Muhajir (Pakistan)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2007)

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (September 2007)

See Muhajir page for all Muhajir groups in the world

Muhajirs
Total population
13.2 million^[1]^{[citation needed]}
Regions with significant populations
Pakistan, Bangladesh, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Australia, United Arab Emirates, United States, Canada
Languages
Urdu
Religions
Islam (a Sunni majority and a Shia minority)
Related ethnic groups
Other Indo-Aryan peoples Punjabis, Memons, Gujaratis, Pashtuns, Sindhis

Muhajir or Mohajir (Urdu: مہاجر) is a term used to describe the Muslims who migrated to Pakistan after the independence in 1947.

The term Muhajir itself is now gradually being replaced by the more politically acceptable term "Urdu Speaker" or "Urdu" because of it's connotations. Even though 'Urdu speaking' term is still not the correct term to identify a group of people since many of these people claim Middle Eastern, Turkish, Afghan and Indian decent. Many can trace their family roots to the Middle East and Central Asia prior to migration to North and Central South Asia. The one uniting factor for the people regardless of their origin/race is that their mother tongue is Urdu.

[edit] Etymology

Main article: Muhajir

Muhajir or Mohajir (Arabic: مهاجر) is an Arabic word meaning refugee or immigrant or emigrant. The Islamic calendar Hejira starts when Muhammad and his companions left Mecca for Medina in what is known as Hijra. They were called Muhajirun. The Arabic root word for immigration and emigration is Hijrat.

[edit] In Pakistan

A railway station Pakistan during the migration of Muhajirs

The majority of people who migrated after the independence were settled in the port city of Karachi in southern Sindh and in the cities of Hyderabad, Sukkur, Nawabshah and Mirpurkhas.

As well the above many Urdu-speakers settled in the cities of Lahore, Multan, Bhawalpur and Rawalpindi of Punjab.

Today, in Pakistan, 7.6% of the population or around 13-14 million identify themselves as 'Urdu-Speaking'. Of this number around 10 Million reside in Sindh and around 4 million reside in Punjab and Islamabad. Note that the number in Punjab includes many 'Punjabi Speakers who have switched from the use of Punjabi in the home to the use of Urdu (see below). Very few 'Urdu-Speaking Muhajirs live in the remaining parts of Pakistan. Riots sometimes break out over political disputes between these mohajirs with the local population.

[edit] Culture

Muhajirs are inheritors of the Muslim cultural heritage of South Asia.

[edit] Political ideology

Muhajirs hold political opinions ranging from conservative to liberal. Most tend to be secular and support ideals of Western democracy. Muhajirs held comfortable vocations in British India.

[edit] Intermarriages

Since the independence in 1947, there have been many intermarriages that took place between Punjabi, Kahmiri, Paskhtuns, Bengali and Persian/Urdu speaking communities, which is the reason that its hard to identify native Urdu-speaking communities in Pakistan, except for the province of Sindh, where many Urdu speaking people still maintain their distinct identity and heritage. However, with the passage of time, local traditions and essences have greatly seeped in, which is why many Urdu speaking communities are so much merged with the Punjabi, Pashtun and Kashmiri communities that they do not identify them as Urdu speaking at all. Members of the second- and third- generations of these Pakistanis identify themselves as native Pakistanis instead of any specific communities. The intermarriage between Shia and Sunni Muslims is common in Pakistan.

[edit] Language

The original language of the Mughals had been Turkish, but after their arrival in South Asia, they came to adopt Persian and later Urdu. The word Urdu is believed to be derived from the Turkish, word 'Ordu', which means army. It was initally called Zaban-e-Ordu or language of the army and later just Urdu. The word 'Ordu' was later anglicised as 'Horde'. Urdu, though of South Asian origin, came to be heavily influenced by Persian and Arabic. Urdu speakers have been speaking this language as their Mother tongue for several centuries. Urdu has been the medium of the literature, history and journalism of South Asian Muslims during the last 200 years. Most of the work was complemented by ancestors of present Punjabis and native Urdu speakers in South Asia. Persian language which was the official language during the Mughals was then slowly starting to loose ground to Urdu during the reign of Shah Jahan. It was after the devastating invasion of Shah of Iran Nadir Shah Durrani in 1738 that gave death blow to Mughal empire and the Muslim rule in South Asia, that the Mughal adopted Urdu instead of Persian as the official language of the empire. Then Urdu with official patronage developed high literature.

The Punjabi community in Pakistan have done a lot of work in the emergence of Urdu language. Punjabi native speakers earlier used to speak Punjabi before the independence in 1947 but after the independence they adopted Urdu as their language and started speaking Urdu based Punjabi. That is one of the reason Punjabi community find itself more close to Urdu language than any other community in Pakistan. Also many poets such as Zafar Iqbal, Sir Mohammed Iqbal and Ahmed Faraz contributed their efforts for the Urdu language. Allama Iqbal, in his later life however, felt Urdu to be a limited language of expression and reverted back to the use of Persian for his literary works.

[edit] Lifestyle

After the independence when the Muslims migrated to Pakistan they brought different values with them that varied from region to region they migrated from. The urban lifestyle was mostly coloured by the people who migrated to Pakistan after the independence in the major cities of Pakistan, especially Karachi, as they originally immigrated from mostly urban centres of India before the independence of Pakistan. Some of these urban centres, such as Lucknow and Delhi had been seats of culture, learning and rich heritage since centuries, and rivaled those of the world.

[edit] 1972 Language Riots

In 1972, ethnic riots broke out between Muhajirs and native Sindhi in urban areas of Sindh who felt the Urdu speakers were dominating the province while at the same time, not learning the provinical language. Most Mohajir's cannot speak Sindhi despite living in Sindh for over 60 years. The Muhajirs considered Sindhi as a regional language and preferred to learn and speak Urdu, the national language, and English, the international language.

[edit] Muttahida Qaumi Movement

The Muhajir Qaumi Movement party was formed by Altaf Hussain, now living in exile in the UK, in 1985 to pursue Muhajir interests in Sindh. The name of the party was changed in 1992 to the "Muttahida Qaumi Movement" in an attempt to broaden its appeal, but remains a predominantly Muhajir party. The party is accused by its critics for violence, extortion and murder often killing its own members who object to the party's violent methods^{[citation needed]}.

In the General Election of 2008 the MQM won 19 out of a possible 274 National Assembly Seats (17 in Karachi and 2 in Hyderabad) along with 39 out of a possible 130 Seats in the Sindh Provincial Assembly (34 in Karachi, 4 in Hyderabad and 1 in Mirpurkhas)

[edit] Well-known Muhajirs

Main article: Famous Muhajirs

[edit] Politics

Pervez Musharraf, the current President of Pakistan
Shaukat Aziz, Former Prime Minister of Pakistan]]
Abdul Qadeer Khan
Abul Ala Maududi
Liaquat Ali Khan, (First Un-elected Prime Minister of Pakistan)
Rahimuddin Khan
Moinuddin Haider (Ex-Governor of Sindh and Federal interior minister)
Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada (Former Attorney General Pakistan (1977-1984), Former Foreign Minister Pakistan, Former Law Minister (1979-1984) and Currently Senior Advisor to Prime Minister on Law)
Farooq Sattar (Deputy Convenor of MQM, Parliamentary Leader)
Dr. Imran Farooq (Covenor of MQM)
Babar Ghori (ex-Federal Minister for Ports & Shipping & Member of MQM)