A Letter from Talha Sughlatwala

...``Those who left everything they had and migrated to Pakistan 50 years ago are still referred to as ``mohajirs`` and treated as second-class citizens.``

Mr Talha if you`re up there or somewhere listening ....

The muslim immigrant community was referred to as ``Hindustani`` - which is fair since they migrated from Hindustan. But then this community realized that within Pakistan`s political context, Hindustani means Indian - the nemesis of Pakistani. Such labeling was then rejected by the Urdu speaking community. So it is the Urdu speaking community who keep calling themselves Mohajirs even 53 years after settling in Sindh.

And under no circumstances the urdu speaking immigrant community has been treated as 2nd class citizens but rather 1st+ class citizens. The local sindhi population has been deliberately driven away from the urban centers of Sindh. They have refused to adopt the language of the land where they have settled. And they have always shown a hysterical response to the adoption of Sindhi as Sindh`s official language. Their language has received official patronage and has been officially imposed on others.

Following are some important facts:

1. Mohajirs shared dominant position with the Punjabis in the civil bureaucracy. This mohajir wing of the bureaucracy used its power to benefit the Mohajir and to dispossess the Sindhis.

2. The Mohajir middle class was readily absorbed in the educational services, in the media and other white-collar professions. The setting up of the University of Karachi and other educational institutions and the urban bias in the educational policy ensured the expansion of this class at an adequare rate.

3. The rapid industrialization of Karachi provided job opportunities to the lower classes of Mohajirs as factory workers. Other lower class Mohajirs sought employment in the government and in the rapidly expanding private commercial and service sector.

4. In 1948 Karachi was separated from Sindh and designated as Federal Capital Area. It became a de facto Mohajir territory, providing a context for an insular thinking which exlcuded any consciousness of being in Sindh. In 1955 Sindh was dissolved as a province and amalgamated with the other provinces of West Pakistan to form the so-called One Unit.

5. Urdu was adopted as Pakistan`s national languate. It was introduced as a required subject for the Sindhi students, and the teaching of Sindhi to the Mohajir students was discontinued.

6. The Mohajirs were allowed to occupy the properties and businesses left by the emigrating Hindus. Tens of thousands of Mohajirs benefited from real or bogus property claims. Several townships were constructed to provide housing to the shelterless Mohajirs. New housing development projects were approved to provide to the Mohajir middle and upper classes residential plots at prices below the development cost, and loans on easy terms.

7. The new news media established in Pakitan, such as Radio Pakistan and Urdu and English dailies were dominated by Mohajirs.

Zeejah,

So touching and real in its simplicity, Talha`s account is very moving. What`s heart wrenching is

the epilogue. I wish he`d lived to read his letter on the Chowk. May his soul rest in peace.

Thanks for sharing this with us - I`m sure this would have pleased him.

- lk

In reply to Farangi_Kush (#11) who wrote :

Good poem.

Except the bridge then too was built by the monkeys to wage a war.(They seldom tell us the Lankian version).

-- Well, most of you guys want to make out it is a mythological story; and among those who say the story has a historical core, there are those that say this has been translocated to India from outside ( Indians cannot even invent a false religion without help from outside ).

So how can there by any Lankian version to tell ?

-arun gupta

sorry...saima set me right... the typo is of my own making in the `special instructions` .

I still don`t get it......

How do people hold entire communities responsible for the action of some co-religionists ?
How absurd ?
Honestly, how many of you feel directly responsible for any shitty action your co-religionists (past, present, ancestor) may or may not have taken ? Then why does the vice-versa not apply ..... oh well, as Manto once said ``Mish-take ho gaya``.

Me thinks, these Bombay-wallahs are to damn filmy. Too much jhatak matak, dhin-chak and cut-2-cut style, kyaa ?

the `98 was added by the editors ... Talha died on the night of august 14th. 1997...may God hold him in the palm of His hand.

Can we see this article in reference to article by UdayKumar.

