The Muhajir people (also spelled Mahajir and Mohajir) ( ur, , ) are Muslim immigrants of various ethnic groups and regional origins, and their descendants, who migrated from various regions of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

after the Partition of India to settle in the newly independent state of

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

. The term "Muhajirs" refers to those Muslim migrants from India, mainly elites, who mostly settled in urban Sindh. The Muhajir community also includes stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh who migrated to

after 1971 following the secession of East Pakistan in the Bangladesh Liberation War. The group's native language is

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Indo-Iranian language in the Indo-Aryan language branch of the

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...

language family. Muhajirs also speak several other languages, including

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...

Rajasthani Rajasthani may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Rajasthan, a state of India * Rajasthani languages, a group of languages spoken there * Rajasthani people, the native inhabitants of the region * Rajasthani architecture * Rajasthani art ...

, and

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 2 ...

. Muhajirs are the fifth-largest ethnic group of Pakistan. The total population of the Muhajir people worldwide is estimated to be around 15 million, and this figure was supported by the official census in 2017 which showed the Muhajir population to be around 14.7 million. But the population showed by the official census was challenged by all political parties of Sindh including MQM, PPP, and PSP. Some organizations estimate the muhajir population to be around 30 million. The Muhajirs are the most educated community of Pakistan, and because of this muhajirs constituted a privileged community in the early years of Pakistan. The high literacy rate also results in the Muhajirs of Karachi mostly living in their own middle and upper class communities such as

Gulshan-e-Iqbal Town Gulshan Town ( ur, ) is a Karachi borough in the northeastern part of Karachi. Gulshan Town was formed in 2001 as part of the Local Government Ordinance 2001, and was subdivided into 11 union councils. The town system was disbanded in 2011, ...

Defence Housing Authority Defence Housing Authority (DHA) ( ur, ). It is a Government of Pakistan owned real-estate development company that governs housing and municipal services for Defence neighbourhoods across Pakistan. It is the first largest residential community in ...

Gulistan-e-Jauhar Gulistan-e-Johar or Gulistan-e-Jauhar ( ur, ) is a neighborhood in the Karachi East district of Karachi, Pakistan. Administration It was previously administered as part of the Gulshan Subdivision borough, which was disbanded in 2011. Some bl ...

, and others.

Etymology

The Urdu term ''muhājir'' ( ur, ) comes from the Arabic ''muhājir'' ( ar, مهاجر), meaning an "immigrant", and the term is associated in early Islamic history to the

migration Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration * Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another ** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...

of Muslims.

Definition

Among historians, anthropologists, and the Muhajirs themselves, there is some debate as to who exactly qualifies as a Muhajir. The most widely used definition is: # Migrated to

from Muslim minority provinces of the subcontinent at the time of partition, # Is not considered as belonging to any of the nationalities of Pakistan, neither Punjabi, nor Sindhi, nor Baloch, nor Pakhtun, # Migrated from those areas of

East Punjab East Punjab (known simply as Punjab from 1950) was a province and later a state of India from 1947 until 1966, consisting of the parts of the Punjab Province of British India that went to India following the partition of the province betwee ...

whose language and culture were not Punjabi.

Demographics

Origins

Most of those migrants who settled in the Sindh province of Pakistan came from the present-day Indian states of Central Provinces,

Berar Berar may refer to: *Vidarbha, the eastern region of Maharashtra Province, India, historically known as Berar *Berar Sultanate (1490–1596), one of the Deccan sultanates *Berar Subah (1596–1724), a Subah of the Mughal Empire *Berar Province (1724 ...

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...

, United Provinces,

Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land a ...

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...

, and

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

, while others were from Jammu and Kashmir,

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern s ...

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India ...

Baroda Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district and is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River, from the state capital ...

, Kutch, and the

Rajputana Agency The Rajputana Agency was a political office of the British Indian Empire dealing with a collection of native states in Rajputana (now in Rajasthan, northwestern India), under the political charge of an Agent reporting directly to the Governor ...

Linguistic groups

Being a multi-linguistic ethnic group of people, the Muhajirs speak different languages natively depending on their ethnicity and ancestral history. Over a period of a few decades, these disparate groups sharing the common experience of migration, and political opposition to the military regime of Ayub Khan and his civilian successor

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Zulfikar (or Zulfiqar) Ali Bhutto ( ur, , sd, ذوالفقار علي ڀٽو; 5 January 1928 – 4 April 1979), also known as Quaid-e-Awam ("the People's Leader"), was a Pakistani barrister, politician and statesman who served as the fourth ...

, evolved or assimilated into a distinct ethnic grouping.

Urdu

Most Muhajirs speak Urdu, and Muhajirs are considered the third-largest

Urdu-speaking Native speakers of Urdu are spread across South Asia. The vast majority of them are Muslims of the Hindi–Urdu Belt of northern India, followed by the Deccani people of the Deccan plateau in south-central India (who speak Deccani Urdu) and the M ...

ethnicity in the world. Many dialects of

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

such as,

Dakhani Deccani (also known as Deccani Urdu and Deccani Hindi). https://knowledgehubadda.blogspot.com/2022/02/blog-post_74.html? m=1 or Dakni, Dakhni, Dakhini, Dakkhani and Dakkani (, ''dekanī'' or , ''dakhanī''), is a variety of Hindustani spoken ...

Khariboli Kauravi ( hi, कौरवी, ur, ), also known as Khaṛībolī is a set of Western Hindi varieties of Shauraseni Prakrit mainly spoken in Northwestern Uttar Pradesh. Standard Hindi and Urdu are based on Khariboli, specifically on its De ...

Awadhi Awadhi (; ), also known as Audhi (), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in northern India and Nepal. It is primarily spoken in the Awadh region of present-day Uttar Pradesh, India. The name ''Awadh'' is connected to Ayodhya, the ancient city ...

, Bhojpuri,

Mewati Mewati (Devanagri:मेवाती; Perso-Arabic:میواتی) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about three million speakers in the Mewat Region (Alwar and Bharatpur, districts of Rajasthan, Nuh district of Haryana). While other people ...

