Struggle For Survival

Initially, the word ‘Mohajir’ was the part of Pakistan’s political vocabulary from the outset as a means of encouraging Muslim solidarity between newcomers and those who already lived within the territory of the newly-carved Pakistani nation state. The term Mohajir alludes to the migration of the first Muslims from Mecca to Medina -a migration initiated by the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) by himself. Simultaneously, the use of the term ‘Mohajir’ allowed the state to constitute those who are already living within Pakistan, making the task of welcoming the arrivals a quasi-religious duty.

For instance, Liaquat Ali Khan, the first Prime Minister of Pakistan said in August 1948, ‘The Government of Pakistan is fully aware of the difficulties of the Muhajireen and all over efforts are directed towards an end that is to improve their lot. So long as each and every refugee is not suitably resettled the Pakistani government would not relax its efforts.’

Clearly, the term Mohajir was initially deployed in a capacious and positive sense to evoke sympathy for the migrants from India; moreover, it included all migrants from India to Pakistan irrespective of where they came from and what language they spoke - it did not have an ethnic connotation. However, soon thereafter, the concept and the whole context began to change as new situations emerged in both countries.

Mohajirs in Today’s Pakistan

As things currently stand, the term “Mohajir” is a common name for the Muslim people presently living in Pakistan but migrated from different parts of India on the eve of Partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. Thereafter, they settled sporadically in different provinces of Pakistan with majority in urban Sindh, especially Karachi. It was the largest mass migration in human history where many people left their country from both sides, particularly keeping in view the socio-religious tense environment prevailing in the subcontinent at the time.

The migrants who came to India from Pakistan have no settling trend but those who migrated from India to Pakistan began to live in blocs. For instance, the people of the Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and the United Provinces, mostly settled in the Punjab province of Pakistan. On the other hand, the earlier inhabitants of Bombay, Central Provinces, Berar, Hyderabad, Baroda, Kutch and the Rajputana Agency settled in towns of Sindh and surrounding cities, such as, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Mirpurkhas.

The migration of Muslims from India to Pakistan did not take place in one stroke but in three different phases. Covering the areas of East Punjab, Delhi and some adjacent districts of today’s Uttar Pradesh, the first round of migration took place between August to November, 1947, and the prime cause of which was communal disturbance resulting in survival fear.

The second phase of the migration covered a long period beginning in December 1947 to December 1971, which included migrants from South as well North Indian States and they all settled in and around Karachi, the capital of Sindh. The third migration phase lasted between 1973 and 1990s with a declined rate in comparison to 1947. Over the decades and years, not only migration but the cross-border marriages have also declined sharply from 40,000 thousand a year in 1950s and 1960s to merely 300 per year.

Status in Sindh

In the 1950s, there was another wave of migration to Sindh in response to the heightened communal violence in India. The Sindh government’s responses to refugees -including asking them to return to India and the imposition of a permit system led many Mohajirs to believe that they were not very welcomed after all in the Pakistani homeland of their dreams.

However, the meaning of the term “Mohajir” changed after these post-partition years. It came to be used as a synonym for ‘refugee’ in the negative sense as someone who is a passive sect of charity, which is why it did not become the principal term of self-identification for the displaced Muslims from India. They saw it as a label imposed by others. But in contrast, the migrants from India perceived themselves to be there by right and not by invitation as they saw themselves as founders of the nation.

Over the years, the term Mohajir gradually shifted from being an all-embracing term for migrants to a pejorative word. Noting its shifting meaning one analyst aptly added, “Once it had meant welcome”. Now it means: “You are not from here”. The term ‘Mohajir’ was, therefore, a constant reminder of their outsider/foreigner origins and of their belated arrival into the Pakistani nation-space.

However, the migrants of Sindh province and other parts of Pakistan made the country their new home, socially they always felt alienated despite decades long process of assimilation in Pakistan’s multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, Islamic republic. It resulted in fear psychosis among the Urdu-speaking Mohajirs. Apart from forming their own political parties, they remained constant supporters of the state system that tried to construct a homogeneous national identity. On the religious front, they backed the view of eschewed pluralism and ethnic identities and propagated a holistic faith based on pure Islamic teachings.

Political Awakening and Prospect

The political destiny of Mohajirs after settling in Pakistan essentially tagged with socio-political upheavals of the country from time to time beginning with the first military rule of General Ayub Khan in October 1958. At that time the Mohajirs felt the pinch of not being native and lacked historical as well as cultural roots of Pakistani ethnicity in comparison to Baloch, Bengali and Sindhi nationalists. As a consequence, a sense of insecurity emerged, leading to the political consciousness in them as their influence in ruling elites noticed a clear decline as the new military ruler himself hailed from the then North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and promoted Pashtuns in administration.

Likewise, the Mohajirs of Sindh feared their harm when in December 1971 Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, a native of the Sindh province, became head of the state. A year after assuming power, Bhutto nationalised the financial industry, educational institutions, and other industries without giving any compensation, thus giving a defeating jolt to Mohajirs. In response to the politics of sidelining the Mohajirs later in 1978, a student organisation named All Pakistan Mohajir Students Organisation (APMSO) was formed by Altaf Hussain who presently lives in London.

In a further development, the same organisation gave birth to the erstwhile Mohajir Qaumi Movement in 1984 and more than a decade later in 1997 the party replaced the word “Mohajir” with “Muttahida” which means “United”. The party has presently two factions and the Pakistani faction, headed by Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui with kite as election symbol, continues to be an influential force as a coalition partner in the federal governments from the year 1988 with some intervals till 2013. Viewing the aggressive speech of its leader in 2016, the government of the day became harsh despite the MQM’s success in local body elections.

The election held in 2018, was boycotted by the MQM on account of military intervention in political affairs, but their struggle for survival and identity is likely to continue in days to come.