With or Without Musharraf – A Mohajir’s Perspective

Salim Bahi Jaan, Congratulations to have the article. It was very well written and have a good prospective of Mohajir politics. The suggestions you gave out were also thought provoking.

With many agreements and disagreements with your point of view, I must say in my opinion the native Urdu Speakers (i.e. Mohajirs) of Sindh are integral part of Pakistan due to their achievements, cultural influence and education we have gained in this country. That was never possible if we stayed back with United India. In Urban areas of Sindh there is no disagreement in Mohajir community that after losing thousands of lives in partition we want to be Pakistani or not.

I also don’t think the level of racism Mohajir faced in Pakistan was more then the Indian Muslims have faced providing the fact that there are numerous riots like Gujrat, incidents like Babri Masjid and major differences with Hindu majority.

There was a time when due to ethnic clashes and state fueled racism, Mohajir politics took a lead. It was the reaction to the oppression the community have faced from various other factions of the society, the fighting does gives us an identity and a platform to speak up the mind, but also does alot of damage in terms of violence in major cities of Sindh.

MQM realized that this style of politics will not do them any good in long term. The mohajir and non mohajirs middle and poor class are equally suppressed. It is not worth to fight every single community in the name of saving rights. it results with the changing of core of their idealogy that was based on the race. The change was pleasantly welcomed by other communities that have no representation of middle class particular Sraiki areas of Punjab, Kashmir and interior sindh.

The results of MQM going mainstream politics are evident. Look at development of Karachi after the fighting among different races stops. The message to rest of the country in this is “Together we can achieve something not by fights”.

I believe the era of Mohajir and non Mohajir political war is about to end. The clash is now between social classes (rich, poor and middle) and how to determine the role of religion in Pakistani society.

Re: # 173

sanatani:

You may very well be Sindhi, but you are not jang. So is it common knowledge between the two of us? And please do not act dumb ... you are not.

A very good article Salim......

Now let me come to the point. Most of the guys on this site r either posting their views in the cozy drawing room environs of west or r from elite class of Pakistan or India. They never know the actual realities.

Being from young generation (Unlike mostly oldies in here) and from a middle class and pure Urdu speaking family and still living in this hell (Pakistan), I know the many harsh realities. I have also lived in punjab for many years and know the actual mentality of these punjaibis, from elite ones to common ujad ganwaars of them.

So I have come to the following conclusions...

1. Punjus r what my grandfather opined that they suffer from severe inferiority complex, infact its not a complex they r actually....

2.Right from Ranjit Singh they disown their own culture and try to adopt the Persian and Urdu speaking culture.

3. The punjus both muslim and non-muslims carried out mass murders of Urdu speaking muslims of Delhi and surrounding areas and UP during the so called Ghadar of 1857. Infact this enemity b/w Ganga Jamni Culture and punjaibi culture is very old. On one hand these punjus hated the Hindustanis ( Hindustan was in old times actually the name of areas of UP, Delhi and parts of Haryana like Gurgoan and Panipat etc) and on the other hand tried to adopt their language and culture.

4. During British Raj, unfortunately some pure Urdu speaking areas were transferred to United punjab and Urdu and Persian were made the official languages. This was a huge mistake and we the Muhajirs are bearing the brunt of these grave follies.

5. So these punjus instead of fighting for their own language to be imposed as official one, they welcomed Urdu as they want to become cultured and mannered as their own culture and language was and still is and will remain one of the most rude, crude and stupid one. Instances of which can be seen in the posts of some of these folks here......

6. Urdu speaking muslims carried out the campaigns of educating these poorest muslim punjus right from Shah Wali Ullah, Ismail Shaheed, Sir Syed and many others. Even all the religious activism and reformation was carried out by Urdu speakers whether Deobandi, Barelvi, Ahle- Hadith or Ithna Ashari. None of these punjus had any educational or religous calibre.

7. Partition of India was the greatest tragedy of 20th century in my eyes. It was the greatest mistake on part of our fore fathers ( I mean only of Urdu speakers) to fight for independece. They knew that their areas will not be included in Pakistan but still they continued their struggle and handed out a ready made pudding for punjus and other pissr-e-zameens of this so called Holy land.

We have suffered a lot because of this partition. Still majority of our brothers r living in India. Most of our families are divided. We have lost thousands of our brothers and sisters during the mass murders conducted by Ayub, Bhutto, Zia, Benazir and Nawaz.

