Paki (slur)

"Paki" is part of the exonym Pakistan. It is derived from the term Pak ({{lang|ur|{{unq|پاک}}}}) which means "purity" in Persian, Urdu and Pashto. There was no "Pak" or "Paki" ethnic group before the state was created.{{cite book|title=A Dictionary of Pashto|last=Raverty|first=Henry George|url=http://dsalsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.0:1:1478.raverty|access-date=27 October 2015|archive-date=7 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307070438/http://dsalsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.0:1:1478.raverty|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://www.sanskritdictionary.com/sth%C4%81na/274192/1l|title=Monier-Williams Sanskrit Dictionary|date=1872|access-date=28 April 2015|archive-date=21 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150621085817/http://www.sanskritdictionary.com/sth%C4%81na/274192/1l|url-status=live}} The name Pakistan (initially as "Pakstan") was coined by the Cambridge University law student and Muslim nationalist from then British India Choudhry Rahmat Ali, and was published on 28 January 1933 in the pamphlet Now or Never, eventually becoming the name adopted by the new country after the 1947 partition of India and independence from the British Raj.{{cite web

| title = Death anniversary of Ch Rehmat Ali being observed

| date = 14 February 2008

| publisher = Dunya News

|url=https://dunyanews.tv/en/Pakistan/157528-Death-anniversary-of-Ch-Rehmat-Ali-being-observed}}{{citation|title=Now or Never; Are We to Live or Perish Forever?|author1=Choudhary Rahmat Ali|author2=Mohd Aslam Khan |author3=Sheikh Mohd Sadiq |author4=Inayat Ullah Khan|date=28 January 1933}}: "At this solemn hour in the history of India, when British and Indian statesmen are laying the foundations of a Federal Constitution for that land, we address this appeal to you, in the name of our common heritage, on behalf of our thirty million Muslim brethren who live in PAKSTAN [sic] – by which we mean the five Northern units of India, viz., Punjab, North-West Frontier Province (Afghan Province), Kashmir, Sind and Baluchistan – for your sympathy and support in our grim and fateful struggle against political crucifixion and complete annihilation."

The use of the term "Paki" in English was first recorded in 1964, during a period of increased South Asian immigration to the United Kingdom. At this time, the term "Paki" was very much in mixed usage; it was often used as a slur. While it might seem likely that it would only be directed towards Pakistanis, it has also been directed at people of other South Asian backgrounds (mainly Indians and Bangladeshis) as well as people from other demographics who physically resemble South Asians.{{cite news|last1=Bhatia|first1=Rajni|title=After the N-word, the P-word|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6740445.stm|access-date=23 June 2015|work=BBC News|date=11 June 2007}}

Starting in the late-1960s,{{cite journal |last1=Ashe |first1=Stephen |last2=Virdee |first2=Satnam |last3=Brown |first3=Laurence |title=Striking back against racist violence in the East End of London, 1968–1970 |journal=Race & Class |date=2016 |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=34–54 |doi=10.1177/0306396816642997 |pmid=28479657 |pmc=5327924 |s2cid=243689 |issn=0306-3968 }} and peaking in the 1970s and 1980s, violent gangs opposed to immigration took part in attacks known as "Paki-bashing", which targeted and assaulted South Asians and businesses owned by them,{{cite news|title=In the eye of the storm|url=http://www.redpepper.org.uk/In-the-eye-of-the-storm/|access-date=23 June 2015|work=Red Pepper|archive-date=23 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150623095734/http://www.redpepper.org.uk/In-the-eye-of-the-storm/|url-status=live}} and occasionally other ethnic minorities.{{cite news|title=Naive Bush slights Pakistanis with a short-cut|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/jan/09/usa.matthewengel|access-date=23 June 2015|work=The Guardian|date=9 January 2002|archive-date=23 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150623102711/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/jan/09/usa.matthewengel|url-status=live}} "Paki-bashing" became more common after Enoch Powell's Rivers of Blood speech in 1968; polls at the time showed that Powell's anti-immigrant rhetoric held support amongst the majority of the white populace at the time.Nahid Afrose Kabir (2012), [https://books.google.com/books?id=GRPsAQAAQBAJ Young British Muslims] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200902130636/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GRPsAQAAQBAJ |date=2 September 2020 }}, Edinburgh University Press{{cite journal |last=Collins |first=Marcus |title=Immigration and opinion polls in postwar Britain |journal=Modern History Review |date=2016 |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=8–13 |publisher=Loughborough University |isbn=978-1-4718-8713-0|hdl=2134/21458 }}