, Sadri, Marwari, and

Haryanvi Haryanvi ( ' or '), also known as Bangru, is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the state of Haryana in India, and to a lesser extent in Delhi. Haryanvi is considered to be part of the dialect group of Western Hindi, which also includes Kharib ...

are spoken by Muhajirs.

Gujarati

There is a large community of

Muhajirs mainly settled in the Pakistani

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of Sindh. Community leaders say there are 3,500,000 speakers of the Gujarati language in

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

. This group includes Muhammad Ali Jinnah,

Abdul Sattar Edhi Abdul Sattar Edhi ( ur, ; 28 February 1928 – 8 July 2016) was a Pakistani humanitarian, philanthropist and ascetic who founded the Edhi Foundation, which runs the world's largest volunteer ambulance network, along with various homeless s ...

Javed Miandad Mohammad Javed Miandad PP SI (Urdu: ; born 12 June 1957), popularly known as Javed Miandad (Urdu: ), is a Pakistani cricket coach, commentator and former cricketer known for his unconventional style of captaincy and batting. ESPNcricinfo desc ...

Abdul Razzak Yaqoob Abdul Razzak Yaqoob (7 May 1944 – 21 February 2014) was a Pakistani gold bullion trader who founded ARY Gold in the United Arab Emirates and later ARY Media Group. Early life He was born in Surat, British India to Memon people, Memon family in ...

I. I. Chundrigar Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar ( ur, ابراہیم اسماعیل چندریگر; 15 September 1897 – 26 September 1960), best known as I. I. Chundrigar, was a Pakistani politician who served as the sixth prime minister of Pakistan, appointed in ...

, and

Ahmed Dawood Seth Ahmed Dawood (15 March 1899 – 2 January 2002) was a Pakistani industrialist and a philanthropist. Dawood founded several companies and The Dawood Foundation (TDF), which established the Dawood College of Engineering and Technology (re ...

Rajasthani

The 1951 census recorded a total of 60,000 Rajasthani-speaking Muhajirs. This group includes

Ramiz Raja Ramiz Hasan Raja ( ur, ; born 14 August 1962) is a Pakistani cricket administrator, commentator, YouTuber, and former cricketer who served as the 35th Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board between September 2021 and December 2022. As a pla ...

, Alimuddin, and

Iqbal Hussain Qureshi Iqbal Hussain Qureshi (Urdu:اقبال حسين قریشی) 27 September 1937 – 8 December 2012) , best known as I.H. Qureshi, was a Pakistani nuclear chemist and an Emeritus professor of chemistry at the University of Karachi. Qure ...

Others

Non-Urdu speaking Muslim peoples from what is now the Republic of India, such as

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

and Konkani-speaking refugees and also several-thousand Malabari Muslims from

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territ ...

, are considered Muhajirs. These ethno-linguistic groups are being assimilated in the Urdu-speaking community.

Geographic distribution

Pakistan

Most of the Muhajirs are settled in the towns and cities in Pakistan, such as

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital ...

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...

Sukkur Sukkur (; ) is a city in the Pakistani province of Sindh along the western bank of the Indus River, directly across from the historic city of Rohri. Sukkur is the third largest city in Sindh after Karachi and Hyderabad, and 14th largest city ...

, and

Mirpurkhas Mirpur Khas (Sindhi and ; ''meaning "Town of the most-high Mirs"'') is the capital city of the Mirpur Khas District and Mirpur Khas Division in the Sindh province, Pakistan. Mirpur Khas is the 16th largest city in Sindh province and the 80th ...

Bangladesh

A large number of Urdu-speaking Muslims from

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

went to

East Pakistan East Pakistan was a Pakistani province established in 1955 by the One Unit Policy, renaming the province as such from East Bengal, which, in modern times, is split between India and Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India and Myanmar, wi ...

after the independence of India and Pakistan. After the formation of Bangladesh in 1971, the Biharis maintained their loyalty to Pakistan and wanted to leave Bangladesh for Pakistan. The majority of these people still await repatriation, however. About 178,000 have been repatriated. In 2015, the Pakistani government stated that the remaining ' Stranded Pakistanis' are not its responsibility but rather the responsibility of Bangladesh. Nearly 300,000

Biharis The Biharis () is a demonym given to the inhabitants of the Indian state of Bihar. Bihari people can be separated into three main Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic groups, Bhojpuris, Maithils and Magadhis. They are also further divided into a v ...

are currently settled in the urban areas of

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

.Christophe Jaffrelot, ''The Pakistan Paradox: Instability and Resilience'', Oxford University Press (2015), p. 104 In 2003, these Muhajirs were granted nationality and the right to vote.

History

Pre-Partition

Indian Rebellion of 1857

Prior to the

Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the fo ...

, British territories in South Asia were controlled by the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

. The company maintained the fiction of running the territories on behalf of the

Mughal empire The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

. The defeat of Mutineers in 1857 -1858 led to the abolition of the

and the British government taking direct control of the Indian territories. In the immediate aftermath of the rebellion, upper-class Muslims, the ancestors of present-day Muhajirs, were targeted by the British, as some of the leadership for the war came from this community based in areas around Delhi and what is now

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

; thousands of them and their families were shot, hanged, or blown away by cannon. According to

Mirza Ghalib ) , birth_date = , birth_place = Kala Mahal, Agra, Maratha Confederacy , death_date = , death_place = Gali Qasim Jaan, Ballimaran, Chandni Chowk, Delhi, British India , occupation = Poet , language ...

, even women were not spared because the rebel soldiers disguised themselves as women.

Pakistan movement

The

Pakistan movement The Pakistan Movement ( ur, , translit=Teḥrīk-e-Pākistān) was a political movement in the first half of the 20th century that aimed for the creation of Pakistan from the Muslim-majority areas of British India. It was connected to the per ...

, to constitute a separate state comprising the Muslim-majority provinces, was pioneered by the

Muslim elite and many notables of the

Aligarh Movement The Aligarh Movement was the push to establish a modern system of Western–style scientific education for the Muslim population of British India, during the later decades of the 19th century. The movement's name derives from the fact that i ...

