muhajir (Pakistan)

The Urdu term muhājir ({{langx|ur|{{Nastaliq|مہاجر}}}}) comes from the Arabic muhājir ({{langx|ar|مهاجر}}), meaning an "immigrant",{{Cite web |title=Urdu Word مہاجر – Mohajir Meaning in English is Immigrant |url=https://www.urdupoint.com/dictionary/urdu-to-english/mohajir-meaning-in-english/49772.html |access-date=21 November 2022 |website=UrduPoint }}{{cite news|title=MQM to observe 'black day' over Khursheed Shah's 'Muhajir' comment|url=http://www.dawn.com/news/1140322/mqm-to-observe-black-day-over-khursheed-shahs-muhajir-comment|access-date=27 April 2015|publisher=Dawn|date=26 October 2014|quote=Read 5th Paragraph|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141224100352/http://www.dawn.com/news/1140322/mqm-to-observe-black-day-over-khursheed-shahs-muhajir-comment|archive-date=24 December 2014|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=Muhajirs in Pakistan|website=European Country of Origin Information Network|date=5 July 2012 |url=http://www.ecoi.net/local_link/222874/330352_en.html |access-date=27 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818211452/http://www.ecoi.net/local_link/222874/330352_en.html |archive-date=18 August 2016 |url-status=live}} or "emigrant".{{Cite web |title=Muhajir – Meaning of Muhajir Name, Muhajir Origin and Astrology |url=https://www.babynamescube.com/muhajir-name-meaning |access-date=5 January 2023 |website=www.babynamescube.com }} This term is associated in early Islamic history to the migration of Muslims and connotes 'separation, migration, flight, specifically the flight of the Prophet from Mecca to Medina'.{{Cite web |title=Hijrah {{!}} History, Definition, & Importance {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Hijrah-Islam |access-date=2 January 2023 |website=www.britannica.com }}{{Cite web |date=24 October 2013 |title=The Qur'anic Perspective on Immigrants: Prophet Muhammad's Migration and Its Implications in Our Modern Society {{!}} The Journal of Scriptural Reasoning |url=https://jsr.shanti.virginia.edu/back-issues/vol-10-no-1-august-2011-people-and-places/the-quranic-perspective-on-immigrants/ |access-date=21 November 2022}} This term was popularised in Pakistan by the 1951 census, although its earliest uses date back to Partition.{{Cite journal |last=Laurent |first=Gayer |date=9 March 2008 |title=Projections internationales ou détours vers le local? Les diplomaties identitaires des sikhs (Inde) et des Mohajirs (Pakistan) |journal=International Review of Sociology |language=French |volume=18 |issue=1 |via=SocINDEX}}

Most of the Muhajirs who settled in the Sindh province of Pakistan came from the present-day Indian states of Central Provinces, Berar, Bombay, United Provinces, Haryana, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar and Delhi, while others were from princely states of Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Hyderabad, Baroda, Kutch, and the Rajputana Agency.{{cite book|author=Aijazuddin Ahmad|title=Geography of the South Asian Subcontinent: A Critical Approach|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I2QmPHeIowoC&pg=PA76|year=2009|publisher=Concept Publishing Company|isbn=978-81-8069-568-1|pages=76–}}Bhavnani, Nandita. "Unwanted refugees: Sindhi Hindus in India and muhajirs in Sindh." South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 39.4 (2016): 790-804.

Muhajirs, worldwide, have a population of over 15 million.{{cite book|author=Carl Skutsch|title=Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iSUKAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT2234|date=7 November 2013|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-135-19395-9|pages=2234–}} Muhajirs are mostly settled in Pakistan and currently are the fifth-largest ethnic group of Pakistan, with a population of around 14.7-30 million.{{Citation |title=Pakistan |date=2 November 2022 |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/pakistan/#people-and-society |work=The World Factbook |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115164214/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/pakistan/ |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency |access-date=13 November 2022 |archive-date=15 January 2023}}

Although the population figures of the Muhajir dominated city of Karachi, have faced many controversies mainly due to the controversial 2017 census of Pakistan. The population figure has been rejected by most major political parties of Sindh including MQM-P,{{Cite web |date=24 January 2023 |title=Unified MQM-P holds first workers' convention |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1733254 |access-date=25 January 2023 |website=Dawn }} PSP,{{Cite web |date=25 April 2018 |title=Mustafa Kamal challenges census 2017 results in SC |url=https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/pakistan/mustafa-kamal-challenges-census-2017-results-in-sc/ |access-date=20 November 2022 |website=Daily Pakistan Global }} and PPP.{{Cite web |last=Ghori |first=Habib Khan |date=3 November 2017 |title=Sindh Assembly refuses to accept census results |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1367985 |access-date=20 November 2022 |website=DAWN.COM }}{{Cite web |date=31 December 2020 |title=Will not accept 2017 census figures, agree MQM-P, PPP after meeting |url=https://nation.com.pk/31-Dec-2020/will-not-accept-2017-census-figures-agree-mqm-p-ppp-after-meeting |access-date=20 November 2022 |website=The Nation }} Estimates of Muhajir nationalist organizations range from 22 million{{Cite journal |last=Shah |first=Syed Mehtab |title=Ethnic tensions in Sindh and their possible solution |date=17 November 1997 |journal=Contemporary South Asia |volume=6 |issue=3 |page=259 |doi=10.1080/09584939708719820|issn = 0958-4935}} to around 30 million.{{Cite web |date=19 June 2015 |title=Sindhis and Mohajirs |url=https://minorityrights.org/minorities/sindhis-and-mohajirs/ |access-date=26 September 2022 |website=Minority Rights Group |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221120173632/https://minorityrights.org/minorities/sindhis-and-mohajirs/|archive-date=20 November 2022}}

Historically, Muhajirs have constituted above 7% population of West Pakistan (3.5% in Pakistan as a whole).{{Cite web |title=Pakistanis demand that their government recognize Bengali as an official language, 1947-1952 {{!}} Global Nonviolent Action Database |url=https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/pakistanis-demand-their-government-recognize-bengali-official-language-1947-1952 |access-date=15 February 2023 |website=nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu}}

Being a multi-linguistic group of people, the Muhajirs speak different languages natively depending on their ethnicity and ancestral history.{{cite book|title=Leveling Crowds Ethnonationalist Conflicts and Collective Violence in South Asia|author=Stanley J. Tambiah|date=3 January 1997 |pages=183|isbn=9780520918191|publisher=University of California Press}}{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=WT9uAAAAMAAJ&q=with+blood+relations+in+India+are+the+muhajirs+,+the+overwhelming+majority+of+whom+are+from+the+United+Provinces |title= The Pakistani Historian |author= Khursheed Kamal Aziz |date= 1993 |publisher= the University of Michigan}}{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ll02P7G5XD8C&dq=muhajir+urdu-speaking+areas&pg=PA73 |title= Pakistan – Social and Cultural Transformations in a Muslim Nation |author= Mohammad Qadeer |date= 2006 |publisher= Taylor & Francis |page= 73 |isbn= 9781134186174 }}Oskar Verkaaik, A people of migrants: ethnicity, state, and religion in Karachi, Amsterdam: VU University Press, 1994

{{Main|Urdu-speaking people}}

Most Muhajirs speak Urdu, the third-largest Urdu-speaking population in the world. In Sindh, those that speak Urdu as first language mostly migrated from Delhi, United Provinces, Hyderabad Deccan, Bombay, Ajmer, Bhopal, Bihar, Karnal including from other regions with other native tongues who eventually assimilated into the community amid nation building.{{cite book|last1=Mahapatra|first1=B. P.|title=Constitutional languages|date=1989|publisher=Presses Université Laval|isbn=978-2-7637-7186-1}}{{cite book|author1=Claire Alexander|author2=Joya Chatterji|author3=Annu Jalais|title=The Bengal Diaspora: Rethinking Muslim migration|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gZ_hCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA96|date=6 November 2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-33593-1|pages=96–}}{{Cite web |date=7 November 2014 |title=Muhajirs in historical perspective |url=https://nation.com.pk/07-Nov-2014/muhajirs-in-historical-perspective |access-date=9 July 2024 |website=The Nation |language=en-US}}{{Cite book |last=Ghosh |first=Papiya |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xP4jAwAAQBAJ&dq=maulana+abdul+quddus+bihaor&pg=PA7 |title=Partition and the South Asian Diaspora: Extending the Subcontinent |date=21 March 2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-80966-1 |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=MyPluralist |date=18 December 2022 |title=How Urdu-Speaking Muhajir Domination Shaped Pakistan |url=https://mypluralist.com/2022/12/18/urdu-speaking-muhajir-domination-pakistan/ |access-date=9 July 2024 |website=MyPluralist}}

In Punjab, although most migrants were of East Punjab origin and Punjabi speaking, a sizeable number of natively Urdu speaking communities also migrated to its urban centres mainly from Delhi, Rohtak, Hisar, Karnal, Alwar, Bharatpur, Jodhpur, Mewat and UP.{{Cite web |title=The paradox of Mohajirism |url=https://tribune.com.pk/story/960973/the-paradox-of-mohajirism?amp=1 |access-date=9 July 2024 |website=The Express Tribune | date=21 September 2015 |language=en}}

