MUHAJIR ETYMOLOGY

DIFFERENT CULTURES OF PAKISTAN

MUHAJIRIS

Muhajir  is an Urdu term used in South Asia to sometimes describe the immigrants from other parts of the South Asia and their descendants, who chose to settle in Pakistan and shifted their domicile after independence of Pakistan from British rule. Some had participated in the movement for a state of Pakistan in 1947. Most migrants migrated from the Muslim minority provinces to Muslim majority provinces within the British Raj.

Muhajir identity no longer exists in Punjab as most of the people who adopted Punjab as their home adopted the Punjabi identity and have been assimilated into local culture and are identified geographically as Punjabis like other residents. Also the migrants remained active in local politics of the Punjab. General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq was of Muhajir origin and he was born in the Indian Punjab and later migrated. Similarly famous politician of PMLN Khawaja Saad Rafique is the son of Khwaja Muhammad Rafique who migrated from Indian Punjab to Pakistani Punjab after the independence of Pakistan in 1947.

Etymology

The Urdu term muhājir  comes from the Arabic muhājir, meaning a "migrant", and the term is associated in early Islamic history to the migration of Muslims from Makkah to Madinah. After the independence of Pakistan, a significant number of Muslims emigrated or were out-migrated from territory that became India. A large portion of these migrants came from East Punjab, and settled in Pakistani Punjab. Sharing a common culture and with tribal linkages, many assimilated within a generation. Another significant percentage are of Gujarati ethnicity.

However, the majority of the non-Punjabi Muslim refugees who moved to Pakistan migrated from what then were the British Indian provinces of Bombay, Bihar, Central Provinces,Berar, Delhi, and the United Provinces, as well as the princely states of Hyderabad, Baroda, Kutch and the Rajputana Agency. Most of these refugees settled in the towns and cities of Sindh, such as Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Mirpurkhas. Many spoke Urdu, or dialects of the language such as Dakhani, Khari boli, Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Mewati, Sadriand Marwari and Haryanvi. Over a period of a few decades, these disparate groups sharing the common experience of migration, and political opposition to the military regime ofAyub Khan and his civilian successor Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto evolved or assimilated into a distinct ethnic grouping.

MUHAJIR MIGRATING