. It was initiated in the 19th century when Sir

Syed Ahmed Khan Sir Syed Ahmad Khan KCSI (17 October 1817 – 27 March 1898; also Sayyid Ahmad Khan) was an Indian Muslim reformer, philosopher, and educationist in nineteenth-century British India. Though initially espousing Hindu-Muslim unity, he ...

, the grandson of the Khwaja Fakhruddin, the

Vizier A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called '' katib'' (secretary), who was ...

of Akbar Shah II, expounded the cause of Muslim autonomy in

Aligarh Aligarh (; formerly known as Allygarh, and Kol) is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Aligarh district, and lies northwest of state capital Lucknow and approximately southeast of the cap ...

. In its early years, Muslim nobles such as

nawabs Nawab ( Balochi: نواب; ar, نواب; bn, নবাব/নওয়াব; hi, नवाब; Punjabi : ਨਵਾਬ; Persian, Punjabi , Sindhi, Urdu: ), also spelled Nawaab, Navaab, Navab, Nowab, Nabob, Nawaabshah, Nawabshah or Nobab, ...

(aristocrats and landed gentry) supported the idea, but as the idea spread, it gained great support amongst the Muslim population and in particular the rising middle and upper classes. The Muslims launched the movement under the banner of the All India Muslim League and

was its main centre. The headquarters of the All India Muslim League (the founding party of Pakistan) was based there since its creation in 1906 in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city i ...

(present-day Bangladesh). The Muslim League won 90 percent of reserved Muslim seats in the 1946 elections and its demand for the creation of Pakistan received overwhelming popular support among Indian Muslims, especially in those provinces of British India such as U.P. where Muslims were a minority.

Migration

A couple migrating from India To Pakistan with their household stuff and cattle during Partition

The Partition of India was the largest migration in human history. Many

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

migrating from

were killed by

Hindus Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

and Sikhs, while many

and Sikhs were killed by

. After the independence of Pakistan, a significant number of Muslims emigrated or were out-migrated from the territory that became the

Dominion of India The Dominion of India, officially the Union of India,* Quote: “The first collective use (of the word "dominion") occurred at the Colonial Conference (April to May 1907) when the title was conferred upon Canada and Australia. New Zealand and N ...

and later the Republic of India. In the aftermath of partition, a huge population exchange occurred between the two newly formed states. In the riots which preceded the partition, between 200,000 and 2,000,000 people were killed in the retributive genocide.

UNHCR The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integrat ...

estimates 14 million Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims were displaced during the partition; it was the largest

mass migration Mass migration refers to the migration of large groups of people from one geographical area to another. Mass migration is distinguished from individual or small-scale migration; and also from seasonal migration, which may occur on a regular basis ...

in human history.

First stage (August–November 1947)

There were three predominant stages of Muslim migration from

to West Pakistan. The first stage lasted from August–November 1947. In this stage of migration the Muslim immigrants originated from

, the four adjacent districts of U.P., and the princely states of

Alwar Alwar (Pronunciation: �lʋəɾ is a city located in India's National Capital Region and the administrative headquarters of Alwar District in the state of Rajasthan. It is located 150 km south of Delhi and 150 km north of Jaipur. ...

and Bharatpur which are now part of the present-day Indian state of

. The violence affecting these areas during partition precipitated an exodus of Muslims from these areas to Pakistan. Punjabi Muslims from East Punjab crossed to West Punjab and settled in a culturally and linguistically similar environment. The migration to Sindh was of a different nature to that in Punjab as the migrants to Sindh were ethnically heterogenous and were linguistically different from the locals. The migrants were also more educated than the native, and predominantly rural Sindhi Muslims who had been less educated and less prosperous than the former Sindhi Hindu residents, suffered as a result. The migrants, who were urban, also tended to regard the local Sindhis as "backwards" and subservient to landowners. Prior to the partition, the majority of urban Sindh's population had been Hindu, but after the independence of Pakistan in 1947, the majority of Sindh's Hindus migrated to India, although a substantial number of Hindus did remain in Sindh. 1.1 million Muslims from Uttar Pradesh, Bombay Presidency, Delhi, and Rajasthan settled in their place; half in Karachi and the rest across Sindh's other cities. By the 1951 census, the migrants constituted 57 percent of the population of Karachi, 65 percent in Hyderabad, and 55 percent in Sukkur. As Karachi was the capital of the new nation, educated urban migrants from

, and

Deccan The large Deccan Plateau in southern India is located between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, and is loosely defined as the peninsular region between these ranges that is south of the Narmada river. To the north, it is bounded by the ...

preferred it as their site of settlement for better access to employment opportunities. The migrants were compensated for their properties lost in India by being granted the evacuee property left behind by the departing Hindus. A sizable community of

Malayali The Malayali people () (also spelt Malayalee and also known by the demonym Keralite) are a Dravidian ethnolinguistic group originating from the present-day state of Kerala in India, occupying its southwestern Malabar coast. They are predomin ...

Muslims (the

Mappila Mappila Muslim, often shortened to Mappila, formerly anglicized as Moplah/Mopla and historically known as Jonaka/Chonaka Mappila or Moors Mopulars/Mouros da Terra and Mouros Malabares, in general, is a member of the Muslim community of same n ...

), originally from

, also settled in Karachi.