There is a large community of Gujarati Muhajirs mainly settled in the Pakistani province of Sindh. Estimates say there are 3,500,000 speakers of the Gujarati language in Karachi.{{Cite web |last=Rehman |first=Zia |date=18 August 2015 |title=With a handful of subbers, two newspapers barely keeping Gujarati alive in Karachi |url=https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/57104-with-a-handful-of-subberstwo-newspapers-barely-keeping-gujarati-alive-in-karachi |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221128152831/https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/57104-with-a-handful-of-subberstwo-newspapers-barely-keeping-gujarati-alive-in-karachi |archive-date=28 November 2022 |access-date=15 October 2022 |website=www.thenews.com.pk }} Although the Gujaratis speak their own language, they tend to identify with the Urdu-speakers{{sfn|Lieven|2011|p=310}} This group includes Muhammad Ali Jinnah,{{cite book |last=Walsh |first=Judith E. |year=2017 |title=A Brief History of India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iekF9X3OwwMC&pg=PA173 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |page=173 |isbn=978-1-4381-0825-4 |quote=son of a middle-class merchant of the Muslim Khoja community who had migrated to Sind from Gujarat}} Abdul Sattar Edhi,{{Cite web|last=Boone|first=Jon|date=13 July 2016|title=Abdul Sattar Edhi obituary|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/13/abdul-sattar-edhi-obituary|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108113000/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/13/abdul-sattar-edhi-obituary|archive-date=8 November 2020|access-date=7 December 2020|website=The Guardian}} Javed Miandad,{{Cite web |last=Samiuddin |first=Osama |date=6 December 2017 |title=Javed Miandad and Pakistan's quest for izzat |url=https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/an-extract-on-javed-miandad-from-osman-samiuddin-s-i-the-unquiet-ones-i-1102974 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220211071505/https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/an-extract-on-javed-miandad-from-osman-samiuddin-s-i-the-unquiet-ones-i-1102974 |archive-date=11 February 2022 |access-date=25 November 2022 |website=ESPNcricinfo}} Abdul Razzak Yaqoob,{{Cite web |last=Reporter |first=The Newspaper's Staff |date=22 February 2014 |title=Founder of ARY Group passes away |url=http://www.dawn.com/news/1088706 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221206060441/https://www.dawn.com/news/1088706 |archive-date=6 December 2022 |access-date=25 November 2022 |website=DAWN.COM }} I. I. Chundrigar,{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sGtmAAAAMAAJ&q=i+i++chundrigar+born+1897 |title=Biographical Encyclopedia of Pakistan |date=1960 |publisher=Biographical Research Institute, Pakistan. }}{{cite book|last1=Goradia|first1=Prafull|title=Muslim League's unfinished agenda |year=2003 |publisher=Contemporary Targett |location=New Delhi |page=53 |isbn=9788175253766 |quote=Jinnah Wanted All Non-Muslims To Migrate To India And All Muslims To Inhabit Pakistan. The Book Is The Story Of This Unfulfilled Dream. While Pakistan Particularly, The Western Wing Went About Ethnic Cleansing, India Failed To Encourage`Hijrat}} and Ahmed Dawood.{{sfn|Batliwala|1995|p=16}}

Non-Urdu speaking Muslim peoples from what is now the Republic of India, such as Marathi, Konkani,{{Cite web |last=Paracha |first=Nadeem F. |date=26 September 2014 |title=Visual Karachi: From Paris of Asia, to City of Lights, to Hell on Earth |url=http://www.dawn.com/news/1134284 |access-date=6 November 2022 |website=DAWN.COM |language=en}} 60,000 Rajasthanis{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lnAMAQAAMAAJ |title=The Gazetteer of West Pakistan: The Former Province of Sind Including Khairpur State |date=1968 |publisher=Gazetteer Cell, Board of Revenue |language=en}} who speak the Marwari dialect of Rajasthani language{{Citation| last= Masica| first= Colin| author-link= Colin Masic | year= 1991| title= The Indo-Aryan Languages| place= Cambridge| publisher= Cambridge University Press| isbn= 978-0-521-29944-2| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=J3RSHWePhXwC}}. and several-thousand Malabari Muslims from Kerala in South India, are considered Muhajirs.{{cite web |author=M R Narayan Swamy |date=5 October 2005 |title=Where Malayalees once held sway & Updates at |url=http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report_where-malayalees-once-held-sway_4610 |access-date=10 February 2014 |website=Daily News and Analysis}} These ethno-linguistic groups are being assimilated in the Urdu-speaking community.{{cite web|url=http://www.merinews.com/article/political-and-ethnic-battles-turn-karachi-into-beirut-of-south-asia/15875445.shtml|title=Political and ethnic battles turn Karachi into Beirut of South Asia " Crescent|publisher=Merinews.com|access-date=24 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121130080304/http://www.merinews.com/article/political-and-ethnic-battles-turn-karachi-into-beirut-of-south-asia/15875445.shtml|archive-date=30 November 2012|url-status=dead}}

Many dialects related to Urdu such as Khariboli, and Haryanvi (Rangari dialect) or other languages like Awadhi, Mewati, Bhojpuri and Sadri are also spoken by the Muhajirs.{{cite book |author=Stanley J. Tambiah |title=Leveling Crowds Ethnonationalist Conflicts and Collective Violence in South Asia |date=3 January 1997 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520918191 |pages=183}}

{{Expand section|date=February 2023}}

File:Urdu-speakers by Pakistani District - 2017 Census.svg]]

There are an estimated 14.7 million Urdu speakers presumably mostly of Muhajir origin in Pakistan. Most of them are settled in the towns and cities of Pakistan mainly those of Urban Sindh, such as Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpur Khas and Sukkur. Muhajir pockets are also found in other metropolizes of Pakistan such as Islamabad and Lahore.{{Cite journal |last=Zaidi |first=S. Akbar |date=1991 |title=Sindhi vs Mohajir in Pakistan: Contradiction, Conflict, Compromise |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |volume=26 |issue=20 |pages=1295–1302 |jstor=4398031 |issn=0012-9976}}

A large number of Urdu-speaking Muslims from Bihar went to East Pakistan after the independence of India and Pakistan.{{Cite web |date=25 December 2020 |title=The forgotten Biharis in East Pakistan |url=https://dailytimes.com.pk/705972/the-forgotten-biharis-in-east-pakistan/ |access-date=9 November 2022 |website=Daily Times }} After the formation of Bangladesh in 1971, the Biharis maintained their loyalty to Pakistan and wanted to leave Bangladesh for Pakistan.{{Cite web |last=Chowdhury |first=Afsan |date=18 December 2010 |title=Biharis In 1971: Used & Left Behind By Pakistan Army |url=https://leagueofindia.com/india-world/biharis-1971-used-left-behind-pakistan-army/ |access-date=9 November 2022 }} The majority of these people still await repatriation, however. About 178,000 have been repatriated.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yKCKe7J9Uq4C&pg=PA101|title=Minority Rights in South Asia|author1=Rainer Hofmann|author2=Ugo Caruso|publisher=Peter Lang|year=2011|isbn=978-3-631-60916-3|pages=101–}} In 2015, the Pakistani government stated that the remaining 'Stranded Pakistanis' are not its responsibility but rather the responsibility of Bangladesh.{{cite news|url=http://tribune.com.pk/story/861364/stranded-pakistanis-in-bangladesh-not-pakistans-responsibility-fo-tells-sc/|title=Stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh not Pakistan's responsibility, FO tells SC|date=30 March 2015|newspaper=The Express Tribune|access-date=26 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150502165931/http://tribune.com.pk/story/861364/stranded-pakistanis-in-bangladesh-not-pakistans-responsibility-fo-tells-sc/|archive-date=2 May 2015|url-status=live}} Nearly 300,000 Biharis are currently settled in the urban areas of Bangladesh.{{Cite news |date=11 August 2014 |title='Stranded Pakistanis' living in camps in Bangladesh – in pictures |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/gallery/2014/aug/11/stranded-pakistanis-camps-bangladesh-bihari-in-pictures |access-date=2 January 2023 |issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite book |last=Jaffrelot |first=Christophe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_XdeCwAAQBAJ |title=The Pakistan Paradox: Instability and Resilience |date=15 August 2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-061330-3 |page=104 }}[http://www.refugeesinternational.org/content/article/detail/8245 Bangladesh: Stateless Biharis Grasp for a Resolution and Their Rights - Refugees international] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070321134045/http://www.refugeesinternational.org/content/article/detail/8245 |date=21 March 2007 }} These muhajirs are settled mainly in Shahjahan Pur, Kamla Pur, Motijheel, Purana Pultan, Nawabpur road, Nawab Bari, Thatheri Bazar, Moulvi Bazar, Armani Tola, Islam Pur, Azim Pur, Saddar Ghat, Eskatan, Dhanmandi, Dhakeshwari, Neel Khet.{{Cite web |last=Khan |first=Engr Imtiaz Alam |date=15 December 2019 |title=HISTORY: THE FALL OF DHAKA FROM BIHARI EYES |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1522385 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230102052156/https://www.dawn.com/news/1522385 |archive-date=2 January 2023 |access-date=2 January 2023 |website=DAWN.COM }} In 2003, these Muhajirs were granted nationality and the right to vote.{{Cite news |last=Rahman |first=Waliur |date=6 May 2003 |title=Vote for 'stranded Pakistanis' |work=BBC |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3003949.stm |access-date=16 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221108181750/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3003949.stm |archive-date=8 November 2022}}{{Cite web |last=Lynch |first=Maureen |date=23 March 2006 |title=Bangladesh: Stateless Biharis Grasp for a Resolution and Their Rights |url=http://www.refugeesinternational.org/content/article/detail/8245 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060718065517/http://www.refugeesinternational.org/content/article/detail/8245 |archive-date=18 July 2006 |access-date=16 January 2023}}

{{Main|History of Muhajirs}}

{{See also|Partition of India}}

File:A couple migrating from India To Pakistan with their household stuff and cattle during Partition.JPG.]]

