Wednesday, 9 January 2013
A Perspective on Mohajir identity of Urdu-speaking citizens of Karachi and thereabout. Part 2
This post is based on my input in a discussion at www.defence.pk/forums/national-political-issues/
The original post in its unmodified state is at :
http://www.defence.pk/forums/national-political-issues/228096-split-discussion-muhajir-identity-10.html#post3781912
Identity is a complicated matter in a multi-ethnic country. As it is things are not quite so easy for us in Pakistan.
Identity is based on feelings, not papers. If a set of people wishes to call themselves 'Mohajir' then we have to accept that without worrying about semantics. In my first post I noted that there is a perceived need for such an identity. You may wish to point out the reality, but perception trumps reality whether we like it or not. Let us consider the following labels (no offence to anyone):
a. Mohajir - A social term with religious connotations. Some consider it derogatory and inappropriate.
b. Urdu-speakers - We all are to one extent or another. And yet we have Bengalis, Madrasis, Keralites (?), etc...
c. Bhai log - Any bit of head scratching does not help here. What could it mean?
d. Non-Punjabi Immigrants - While quite accurate, it does define a group of people in a negative manner. Nothing positive here.
e. Karachiites - What do you call people of similar back-ground from Hyderabad and other places in Sindh?
f. Haq-Parast - What are others then? Very annoying.
Someone many point out what is wrong with the term 'Mohajir' and how it is misused by MQM and its supporters. But what alternative is there? 'Urdu-speaking' perhaps, but then there are problems with this too. If we ask the people concerned to give up their identity for the sake of Pakistan, then what can we realistically expect from them?
It is no easy matter; especially when a number of people identify themselves positively as Punjabi, Pashtun, Baloch, Sindhi. What do they do if not adopt a term coined for themselves that gives them a bit of a positive idea of themselves. Some people say that Mohajir is a derogatory term, but I do not agree with them. It is not used or intended as such by people who choose to call themselves Mohajir. Ask any psychologist how comforting and liberating is a sense of being a victim which this term evokes. Consider the religious meaning as well, which gives it a positive spin (Oh the irony of a secular party using and abusing this term). I see hardly any escape from it. Some people using this term would always feel themselves to be a victim even after 50 years. Some people would adopt this term in a high and glorified religious sense and feel entitled to a certain sense of moral superiority. And then, most importantly, some people would be desensitized entirely and use it as just a positive way of identifying themselves. When this happens, Altaf Hussain would be long dead, MQM would have splintered into a dozen factions, and Mohajirs would probably welcome other political players who might be better suited to represent them in a vast metropolis where they would hardly command a majority. Rest assured, we shall all still very much be Pakistanis.
In the long run a seemingly over-riding concern shall have been transitory. Issue of identity would no longer exert the same emotional push or pull.
My personal gripe with this whole thing is a feeling of having been let down by people I respected very much and held in high esteem. Now I smile at my simplicity when growing up as a kid and struggling with learning two languages (English by far being the harder), I idolized people who spoke Urdu as a mother language. People are people, no better no worse. They just have different preoccupations and POVs. If someone looks down at my being a Punjabi in today's Pakistan, I can guess why they claim superiority and be able to coolly tell them how they are no better. Big deal. Punjabis are cool in this way. It is not terribly important how they are seen by others, they would rather be 'Haal-Mast'. The issue of whether or not Urdu-speaking people feel superior, or what names they might call my ethnicity is a total non-starter and almost irrelevant as far as I am concerned. For Pashtuns it might be different, but I am not bothered one bit by it. MQM's shenanigans and 'Mohajir' support for them has robbed Urdu-speakers at large of any moral superiority they might wish to assume. Like I said: people are people, no better not worse, just different...