Second stage (December 1947 – December 1971)

Many Muslim families from

continued migrating to

throughout the 1950s and even early 1960s. This second stage (December 1947 – December 1971) of the migration was from areas in the present-day Indian states of U.P.,

, Maharashtra,

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the eleventh-largest state and the twelfth-most populated state in India with a geographical area of and 3 ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

, and

. The main destination of these migrants was

and the other urban centers of Sindh. In 1952, a joint passport system was introduced for travel purposes between the two countries which made it possible for

Indian Muslims Islam is India's second-largest religion, with 14.2% of the country's population, approximately 172.2 million people identifying as adherents of Islam in 2011 Census. India is also the country with the second or third largest number of Muslim ...

to legally move to

still required educated and skilled workers to absorb into its

economy An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...

at the time, due to relatively low levels of education (15.9 percent in 1961) in Pakistan. As late as December 1971, the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi was authorized to issue documents to educationally-qualified Indians to migrate to Pakistan. The legal route was taken by unemployed but educated Indian Muslims seeking better fortunes, however poorer Muslims from India continued to go illegally via the Rajasthan-Sindh border until the 1965 India-Pakistan war when that route was shut. After the conclusion of the 1965 war, most Muslims who wanted to go to Pakistan had to go there via the India-East Pakistani border. Once reaching

, most made their way to the final destination-

. However, not all managed to reach

West Pakistan West Pakistan ( ur, , translit=Mag̱ẖribī Pākistān, ; bn, পশ্চিম পাকিস্তান, translit=Pôścim Pakistan) was one of the two Provincial exclaves created during the One Unit Scheme in 1955 in Pakistan. It was ...

from

. In 1959, the

International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first and o ...

(ILO) published a report stating that between the period of 1951–1956, around 650,000 Muslims from

relocated to

. However, Visaria (1969) raised doubts about the authenticity of the claims about Indian Muslim migration to Pakistan, since the 1961 Census of Pakistan did not corroborate these figures. However, the 1961 Census of Pakistan did incorporate a statement suggesting that there had been a migration of 800,000 people from

throughout the previous decade. Of those who had left for

, most never came back. The Indian Prime Minister

Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...

conveyed distress about the continued migration of

There has...since 1950 been a movement of some Muslims from India to Western Pakistan through Jodhpur-Sindh via Khokhropar. Normally, traffic between India and West Pakistan was controlled by the permit system. But these Muslims going via Khokhropar went without permits to West Pakistan. From January 1952 to the end of September, 53,209 Muslim emigrants went via Khokhropar....Most of these probably came from the U.P. In October 1952, up to the 14th, 6,808 went by this route. After that Pakistan became much stricter on allowing entry on the introduction of the passport system. From 15 October to the end of October, 1,247 went by this route. From 1 November, 1,203 went via Khokhropar.

Indian Muslim Islam is India's second-largest religion, with 14.2% of the country's population, approximately 172.2 million people identifying as adherents of Islam in 2011 Census. India is also the country with the second or third largest number of Muslim ...

migration to

continued unabated despite the cessation of the permit system between the two countries and the introduction of the passport system between them.

Third stage (1973-1990s)

The third stage, which lasted between 1973 and the 1990s, was when migration levels of

was reduced to its lowest levels since 1947.

migration to

had declined drastically by the 1970s, a trend noticed by the Pakistani authorities. In June 1995, Pakistan's interior minister,

Naseerullah Babar Major-General Naseerullah Khan Babar (Urdu: نصیر اللہ خان بابر; born 1928 – 10 January 2011) was a Pakistani army officer, diplomat, and politician who served as the 28th Interior Minister of Pakistan from 1993 to 1996. A membe ...

, informed the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

that between the period of 1973–1994, as many as 800,000 visitors came from India on valid travel documents. Of these, only 3,393 stayed. In a related trend, intermarriages between

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

and

Pakistani Muslims Islam is the largest and the state religion of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. As much as 90% of the population follows Sunni Islam. Most Pakistani Sunni Muslims belong to the Hanafi school of jurisprudence, which is represented by the Ba ...

have declined sharply. According to a November 1995 statement of Riaz Khokhar, the Pakistani High Commissioner in New Delhi, the number of cross-border marriages has declined from 40,000 a year in the 1950s and 1960s to barely 300 annually.

Politics

The Muhajirs have started many socio-political groups such as the

Muttahida Qaumi Movement Muttahida Qaumi Movement (abbreviated MQM) is a name currently claimed by two competing Pakistani political factions: * Muttahida Qaumi Movement – London, a political faction managed from the UK * Muttahida Qaumi Movement – Pakistan Muttah ...

under Altaf Hussain in 1984, the All Pakistan Muslim League under

Pervez Musharraf General Pervez Musharraf ( ur, , Parvez Muśharraf; born 11 August 1943) is a former Pakistani politician and four-star general of the Pakistan Army who became the tenth president of Pakistan after the successful military takeover of t ...

, and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf under

Imran Khan Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi ( ur}; born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician and former Cricket captain who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan from August 2018 to until April 2022, when he was ousted through a no-confidenc ...

as a secular movement, The literacy rate among the Muhajirs is very high in Pakistan, and this results in the Muhajir parties being middle-class parties.

Pre-independence era

During the last period of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

, the empire was indebted and the community provided significant financial support to preserve the empire. The members of the movement who are now Muhajirs and West Punjabis granted the money to preserve the Ottoman Empire but were unable to prevent its decline; it was the biggest political eminence in pre-Muhajir history.

1947–1958

The Muhajirs of Pakistan are largely settled in

Sindh province Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...

, particularly in the province's capital,

, where the Muhajirs were in a majority. As a result of their domination of major Sindhi cities, there had been tensions between Muhajirs and the native

Sindhis Sindhis ( sd, سنڌي Perso-Arabic: सिन्धी Devanagari; ) are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group who speak the Sindhi language and are native to the province of Sindh in Pakistan. After the partition of British Indian empire in 1947, man ...

, and this has been a major factor in the shaping of

Muhajir politics Muhajir Politics refers to the politics and nationalism of Muhajirs in Pakistan. Background The Muhajirs have started many socio-political groups such as Muttahida Qaumi Movement under Altaf Hussain in 1984, All Pakistan Muslim League under ...

. The Muhajirs, upon their arrival in Pakistan, soon joined the Punjabi-dominated ruling elite of the newborn country due to their high rates of education and urban background. They possessed the required expertise for running Pakistan's nascent bureaucracy and economy. Although the Muhajirs were, socially, urbane and liberal, they sided with the country's religious political parties such as

Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP) ( ur, ) is a Islamist political party in Pakistan. It was founded in 1948 by leaders of All India Sunni Conference. JUP exercised considerable political influence in Pakistani politics during 1970s to 2003. Its stude ...