The Partition of India caused the largest migration in human history.{{Cite web |date=4 June 2020 |title=What Was The Largest Migration In History? |url=https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-was-the-largest-migration-in-history.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230104051631/https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-was-the-largest-migration-in-history.html |archive-date=4 January 2023 |access-date=4 January 2023 |website=WorldAtlas }} Many Muslims in parts of present-day India were persecuted by Hindus and Sikhs, while many Hindus and Sikhs in present-day Pakistan were persecuted by Muslims.{{cite book|title=The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan, New Edition|author=Yasmin Khan|date=4 July 2017|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=9780300233643 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_PEpDwAAQBAJ}} After the independence of Pakistan, a significant number of Muslims emigrated or were out-migrated from the territory that became the Dominion of India and later the Republic of India.{{cite web|url=https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/2017/aug/14/when-muslims-left-pakistan-for-india-1642817.html|title=When Muslims left Pakistan for India|work=The New Indian Express|date=14 August 2017 |type=Opinion|access-date=19 August 2017|archive-date=5 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180905102113/http://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/2017/aug/14/when-muslims-left-pakistan-for-india-1642817.html|url-status=live}} In the aftermath of partition, a huge population exchange occurred between the two newly formed states. In the riots which preceded the partition, between 200,000 and 2,000,000 people were killed in the retributive genocide.{{cite web|author=Paul R. Brass |url=http://faculty.washington.edu/brass/Partition.pdf|title=The partition of India and retributive genocide in the Punjab, 1946–47: means, methods, and purposes |author-link=Paul Brass|date=2003|page=75 (5(1), 71–101)|work=Journal of Genocide Research|access-date=16 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150414153300/http://faculty.washington.edu/brass/Partition.pdf |archive-date=14 April 2015|url-status=live}}{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/291225/20th-century-international-relations/32936/South-Asia#ref304573|title=20th-century international relations (politics) :: South Asia|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=16 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150426211905/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/291225/20th-century-international-relations/32936/South-Asia#ref304573|archive-date=26 April 2015 |url-status=live}} UNHCR estimates 14 million Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims were displaced during the partition; it was the largest mass migration in human history.{{cite web |title=Rupture in South Asia |publisher=UNHCR|url=http://www.unhcr.org/3ebf9bab0.pdf|access-date=16 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160311071256/http://www.unhcr.org/3ebf9bab0.pdf|archive-date=11 March 2016|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=The Hidden Story of Partition and its Legacies |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/modern/partition1947_01.shtml|date=3 March 2011|author=Crispin Bates|work=BBC|access-date=16 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150410110938/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/modern/partition1947_01.shtml|archive-date=10 April 2015|url-status=live}}{{Cite journal|last=Basu|first=Tanya |date=15 August 2014|title=The Fading Memory of South Asia's Partition|journal=The Atlantic |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/08/the-fading-memory-of-partition-india-pakistan-bangladesh/376120/|access-date=16 August 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170319112828/https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/08/the-fading-memory-of-partition-india-pakistan-bangladesh/376120/|archive-date=19 March 2017}}

File:Muslim refugees in the Tomb of Humayun.png

File:Partition of Punjab, India 1947.jpg

There were three predominant stages of Muslim migration from India to West Pakistan. The first stage lasted from August–November 1947. In this stage of migration the Muslim immigrants originated from East Punjab, Delhi, the four adjacent districts of U.P., and the princely states of Alwar and Bharatpur which are now part of the present-day Indian state of Rajasthan.{{cite journal|last=Khalidi|first=Omar|date=Autumn 1998|title=From Torrent to Trickle: Indian Muslim Migration to Pakistan, 1947–97|journal=Islamic Studies|publisher=Islamic Research Institute, International Islamic University, Islamabad|volume=37|jstor=20837002|number=3|pages=339–52}} The violence affecting these areas during partition precipitated an exodus of Muslims from these areas to Pakistan. Punjabi Muslims from East Punjab crossed to West Punjab and settled in a culturally and linguistically similar environment.

The migration to Sindh was of a different nature to that in Punjab, as the migrants to Sindh were ethnically heterogenous and were linguistically different from the locals.{{Cite web |last1=Sodhar |first1=Qasim |last2=Panhwar |first2=Bushra |title=Migration to Sindh: It's effects on Political Economy & Demography of Sindh |url=https://irpll.aiou.edu.pk/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/11-M.-Qasim-Sodhar-Bushra-Panhwar.pdf}} The migrants were also more educated than the native, and predominantly rural Sindhi Muslims who had been less educated and less prosperous than the former Sindhi Hindu residents, suffered as a result.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7czT4fipTyoC&pg=PA47|title=The Foreign Policy of Pakistan: Ethnic Impacts on Diplomacy 1971–1994|author=Mehtab Ali Shah|date=15 November 1997|publisher=I.B. Tauris|isbn=978-1-86064-169-5|pages=47–}} The migrants, who were urban, also tended to regard the local Sindhis as "backwards" and subservient to landowners.

Prior to the partition, the majority of urban Sindh's population had been Hindu,{{cite book|author=Kamala Visweswaran|title=Perspectives on Modern South Asia: A Reader in Culture, History, and Representation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m-EYXNnvMugC&pg=PA96|date=6 May 2011|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4051-0062-5|pages=96–}} but after the independence of Pakistan in 1947, the majority of Sindh's Hindus migrated to India, although a substantial number of Hindus did remain in Sindh.{{cite book|author=Mark-Anthony Falzon|title=Cosmopolitan Connections: The Sindhi Diaspora, 1860–2000|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ljbS-I5Y8WMC&pg=PA6|year=2004|publisher=BRILL |isbn=90-04-14008-5|pages=6–}} 1.1 million Muslims from Uttar Pradesh, Bombay Presidency, Delhi, and Rajasthan settled in their place; half in Karachi and the rest across Sindh's other cities.{{cite book|author=Javaid Rehman|title=The Weaknesses in the International Protection of Minority Rights |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HHRMEoS7-YQC&pg=PA215|date=13 April 2000 |publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers|isbn=90-411-1350-9|pages=215–}}{{cite book|author=Christophe Jaffrelot |title=The Pakistan Paradox: Instability And Resilience |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gQDzCQAAQBAJ&pg=PT100|date=16 June 2016|publisher=Random House Publishers India Pvt. Limited|isbn=978-81-8400-707-7|pages=100–}} By the 1951 census, the migrants constituted 57 per cent of the population of Karachi, 65 per cent in Hyderabad, and 55 per cent in Sukkur. As Karachi was the capital of the new nation, educated urban migrants from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bombay, Bihar, and Hyderabad Deccan preferred it as their site of settlement for better access to employment opportunities.{{Cite web |title=A Brief History of Karachi |website=Newsline |url=https://newslinemagazine.com/magazine/brief-history-karachi/ |access-date=21 November 2022}} The migrants were compensated for their properties lost in India by being granted the evacuee property left behind by the departing Hindus.{{cite book|author1=Gyanesh Kudaisya |author2=Tan Tai Yong|title=The Aftermath of Partition in South Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aPOBAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA229|date=March 2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-44048-1|pages=229–}} A sizeable community of Malayali Muslims (the Mappila), originally from Kerala in South India, also settled in Karachi.{{Cite web |title=Where Malayalees once held sway |url=https://www.dnaindia.com/world/report-where-malayalees-once-held-sway-4610 |access-date=12 November 2022 |website=DNA India }}Delage, R., 2014. [http://www.booksandideas.net/Muslim-Castes-in-India.html Muslim Castes in India] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831000710/http://www.booksandideas.net/Muslim-Castes-in-India.html |date=31 August 2017 }}. India: Books Ideas.

File:India - Pakistan Refugees.ogv

Many Muslim families from India continued migrating to Pakistan throughout the 1950s and even early 1960s. This second stage (December 1947 – December 1971) of the migration was from areas in the present-day Indian states of U.P., Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. The main destination of these migrants was Karachi and the other urban centers of Sindh.

In 1952, a joint passport system was introduced for travel purposes between the two countries which made it possible for Indian Muslims to legally move to Pakistan.{{Cite web |date=2 July 2021 |title=Did You Know That India & Pakistan Used To Have A Joint Passport? Here's How You Could Get It |url=https://www.scoopwhoop.com/news/india-pakistan-shared-a-joint-passport-once/ |access-date=9 November 2022 |website=ScoopWhoop}} Pakistan still required educated and skilled workers to absorb into its economy at the time, due to relatively low levels of education (15.9 per cent in 1961) in Pakistan.{{Cite web |title=Changes in Levels of Educational Attainment in Pakistan: 1951-1961 - PIDE - Pakistan Institute of Development Economics - - |url=https://pide.org.pk/research/changes-in-levels-of-educational-attainment-in-pakistan-1951-1961/ |access-date=21 November 2022 |website=pide.org.pk/ }} As late as December 1971, the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi was authorized to issue documents to educationally-qualified Indians to migrate to Pakistan.{{Sfn|Khalidi|1998|p=345}} The legal route was taken by unemployed but educated Indian Muslims seeking better fortunes, however poorer Muslims from India continued to go illegally via the Rajasthan-Sindh border until the 1965 India–Pakistan war when that route was shut.{{Cite web |date=22 July 2001 |title=A Muhajir's Prayer |website=The Times of India |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a-muhajirs-prayer/articleshow/494482109.cms |access-date=21 November 2022}} After the conclusion of the 1965 war, most Muslims who wanted to go to Pakistan had to go there via the East Pakistani-India border. Once reaching Dhaka, most made their way to the final destination-Karachi. However, not all managed to reach West Pakistan from East Pakistan.