The establishmet in the form of MQM has given us the most effective slow poison. This party was and will never fight for our rights. It can only terrorize and kill us. We shud now find a real representative for our ethnic group as we can never vote for PPP, PML or religous fanatic parties.


Mushy is no sympathizer for us.. that notion is totally wrong. He is a Punjabi from his accent to his mindset. Let me accept one historical fact, Muhajirs who attain some higher position totall forget their own ethnic group while people of other ethnicities bestow unimaginable favours upon their people.

We can neither live with democratic dictators nor military ones. Pakistan is only beneficial for punjus and no one else. They have benefited so much from this country and also looted it to hell. All other ethnic groups want independence so I m afraid that these punjaybis will not be able to do so any more. Future of Pakistan is very bleak as it`s an unnatural state.

Who is a Mohajir?

I am somewhat confused about this term.

I was told that the term Mohajir originated with the hijrat of Prophet Mohammad and his companions from Makah to Madina to escape persecution from the Quraish. And this was a temporary sojourn as they always intended to return, as indeed they did as victors.

So, how did UP Muslims who migrated to a promised Muslim Land for which they had fought become Mohajirs or mohajirs? Are they planning to come back to India one day with a flying sabz parcham.

If there are any true Mohajirs, they would be Punjabi Muslims who were forced to leave East Punjab. And they are now pissr-e-zameen? Beats me!

Re: # 178

GT,

I am a Punjabi Sharanarthi from Lahore (at least the descendant of those) and when I go to Matan, Hardwar, Prayag, Kashi, Ujjain or Nashik I still mention I am a khatri of so and so caste from Lahore.

Knowing about GM so happens that I have read Sindh Story as also have read My people uprooted.

As also have read Punjabi century.

Regards
Sanatani

P.S. I wonder how this makes a difference whether I am Sindhi or Punjoo and pray I actually did not understand this crack ``And please do not act dumb ... you are not`` what am I acting dumb on

GT sahib, jai ram ji ki

you know, you need to read posts for what they are. sanatani`s posts are far more fantabulous than mine, and give em some respect..dont discard them just because they dont seem to come from an embarassing (to you) group.

next you will start playing jana gana mana on karoke track.

``I do respect your dissenting perspective. You have every right to disagree and present your own thoughts, most of which make a lot of sense to me. That is the main difference between THEM and US. If you noticed, the Mohajir viewpoints range from full support of my perspective, to partial support and partial criticism, to even total rejection of the points raised by this article. Unlike the variety of views presented by Mohajirs, the Pakistani Paindoos come across as jingoistic, selfish, one-sided, unbalanced, and totally uniform in their common hatred of Mohajirs and determined right to justify their own hegemony``

Firstly thanks for your very reasonable reply to my criticism. Now re what you said to someone else.(above)...i believe that Karachiites can not be compared as a generalization to any other people, ofcourse there is a lot more education, heterogeniety, tolerance and acceptance of free speech/thought. Everyone in every other city/town looks speaks and thinks the same for the most part. Individuals can be sophisticated and defy all steretypes ofcourse. But again bro, this is not ethnic - i love the fact that we have so many religions /ethnicities in karachi thats why its such a cool place. BECAUSE its a melting pot. Without that diversity we` d all be one track and unbalanced and jingoistic.
Lastly i am a girl, why`d you think otherwise? :)

[Whereas Indian Muslims find east Punjab as a better place for life & employment/business how come mohajirs are running away from west Punjab???????]-folio #170

...there are more urdu speaking people in punjab and frontier than is commonly known... the districts of multan, bahawalpur and lahore have a a very strong presence of the UP wallas but they have completely assimilated in the local society unlike in karachi and sind where they are still living in ghettos crowing about their tehzeeb and looking down on the locals...similarly d.i.khan and peshawar has also a large number of these migrants from up...
it is the ehsaan faramosh migrants like the author of this crap who have one agenda...to break up pakistan and merge it with bharatmata...sadly their dream will remain a wet dream...

#35 by Salim_Chauhan on April 11, 2007 11:18am PT
Zeena #2, 4, and 6,
Thank you for the kind compliments. I agree that Fatima Jinnah would have provided Pakistan with a different kind of leadership than what the Ayub/Yahya/Bhutto/Zia succession of autocratic fools dealt our unfortunate country. ]]]

Salim MIan

You did not mention the name of Musharaf here in this line of succession. Why?