"Paki-bashing" peaked during the 1970s{{ndash}}1980s, with the attackers often being supporters of far-right fascist, racist and anti-immigrant movements, including the white power skinheads, the National Front, and the British National Party.{{cite book |last1=Taylor |first1=Max |last2=Currie |first2=P. M. |last3=Holbrook |first3=Donald |title=Extreme Right Wing Political Violence and Terrorism |date=2013 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4411-4087-6 |pages=40–53 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f4bFAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA40 |access-date=4 August 2018 |archive-date=27 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200527093135/https://books.google.com/books?id=f4bFAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA40 |url-status=live }} These attacks were usually referred to as either "Paki-bashing" or "skinhead terror", with the attackers usually called "Paki-bashers" or "skinheads".{{cite news |last1=Weinraub |first1=Bernard |title=Attacks Terrorize Pakistanis in London |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/04/09/archives/attacks-terrorize-pakistanis-in-london.html |access-date=4 July 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=9 April 1970}}

"Paki-bashing" was partly fuelled by the media's anti-immigrant and anti-Pakistani rhetoric at the time, and by systemic failures of state authorities, which included under-reporting racist attacks, the criminal justice system not taking racist violence seriously, constant racial harassment by police, and police involvement in racist violence. Asians were frequently stereotyped as "weak" and "passive" in the 1960s and 1970s, with Pakistanis viewed as "passive objects" and "unwilling to fight back", making them seen as easy targets by "Paki-bashers". The Joint Campaign Against Racism committee reported that there had been more than 20,000 racist attacks on British people of colour, including Britons of South Asian origin, during 1985.Law and Order, moral order: The changing rhetoric of the Thatcher government. [http://socialistregister.com/socialistregister.com/files/SR_1987_Taylor.pdf online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060624211759/http://socialistregister.com/socialistregister.com/files/SR_1987_Taylor.pdf |date=24 June 2006 }}. Ian Taylor. Accessed 6 October 2006

Drawing inspiration from the African-American civil rights movement, the Black Power movement, and the anti-apartheid movement, young British Asian activists began a number of anti-racist youth movements against "Paki-bashing", including the Bradford Youth Movement in 1977, the Bangladeshi Youth Movement following the murder of Altab Ali in 1978, and the Newham Youth Movement following the murder of Akhtar Ali Baig in 1980.Timothy Peace (2015), [https://books.google.com/books?id=9JFMCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT55 European Social Movements and Muslim Activism: Another World but with Whom?, page 55] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200902130639/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9JFMCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT55 |date=2 September 2020 }}, Springer Science+Business Media

The earliest groups to resist "Paki-bashing" date back to 1968{{ndash}}1970, with two distinct movements that emerged: the integrationist approach began by the Pakistani Welfare Association and National Federation of Pakistani Associations attempted to establish positive race relations while maintaining law and order, which was contrasted by the autonomous approach began by the Pakistani Progressive Party and the Pakistani Workers' Union which engaged in vigilantism as self-defence against racially motivated violence and police harassment in conjunction with the Black Power movement (often working with the British Black Panthers and Communist Workers League of Britain) while also seeking to replace the "weak" and "passive" stereotypes of Pakistanis and Asians. Divisions arose between the integrationist and autonomous movements by 1970, with integrationist leader Raja Mahmudabad criticising the vigilantism of the latter as "alien to the spirit and practice of Islam" whereas PPP/PWU leader Abdul Hye stated they "have no intention of fighting or killing anyone, but if it comes to us, we will hit back." It was not until the 1980s and 1990s that academics began to take racially motivated violence into serious focus, partly as a result of black and Asian people entering academic life.

In the twenty-first century, some younger British Pakistanis and other British South Asians have attempted to reclaim the word, thus drawing parallels to the LGBT reclamation of the slur "queer" and the African American reclamation of the slur "nigger".{{cite news|last1=Manzoor|first1=Sarfraz|title='I'm a paki and proud'|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/feb/25/race.world|access-date=23 June 2015|work=The Guardian|date=25 February 2004|archive-date=23 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150623102708/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/feb/25/race.world|url-status=live}} Peterborough businessman Abdul Rahim, who produces merchandise reclaiming the word, equates it to more socially accepted terms such as "Aussie" and "Kiwi", saying that it is more similar to them than it is to "nigger", as it denotes a nationality and not a biological race. However, other British Pakistanis see use of the word as unacceptable even among members of their community, due to its historical usage in a negative way.