(JUP). Upon arrival in Pakistan, the Muhajirs did not assert themselves as a separate ethnic identity, being multi-ethnic themselves, but were at the forefront of trying to construct an Islamic Pakistani identity. Muhajirs dominated the bureaucracy of Sindh in the early years of the Pakistani state, largely due to their higher levels of educational attainment. Prior to the partition,

dominated the professions of lawyers, teachers, and tradesmen in Sindh and the vacancies they left behind were filled up by the Muhajirs. Many

people had higher education and civil service experience from working for the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was him ...

and Muslim princely states. Out of the 101

in India's civil service, 95 chose to leave

. A third of those civil servants were Punjabis and there were as many Muhajirs as Punjabis. From 1947 to 1958, the Urdu-speaking Muhajirs held more jobs in the

Government of Pakistan The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the four provinces, two autonomous territorie ...

than their proportion in the country's population (3.3%). In 1951, of the 95 senior civil services jobs, 33 were held by the

Muhajirs and 40 by Punjabis. The Muhajirs also had a strong hold over the economy, 36 of the 42 largest private companies belonged to Muhajirs, mainly those from the Indian state of Gujarat. Gradually, as education became more widespread,

and

Pashtuns Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically r ...

, as well as other ethnic groups, started to take their fair share of the pool in the bureaucracy. But even by the early 1960s, 34.5 percent of Pakistan's civil servants were those who had not been born in the territory comprising Pakistan in 1947. Most of them were born in the United Provinces.

1958–1970

On 27 October 1958, General Ayub Khan staged a coup and imposed

martial law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Marti ...

across Pakistan. By the time of Pakistan's first military regime (Ayub Khan, 1958), the Muhajirs had already begun to lose their influence in the ruling elite. With the Baloch,

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

and Sindhi nationalists distancing themselves from the state's narratives of nationhood, Ayub (who hailed from what is now the

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the northwestern region of the country, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ...

), slowly began to pull the Pashtuns into the mainstream areas of the economy and politics. This caused the Muhajirs' to agitate against the Ayub dictatorship from the early 1960s onwards. The percentage of Muhajirs in the civil service declined while the percentage of Pashtuns in it increased. In the presidential election of 1965, the

Muslim League Muslim League may refer to: Political parties Subcontinent ; British India *All-India Muslim League, Mohammed Ali Jinah, led the demand for the partition of India resulting in the creation of Pakistan. **Punjab Muslim League, a branch of the organ ...

split into two factions: the Muslim League (Fatima Jinnah) supported Fatima Jinnah, the younger sister of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, while the

Convention Muslim League The Convention Muslim League (CML) was a faction of the Pakistan Muslim League that split-off in 1962, in support of the military regime of the President of Pakistan, General Ayub Khan. The opposition party was known as the Council Muslim League ...

was supported General Ayub Khan. The Muhajirs had supported the Muslim League before the independence of Pakistan in 1947 and now supported the Muslim League of Fatima Jinnah. The electoral fraud of the 1965 presidential election and a post-election triumphal march by

Gohar Ayub Khan Gohar Ayub Khan ( ur, گوہر ایوب خان; born 15 January 1937) is a Pakistani politician, business oligarch, retired army officer, and conservative figure of the Pakistan Muslim League, who held ministerial positions during the administr ...

, the son of General Ayub Khan, set off ethnic clashes between

and Muhajirs in Karachi on 4 January 1965. Four years later, on 24 March 1969,

President Ayub Khan Muhammad Ayub Khan (Urdu: ; 14 May 1907 – 19 April 1974), was the second President of Pakistan. He was an army general who seized the presidency from Iskander Mirza in 1958 Pakistani coup d'état, a coup in 1958, the first successful cou ...

directed a letter to General Yahya Khan, inviting him to deal with the tense political situation in Pakistan. On 26 March 1969, General Yahya appeared on national television and proclaimed martial law over the country. Yahya subsequently abrogated the 1962 Constitution, dissolved

parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

, and dismissed President Ayub's civilian officials.

1970–1977

The

1970 Pakistani general election General elections were held in Pakistan on 7 December 1970 to elect members of the National Assembly. They were the first general elections since the independence of Pakistan and ultimately the only ones held prior to the independence of Bangla ...

on 7 December 1970, saw the Awami League winning the elections. The Muhajirs had voted for the

Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami (JI; Urdu: , "Islamic Congress"), or Jamaat as it is simply known, is an Islamist political party which is based in Pakistan and it is the Pakistani successor to Jamaat-e-Islami, which was founded in colonial India in 1941. It ...

and

Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP) ( ur, ) is a Islamist political party in Pakistan. It was founded in 1948 by leaders of All India Sunni Conference. JUP exercised considerable political influence in Pakistani politics during 1970s to 2003. Its stude ...

. Muhajirs had decisively lost their place in the ruling elite, but they were still an economic force to be reckoned with (especially in urban Sindh). When a Sindhi,

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Zulfikar (or Zulfiqar) Ali Bhutto ( ur, , sd, ذوالفقار علي ڀٽو; 5 January 1928 – 4 April 1979), also known as Quaid-e-Awam ("the People's Leader"), was a Pakistani barrister, politician and statesman who served as the fourt ...

, became the country's head of state in December 1971, the Muhajirs feared that they would be further sidelined, this time by the economic and political resurgence of

under Bhutto. The

Pakistan People's Party The Pakistan People's Party ( ur, , ; PPP) is a centre-left, social-democratic political party in Pakistan. It is currently the third largest party in the National Assembly and second largest in the Senate of Pakistan. The party was founded i ...

government

nationalized Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to p ...

the financial industry, educational institutions, and industry. The nationalization of Pakistan's educational institutions, financial institutions, and industry in 1972 by Prime Minister

of Pakistan People's Party impacted the Muhajirs hardest as their educational institutions, commerce, and industries were nationalized without any compensation. Subsequently, the quota system introduced by

Liaquat Ali Khan Liaquat Ali Khan ( ur, ; 1 October 1895 – 16 October 1951), also referred to in Pakistan as ''Quaid-e-Millat'' () or ''Shaheed-e-Millat'' ( ur, lit=Martyr of the Nation, label=none, ), was a Pakistani statesman, lawyer, political theoris ...

which allowed Muhajirs to take government jobs was reversed by

preventing them from taking government jobs and other government institutions. In 1972, language riots broke out between Sindhis and Muhajirs after the passage of the "Teaching, Promotion, and use of Sindhi Language" bill in July 1972 by the

Sindh Assembly The Provincial Assembly of Sindh ( ur, ) is a unicameral legislature of elected representatives of the Pakistani provinces, Pakistani province of Sindh, and is located in Karachi, the provincial capital. It was established under Article 106 of ...