This should be like that.....

[[#35 by Salim_Chauhan on April 11, 2007 11:18am PT
Zeena #2, 4, and 6,
Thank you for the kind compliments. I agree that Fatima Jinnah would have provided Pakistan with a different kind of leadership than what the Ayub/Yahya/Bhutto/Zia/BB/Nawaz sharif/Musharaf succession of autocratic fools dealt our unfortunate country. ]]

Even though I am related to Ayub, I did not take his side blindly.

But, you on the other hand have gone to another extreme.

What Musharaf did different and so good for Pakistan that others didn`t do?

Why Musharaf ( Chief of army staff) has broken all the laws and has hijacked Pakistan with his dictatorship?

What right does Musharaf has for being Presidnet of Pakistan?

Musharaf is NO different than His predessors...............

I recently went to Pakistan, I saw worst conditions under the dictatorship of Musharaf.

And Musharaf is NOT chosen by People of Pakistan as their leader, he is self imposed.


Yes, I will respect and accept him as Pakistani leader, if, in coming elections he resigns his chief of army staff position and run election just like others. And, if, People of Pakistan elect him as their president,,,then by all means ....

Other than that everything else is corruption. Musharaf is also corrupt by hijacking Pakistan via his dictatorship.

PS:- Mujahir is a term used by Karachiitis themselves, there is no reason to be claaed mujagir now.

My parents came from Kashmir, Punjab, and Russia.....I am NOT Muhagir.....

I am just Pakistani.

#159 by Salim_Chauhan on April 12, 2007 6:19am PT

[As a kind, generous, and civilized person, please behave yourself in the superior manner that we have all come to expect from you. I know that you can do it. Thanks. :)]

Salim, Kutta ki dumm!

Saaley, nobody needs a lecture from the likes of you on how to behave – harram-khoar!

After you are done gloating over this “time in the limelight”on your present crappy piece of verbal diarrhea – feel free to go back and hide again under the palloo of u-no-who – whose paaltoo kutta that you are!

Let me repeat so it can be read without any confusion – PAALTOO KUTTA!

Ole mama will save ya! Just as soon as ole mamma is done snorting this vicarious thrill which is SO nostalgic – of the bygone days!

You know – the good ole days of 100 interactors, or so!

Under the ole management!!

Now - alas!!

Now, Salim, go “picture hanger” yourself!!

Re: # 179

Oh boy, the arrogance of some jokers here. I am sure Mohajirs are shattering all educational records ever set by bagging Nobel prizes in all disciplines, including one in making Haleem. It sounds like your grandpa did a pretty good job passing on his racist and bigoted tendencies to you.

#186 bjkumar sahib

That was so uncalled for.

#116 by cliftonbridge on April 11, 2007 8:07pm PT

[…I am not a mian…]

Sorry Clifton Bridge. It was a genuine mistake.

How could I ever call you a mian! You are not a mian.

You are, after all…

A BRIDGE!!

Yup, the bridge to somewhere!

People to cross – as they step on, they sit on, they stand on, they pee on!

So tell me bridge, how does it feel…

…to have all those men (including those mians) walk all over you?!

Salim Mian

What will you say about those Urdu speaking people who live in Punjab, Nwfp and other areas of Pakistan?

They do not wish to call themselves Muhagir....Will you NOT include them in your self created Muhagir group.

Muhajir term should be used for all Pakistanies then. All Pakistanies are immigrants and that logic applies to all of us.

#188 Little sis

#186 was not for you - so stay off it!

Salim Chauhan has a well-worn track record of calling for the uncalled-for! So who cares!

Re: # 182

django:

No, no. You do not get it. I read his posts quite thoroughly .... yes I do ... I am just a wee bit surprised. He is not the typical hindutva type ... don`t you think?

Look, as far as the RSS has uncle hari and abcd types (or Sheshadri types) (which I still think is true) there is no basic threat from them. The problem arises when you have the sanatani type ..... well informed, non-stupid, cool (i.e. with little ego) and strategic. If the RSS gets populated with sanatani types, boy that is a problem. It is like the jamaat getting populated with HP types. There is no problem with jamaat having the urstruly types. ..... You get my drift.

Jai Bajrang-bali ... jai Shiri ram.