In 1959, the International Labour Organization (ILO) published a report stating that between the period of 1951–1956, around 650,000 Muslims from India relocated to West Pakistan.{{Sfn|Khalidi|1998|p=344}} However, Visaria (1969) raised doubts about the authenticity of the claims about Indian Muslim migration to Pakistan, since the 1961 Census of Pakistan did not corroborate these figures.{{Cite journal |last=Visaria |first=Pravin M. |date=1 August 1969 |title=Migration between India and Pakistan, 1951–61 |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/demography/article/6/3/323/172436/Migration-between-India-and-Pakistan-1951-61 |journal=Demography |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=323–334 |doi=10.2307/2060400 |jstor=2060400 |pmid=21331852 |s2cid=23272586 |issn=0070-3370|doi-access=free }} However, the 1961 Census of Pakistan did incorporate a statement suggesting that there had been a migration of 800,000 people from India to Pakistan throughout the previous decade.{{cite web |title=Effects of Migration, Socioeconomic Status and Population Policy on Reproductive Behaviour |author=Mehtab Karim |publisher=Asia Research Centre |id=Working Paper 4 |url=http://www.lse.ac.uk/asiaResearchCentre/_files/ARCWP04-Karim.pdf |access-date=15 January 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-date=27 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160127011533/http://www.lse.ac.uk/asiaResearchCentre/_files/ARCWP04-Karim.pdf}} Of those who had left for Pakistan, most never came back. The Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru conveyed distress about the continued migration of Indian Muslims to West Pakistan:

There has...since 1950 been a movement of some Muslims from India to Western Pakistan through Jodhpur–Sindh via Khokhropar. Normally, traffic between India and West Pakistan was controlled by the permit system. But these Muslims going via Khokhropar went without permits to West Pakistan. From January 1952 to the end of September, 53,209 Muslim emigrants went via Khokhropar....Most of these probably came from the U.P. In October 1952, up to the 14th, 6,808 went by this route. After that Pakistan became much stricter on allowing entry on the introduction of the passport system. From 15 October to the end of October, 1,247 went by this route. From 1 November, 1,203 went via Khokhropar.{{Sfn|Khalidi|1998|p=343}}

The third stage, which lasted between 1973 and the 1990s, was when migration levels of Indian Muslims to Pakistan was reduced to its lowest levels since 1947.{{Sfn|Khalidi|1998|p=340}} Indian Muslim migration to Pakistan had declined drastically by the 1970s, a trend noticed by the Pakistani authorities. In June 1995, Pakistan's interior minister, Naseerullah Babar, informed the National Assembly that between the period of 1973–1994, as many as 800,000 visitors came from India on valid travel documents, of which only 3,393 stayed. In a related trend, intermarriages between Indian and Pakistani Muslims have declined sharply. According to a November 1995 statement of Riaz Khokhar, the Pakistani High Commissioner in New Delhi, the number of cross-border marriages has declined from 40,000 a year in the 1950s and 1960s to barely 300 annually.{{Cite journal |last=Wright |first=Theodore |date=1993 |title=Intra-Provincial Marriages and National Integration in Pakistan |journal=Contemporary South Asia}}

The Muhajirs have started many socio-political groups in Pakistan such as the Muttahida Qaumi Movement under Altaf Hussain in 1984, the All Pakistan Muslim League under Pervez Musharraf, and Jamaat e Islami under Abul A'la Maududi.{{Citation |first=Stephen P. |last=Cohen |title=Pakistan: Arrival and Departure |work=The future of Pakistan |publisher=The Brookings Institution |year=2011 |page=22 |quote=The avowedly secular Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)...}}{{Citation |first=Peter |last=Lyon |title=Mohajir Qaumi Mahaz |encyclopedia=Conflict between India and Pakistan: An Encyclopedia |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2008 |page=115 |quote=Despite its ethnic-based politics, the MQM claims to be the only significant political force in Pakistan to stand up openly for secular values.}}

{{Main article|Khilafat Movement}}

Maulana Shaukat Ali, a leader of the [[Khilafat Movement|thumb|upright]]

During the last period of the Ottoman Empire, the empire was indebted and the community provided significant financial support to preserve the empire.{{Cite web |last=Ashraf |first=Md Umar |date=30 April 2020 |title=The Indian Subcontinent Red Crescent Society's Aid to the Ottoman State during the Balkan war in 1912 |url=https://www.heritagetimes.in/the-indian-subcontinent-red-crescent-societys-aid-to-the-ottoman-state-during-the-balkan-war-in-1912/ |access-date=6 November 2022 |website=Heritage Times }} The members of the movement who are now Muhajirs granted the money to preserve the Ottoman Empire but were unable to prevent its decline; it was the biggest political eminence in pre-Muhajir history.{{cite book|url=https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/28516/1/10672675.pdf|title=The Khilafat Movement in India, 1919–1924}}{{cite book|title=Peasants in India's Non-Violent Revolution: Practice and Theory|author=Mridula Mukherjee|date=8 September 2004|publisher=SAGE Publications India, 2004|isbn=8132102894}}

{{Main|Pakistan Movement}}

The Pakistan movement, to constitute a separate state comprising the Muslim-majority provinces, was supported by the Urdu-speaking Muslim elite and many notables of the Aligarh Movement.{{Cite web |title=Centralised state and ethnic discontent {{!}} Political Economy {{!}} thenews.com.pk |url=https://www.thenews.com.pk/tns/detail/567803-centralised-state-ethnic-discontent |access-date=2 February 2023 |website=www.thenews.com.pk }}{{cite book |last=Burki |first=Shahid Javed |title=Pakistan: Fifty Years of Nationhood |publisher=Westview Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-8133-3621-3 |edition=3rd |location=Boulder, Colorado |page=4 |quote=The university that [Sir Sayyid] founded in the town of Aligarh ... not only provided the Pakistan movement with its leadership but, later, also provided the new country of Pakistan with its first ruling elite ... Aligarh College made it possible for the Muslims to discover a new political identity: Being a Muslim came to have a political connotation-a connotation that was to lead this Indian Muslim community inexorably toward acceptance of the 'two-nation theory' |author-link=Shahid Javed Burki |orig-year=First published in 1986}} It was initiated in the 19th century when Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, the grandson of the Khwaja Fakhruddin, the Vizier of Akbar Shah II,{{cite book |title=The Life and Work of Syed Ahmed Khan |author= Graham, George Farquhar |date= 1885 |publisher= Black wood |page= 2 }} expounded the cause of Muslim autonomy in Aligarh.{{Cite web |last=Mondal |first=Puja |date=4 January 2014 |title=Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and the Aligarh Movement |url=https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/history/sir-syed-ahmed-khan-and-the-aligarh-movement/23145 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150502223526/http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/history/sir-syed-ahmed-khan-and-the-aligarh-movement/23145/ |archive-date=2 May 2015 |access-date=2 January 2023 |website=Your Article Library }} In its early years, Muslim nobles such as nawabs (aristocrats and landed gentry) supported the idea, but as the idea spread, it gained great support among the Muslim population and in particular the rising middle and upper classes.{{cite journal |author=John R. McLane |date=July 1965 |title=The Decision to Partition Bengal in 1905 |journal=Indian Economic and Social History Review |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=221–237 |doi=10.1177/001946466400200302 |s2cid=145706327 }}

The Muslims launched the movement under the banner of the All India Muslim League and Delhi was its main centre. The headquarters of the All India Muslim League (the founding party of Pakistan) was based, since its creation in 1906, in Dhaka (present-day Bangladesh). The Muslim League won 90 per cent of reserved Muslim seats in the 1946 elections and its demand for the creation of Pakistan received overwhelming popular support among Indian Muslims, especially in those provinces of British India such as U.P. where Muslims were a minority.Prof. M. Azam Chaudhary, The History of the Pakistan Movement, p. 368. Abdullah Brothers, Urdu Bazar Lahore.Dhulipala, Venkat (2015). [https://books.google.com/books?id=PrqLBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA496 Creating a New Medina: State Power, Islam, and the Quest for Pakistan in Late Colonial North India]. Cambridge University Press. p. 496. {{ISBN|978-1-316-25838-5}}. "The idea of Pakistan may have had its share of ambiguities, but its dismissal as a vague emotive symbol hardly illuminates the reasons as to why it received such overwhelmingly popular support among Indian Muslims, especially those in the 'minority provinces' of British India such as U.P."{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OTMy0B9OZjAC&pg=PA68|title=Pakistan: A Global Studies Handbook|last=Mohiuddin|first=Yasmin Niaz|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2007|isbn=978-1-85109-801-9|pages=70|quote=In the elections of 1946, the Muslim League won 90 percent of the legislative seats reserved for Muslims. It was the power of the big zamindars in Punjab and Sindh behind the Muslim League candidates, and the powerful campaign among the poor peasants of Bengal on economic issues of rural indebtedness and zamindari abolition, that led to this massive landslide victory (Alavi 2002, 14). Even Congress, which had always denied the League's claim to be the only true representative of Indian Muslims had to concede the truth of that claim. The 1946 election was, in effect, a plebiscite among Muslims on Pakistan.}}

