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Partition and the Making of the Mohajir Mindset
This is an insightful social analysis of the 'mohajirs', migrants from the Urdu-speaking belt of Northern India who mostly settled in Sindh fron 1947 onwards, and who were confronted by issues of identity and ethnicity as they clung to their culture.
- GenresPakistan
212 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2008
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February 10, 2021
The author grew up as a Muslim in Delhi.He describes the communal rioting in chilling detail,as the British prepared to leave India.The people of the entire neighbourhood feared for their lives and loudly used to start religious chants when riots took place and people got killed.
He survived,and after the creation of Pakistan,decided to migrate.But he went sometime after partition when some order had been restored and arrived in the comfort of a plane,rather than through a dangerous border crossing.
Enormously relieved at first that killer Hindu mobs weren't chasing him,he soon realized that people in Lahore were not too thrilled by the influx of so many refugees,from across the border.The refugees would add to the competition for already scarce jobs.
Many of the refugees decided to move to Karachi,it was then a relatively small city.It soon became a hub of the Muslim refugees,who had poured in from all parts of India.
It is an interesting description of Karachi,in those early days.Peaceful and full of promise for many of the new arrivals,as they tried to re create their former neighbourhoods and put down roots.
But,then,his job took him to various places in Pakistan and he noticed the friction between Pakistan's various ethnicities.The refugees continued to feel alienated.Their grievances mutiplied,they thought they weren't getting a fair deal.The quota system of jobs gave them a smaller share,compared to the others.
In the 1980s,a new term was coined for them,"Mohajirs." It coincided with the rise of a new organization,the MQM,which played on their grievances, claimed to represent them and resorted to violence all too readily.
The author argues that Pakistan's various ethnicities co-exist rather uneasily and this has,at times,given rise to violent conflict as exemplified by the separation of Bangladesh,and the rise of the MQM,among other things.
The book has a lot of repetition,it could do with less of it.It's rather shrill in tone and not too well-written,but the violent ethnic conflicts he talks about, have been taking place all too frequently.The author,an old man when he wrote this book,continues to wonder where he belongs as a first generation refugee.
2.5 stars,rounded up.
He survived,and after the creation of Pakistan,decided to migrate.But he went sometime after partition when some order had been restored and arrived in the comfort of a plane,rather than through a dangerous border crossing.
Enormously relieved at first that killer Hindu mobs weren't chasing him,he soon realized that people in Lahore were not too thrilled by the influx of so many refugees,from across the border.The refugees would add to the competition for already scarce jobs.
Many of the refugees decided to move to Karachi,it was then a relatively small city.It soon became a hub of the Muslim refugees,who had poured in from all parts of India.
It is an interesting description of Karachi,in those early days.Peaceful and full of promise for many of the new arrivals,as they tried to re create their former neighbourhoods and put down roots.
But,then,his job took him to various places in Pakistan and he noticed the friction between Pakistan's various ethnicities.The refugees continued to feel alienated.Their grievances mutiplied,they thought they weren't getting a fair deal.The quota system of jobs gave them a smaller share,compared to the others.
In the 1980s,a new term was coined for them,"Mohajirs." It coincided with the rise of a new organization,the MQM,which played on their grievances, claimed to represent them and resorted to violence all too readily.
The author argues that Pakistan's various ethnicities co-exist rather uneasily and this has,at times,given rise to violent conflict as exemplified by the separation of Bangladesh,and the rise of the MQM,among other things.
The book has a lot of repetition,it could do with less of it.It's rather shrill in tone and not too well-written,but the violent ethnic conflicts he talks about, have been taking place all too frequently.The author,an old man when he wrote this book,continues to wonder where he belongs as a first generation refugee.
2.5 stars,rounded up.
Displaying 1 of 1 review