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*** KARACHI FOCUS ***
News, commentary, discussion and analysis on Karachi.
- 2nd biggest city in the world.
- Biggest city in the Muslim world.
- Biggest number of Pashtuns in the world.
Background
Karachi is a mega-city and one of the most unique in the world. Its sheer heterogeneity and the unfortunated related ethnic division and polarization in the city is something very distinctive.
It has a population of around 23 million according to some estimates which for example is more than 21 of the 28 countries of the EU.
It has the largest number of Pashtuns in the world.
There are more Pashtuns in Karachi than in Kabul, Pekhawar, Quetta or Kandahar.
Some say there may be as many as 7 million Pashtuns in Karachi.
Shahi Syed, famous Pakhtun of Karachi.
It has the third largest number of (east) Bengalis in the world, after Dhaka and Chittagong. There are more Bengalis in Karachi than in Bangladesh's third largest city, Khulna.
There are estimated to be 2-3 million Bengalis in Karachi.
The government of Bangladesh adopts the same policy to Karachi Bengalis as Japan does to expatriate Japanese communities abroad i.e. disassociate itself from them and state that they are not the responsibility of the national government.
In addition to this however there are many other ethnicities, religions, sects, castes and other communities.
Balochis
Karachi is home to a few million Baloch and was said to be originally founded by them and the original name of Karachi was in fact Kalachi.
Karachi is in fact very close to Balochistan itself.
Many upper-class Sindhis are of Baloch origin including their nationalists such as Abdul Qadir Magsi and even former president Asif Zardari himself.
Sindhis.
Karachi though founded by the Baloch falls within the borders of the Sindh province.
Sindhi topi (hat) day.
What many people don't realize is that Islamically Sindhis are a very important nation historically, it is even said that Imam Awza'ee was of Sindhi origin (one of the founders of the Islamic schools of law which went obselete the 4 remaining are the Hanafi, Shafi', Maliki and Hanbali). The teacher of Abdul Wahab was also a Sindhi, Muhammad Hayat as-Sindhi. There is even a Sindhi scholar/wali that a friend of mine knows who lives in Naokhali, Bangladesh.
The wife of the famous Bangladeshi independence figure and international legal expert from Bangladesh, Kamal, is also an ethnic Sindhi but a Bangladeshi, Dr Hameeda Hossain.
Dr Hameeda Hossain, a Bangladeshi of Sindhi ethnicity second from the left.
There are pro-independence movements in Sindh with figures such as Dr Abdul Qadir Magsi and the late Bashir Qureishi.
Sindhi freedom activist, Dr Qadir Magsi.
Bangladeshi politician Mujib with the father of Sindhi nationalism, G.M. Syed.
"Mohajirs"
Mohajir is a term for Muslim migrants to Pakistan during partition of non-Punjabi background. Sometimes called "Urdu-speakers" this is misleading as Mohajir is a term which includes Gujarati and Kachi speakers and in some contexts can even be inclusive of certain Bengalis.
The Mohajir community is heterogeneous and there are claims that 1/3 of them are of "Pathan" origin, i.e. Indian Muslims with Afghan/Pashtun ancestry, and that 25% are Shia.
Mohajirs include:
- Dehliwalas, people from Delhi such as former dictator and war criminal, Pervez Musharraf.
- Biharis, such as MQM leader Altaf Hussain, looked down upon to an extent by other Mohajirs.
- UPwalas, people from Uttar Pradesh, India's biggest state historically.
- Hyderabadis
- Gujaratis (including Kachis, Memons etc)
and other sub-communities.
Mohajirs are the biggest community in Karachi and some to an extent feel it is "their" city. Mohajirs were traditionally supporters of Pan-Pakistani nationalism and centralism in the absence of any local indigenous regional ethnic nationalism. However with the rise of Sindhi nationalism including the quota system, Mohajir nationalism increased also partly in opposition to Pashtun nationalism.
Mohajir and Pashtun nationalists have had an unstable relationship in the city.
The main Mohajir nationalist party is the MQM led by Altaf Hussain.
In another thread in the future I will focus on Mohajirs specifically.
In addition to Pashtuns, Bengalis, Balochis, Sindhis and Mohajirs there are other communities in Karachi including Punjabis (including the security forces), Burmese, Afghans and even a small Zoroastrian community (I used to speak to a Karachite Zoroastrian online briefly).
The city is politically unstable with a lot of violence but has a coastline and is the economic centre of Pakistan.
If Karachi collapses, Pakistan collapses.
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