The Muhajirs of Pakistan were largely settled in Sindh province, particularly in the province's capital, Karachi, where the Muhajirs were in a majority.{{cite web|url=http://www.dawn.com/news/1100948|title=The evolution of Mohajir politics and identity|author=Nadeem F. Paracha |work=dawn.com|date=20 April 2014 |access-date=17 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150617194130/http://www.dawn.com/news/1100948|archive-date=17 June 2015|url-status=live}} As a result of their domination of major Sindhi cities, there had been tensions between Muhajirs and the native Sindhis, and this has been a major factor in the shaping of Muhajir politics.{{Cite web |date=19 June 2015 |title=Sindhis and Mohajirs |url=https://minorityrights.org/minorities/sindhis-and-mohajirs/ |access-date=10 November 2022 |website=Minority Rights Group }} The Muhajirs, upon their arrival in Pakistan, soon joined the Punjabi-dominated ruling elite of the newborn country due to their high rates of education and urban background. They possessed the required expertise for running Pakistan's nascent bureaucracy and economy.{{Cite web |title=Who are the Mohajirs and why do they fight the Pashtuns? – eNotes.com |url=https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/who-mohajirs-why-they-fight-pashtuns-1022568 |access-date=11 August 2022 |website=eNotes }} Although the Muhajirs were, socially, urbane and liberal, they sided with the country's religious political parties such as Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan (JUP) because of their non affiliation with any particular ethnic group.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m-EYXNnvMugC&pg=PA97 |title=Perspectives on Modern South Asia: A Reader in Culture, History, and Representation|date=6 May 2011|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4051-0062-5|pages=97–|author=Kamala Visweswaran|access-date=24 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170408182730/https://books.google.com/books?id=m-EYXNnvMugC&pg=PA97|archive-date=8 April 2017|url-status=live}}

Upon arrival in Pakistan, the Muhajirs did not assert themselves as a separate ethnic identity, being multi-ethnic themselves, but were at the forefront of trying to construct an Islamic Pakistani identity.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ND9yNyTpntYC&pg=PA292|title=Democracy in Pakistan: Crises and Conflicts|publisher=Har-Anand Publications|year=1998|isbn=978-81-241-0083-7|pages=292– |author=Kalim Bahadur|access-date=8 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170408182902/https://books.google.com/books?id=ND9yNyTpntYC&pg=PA292|archive-date=8 April 2017|url-status=live}} Muhajirs dominated the bureaucracy of Sindh in the early years of the Pakistani state, largely due to their higher levels of educational attainment.{{cite book |author2=Gyanesh Kudaisya |author-link2=Gyanesh Kudaisya |author1=Tai Yong Tan |author-link1=Tan Tai Yong |year=2000 |title=The Aftermath of Partition in South Asia |url=https://archive.org/details/aftermathpartiti00kuda |url-access=limited |publisher=Routledge |page=[https://archive.org/details/aftermathpartiti00kuda/page/n249 235] |isbn=0-415-17297-7 |quote=Sind province itself became a centre of Muhajir immigration, with 57 per cent of the population of Karachi [being Muhajirs] ... [They] 'were more educated than the province's original Muslim population' ... It was inevitable that a sense of competition and hostility between the two communities would develop. As the Muhajirs made their presence felt in the civil service the local Sindhis began to feel threatened ... In the early years of Pakistan, the Muhajirs dominated the commercial, administrative and service sector of the province ...the modern and urbanised Muhajirs ... quickly established themselves.}} Prior to the partition, Hindus dominated the professions of lawyers, teachers, and tradesmen in Sindh and the vacancies they left behind were filled up by the Muhajirs.

Many upper class Muhajirs people had higher education and civil service experience from working for the British Raj and Muslim princely states.{{Cite journal |last=Hanif |first=Siddiqui |date=4 February 2010 |title=Intra-ethnic fissures in ethnic movements: the rise of Mohajir identity politics in post-1971 Pakistan |journal=Asian Ethnicity|volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=25–41 |doi=10.1080/14631360903506752|s2cid=144719100 }}{{Cite book |last=Zakaria |first=Rafiq |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2RdITXUpyVgC&pg=PA207 |title=The Man who Divided India: An Insight Into Jinnah's Leadership and Its Aftermath, with a New Chapter on Musharraf's Do Or Die Leadership |date=2004 |publisher=Popular Prakashan |isbn=978-81-7991-145-7 }} Out of the 101 Muslims in India's civil service, 95 chose to leave India.{{Cite web |date=25 January 2014 |title=Muslim representation in India's civil service |url=https://tribune.com.pk/story/663383/muslim-representation-in-indias-civil-service |access-date=25 November 2022 |website=The Express Tribune }} A third of those civil servants were West Punjabis and there were as many Muhajirs as Punjabis. From 1947 to 1958, the Urdu-speaking Muhajirs held more jobs in the Government of Pakistan than their proportion in the country's population (3.3%). In 1951, of the 95 senior civil services jobs, 33 were held by the Urdu-speaking Muhajirs and 40 by Punjabis.{{Cite web |first1=Sushant |last1=Sareen |first2=Kriti M. |last2=Shah |title=The Mohajir: Identity and politics in multiethnic Pakistan |url=https://www.orfonline.org/research/the-mohajir-identity-and-politics-in-multiethnic-pakistan-57322/ |access-date=6 August 2022 |website=ORF }} The Muhajirs also had a strong hold over the economy, 36 of the 42 largest private companies belonged to Muhajirs, mainly those from the Indian state of Gujarat.

Gradually, as education became more widespread, Sindhis and Pashtuns, as well as other ethnic groups, started to take their fair share of the pool in the bureaucracy. But even by the early 1960s, 34.5 per cent of Pakistan's civil servants were those who had not been born in the territory comprising Pakistan in 1947. Most of them were born in the United Provinces.

On 27 October 1958, General Ayub Khan staged a coup and imposed martial law across Pakistan.{{cite book|title=Army and Democracy: Military Politics in Pakistan|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2014|isbn=978-0-674-72893-6|author=Aqil Shah}} By the time of Pakistan's first military regime (Ayub Khan, 1958), the Muhajirs had already begun to lose their influence in the ruling elite, especially after he changed the federal capital of Karachi to Islamabad.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HQCvgavbQjgC&pg=PA37|title=Locating Home: India's Hyderabadis Abroad|date=January 2007|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-5442-2|pages=37–|author=Karen Isaksen Leonard|access-date=8 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170408184537/https://books.google.com/books?id=HQCvgavbQjgC&pg=PA37|archive-date=8 April 2017|url-status=live}}{{Cite web |title=The Mohajir: Identity and politics in multiethnic Pakistan |url=https://www.orfonline.org/research/the-mohajir-identity-and-politics-in-multiethnic-pakistan-57322/ |access-date=28 January 2023 |website=ORF }} Ayub slowly began to pull non-muhajirs into the mainstream areas of the economy and politics, coupled with completely ousting Muhajirs from the ruling elite. This caused the Muhajirs' to agitate against the Ayub dictatorship from the early 1960s onwards. The relation was further deteriorated when the quota system, revived and expanded by the 1962 constitution, increased the number of seats in professional colleges for students from backward areas which was anathema to the middle-class literate Muhajirs.{{Cite journal |last=Rehman |first=J |title=Self-determination, state-building and the Muhajirs: An international legal perspective of the role of Indian muslim refugees in the constitutional development of Pakistan |date=24 July 1994 |journal=Contemporary South Asia |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=111–129 |doi=10.1080/09584939408719734 |via=Academic Search}}

The percentage of Muhajirs in the civil service declined while the percentage of others increased. In the presidential election of 1965, the Muslim League split into two factions: the Muslim League (Fatima Jinnah) supported Fatima Jinnah, the younger sister of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, while the Convention Muslim League supported General Ayub Khan.{{Cite web |last=Paracha |first=Nadeem F. |date=26 January 2017 |title=The Muslim League: A factional history |url=http://www.dawn.com/news/1310662 |access-date=10 November 2022 |website=DAWN.COM }} The Muhajirs at this time supported the Muslim League of Fatima Jinnah against Ayub Khan.{{Cite web |date=25 October 2013 |title=Presidential Election {{!}} Elections were held on 2 January 1965 |url=https://storyofpakistan.com/presidential-election/ |access-date=21 November 2022 |website=Story Of Pakistan }} The rivalry reached a peak after the electoral fraud of the 1965 presidential election and a post-election triumphal march by Gohar Ayub Khan, the son of General Ayub Khan, set off ethnic clashes between Pashtuns and Muhajirs in Karachi on 4 January 1965.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dp05sFFSAbIC&pg=PA144|title=Contemporary Pakistan: Political Processes, Conflicts and Crises|date=24 February 2003|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=978-0-7619-9683-5|pages=144–|author=Veena Kukreja|access-date=8 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170408191739/https://books.google.com/books?id=dp05sFFSAbIC&pg=PA144 |archive-date=8 April 2017|url-status=live}}

Four years later, on 24 March 1969, President Ayub Khan directed a letter to General Yahya Khan, inviting him to deal with the tense political situation in Pakistan.{{Cite web|title=Pakistan – AYUB KHAN|url=http://www.countrystudies.us/pakistan/18.htm|access-date=5 October 2020|website=www.countrystudies.us}} On 26 March 1969, General Yahya appeared on national television and proclaimed martial law over the country.{{Cite book|last=Akbar|first=M. K.|date=1 January 1997|title=Pakistan from Jinnah to Sharif |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BcIniHQAHfUC&q=ayub+khan+1965+war&pg=PA37 |publisher=Mittal Publications|isbn=978-81-7099-674-3|pages=48}} Yahya subsequently abrogated the 1962 Constitution, dissolved parliament, and dismissed President Ayub's civilian officials.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o6-wZP7Tz8YC&q=Yahya+Khan&pg=PA59|title=Emergency powers and the courts in India and Pakistan|last=Omar|first=Imtiaz|publisher=KLUWER LAW INTERNATIONAL|year=2002 |isbn=904111775X|location=England|access-date=15 November 2015|url-status=live|archive-date=3 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603202821/https://books.google.com/books?id=o6-wZP7Tz8YC&pg=PA59&dq=Yahya+Khan&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Wm9PU7ypJ8WvyASb2ICIBQ&ved=0CEUQuwUwAw#v=onepage&q=Yahya%20Khan&f=true}}

The 1970 Pakistani general election on 7 December 1970, saw the Awami League winning the elections.{{Cite journal |last=Baxter |first=Craig |date=1971 |title=Pakistan Votes -- 1970 |journal=Asian Survey |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=197–218 |doi=10.2307/3024655 |jstor=3024655 |issn=0004-4687}} The Muhajirs had voted for the Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan and Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan,{{sfn|Baxter|1971}} this popular support for these parties resulted in ethnic muhajirs winning all six NA seats and 18 PA seats in Karachi and Hyderabad.{{Sfn|Baxter|1971|p=214}} Muhajirs had decisively lost their place in the ruling elite, but they were still an economic force to be reckoned with (especially in urban Sindh). When Zulfikar Ali Bhutto became the country's head of state in December 1971, the Muhajirs feared that they would be further sidelined, this time by the economic and political resurgence of Sindhis under Bhutto. From the 1970s and onwards, Bhutto implemented a series of policies in Sindh that the Urdu-speaking population viewed as an assault on their political and economic rights as well as cultural identity.

