The British Mirpuri ( ur, ) community comprises people in the
United Kingdom who originate from the
Mirpur District
The Mirpur District ( ur, ) is one of the 10 districts of Pakistan's dependent territory of Azad Kashmir. The Mirpur District is bounded on the north by the Kotli District, on the east by the Bhimber District, on the south by the Gujrat Dis ...
in
Pakistan-administered
Azad Jammu and Kashmir
Azad Jammu and Kashmir (; ), abbreviated as AJK and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir, is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entitySee:
*
*
* and constituting the western portion of the larger ...
, thus being a part of the
Mirpuri diaspora
The Mirpuri diaspora constitutes individuals with an origin in the Mirpur District of Azad Kashmir, Pakistan, now living outside that district. Migration from Mirpur started occurring in the 1920s, when many Mirpuris left for Bombay to work on ...
. While no accurate statistics are available, an estimated 60 to 70 per cent of
British Pakistanis
British Pakistanis ( ur, (Bratānia men maqīm pākstānī); also known as Pakistani British people or Pakistani Britons) are citizens or residents of the United Kingdom whose ancestral roots lie in Pakistan. This includes people born in t ...
in
England in 2009 had origins in the
Mirpur District
The Mirpur District ( ur, ) is one of the 10 districts of Pakistan's dependent territory of Azad Kashmir. The Mirpur District is bounded on the north by the Kotli District, on the east by the Bhimber District, on the south by the Gujrat Dis ...
.
Mirpuris started settling in Britain in the 1940s, transferring their workmanship on
British merchant navy ships to the industrial needs of the growing British economy. The migration accelerated after the construction of the
Mangla Dam
The Mangla Dam ( ur, ) is a multipurpose dam situated on the Jhelum River in the Mirpur District of Azad Kashmir. It is the sixth-largest dam in the world. The village of Mangla, which sits at the mouth of the dam, serves as its namesake. In ...
in 1966, which submerged vast areas of farmland in the Mirpur district.
Population
A report produced for the
Department for Communities and Local Government
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), formerly the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for housing, communities, local government i ...
in 2009 on the Pakistani Muslim community in
England stated "There are no accurate figures available but it is estimated that 60 per cent of the Pakistani population is from the Mirpur District". However, it also noted that the Mirpuri Development Project has estimated that approximately 70% of British Pakistanis are Mirpuris. Large Mirpuri communities can be found in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
,
Bradford
Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...
,
Oldham and the surrounding towns.
Luton and
Slough
Slough () is a town and unparished area in the unitary authority of the same name in Berkshire, England, bordering west London. It lies in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4, ...
have the largest Mirpuri communities in Southern England.
History
Migration from the
princely state of Jammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir, officially known as the Princely State of Kashmir and Jammu, was a princely state during the Company rule in India from 1757 to 1858 as well as the British Raj in India from 1846 to 1952. The princely state was created afte ...
began soon after the
Second World War as the majority of the male population of this area and the
Potohar region worked in the British armed forces, as well as to fill labour shortages in industry. But the mass migration phenomenon accelerated in the 1960s, when, to improve the supply of water, the
Mangla Dam
The Mangla Dam ( ur, ) is a multipurpose dam situated on the Jhelum River in the Mirpur District of Azad Kashmir. It is the sixth-largest dam in the world. The village of Mangla, which sits at the mouth of the dam, serves as its namesake. In ...
project was built in the area, flooding the surrounding farmlands. Up to 50,000 people from Mirpur (5% of the displaced) resettled in Britain. More Mirpuris joined their relatives in Britain after benefiting from government compensation and liberal migration policies. Cities with large concentrations of Azad Kashmiris are Manchester, Bradford, Birmingham, Leeds and Luton.
Today, there are an estimated 700,000 people from Azad Kashmir residing in the UK, 400,000 of whom are from the Mirpur region.
Cultural assimilation and social issues
Mirpur was considered to be a conservative district in 1960s, and life in its rural villages was dominated by rigid
hierarchies. The first generation Mirpuris were not highly educated, and they had little or no experience of urban living in Pakistan.
An economic boom brought dramatic changes to the area after its residents began migrating to Europe, especially the UK, bolstering
remittances to Pakistan. Families in Pakistan are close knit and the guiding influence behind everything from marriage to business. The current literacy rate of
Azad Jammu and Kashmir
Azad Jammu and Kashmir (; ), abbreviated as AJK and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir, is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entitySee:
*
*
* and constituting the western portion of the larger ...
is 78%, compared with 45% in
Pakistan. In
Azad Jammu and Kashmir
Azad Jammu and Kashmir (; ), abbreviated as AJK and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir, is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entitySee:
*
*
* and constituting the western portion of the larger ...
, primary school enrolment is 80% for boys and 74% for girls.
The community has made notable progress in UK politics and a sizeable number of MPs,
councillors
A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries.
Canada
Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...
, lord mayors and deputy mayors are representing the community in different constituencies.