; which declared Sindhi as the only official language of Sindh. Due to the clashes, Prime Minister

compromised and announced that

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Sindhi would both be official languages in Sindh. The making of Sindhi as an equal language to

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Sindhi language Sindhi ( ; , ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about 30 million people in the Pakistani province of Sindh, where it has official status. It is also spoken by a further 1.7 million people in India, where it is a scheduled language, withou ...

1977–1988

In the

1977 Pakistani general election General elections were held in Pakistan on 7 March 1977 to elect 200 members of the National Assembly. They were the second general elections held in Pakistan and the first to be held after the Bangladesh Liberation War, which saw East Pakistan ...

and

joined in a coalition named the

Pakistan National Alliance The Pakistan National Alliance (Urdu: پاکستان قومی اتحاد, Acronym: PNA), was a populist and consolidated right-wing political alliance, consisting of nine political parties of the country. Formed in 1977, the country's leading ...

. Since the Muhajirs voted mostly for the

, Muhajirs enthusiastically participated in the 1977 right-wing movement against the Bhutto regime (which was largely led by the religious parties). The movement was particularly strong among Karachi's middle and lower-middle-classes (and aggressively backed by industrialists, traders, and the shopkeepers). The alleged electoral fraud by Pakistan Peoples Party caused protests across the country. On 5 July 1977, Chief of Army Staff General

Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq HI, GCSJ, ร.ม.ภ, (Urdu: ; 12 August 1924 – 17 August 1988) was a Pakistani four-star general and politician who became the sixth President of Pakistan following a coup and declaration of martial law in ...

led a coup d'état against Bhutto and imposed

. Zain Noorani, a prominent member of the

Memon Memon may refer to: Ethnic group and language * Memon people, an ethnic group originating in the ancient Sindh (modern day Pakistan) * Memoni language, the language of Memon people historically associated with Kathiawar, Gujarat, India People wit ...

community, was appointed as Minister of State for Foreign affairs with the status of a Federal Minister in 1985.

1988-2016

After the 1988 General Elections, MQM, the largest Muhajir nationalist party, emerged as the third-largest political party of Pakistan, in alliance with PPP. Differences developed between the PPP and MQM after dozens were killed at an MQM congregation by Sindhi nationalists, and the alliance fell apart in the wake of ensuing violence. The MQM lent its support to Nawaz Sharif's

Islami Jamhoori Ittehad The Islami Jamhoori Ittehad ( Islamic Democratic Alliance; acronym: IJI; ur, ) was a right-wing conservative alliance formed in September 1988 to oppose the democratic socialist Pakistan Peoples Party in elections that year. The alliance compri ...

instead. In June 1992, a massive ‘ Operation Cleanup’ was launched to rid the city of terrorism but MQM was selectively targeted. The Party's political offices were shut down as scores of its workers were killed in extra judicial murders and shootouts. After the operation ended, MQM continued to dominate Muhajir politics until 2016 when it broke up into four factions and collapsed.

Social and political views

The Muhajirs are socially urbane,

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

, and religiously tolerant. Politically, the Muhajirs echoed the views of the religious parties that eschewed pluralism and ethnic identities and propagated a holistic national unity based on the commonality of the

Islamic faith Faith, derived from Latin ''fides'' and Old French ''feid'', is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as "belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". Religious people oft ...

followed by the majority of Pakistanis. The dichotomy between the Muhajirs' social and political dispositions was a result of the sense of insecurity that the community felt in a country where the majority of its inhabitants were 'natives'. Lacking the historical and cultural roots of native Pakistani ethnicity, the Muhajirs backed the state's project of constructing a homogeneous

national identity National identity is a person's identity or sense of belonging to one or more states or to one or more nations. It is the sense of "a nation as a cohesive whole, as represented by distinctive traditions, culture, and language". National identity ...

that repulsed ethnic sentiment. But in the 1980s, Muhajir nationalism surged for the first time with the rise of the secular Muhajir nationalist party MQM, and ever since then, Muhajirs have backed nationalist and secular parties.

Education

To this day, Muhajirs, with a 100% literacy rate, are the most-educated and literate ethnic group in Pakistan, and the Muhajirs dominate most of

's educational institutions. The Muhajirs have established have themselves economically, socially, and professionally. Currently, Muhajirs run established businesses such as,

Lakson Group The Lakson Group () is a Pakistani conglomerate company which is based in Karachi, Pakistan. It was founded in 1954 and is owned by Lakhani family. The conglomerate is based in Karachi, currently chaired by Iqbal Ali Lakhani and was founded in ...

(owned by Marathi Lakhani Family), hold high-level government jobs such as

Arif Alvi Arif-ur-Rehman Alvi (; born 29 July 1949) is a Pakistani dentist and politician currently serving as the 13th President of Pakistan, in office since 9 September 2018. He was a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from June 2013 to May 2 ...

, are renowned doctors, engineers, lawyers, and social workers such as

Adeebul Hasan Rizvi Syed Adeebul Hasan Rizvi (also spelled: Adibul Hasan Rizvi) is a Pakistani philanthropist, doctor, Renal transplant surgeon and founder of the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT), the largest kidney transplant centre in Pakista ...

Waseem Akhtar Wasim Akhtar (Urdu: ; born 25 November 1955) is a Pakistani politician of the Muttahida Quami Movement (P). He served as the Mayor of Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, from 2016 to 2020. Shortly after his nomination as Mayor, he was controversi ...