The Pakistan People's Party government nationalized the financial industry, educational institutions, and industry.{{Cite book |last=Farazmand |first=Ali |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iSW5FKVYH4wC&q=Nationalization+and+Benazir++Bhutto&pg=PA182 |title=Public Enterprise Management: International Case Studies |date=1996 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-313-28025-2 }} The nationalization of Pakistan's educational institutions, financial institutions, and industry in 1972 by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan People's Party impacted the Muhajirs hardest as their educational institutions, commerce, and industries were nationalized without any compensation.{{cite web|url=https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:mAryvHSL5uoJ:www.sbp.org.pk/publications/fsa/Contents.pdf+Nationalization+process+in+Pakistan&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShmkWUJpZtA1eXm_C8NwVGnEezf-2eX5dH9PTFGvJzRNcsEj4yC675klHLB4O5fyGbUXvFHu30MS2nOZPHDONWOY9Xlr1Zq9r4Q7OyzxaZblfkSKPbU819ATdUUlH034-POgyLG&sig=AHIEtbQHaDZkwToNIFPQaAQ660UzY3CuXg|title=Pakistan: Financial Sector Assessment (1990–2000)|last=Riazuddin |first=Riaz|publisher=State Bank of Pakistan|work=Economic Research Department of State Bank of Pakistan|access-date=2 June 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140518180759/https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache%3AmAryvHSL5uoJ%3Awww.sbp.org.pk%2Fpublications%2Ffsa%2FContents.pdf+Nationalization+process+in+Pakistan&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShmkWUJpZtA1eXm_C8NwVGnEezf-2eX5dH9PTFGvJzRNcsEj4yC675klHLB4O5fyGbUXvFHu30MS2nOZPHDONWOY9Xlr1Zq9r4Q7OyzxaZblfkSKPbU819ATdUUlH034-POgyLG&sig=AHIEtbQHaDZkwToNIFPQaAQ660UzY3CuXg|archive-date=18 May 2014|url-status=live}} Subsequently, the quota system introduced by Liaquat Ali Khan which allowed Muhajirs to take government jobs was reversed by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto preventing them from taking government jobs and other government institutions, by introducing urban rural quota divide in government job slots.{{Cite web |last=Memon |first=Naseer |date=2 October 2016 |title=The Quota Controversy |url=https://www.thenews.com.pk/tns/detail/561845-quota-controversy |access-date=12 August 2022 |website=The News PK}} These policies also included the forceful retirement, dismissal or demotion of over 1,000 Urdu-speaking officers.

In 1972, language riots broke out between Sindhis and Muhajirs after the passage of the "Teaching, Promotion, and use of Sindhi Language" bill in July 1972 by the Sindh Assembly; which declared Sindhi as the only official language of Sindh.{{Cite web |title=1972 Riots was it a Language Issue – Matruka Sindh |url=https://matrukasindh.com/outside-articles/1972-riots-was-it-a-language-issue/ |access-date=10 November 2022 }} Due to the clashes, Prime Minister Bhutto compromised and announced that Urdu and Sindhi would both be official languages in Sindh.{{Cite web |last=InpaperMagazine |first=From |date=6 October 2012 |title=A leaf from history: Language frenzy in Sindh |url=https://www.dawn.com/2012/10/06/a-leaf-from-history-language-frenzy-in-sindh/ |access-date=10 November 2022 |website=DAWN.COM }} The move had frustrated the Muhajirs as they did not speak the Sindhi language.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dp05sFFSAbIC&pg=PA145|title=Contemporary Pakistan: Political Processes, Conflicts and Crises|date=24 February 2003|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=978-0-7619-9683-5|pages=145–|author=Veena Kukreja|access-date=8 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170408192032/https://books.google.com/books?id=dp05sFFSAbIC&pg=PA145|archive-date=8 April 2017|url-status=live}}

In the 1977 Pakistani general election, Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan and Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan joined in a coalition named the Pakistan National Alliance.{{Cite web |date=1 June 2003 |title=General Elections 1977 {{!}} Second general elections in the history of Pakistan |url=https://storyofpakistan.com/general-elections-1977/ |access-date=10 November 2022 |website=Story Of Pakistan }} Since the Muhajirs voted mostly for the Pakistan National Alliance, they enthusiastically participated in the 1977 right-wing movement against the Bhutto regime which was caused by the alleged electoral fraud by Pakistan People's Party.{{Cite web |last=Paracha |first=Nadeem Farooq |date=25 March 2022 |title=Prosperous Rebels: The Curious Romance Between Lifestyle Liberals And Right-Wing Populists in South Asia |url=https://www.thefridaytimes.com/2022/03/25/prosperous-rebels-the-curious-romance-between-lifestyle-liberals-and-right-wing-populists-in-south-asia/ |access-date=10 November 2022 |website=The Friday Times – Naya Daur }}{{Cite news |last=Times |first=William Borders |date=21 April 1977 |title=Protests Against Pakistan Regime Virtually Paralyze Karachi Port |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/04/21/archives/protests-against-pakistan-regime-virtually-paralyze-karachi-port.html |access-date=10 November 2022 |issn=0362-4331}} The movement was particularly strong among Karachi's middle and lower-middle-classes who clashed with state forces and political opponents in deadly gun battles and destroyed state-owned plants.{{Cite web |date=20 March 2017 |title=March 20, 1977, Forty Years Ago: Riots in Karachi |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/march-20-1977-forty-years-ago-riots-in-karachi-4576590/ |access-date=11 February 2023 |website=The Indian Express }} On 5 July 1977, Chief of Army Staff General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq led a coup d'état against Bhutto and imposed martial law, due to the rising unrest in the country.{{cite book|last=Haqqani|first=Hussain|title=Pakistan:Between Mosque and Military; §From Islamic Republic to Islamic State|year=2005|publisher=Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (July 2005)|location=United States|isbn=978-0-87003-214-1|pages=395 pages|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nYppZ_dEjdIC&q=Pakistan:Between+Mosque+and+Military}}{{Cite web |date=4 April 2018 |title=The Judicial Murder of Z.A Bhutto |url=https://dailytimes.com.pk/223769/the-judicial-murder-of-z-a-bhutto/ |access-date=11 August 2022 |website=Daily Times }}{{Cite web |last=Daniel |first=Carol |date=2 February 2022 |title=Why Zia Imposed Martial Law? (Correct answer) |url=https://www.tahseenbutt.com/legal-advice/why-zia-imposed-martial-law-correct-answer.html |access-date=11 August 2022 |website=Informasi Legal di Pakistan }} A year after Zia's coup, Jamaat e Islami started losing support to the newly founded APMSO, which believed that Jamat Islami and Jamiat Ulema Pakistan were "playing the muhajirs false".{{Cite web |last=Paracha |first=Nadeem F. |date=21 May 2009 |title=MQM: From revolt to redemption |url=http://blog.dawn.com/2009/05/21/mqm-from-revolt-to-redemption/ |access-date=4 February 2023 |website=DAWN.COM }} APMSO created several militant cells, such as Black Tigers and Nadeem Commandos, to counter the heavily armed Thunder squad of Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba.{{Cite web |last=Paracha |first=Nadeem F. |date=21 July 2011 |title=Militant liberal |url=https://www.dawn.com/2011/07/21/militant-liberal/ |access-date=4 February 2023 |website=DAWN.COM }} On 18 March 1984, the senior members of APMSO launched the Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM) – an ethnic Muhajir party that was to serve as the senior partner of the APMSO.{{Cite web |last=Paracha |first=Nadeem F. |date=23 August 2012 |title=Born to run: The rise and leveling of the APMSO |url=https://www.dawn.com/2012/08/23/born-to-run-the-rise-and-leveling-of-the-apmso/ |access-date=4 February 2023 |website=DAWN.COM }} On 8 August 1986, a day still celebrated by the party as the moment the MQM came to the fore as a political force, Altaf Hussain drew thousands of Muhajirs to a rally in Nishtar Park where he declared Muhajirs a fifth sub-nationality within Pakistan.{{cite news|url=http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=167749 |title=25 years of MQM: a critical analysis |last=Peshimam |first=Gibran |date=18 March 2009 |publisher=The News |access-date=4 February 2023 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090806021058/http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=167749 |archive-date=6 August 2009 }} A year after the rally in Nishtar Park, MQM swept the local bodies' election in Karachi and Hyderabad.