I think India needs to do a lot of home work.

shankar #21

``The irony is that the core philosophy of all religions is identical. Unfortunately, humans have twisted religion as a vehicle to hate our fellow man.``

I couldn`t have said it better myself.

ina-lilah-e-wa-ina-alehey-rajaion

so touching so much feel like to be my story or some one around me so why don`t we except we all are the same ( in subcontinent ).

if we account for diffrence of opinions well i have diffrence of opninon with my father the way he think pakistan is and the way i think it is,

or to contrary what urdu speaking comunity think about pakistan ( i delibretly haven`t said mohajir cause thats what i don`t think they are thats what the dirty corrupt politicans made them believe )

so whats the point !!

the point is that this subcontinent have majorty if illitrate people with nothing much to do the only thing that keeps them busy is arguing and fighting ,

when the topic is pakistan india we fight on muslims and hindu,

when the topic is islam we fight on suni and shiat,

when the topic is pakistan we have a lot to fight about being a punjbi, sindhi, pathan, baluchi and god knows what else, and about our political parties ,

and then when we run out of topics we always have a wife at home to beat ......

/ *sigh//

iss tan ki tarf deko ju qatal gah-e-dil hai

kya rakha hai maqtal mein aey chashm-e-tamashai

heavy hearts

Very moving & well written letter. `Choccy` went to my Alma Mater, St Mary`s. I dont recognise the name, perhaphs he was junior to me.. I`m deeply saddened by his death, not to mention the senseless killings of religious riots.



The irony is that the core philosophy of all religions is identical. Unfortunately, humans have twisted religion as a vehicle to hate our fellow man.

My brother was married to a muslim girl, about a month after the riots. Both the bride`s & groom`s side were worried that there would be trouble during the wedding. To our pleasant surprise, it was well attended by relatives from both sides. In fact, the number of guests was far more than originally anticipated. There was genuine goodwill expressed & the desire for rapproachment was universally expressed by guests from both sides.

Just wanted to express some joy that came out of a bitter reality that plagues my society...

two-nations Talha it is his recognition of the dead as `people` that made him who he was... one of the best!

I had told choccy even then that his letter was good enough to be published and he was very excited about seeing his name in print ... The Friday Times did not think it was good enough maybe, as I sent it to them twice...once when he was alive and again before his first death aniversary.

Is the discrepancy in year(`98/`97) in the first and last line of the writeup a typo?

Brings back several memories to my mind.

Dehli in 84, Bombay in 92 and 93(guess I`ve seen more than my share of death and violence :-()

The sheer impotent rage at the bomb blasts in 93 the long lines of students at the phone booths trying to call home to tell their parents they were OK.

Brings back another memory in Bombay maybe in `91

seeing a procession of several trucks packed with people waving the Pakistani flag and shouting ``Allah-O-Akbar``.

anyway I`m rambling

Perhaps Mr. Sudheendra Kulkarni, BJP activist will read the article.

He wants to change Hindu-Muslim perceptions in India ?

Perhaps, if the BJP/VHP/RSS combine, while still maintaining a historical claim on the Babri Masjid site, admitted that they broke the law in breaking the Masjid, and that they should not have taken the law into their own hands, and perhaps rebuilt the Masjid, without any prejudice to their claim to the site, but agreeing that it had to be settled peaceably, no matter how long it takes,

then it just might be a start to your goal,

Mr Kulkarni ?

-arun gupta

The distance from Ghatkopar to Mohammed Ali Road is more than 20km

EST Reply #: 11

FARANGI_KUSH

``

The caste system was really there to serve a purpose.For hindus it must continue or they should give up hinduism.The two are mutually inclusive

``

--I really did not want to disrespect the author of the letter, by making this into another Hindu-muslim; india-paki thing.

So I will simply say this:

-Religons get distorted over time. Hinduism did too. Caste system in Hinduism was determined by profession/work/``karma`` not by birth. Over time this got corrupted. Just like in Islam, a lot of traditions are more tribal in nature than Islamic.

Eg: The ritual (followed in some muslim African nations and in Saudia Arabia) of female genital mutilation is not Islamic, correct ? Yet it is carried in the name of Islam.

Use this article for introspection and reflection. We can all learn from it.

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