, and Hakim Said. Muhajir parents are known to emphasize to their children to get the highest education and go into professional fields so that they could live respectfully in society. Muhajirs have many academics, poets, writers, journalists, and artists such as Abdul Wahab, Ahmed Ali,

Waseem Badami Waseem Badami ( ur, ) is a Pakistani television host and news anchor who currently hosts a political talk show ''11th Hour'' on ARY News. Early life and education Waseem was born in Karachi, Pakistan on 7 February 1985. He graduated with MBA ...

, and Abdul Haq. In his book, Pakistan: A Hard Country,

Anatol Lieven Anatol Lieven is a British author, journalist, and policy analyst best known for his expertise on the Taliban of Afghanistan. He is currently a visiting professor at King's College London and senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Respons ...

claimed that the education, openness, and progressivism of Muhajirs is responsible for whatever social and economic dynamism exists in

. A Muhajirs' middle class culture and high levels of education made urban areas of Sindh, especially

and

, the fastest developed cities of Pakistan.

became the ‘City of Lights’ and is called Mini-London by international tourists.

Notable people

Culture

The Muhajir culture refers to the Pakistani variation of Indo-Islamic culture and part of the

Culture of Karachi The cultural history of Karachi goes back at least five thousand years to the emergence of the Indus Valley Civilization in the third millennium B.C. The early culture appears to be essentially Neolithic with widespread use of small chart imple ...

city in Pakistan. It is a blend of

, Bihari, and

cultures.

Cuisine

Muhajir cuisine (or Karachi cuisine) refers to the food found mainly in the city of

. The cuisine of Karachi is strongly influenced by the city's Muhajir population, Muslim immigrants originally from India who migrated to Pakistan following the independence in 1947. Most Muhajirs have traditionally been based in

, hence the city is known for Muhajir tastes in its cuisine. Muhajirs clung to their old established habits and tastes, including numerous desserts, savory dishes, and beverages. The Mughal and Indo-Iranian heritage played an influential role in the making of their cuisine. In comparison to other native Pakistani dishes, Muhajir cuisine tends to use traditional royal cuisine specific to the old royal dynasties of now defunct states in ancient India. Most ''dastarkhawans'' (dining tables) include

chapati Chapati (alternatively spelled chapatti, chappati, chapathi, or chappathi; pronounced as IAST: ), also known as ''roti'', ''rotli'', ''safati'', ''shabaati'', ''phulka'', (in East Africa) ''chapo'', (in Marathi) ''poli'', and (in the Maldives) ...

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

dal In Indian cuisine, ''dal'' (also spelled ''daal'' or ''dhal''; pronunciation: , Hindi: दाल, Urdu: ) are dried, split pulses (e.g., lentils, peas, and beans) that do not require soaking before cooking. India is the largest producer of pu ...

vegetable Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, ...

, and meat curry. Special dishes include

biryani Biryani () is a mixed rice dish originating among the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent. It is made with Indian spices, rice, and usually some type of meat ( chicken, beef, goat, lamb, prawn, fish) or in some cases without any meat, ...

qorma Korma or qorma (; ; ) is a dish originating in Indian subcontinent, consisting of meat or vegetables braised with yogurt ( dahi), water or stock, and spices to produce a thick sauce or gravy. Etymology The English name is an anglicisation of Hind ...

kofta Kofta is a family of meatball or meatloaf dishes found in Balkan, Middle Eastern, South Caucasian, South Asian and Central Asian cuisines. In the simplest form, koftas consist of balls of minced meatusually beef, chicken, pork, lamb or mutto ...

seekh kabab The seekh kebab (Pashto and Urdu: , Hindi: ) is a type of kebab, originating in the Indian subcontinent. It is made with spiced, minced or ground meat, usually goat, lamb or chicken, and in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, sometimes made w ...

nihari Nihari (; bn, নিহারী; ); is a stew originating in Lucknow, the capital of 18th-century Awadh under the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. It consists of slow-cooked meat, mainly a shank cut of beef, lamb and mutton, or goa ...

haleem Haleem is a type of stew that is widely consumed in South Asia, the Middle East and Central Asia. Although the dish varies from region to region, it optionally includes wheat or barley, meat and lentils. It is made by blending or mashing the m ...

, Nargisi koftay, roghani naan,

naan Naan ( fa, نان, nān, ur, , ps, نان, ug, نان, hi, नान, bn, নান) is a leavened, oven-baked or tawa-fried flatbread which is found in the cuisines mainly of Western Asia, Central Asia, Indian subcontinent, Indonesia, ...

, sheer-khurma (dessert), chai (sweet, milky tea), and

Hyderabadi cuisine Hyderabadi cuisine (native: ''Hyderabadi Ghizaayat''), also known as Deccani cuisine, is the native cooking style of the Hyderabad, Telangana, India. The ''haute cuisine'' of Hyderabad began to develop after the foundation of the Bahmani Sultan ...

, and other delicacies associated with Muhajir culture. Muhajirs are famous for their habit of eating

paan Betel nut chewing, also called betel quid chewing or areca nut chewing, is a practice in which areca nuts (also called "betel nuts") are chewed together with slaked lime and betel leaves for their stimulant and narcotic effects. The practice ...

Traditional dress

The traditional clothing of Muhajirs is the traditional clothing worn by Muslims in

North India North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...

, and it has both Muslim and

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth descr ...

n influences. Both Muslim men and women wear the shalwar kameez, but

kurta A ''kurta'' is a loose collarless shirt or tunic worn in many regions of South Asia, (subscription required) Quote: "A loose shirt or tunic worn by men and women." Quote: "Kurta: a loose shirt without a collar, worn by women and men from South ...

and ''choridar''

pajama Pajamas ( US) or pyjamas (Commonwealth) (), sometimes colloquially shortened to PJs, jammies, jam-jams, or in South Asia night suits, are several related types of clothing worn as nightwear or while lounging or performing remote work from hom ...

is more commonly worn by most Muhajirs. Men also wear the

sherwani Sherwani is a long-sleeved outer coat worn by men in South Asia. Like the Western frock coat it is fitted, with some waist suppression; it falls to below the knees and is buttoned down the front. It can be collarless, have a shirt-style collar, ...