Endogamy and kinship
Cousin marriage
A cousin marriage is a marriage where the spouses are cousins (i.e. people with common grandparents or people who share other fairly recent ancestors). The practice was common in earlier times, and continues to be common in some societies toda ...
s or marriages within the same tribe and
caste system
Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultural ...
are common in some parts of South Asia, including rural areas of Pakistan. A major motivation is to preserve
patrilineal
Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritanc ...
tribal identity. As a result, there are some common
genealogical origins within these tribes. Some British Pakistanis view cousin marriages as a way of preserving this ancient tribal tradition and maintaining a sense of brotherhood.
A small scale study of 100 randomly selected
British Pakistani
British Pakistanis ( ur, (Bratānia men maqīm pākstānī); also known as Pakistani British people or Pakistani Britons) are citizens or residents of the United Kingdom whose ancestral roots lie in Pakistan. This includes people born in t ...
mothers was published in 1988 in the ''
Journal of Medical Genetics
The ''Journal of Medical Genetics'' is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering all aspects of medical genetics, including reviews of and opinion on the latest developments. It was established in 1964 and is published by the BMJ Group. The ...
'', which looked specifically at two hospitals in
West Yorkshire, found that the rate of
consanguineous
Consanguinity ("blood relation", from Latin '' consanguinitas'') is the characteristic of having a kinship with another person (being descended from a common ancestor).
Many jurisdictions have laws prohibiting people who are related by blood fro ...
marriage was 55 per cent and rising, compared to a worldwide rate of 29 per cent. However, this rate is significantly lower than in
Pakistan, where
consanguineous
Consanguinity ("blood relation", from Latin '' consanguinitas'') is the characteristic of having a kinship with another person (being descended from a common ancestor).
Many jurisdictions have laws prohibiting people who are related by blood fro ...
marriages are estimated to be at 73 per cent.
Representatives of constituencies where there are high Pakistani populations say that consanguineous marriages amongst British Pakistanis are now decreasing in number, partly because of public health initiatives.
Forced marriage
According to the British
Home Office, as of 2000, more than half the cases of
forced marriage investigated involve families of Pakistani origin, followed by Bangladeshis and Indians. The Home Office estimates that 85 per cent of the victims of forced marriages are women aged 15–24, 90 per cent are Muslim, and 90 per cent are of Pakistani or Bangladeshi heritage. 60 per cent of forced marriages by Pakistani families were linked to the small towns of
Bhimber
Bhimber ( ur, ) is the capital of Bhimber District, in the Azad Kashmir. The town is on the border between Jammu region and Punjab in Pakistan proper about by road southeast of Mirpur.
History
Bhimber was the capital of the Chibhal dynasty ...
and
Kotli and the city of
Mirpur.
Identity
Christopher Snedden
Christopher Snedden is an Australian political scientist and author. He has studied and published on the long-running Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan. In his book, ''The Untold Story of the People of Azad Kashmir'' (2012), he proposed ...
writes that most of the native residents of Azad Kashmir are not of
Kashmiri Kashmiri may refer to:
* People or things related to the Kashmir Valley or the broader region of Kashmir
* Kashmiris, an ethnic group native to the Kashmir Valley
* Kashmiri language, their language
People with the name
* Kashmiri Saikia Baruah ...
ethnicity; rather, they could be called "
Jammuites" due to their historical and cultural links with that region, which is coterminous with neighbouring
Punjab and
Hazara. Because their region was formerly a part of the
princely state of Jammu and Kashmir and is named after it, many Azad Kashmiris have adopted the "Kashmiri" identity, whereas in an ethnolinguistic context, the term "Kashmiri" would ordinarily refer to natives of the Kashmir Valley region.
The population of Azad Kashmir has strong historical, cultural and linguistic affinities with the neighbouring populations of upper
Punjab and
Potohar
The Pothohar Plateau ( ur, ) is a plateau in north-eastern Pakistan, located between Indus River and the Jhelum River, forming the northern part of Punjab.
Geography
Potohar Plateau is bounded on the east by the Jhelum River, on the west by the ...
region of Pakistan.
In 2009, a consultation was undertaken into the effects of providing an individual tick-box for "Kashmiri" people in the UK census. The majority of those who took part in the consultation chose to self-identify as Pakistani and a decision was taken not to introduce a Kashmiri tick-box for the
ethnic group question in the
2011 census.
The following ethnic codes are used in UK school ethnicity profiles:
* AMPK: Mirpuri Pakistani
* AKPA: Kashmiri Pakistani
* AKAO: Kashmiri Other
See also
*
Azad Kashmiri diaspora
The Mirpuri diaspora constitutes individuals with an origin in the Mirpur District of Azad Kashmir, Pakistan, now living outside that district. Migration from Mirpur started occurring in the 1920s, when many Mirpuris left for Bombay to work on ...
*
British Pakistanis
British Pakistanis ( ur, (Bratānia men maqīm pākstānī); also known as Pakistani British people or Pakistani Britons) are citizens or residents of the United Kingdom whose ancestral roots lie in Pakistan. This includes people born in t ...
References
{{AsiansinUK
Ethnic groups in the United Kingdom
Mirpur District
Muslim communities in Europe
Mirpuri diaspora
Pakistani diaspora in the United Kingdom