8 January 2013
A Perspective on Mohajir identity of Urdu-speaking citizens of Karachi and thereabout. Part 1
This post is based on my input in a discussion at www.defence.pk/forums/national-political-issues/
The original post in its unmodified state is at :
http://www.defence.pk/forums/national-political-issues/228096-split-discussion-muhajir-identity-5.html#post3774961
Nothing exists without a reason. If a number of people choose to call themselves Mohajirs, then one can not simply dismiss it. There are reasons for it.
a) When an Urdu-speaking person sees that Sindhi favors a fellow Sindhi, Pathan favors a fellow Pathan, and Punjabi favors a fellow Punjabi, then naturally the said person might wonder what ought he to do when he needs a favor? In our Pakistan one can not simply assume a moral high-ground only to find oneself stranded alone and disadvantaged. When one goes to government departments one finds that there is a need to find references and to apply some sort influence to get a favorable outcome. High on this list are the departments with which a common person often needs to interact: Police, judiciary, revenue, municipal offices and such like.
b) Quota system makes sense to the over-whelming majority of the country's population, just as has been pointed out by others. However, with many educated Urdu-speaking immigrants employed in the federal and provincial government in the early years of Pakistan, naturally their second generation expected to follow in their footsteps and aspire to a government job. Two factors then intervened. First, the shifting of Capital to Islamabad; and second, the imposition of quota system. Thus to Urdu-speaking population of Karachi there seemed to be a raw-deal for their second generation. The quota system was supposed to be temporary, but it proved so convenient that it is still alive and well. Now the situation for a number of years has been such that non-Urdu speakers predominate in the federal and provincial offices in Karachi. As I said, when people of particular ethnicities favor each other, there is natural resentment in the Urdu-speakers (I am avoiding using the term 'mohajir' purposely).
c) The resentment thus arising feeds the need to assume an identity and this is where the term 'Mohajir' finds its purpose. It is essentially a reactionary mechanism. A new 'ethnicity' is in the making because there is a perceived need for it. I have to say that in my limited understanding, the aforementioned resentment is a very important factor, perhaps the most important.
This leads me to address the narrative that MQM has popularized among Urdu-speaking community. As noted by others there is an assumption of superiority among some (or many) in Urdu-speaking community. I have noticed so much myself. This superiority is based on certain assumptions among which level of education, cultural sophistication, Urdu's pre-eminent cultural position, a feeling of having sacrificed more than others, presumed victim-hood etc.. all figure. Elements from this list figure prominently in the narrative used by MQM. The presumption of victim-hood, the idea of having sacrificed disproportionately, the assumption that Pakistan was created by Urdu-speakers, and the assumption that this new country could not have survived without their sacrifices, is deeply ingrained in MQM workers and supporters. These assumptions assume a mythological significance and it is very difficult to shake them. These are the pillars upon which the edifice of 'Mohajir' identity is built.
That this narrative is not quite the whole truth and that many people find these assumptions offensive does not quite sink in the committed MQM mind-set. I do not wish to provide counter arguments in the interest of brevity and can come back to this if asked.
The formation of APMSO, the rise of Muhajir Qaumi Movement, and its factured evolution to Mutahidda Qaumi Movement has been well noted. The rhetoric, methods, and tactics used along the way are also well-known. Today MQM can not claim moral high ground, flaunt its self-assumed victim-hood, or make a valid claim to espouse the cause of the dispossessed. Nobody trusts them outside of their core support areas, no matter what they say. There was some willingness among the educated classes among various ethnicities to give them a chance, forget their earlier rhetoric, set aside the bias arising out of their methods; just to see how MQM goes about fulfilling its stated goals. I have seen all this support evaporate in the last decade or so. They had their chance and they blew it. They are condemned to the status of a small regional party. The best MQM can hope for is to sustain itself until it goes through a generational change. With new people unburdened with soiled reputations there would be another chance after a decade or two. But to avail that chance, MQM genuinely needs to jettison its parochial agenda. When an MQM supporter says emphatically that Karachi belongs to Muhajirs, they are perpetuating all that is wrong with MQM.
I am deeply cynical of MQM and can not bring myself to support them now. Pakistan needs much more than the middle-class ethos that MQM purports to represent. We are a nation. We need an inclusive vision. One that shows that each and everyone of us, even the much-hated waderas and sardars, has a stake in this country and its success. If ANP can be made to come around, then so can others.