In December 2000, the Advertising Standards Authority published research on attitudes of the British public to pejoratives. It ranked Paki as the tenth severest pejorative in the English language, up from seventeenth three years earlier.{{cite web|title=Delete expletives? |work=Advertising Standards Authority, accessed via Wayback Machine |url=http://www.asa.org.uk/~/media/Files/ASA/Reports/ASA_Delete_Expletives_Dec_2000.ashx |format=PDF |access-date=23 June 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308152410/http://www.asa.org.uk/~/media/Files/ASA/Reports/ASA_Delete_Expletives_Dec_2000.ashx |archive-date=8 March 2012 }} (pdf)

Several scholars have compared Islamophobic street violence in the 2000s and 2010s to that of Paki-bashing in the 1970s and 1980s.{{cite book |last=Geddes |first=Graham Edward |title=Keyboard Warriors: The Production of Islamophobic Identity and an Extreme Worldview within an Online Political Community |date=2016 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=978-1-4438-9855-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sej6DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA132 |pages=132–133 |access-date=4 August 2018 |archive-date=1 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200601201440/https://books.google.com/books?id=sej6DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA132 |url-status=live }}{{cite book |last1=Sampson |first1=Alice |chapter=From 'Paki Bashing' to 'Muslim Bashing' |editor-last1=Hobbs |editor-first1=Dick |title=Mischief, Morality and Mobs: Essays in Honour of Geoffrey Pearson |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-82532-5 |pages=44–60 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d8PLDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA44 |access-date=7 December 2019 |archive-date=19 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200519221936/https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=d8PLDAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA44 |url-status=live }} Robert Lambert notes that a key difference is that, whereas the National Front and BNP targeted all British South Asians (including Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs), the English Defence League (EDL) specifically target British Muslims. Lambert also compares the media's role in fuelling "Paki-bashing" in the late 20th century to its role in fuelling Islamophobic sentiment in the early 21st century. Geddes said that variations of the "Paki" racial slur were occasionally used by members of the EDL.

The term is also used as a slur in Canada against South Asian Canadians.Stonebanks, C. Darius. (2004). "Consequences of Perceived Ethnic Identities (reflection of an elementary school incident)" in The Miseducation of the West: The Hidden Curriculum of Western-Muslim Relations. Joe L. Kincheloe and Shirley R. Steinberg (Eds.) New York: Greenwood Press. The term migrated to Canada around the 1970s with increased South Asian immigration to Canada.{{cite news |last1=Trumbull |first1=Robert |title=Upsurge of Racism in Toronto Afflicts South Asian Immigrants |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/02/27/archives/upsurge-of-racism-in-toronto-afflicts-south-asian-immigrants-racism.html |access-date=6 March 2021 |agency=The New York Times |date=27 February 1977}}{{cite web|url=https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2010/02/17/racist_taunts_cost_boss_25000.html|title=Racist taunts cost boss $25,000|first=Moira|last=Welsh|date=17 February 2010|via=Toronto Star|access-date=6 March 2017|archive-date=7 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170307045028/https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2010/02/17/racist_taunts_cost_boss_25000.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/reaction-to-calgary-cab-video-shows-progress-in-fighting-racism-says-immigration-lawyer-1.3178187|title=Reaction to Calgary cab video shows progress in fighting racism, says immigration lawyer|access-date=6 March 2017|archive-date=7 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170307045411/http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/reaction-to-calgary-cab-video-shows-progress-in-fighting-racism-says-immigration-lawyer-1.3178187|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/webclient/StreamGate?folder_id=0&dvs=1515476171792~473|title=DigiTool Stream Gateway Error|website=digitool.library.mcgill.ca|access-date=7 December 2019|archive-date=9 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180109121912/http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/webclient/StreamGate?folder_id=0&dvs=1515476171792~473|url-status=live}} In 2008, a campaign sign for an Indo-Canadian Alberta Liberal Party candidate in Edmonton was defaced when the slur was spray painted on it.{{Cite web|url=https://www.pressreader.com/canada/edmonton-journal/20080224/281621006032080|title=PressReader - Edmonton Journal: 2008-02-24 - Candidate 'disappointed' by racial slur defacing her election sign|via=PressReader|access-date=7 December 2019|archive-date=7 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191207195319/https://www.pressreader.com/canada/edmonton-journal/20080224/281621006032080|url-status=live}}

Americans are generally unfamiliar with the term "Paki" as a slur, and U.S. leaders and public figures have occasionally had to apologise for using the term. In January 2002, U.S. President George W. Bush said on India–Pakistan relations that "We are working hard to convince both the Indians and the Pakis that there's a way to deal with their problems without going to war." After a Pakistani American journalist complained, a White House spokesman made a statement that Bush had great respect for Pakistan. This followed an incident four years earlier, when Clinton White House adviser Sandy Berger had to apologise for referencing "Pakis" in public comments.