File:MQM protests 2015.jpg]]

After the 1988 General Elections, MQM, the largest Muhajir nationalist party to exist at the time (with more than 100,000 party workers),{{Cite web |date=7 December 2017 |title=MIT to observe 'Mohajir cultural day' on 25th |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1374980 |access-date=28 January 2023 |website=DAWN.COM }} emerged as the third-largest political party of Pakistan, in alliance with PPP.{{Cite web |last=Shukhat |first=Ayesha |date=17 February 2022 |title=The Muhajir Movement: A Political and Social Aspect |url=https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2022/02/17/the-muhajir-movement-a-political-and-social-aspect/ |access-date=9 August 2022 |website=Modern Diplomacy }} Differences developed between the PPP and MQM after dozens were killed at an MQM congregation by Sindhi nationalists, and the alliance fell apart in the wake of ensuing violence. The MQM lent its support to Nawaz Sharif's Islami Jamhoori Ittehad instead.{{Cite web |last=Dawn.com |date=25 May 2013 |title=Timeline: A history of MQM |url=https://www.dawn.com/2013/05/25/timeline-a-history-of-mqm/ |access-date=9 November 2022 |website=DAWN.COM }} In June 1992, a massive 'Operation Cleanup' was launched to rid the city of terrorism but MQM was selectively targeted.{{Cite web |last=Khurram |first=Shahjahan |date=18 March 2015 |title=A brief look at MQM's history |url=https://arynews.tv/a-brief-look-at-mqms-history/ |access-date=9 November 2022 |website=ARY NEWS }} The Party's political offices were shut down as scores of its workers were killed in extra judicial murders and shootouts, forcing to move its offices to London.{{Cite web |date=5 September 2010 |title=MQM plans to move secretariat to Dubai |url=http://beta.dawn.com/news/851744/mqm-plans-to-move-secretariat-to-dubai |access-date=15 January 2023 |website=DAWN.COM }} After the operation ended, MQM staged a comeback and a second crackdown against MQM was carried out during the tenure of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, in which many associated with the party were killed.{{cite web |url=http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-karachi-bloodbath-it-is-mohajir-vs-pushtuns/20110920.htm|title=Karachi Bloodbath: It is Mohajir Vs Pushtuns|date=20 September 2011|work=Rediff|access-date=17 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150617191800/http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-karachi-bloodbath-it-is-mohajir-vs-pushtuns/20110920.htm|archive-date=17 June 2015|url-status=live}} After the military takeover in 1999 by Pervez Musharraf,{{Cite web |date=17 January 2023 |title=Pakistan: A Shia leads a Sunni army |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/strategic-insights/pakistan-a-shia-leads-a-sunni-army/ |access-date=25 January 2023 |website=Times of India Blog }} the MQM backed Pervez Musharraf strongly till his resignation in 2008.{{Cite web |last=migrate |date=21 January 2008 |title=Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria cites IRI Pakistan Poll |url=https://www.iri.org/news/newsweeks-fareed-zakaria-cites-iri-pakistan-poll/ |access-date=5 January 2023 |website=International Republican Institute }} Even after Musharraf's fall from power, MQM continued to dominate Muhajir politics until 2016 when it broke up into four factions and collapsed.{{Cite web |last=Chandran |first=Suba |date=22 August 2018 |title=The Fall of MQM |url=https://pakistanreader.org/view_articles.php?url=Election2018Analysis-03&recordNo=90 |website=Pakistan Reader}}

Amid a fractured MQM, the populist leader Imran Khan's PTI started to dominate Karachi's politics with a multiethnic support base from all walks of life, including the Muhajirs mainly from upper-middle and middle class, while lower-middle class Muhajirs turned to Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan.{{Cite web |last=Paracha |first=Nadeem F. |date=30 January 2022 |title=SMOKERS' CORNER: IS KARACHI READY FOR CHANGE? |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1672151 |access-date=29 January 2023 |website=DAWN.COM }} Despite tough opposition from PPP and TLP, PTI managed to bag the popular vote en masses during the 2018 Pakistani general elections, though with a lower voter turnout.{{Cite web |last=Zaidi |first=Syed Sheheryar Raza |date=25 January 2023 |title='Mohajir problem' |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1733444 |access-date=29 January 2023 |website=DAWN.COM }} But in 2023, after the merger of the MQM factions, MQM staged a comeback into Muhajir politics. In 2023 Karachi local government elections MQM-P's boycott resulted in very low voter turnouts.{{Cite web |last=Paracha |first=Nadeem F. |date=22 January 2023 |title=SMOKERS' CORNER: WHEN THE POLLING GOES AWRY |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1733013 |access-date=29 January 2023 |website=DAWN.COM }}

A 2023 research conducted by Karachi University found that 9% of muhajirs were upper-class, while 17% were upper-middle class, 52% middle class, 13% lower middle and 9% lower class.{{Cite web |last=Nabbo |first=Habbo |date=6 February 2023 |title=Socio-economic Status of Muhajirs (2023) |url=https://www.scribd.com/document/624124272/Socio-economic-Status-of-Muhajirs-2023# |access-date=6 February 2023 |website=Scribd}} A 2019 study by Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center found that Muhajir women have the highest employment rate and monthly income among all major ethnic groups of Pakistan.{{Cite journal |last1=Ahsan |first1=Mahnoor |last2=Taj |first2=Arsa |last3=Mahr |first3=Khalil |last4=Aslam |first4=Batool |last5=Mubashir |first5=Saima |title=Breast Cancer Among Different Ethnicities (A Single Institution Study) |journal=Pakistan Armed Forces Medical Journal |year=2022 |volume=72 |issue=2 |pages=594–598 |doi=10.51253/pafmj.v72i2.3578 |s2cid=254387050 |issn=0030-9648|doi-access=free }} And according to the 1951 census of Pakistan, less than 15 per cent of Muhajirs were unskilled labourers, with almost 61 per cent classified as skilled workers and more than 5 per cent belonging to professional and managerial backgrounds.{{Sfn|Lieven|2011|p=311}} By settlements, 68.4% Muhajirs lived in planned areas and 88.9% have access to basic utilities.{{Cite journal |last=Siddiqi |first=Farhan Hanif |date=9 April 2009 |title=Discrimination is what ethnic groups make of it: subjective perceptions of peripherality among the Mohajirs of Pakistan |journal=Nations & Nationalism |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=697–717|doi=10.1111/nana.12460 |s2cid=149902887 }} They have been very successful in finance institutions, and have founded most of Pakistan's banking institutions including State Bank of Pakistan,{{Cite web |date=9 November 2001 |title=SBP to set up Zahid Husain chair: Higher studies |url=http://beta.dawn.com/news/5394/sbp-to-set-up-zahid-husain-chair-higher-studies |access-date=27 January 2023 |website=DAWN.COM }} Habib Bank Limited,{{Cite web|title=History|url=http://www.hbl.com/history|access-date=21 June 2016|website=www.hbl.com}} United Bank Limited,{{cite web|url=http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/SouthAsia/SAserials/Dawn/1995/09Ag95.html#agha|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060908113823/http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/SouthAsia/SAserials/Dawn/1995/09Ag95.html#agha|url-status=dead|archive-date=8 September 2006|title=Agha Hasan Abedi passes away|date=9 August 1995|publisher=Dawn Wire Service|accessdate= 15 January 2017}} and Bank AL Habib.{{Cite web |title=History |url=https://hoh.net/history/ |access-date=27 January 2023 |website=House of Habib }}

Until the 1970s, Karachi had been a historical centre for producing cricketers and hockey players for the Pakistan national cricket team and hockey team. Some of the notable cricketers of a Muhajir background during the era include Javed Miandad among many others.{{Cite web |last=Paracha |first=Nadeem F. |date=19 September 2013 |title=Pakistan cricket: A class, ethnic and sectarian history |url=http://www.dawn.com/news/1043800 |access-date=29 January 2023 |website=DAWN.COM }}{{Cite web |last=Paracha |first=Nadeem F. |date=11 April 2021 |title=SMOKERS' CORNER: PAKISTAN CRICKET AND ITS ETHNICITIES |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1617560 |access-date=29 January 2023 |website=DAWN.COM }}

In the ethnic groups of Pakistan, the lowest prevalence of metabolic syndrome was seen in Muhajirs (32.5%).{{Cite journal |last=Faraz |first=Danish Alvi |title=Ethnic differences in metabolic syndrome among South Asians of Pakistan. |journal=Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences |volume=27 |issue=3}} Muhajirs have a gene diversity of 0.6081, which is 0.001 less than the Pakistani average of 0.6091.{{Cite journal |last1=Nuzhat |first1=Akram |last2=Farooqi |first2=A |last3=Shakeel |first3=R |date=4 March 2014 |title=A model-based 'varimax' sampling strategy for a heterogeneous population. |journal=Annals of Human Biology |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=116–126 |via=Academic Search}} The overall prevalence of proteinuria in Muhajir children 3.6%.{{Cite journal |last1=Jafar |first1=Tazeen H |last2=Levey |first2=Andrew S |last3=Schmid |first3=Christopher H |last4=Portman |first4=Ronald |last5=Khan |first5=Abdul Qayum |last6=Anas |first6=Rabbani |last7=Khan |first7=Iqtidar |last8=Hatcher |first8=Juanita |last9=Chaturvedi |first9=Nish |date=25 October 2005 |title=Proteinuria in South Asian children: prevalence and determinants |journal=Pediatric Nephrology |volume=20 |issue=10 |pages=1458–1465 |doi=10.1007/s00467-005-1923-8 |pmid=15947988 |s2cid=28880508 |issn=0931-041X |via=Academic Search}}