5 Jan 2013
This post is based on my input in a discussion at www.defence.pk/forums/national-political-issues/
The original post in its unmodified state is at :
http://www.defence.pk/forums/national-political-issues/228096-split-discussion-muhajir-identity-5.html#post3774961
Nothing exists without a reason. If a number of people choose to call themselves Mohajirs, then one can not simply dismiss it. There are reasons for it.
a) When an Urdu-speaking person sees that Sindhi favors a fellow Sindhi, Pathan favors a fellow Pathan, and Punjabi favors a fellow Punjabi, then naturally the said person might wonder what ought he to do when he needs a favor? In our Pakistan one can not simply assume a moral high-ground only to find oneself stranded alone and disadvantaged. When one goes to government departments one finds that there is a need to find references and to apply some sort influence to get a favorable outcome. High on this list are the departments with which a common person often needs to interact: Police, judiciary, revenue, municipal offices and such like.
b) Quota system makes sense to the over-whelming majority of the country's population, just as has been pointed out by others. However, with many educated Urdu-speaking immigrants employed in the federal and provincial government in the early years of Pakistan, naturally their second generation expected to follow in their footsteps and aspire to a government job. Two factors then intervened. First, the shifting of Capital to Islamabad; and second, the imposition of quota system. Thus to Urdu-speaking population of Karachi there seemed to be a raw-deal for their second generation. The quota system was supposed to be temporary, but it proved so convenient that it is still alive and well. Now the situation for a number of years has been such that non-Urdu speakers predominate in the federal and provincial offices in Karachi. As I said, when people of particular ethnicities favor each other, there is natural resentment in the Urdu-speakers (I am avoiding using the term 'mohajir' purposely).
c) The resentment thus arising feeds the need to assume an identity and this is where the term 'Mohajir' finds its purpose. It is essentially a reactionary mechanism. A new 'ethnicity' is in the making because there is a perceived need for it. I have to say that in my limited understanding, the aforementioned resentment is a very important factor, perhaps the most important.
This leads me to address the narrative that MQM has popularized among Urdu-speaking community. As noted by others there is an assumption of superiority among some (or many) in Urdu-speaking community. I have noticed so much myself. This superiority is based on certain assumptions among which level of education, cultural sophistication, Urdu's pre-eminent cultural position, a feeling of having sacrificed more than others, presumed victim-hood etc.. all figure. Elements from this list figure prominently in the narrative used by MQM. The presumption of victim-hood, the idea of having sacrificed disproportionately, the assumption that Pakistan was created by Urdu-speakers, and the assumption that this new country could not have survived without their sacrifices, is deeply ingrained in MQM workers and supporters. These assumptions assume a mythological significance and it is very difficult to shake them. These are the pillars upon which the edifice of 'Mohajir' identity is built.
That this narrative is not quite the whole truth and that many people find these assumptions offensive does not quite sink in the committed MQM mind-set. I do not wish to provide counter arguments in the interest of brevity and can come back to this if asked.
The formation of APMSO, the rise of Muhajir Qaumi Movement, and its factured evolution to Mutahidda Qaumi Movement has been well noted. The rhetoric, methods, and tactics used along the way are also well-known. Today MQM can not claim moral high ground, flaunt its self-assumed victim-hood, or make a valid claim to espouse the cause of the dispossessed. Nobody trusts them outside of their core support areas, no matter what they say. There was some willingness among the educated classes among various ethnicities to give them a chance, forget their earlier rhetoric, set aside the bias arising out of their methods; just to see how MQM goes about fulfilling its stated goals. I have seen all this support evaporate in the last decade or so. They had their chance and they blew it. They are condemned to the status of a small regional party. The best MQM can hope for is to sustain itself until it goes through a generational change. With new people unburdened with soiled reputations there would be another chance after a decade or two. But to avail that chance, MQM genuinely needs to jettison its parochial agenda. When an MQM supporter says emphatically that Karachi belongs to Muhajirs, they are perpetuating all that is wrong with MQM.
I am deeply cynical of MQM and can not bring myself to support them now. Pakistan needs much more than the middle-class ethos that MQM purports to represent. We are a nation. We need an inclusive vision. One that shows that each and everyone of us, even the much-hated waderas and sardars, has a stake in this country and its success. If ANP can be made to come around, then so can others.
5 Jan 2013
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