Mohajirs were in the forefront of the struggle for Pakistani nationalism whilst their Sindhi, Punjabi and Pathan counterparts supported their own regional identities and found nationalism a fad excuse by the Mohajirs to gather more power out of the system.
The federal power, that rested with the Mohajirs, starting to gradually sift into the hands of more Punjabi 'bureaucratic-military clique'. The Sindhis fought back to resurrect their dying culture and in 1972, according to the Sindh Act, imposed the teaching of Sindhi language compulsory in schools all over the province of Sindh. These actions led to the first violent clashes involving mohajir groups.
[edit] The ethnic riots
The 1980s saw a black period in the history of Hyderabad as riots erupted in the city between the two ethnic diversities in majority, the Sindhis and the Mohajirs. The city had never been the same again, forever divided by ethnicity, scared by racist hatred.
In 1988, it was reported that the streets of Hyderabad were littered with bodies right from Hirabad to Latifabad. The riots claimed over 60 dead in just one day, and more than 250 deaths in this phase of rioting. In a backlash, more than 60 Sindhi speaking people were gunned down in Karachi.
The political hoopla over the domestic violence and civil killings provoked a massive police operation in the city with 2000 policemen surrounded the Pacco Qilo locality. The huge army of peacemakers could not curb the riots and had to be called back. There was only a trickle of internal migrations before the operation, but the operation triggered a mass exodus of population. The mohajirs migrated en masse from Qasimabad and the interior of Sindh into Latifabad. Similarly, the Sindhis people moved to Qasimabad from Hyderabad and Latifabad.