Spike Milligan, who was white, played the lead role of Kevin O'Grady in the 1969 LWT sitcom Curry and Chips. O'Grady, half-Irish and half-Pakistani, was taunted with the name "Paki-Paddy"; the show intended to mock racism and bigotry.{{cite web|title=Curry and Chips|date=27 June 2014 |url=http://nostalgiacentral.com/television/tv-by-decade/tv-shows-1960s/curry-chips/|publisher=Nostalgia Central|access-date=2 May 2016|archive-date=9 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160509074309/http://nostalgiacentral.com/television/tv-by-decade/tv-shows-1960s/curry-chips/|url-status=live}} Following complaints, the BBC edited out use of the word in repeats of the 1980s sitcom Only Fools and Horses.{{cite news|last1=Paine|first1=Andrea|title=Del Boy Gagged|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/del-boy-gagged-7224441.html|access-date=23 June 2015|work=London Evening Standard|date=10 May 2004|archive-date=2 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200902130653/https://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/del-boy-gagged-7224441.html|url-status=live}} Columnists have perceived this as a way of obscuring the historical truth that the use of such words was commonplace at the time.{{cite news|last1=Deacon|first1=Michael|title=Censor Del Boy for being racist? Don't be a plonker|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/7019750/Censor-Del-Boy-for-being-racist-Dont-be-a-plonker.html|access-date=23 June 2015|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=18 January 2010|archive-date=23 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150623083456/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/7019750/Censor-Del-Boy-for-being-racist-Dont-be-a-plonker.html|url-status=live}} It was also regularly used in EastEnders in the 1980s referring to the owners of a local food shop including the first episode, which in contrast was not edited out in repeats. The word was also used in Rita, Sue and Bob Too – set in Bradford, one of the first cities to have a large Pakistani community.{{citation needed|date=September 2018}} In the 2018 biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, Freddie Mercury, who was Indian Parsi, was often addressed derogatorily as a "Paki" when he worked as a baggage handler at London Heathrow Airport in 1970.{{cite web |title=A Persian Popinjay. A Review of the Film Bohemian Rhapsody |url=https://areomagazine.com/2018/11/11/a-persian-popinjay-a-review-of-the-film-bohemian-rhapsody/ |website=Areo |access-date=21 October 2019 |date=11 November 2018 |archive-date=30 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191130201159/https://areomagazine.com/2018/11/11/a-persian-popinjay-a-review-of-the-film-bohemian-rhapsody/ |url-status=live }}

In 2009, Prince Harry was publicly admonished when he was caught on video (taken years before) calling one of his fellow Army recruits "our little Paki friend.""[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk/7822883.stm Prince's racist term sparks anger] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306211230/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk/7822883.stm |date=6 March 2016 }}." BBC News. 11 January 2009. Retrieved 10 September 2015.

In 2015, the American film Jurassic World was mocked satirically by British Asian comedian Guz Khan for using "pachys" (pronounced "pakis") as shorthand for the genus Pachycephalosaurus."[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jurassic-world-racist-dinosaur-name-804524 Trying to give the Pachycephalosaurus a shorter nickname might have been a mistake] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150901130756/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jurassic-world-racist-dinosaur-name-804524|date=1 September 2015}}." The Hollywood Reporter. 23 June 2015. Retrieved 10 September 2015.

During the 2024 UK General Election campaign, a canvasser for the Reform party used the slur against then prime minister Rishi Sunak, which the prime minister later addressed and condemned.{{Cite news |date=2024-06-28 |title=British PM Rishi Sunak denounces racist slur by hard-right party campaigner |url=https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/british-pm-rishi-sunak-denounces-racist-slur-by-hard-right-party-campaigner |access-date=2024-06-29 |work=The Straits Times |language=en |issn=0585-3923}}

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Category:English profanity

Category:Ethnic and religious slurs

Category:Anti-Pakistan sentiment

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Category:Anti–South Asian slurs

Category:Stereotypes of South Asian people

Category:Islamophobic epithets