"You know, Sindhis call us panahagir," my phupi told me. It was sometime in the 1950s. She was married to a doctor who hailed from Mirpur Bathoro, a cultured man with a modern outlook, as all educated Sindhis of that time were. The term panahagir was not used by people like him. My aunt obviously meant it was her villager in-laws who used the term panahagir for Mohajirs. It means refugee but the tone in which it was said clearly expressed prejudice. We didn't mind because it is silly to be insulted by what simple, ignorant folk say.
It is the year 2014 when one does not expect to hear anti Mohajir prejudice from the mouth of an educated Sindhi. Opposition leader PPP's Khurshid Ahmed Shah's remark that he considered Mohajir "a swear word", cannot be described only as a prejudice. It is an extremely wicked, deliberate attempt to drive a wedge between old and new Sindhis, politically and socially.
When PPP first came into power in the 1970s, it was on the Punjabi votes; in Sindh the party was almost a non-entity. But the charismatic Bhutto was able to woo Sindhi support. His speeches gave to the Sindhis a sense of pride and dignity and generated tremendous, passionate loyalty to him of men, women and children in the province. But anti-Mohajir prejudice remained low key and did not become a political weapon in his hand. His staunch supporters were from all ethnic groups in the country. The PPP became 'the' party in Sindh and has remained the most powerful political entity. Whatever may be its political fortunes in other provinces, in Sindh it is supreme.
With the emergence of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement, backed by army patronage, the Sindhis felt threatened. In due course of time the movement transformed into a strong political party called Muttahida Qaumi Movement the MQM. The "Jiye Mohajir" slogan was dropped and erased from the party flag.
The new political image encouraged people of other ethnic groups, especially those who had made the Karachi metropolis their home, join the MQM. But the party was not able to get rid of its gangsterish methods to gain political power. In recent decades it has tried to reduce this notoriety and adopt a democratic practice. But its attempts to join hands either in opposition or in government with the leading political parties, the PML-N and PPP, in the name of democracy, continuously become unstuck. It is the MQM's fate to be welcomed, then shunned, welcomed then shunned by the leading political parties.
In the province of Sindh the PPP has begun to view the MQM not just a competitor but an enemy. In the previous PPP provincial government, an open enmity was expressed by Zulfiqar Mirza. He described the MQM as usurpers of the rights of Sindhis, and mocked with unforgettable venom the whole Mohajir community. They were nothing but a pack of poverty stricken hungry refugees (the phrase he famously used is 'bhooka nanga' who took everything that belonged to Sindhis. The fact that the PPP did not try to stop his bitter, abusive attacks tacitly expressed the feeling of the party stalwarts.
Now in the present political scenario the PPP is virtually nothing more than a provincial party; it has lost its clout in the provinces of Balochistan and Punjab. It needed someone to take the blame and the MQM happens to be the scapegoat. Hence the odious remarks by the PPP opposition leader Khurshid Ahmed Shah. In his own and the PPP's dictionary Mohajir is a swear word.
His remark has angered the MQM, who have decided to leave the coalition in the federal assembly opposition and in Sindh government. It has enraged the whole Mohajir community. Khurshid Ahmed Shah was targetting the MQM, but not all Mohajirs are supporters of the party. The PPP, PML-N in the Saraiki belt, and the PTI have Mohajir supporters.
The attempt to demean or belittle Mohajirs began when the PPP became the leading party in Sindh. Mohajirs are often asked why they call themselves Mohajirs six decades after migrating. Mohajirs are often described as "Urdu speaking" when, in fact, Urdu is the mother tongue of Mohajirs who migrated from northern India. There are Mohajirs whose mother tongue is Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Telegu, Punjabi and Madrasi. The term Mohajir no longer means refugees.
It means a people with common cultural values, which include a love of learning, literature, trade, commerce, industry and modern secular ideals like democracy, science and art. A culture that is vibrant and has absorbed Sindhi, Balochi, Pukhtun and Punjabi cultures wholeheartedly. Culturally, therefore, Mohajirs represent the whole country; politically, however, they have not yet achieved national status.
Comments
Comments are closed.