{{main article|List of Muhajir people}}

{{Main|Muhajir culture}}

Muhajir culture is the culture that migrated mainly from North India after the independence of Pakistan in 1947 generally to Karachi. The Muhajir culture refers to the Pakistani variation of Indo-Islamic culture and part of the Culture of Karachi city in Pakistan.{{Cite web|last=Sareen|first=Kriti M. Shah and Sushant|title=The Mohajir: Identity and politics in multiethnic Pakistan|url=https://www.orfonline.org/research/the-mohajir-identity-and-politics-in-multiethnic-pakistan-57322/|access-date=5 September 2020|website=ORF}}{{cite news|url=http://www.dailynews.net.pk/april2011/30-04-2011/e-paper/heritage.asp|title=Heritage Sites of Karachi|work=DAILY NEWS e-paper|access-date=20 December 2010}}{{Dead link|date=November 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

{{Main|Muhajir cuisine}}{{See also|Mughlai cuisine|Hyderabadi cuisine}}File:"Hyderabadi Dum Biryani".jpg

Muhajir cuisine refers to the cuisine of Muhajirs, and is covered under both Indian and Pakistani cuisines, and is mostly found in the Pakistani city of Karachi.{{Cite web |last=Tariq |first=Minahil |date=8 December 2014 |title=Different cultures of Pakistan: MUHAJIR CUISINE |url=https://differentculturesofpakistan.blogspot.com/2014/12/muhajiris-muhajir-cuisine-karachi.html |access-date=4 August 2022 |website=Different cultures of Pakistan}} Muhajirs, after arriving in Karachi, have revived their old culture,{{Cite web |last=Sen |first=Madhurima |date=24 March 2019 |title=Nostalgia in Intizar Hussain's 'The Sea Lies Ahead': Muhajirs as a Diasporic Community |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353820655 |access-date=9 February 2023 |website=Research Gate}}{{dead link|date=August 2023|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} including numerous desserts, savoury dishes, and beverages. The Mughal and Indo-Iranian heritage played an influential role in the making of their cuisine and therefore compared to other Pakistani cuisines, Muhajir cuisine tends to use royal cuisine specific to the old royal dynasties of now defunct states in ancient India. Most dastarkhawans (dining tables) include chapati, rice, dal, vegetable, and meat curry. Special dishes include biryani,{{Cite web |title=Pakistani food debate: Team Biryani Vs Team Pulao, who will win? |url=https://gulfnews.com/food/pakistani-food-debate-team-biryani-vs-team-pulao-who-will-win-1.1642666465571 |access-date=2 January 2023 |website=gulfnews.com |date=20 January 2022 }} qorma, kofta, seekh kabab, nihari, haleem, Nargisi koftay, roghani naan, naan, sheer-khurma (dessert), and chai (sweet, milky tea) are associated with Muhajir cuisine.{{Cite web |last=Falah |first=Gulzar |date=2 May 2021 |title=Biryani, Lahori fish, pulao ... Pakistani cuisine and its presence in the UAE |url=https://gulfnews.com/food/biryani-lahori-fish-pulao--pakistani-cuisine-and-its-presence-in-the-uae-1.1614580263565 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220712233811/https://gulfnews.com/food/biryani-lahori-fish-pulao--pakistani-cuisine-and-its-presence-in-the-uae-1.1614580263565 |archive-date=12 July 2022 |access-date=13 February 2023 |website=Gulf News}}{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable (WP:NOTRS).|date=June 2023}}

{{Further|Kurta|Pajamas|Sari}}

The traditional clothing of Muhajirs is the traditional clothing worn by Muslims in North India, and it has both Muslim and South Asian influences. Both Muslim men and women wear the shalwar kameez.{{cite book |url =https://books.google.com/books?id=v25zAwAAQBAJ&dq=indian+muslims+in+north+india+shalwar+kameez&pg=PA103 |title= Diana and Beyond: White Femininity, National Identity, and Contemporary Media Culture |date= 2014 |author= Raka Shome |publisher= University of Illinois Press |isbn= 9780252096686 }} Men also wear the sherwani, and it is believed to have been introduced to Pakistan by Muhajirs.{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=7YdUEAAAQBAJ&dq=muslim+men+sherwani&pg=PT228 |title= Indian Etiquette: A Glimpse Into India's Culture |author= Niraalee Shah |date= 2021 |publisher= Notion Press|isbn= 9781638865544 }} Muhajir women (mainly from Northern India) wear sari,{{Cite book|last=Boulanger|first=Chantal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_1pEAAAAYAAJ|title=Saris: an illustrated guide to the Indian art of draping|date=1997|publisher=Shakti Press International|pages=55|isbn=9780966149616}} which is an un-stitched stretch of woven fabric arranged over the body like a robe.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0O9je9dECH8C&q=sari&pg=PA121 | title=Thai Art with Indian Influences | isbn=9788170170907 | last1=Jermsawatdi | first1=Promsak | year=1979 | publisher=Abhinav Publications }} The Gharara was also worn by Muhajir women, which originated from the Nawabs' attempt to imitate the British evening gown.{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.13430/page/n199/mode/2up?q=fe |title=The Lucknow Omnibus |page=177 |author=H.r. Nevill |date= 1884 }}

{{See also|Muhajir Cultural Day}}

Muhajirs celebrate many festivals which include religious, political, ethnic, and national festivals. Islamic festivals which are celebrated by Muhajirs include Eid-al-Fitr, Eid-al-Adha, and Ashoura.{{Cite web |title=Karachi Festivals - Karachi Annual Events. |url=https://www.karachi.com/v/festivals/ |access-date=9 August 2022 |website=www.karachi.com}} Political celebrations include MQM Founding Day,{{Cite web |title=English Newspaper Coverage : 32nd foundation day of Mqm |url=https://www.mqm.org/englishnews/35795/english-newspaper-coverage-32nd-foundation-day-of-mqm |access-date=9 August 2022 |website=www.mqm.org}} Death anniversary of Azeem Ahmad Tariq,{{Cite web |title=18th death anniversary of Azeem Ahmad Tariq today |url=http://dunyanews.tv/en/Pakistan/49342-18th-death-anniversary-of-Azeem-Ahmad-Tariq-today- |access-date=9 August 2022 |website=Dunya News |date=14 February 2008 |language=en}} and APMSO Founding Day.{{Cite web |title=Mr. Altaf Hussain congratulates to all his loyalist comrades and the nation on 43rd foundation day of APMSO |url=https://www.mqm.org/englishnews/42181/mr-altaf-hussain-congratulates-to-all-his-loyalist-comrades-and-the-nation-on-43rd-foundation-day-of-apmso#:~:text=London,%20June%2010,%202021%20Mr.%20Altaf%20Hussain,%20Founder,nation%20on%20the%2043rd%20foundation%20day%20of%20APMSO. |access-date=9 August 2022 |website=www.mqm.org}} Muhajirs celebrate Muhajir Cultural Day as an ethnic and cultural festival.{{Cite web |date=24 December 2021 |title=Muhajir Culture Day celebrated |url=http://tribune.com.pk/story/2335586/muhajir-culture-day-celebrated |access-date=9 August 2022 |website=The Express Tribune |language=en}}

• Stranded Muhajirs in Bangladesh
• List of people from Karachi
• List of Muhajir people

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Citation |last1=Batliwala |first1=Usman Umar |title=احمد داؤد – ایک پیکرِ اوصاف (Aik Paiker-e-Ausaaf)|date=1995 |publisher=Faran Publications |location=Karachi |edition=1 |language=Urdu}}
• {{cite book|first=Christophe |last = Jaffrelot |title=The Pakistan Paradox: Instability And Resilience |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gQDzCQAAQBAJ&pg=PT100|date=16 June 2016|publisher=Random House Publishers India Pvt. Limited|isbn=978-81-8400-707-7|pages=100–}}
• {{Cite book |last=Lieven |first=Anatol |title=Pakistan : a hard country |date=2011 |publisher=PublicAffairs |isbn=978-1-61039-021-7 |edition=1st |location=New York |oclc=710995260}}
• {{Cite book |last=Wolpert |first=Stanley |author-link=Stanley Wolpert |year=1984 |title=Jinnah of Pakistan |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-503412-7 |ref={{SfnRef|Wolpert}}}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928102530/http://www.conflict-prevention.net/page.php?id=40&formid=73&action=show&surveyid=15%2F Pakistan: The Sindhi-Muhajir conflict]
• [http://www.krepublishers.com/02-Journals/T-Anth/Anth-10-0-000-08-Web/Anth-10-1-000-08-Abst-PDF/Anth-10-1-005-08-432-Ara-G/Anth-10-1-005-08-432-Ara-G-Tt.pdf Gene Diversity among Some Muslim Populations of Western Uttar Pradesh]
• [http://www.antrocom.net/upload/sub/antrocom/090113/02-Antrocom.pdf Gene Diversity Analysis and Microdifferentiation Process in North Indian Muslim Populations] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180422072059/http://www.antrocom.net/upload/sub/antrocom/090113/02-Antrocom.pdf |date=22 April 2018 }}
• [https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/148363-The-crisis-of-Mohajir-identity The crisis of Mohajir identity] Harris Khalique. The News International.
• [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242234085_The_Captive_State_Corruption_Intelligence_Agencies_and_Ethnicity_in_Pakistan The Captive State: Corruption, Intelligence Agencies, and Ethnicity in Pakistan]

{{commons category}}

• [https://www.scribd.com/doc/24567580/Muhajir-diaspora Muhajir diaspora]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071030083640/http://yespakistan.com/education/edu_quotas.asp Quotas and Karachi]

{{Muhajir communities}}

{{Ethnic groups in Pakistan}}

{{Karachi}}

{{Sindh topics}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Muhajir people}}

Category:Muhajir communities

Category:Ethnic groups in Pakistan

Category:Social groups of Sindh

Category:Cultural assimilation

Category:Muhajir diaspora

Category:Islamic terminology

Category:Urdu-speaking people