, and it is believed to have been introduced to

by Muhajirs. Muhajir women also wear

Sari A sari (sometimes also saree or shari)The name of the garment in various regional languages include: * as, শাৰী, xārī, translit-std=ISO * bn, শাড়ি, śāṛi, translit-std=ISO * gu, સાડી, sāḍī, translit-std ...

, which is wrapped around the waist, with the loose end of the drape worn over the shoulder, baring the midriff.

Festivals

Muhajirs celebrate many festivals which include religious, political, ethnic, and national festivals. Islamic festivals which are celebrated by Muhajirs include Eid-al-Fitr,

Eid-al-Adha Eid al-Adha () is the second and the larger of the two main holidays celebrated in Islam (the other being Eid al-Fitr). It honours the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son Ismail (Ishmael) as an act of obedience to Allah's comm ...

, and

Ashoura Ashura (, , ) is a day of commemoration in Islam. It occurs annually on the 10th of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar. Among Shia Muslims, Ashura is observed through large demonstrations of high-scale mourning as it marks th ...

. Political celebrations include MQM Founding Day, Death anniversary of Azeem Ahmad Tariq, and APMSO Founding Day. Muhajirs celebrate Muhajir Cultural Day as an ethnic and cultural festival.

In popular culture

* In the fifth episode of the TV series

Ms. Marvel Ms. Marvel is the name of several fictional superheroes appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was originally conceived as a female counterpart to Captain Marvel. Like Captain Marvel, most of the bearers of the Ms. M ...

, the main character, a Muhajir girl, travels back in time to reunite her grandmother to her great-grandmother during the partition of India. * In the 1998 film

Jinnah Muhammad Ali Jinnah (, ; born Mahomedali Jinnahbhai; 25 December 1876 – 11 September 1948) was a barrister, politician, and the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah served as the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until the ...

, the partition of India and the migration towards

is covered in great detail.

Persecution

Persecution of Muhajirs ranges from mass killings, discrimination, enforced disappearances,

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...

, to political repression and suppression of freedom of speech. A

MEMRI The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI; officially the "Middle East Media and Research Institute") is a nonprofit press monitoring and analysis organization co-founded by former Israeli military intelligence officer Yigal Carmon an ...

representative stated that the Muhajirs "have faced discrimination and attacks in linguistic conflicts involving Sindhi-speaking locals, while in

, the federal capital, the Muhajirs face discrimination in government jobs."

Massacres

Notable massacres against muhajirs include the Qasba Aligarh massacre, 1988 Hyderabad, Sindh massacre, Pucca Qila Massacre and

Operation Clean-up Operation Clean-up, also known as Operation Blue Fox, was an armed military intelligence program led by the Sindh Police and Pakistan Rangers, with an additional assistance from the Pakistan Army and its related intelligence agencies. Planned ...

. In 1985, due to the competition between the Punjabis and Muhajirs, intelligence agencies forged an alliance—the Punjabi–Pashtun Ittehad (PPI)—to challenge the Muhajirs. Since then, the Punjabis, the

, and the Muhajirs have been engaged in ethnopolitical clashes over the control of

's infrastructure and resources. The European Muhajir Network claimed that that over 1.3 million Muhajirs have died in Pakistan in targeted killings and genocides. * The Qasba–Aligarh massacre was a massacre of Muhajirs that happened when armed tribal Pashtuns from KPK and

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

attacked densely-populated civilized locals in

Qasba Colony Qasba Colony ( ur, قصبہ کالونی) is a neighborhood in the Karachi West district of Karachi, Pakistan. It is administered as part of the SITE Town neighbourhood, There are several ethnic groups in Qasba Colony including Muhajir Urdu, Mu ...

, Aligarh Colony, and Sector 1-D of

Orangi Orangi ( sd, اورنگي, ur, ) is a municipality approximately in an area that forms much of the northwestern part of Karachi, Pakistan. When grouped with the neighboring municipality of Baldia Town, the Orangi-Baldia population is estimat ...

in the early hours of the morning on 14 December 1986. More than 400 Muhajirs were killed in this massacre. * The

1988 Hyderabad massacre On September 30, 1988, dozens of people, mostly Muhajir, were killed in Hyderabad, Sindh in what was known as "Black Friday". Death tolls ranged from 1000+

took place on September 30, 1988, when over a thousand people, mostly Muhajirs, were killed in Hyderabad, Sindh, in what was known as "Black Friday". Sindhi extremists fired indiscriminately at passers-by and shopkeepers, as well as at children, adults, and women. Death tolls ranged from 1000+Ethnic Rioting in Karachi Kills 1000* and Injures 50
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', October 2, 1988 to 1050+ , and the attacks are said to have been coordinated and carried out by militants of the Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party. Sindhi nationalists, including (Sindhi Baloch) Qadir Magsi, and the Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party, were widely seen as responsible for the massacre. * Pucca Qila Massacre

Notes

References

External links

Muhajir diaspora

Quotas and Karachi
__FORCETOC__ {{DEFAULTSORT:Muhajir People Muhajir communities Social groups of Pakistan Ethnic groups in Pakistan Social groups of Sindh Cultural assimilation Muhajir diaspora Indian emigrants to Pakistan Islamic terminology Urdu-speaking people

Etymology

Definition

Demographics

Origins

Linguistic groups

Urdu

Gujarati

Rajasthani

Others

Geographic distribution

Pakistan

Bangladesh

History

Pre-Partition

Indian Rebellion of 1857

Pakistan movement

Migration

First stage (August–November 1947)

Second stage (December 1947 – December 1971)

Third stage (1973-1990s)

Politics

Pre-independence era

1947–1958

1958–1970

1970–1977

1977–1988

1988-2016

Social and political views

Education

Notable people

Culture

Cuisine

Traditional dress

Festivals

In popular culture

Persecution

Massacres

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links