If Punjabis can start a"What Caste are you?" thread every month, so can we!
Anybody here a mohajir and what is your background from India?
yes i am a mohajir
my great great great ....... great ancestors migrated from saudi arabia to south east asia and settled in what is now known as sindh.
I have met very few muhajirs with names such as "Imdad". It sounds more like a punjabi name. Maybe I am wrong, but you gotta cool name.
Dude, you sound like Altaf bhai supporter ;)
I am a mohajir. My dolks did hijrat from Pakistan to UK, I later made a hijrat from UK to US.
My ancestors did a Hijrat from heaven to earth.
^ 
You’ve put it well Fradz
how come refugees fromm pakistan to india disappeared in india but
refugees to pakistan still have this name?
Imdad , yes I am a punjabi Kashmiri Mohajir.
My maternal grand mothers familymigrated from Bombay.
My fathers grandfather migrated from KAshmir and then to Lahore and finally my grand parents came to karachi.
Its indeed an irony that only those who speak urdu language and migrated from India are termed as Mohajirs. I am equally a Mohajir on account of half of my family's migration from India.
But despite that I am a proud citizen of Sindh and take pride in speaking Urdu.
Zindagi eik masayal hain najanay kitnay
Chand sajdoon ko na takmeelay ibadat samjho
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by lost soul: *
But despite that I am a proud citizen of Sindh and take pride in speaking Urdu.
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Put PAKISTAN first!
That's how I feel. Don't take it personally.
Well I knew I was going to get such answers. I guess I should have clarified the meaning of mohajir when I used it. I had a political definition in mind when I used the word. But, no harm done. All mohajirs are welcome, Urdu speaking, Sindhi speaking, Punjabi speaking, Pushto speaking to opine and have their voices heard.
Well, despite what some would say, mohajirs do share a common bond, especially those from urban Sindh. We are not natives of Pakistan in the true sense and even after 55 years some do not accept us. Our identity of being mohajirs is also a little sketchy as some do not accept this label, while others prefer being referred to as Urdu speaking. One thing is for sure, simply saying one is Pakistani is a dead give away that the person is in fact mohajir with no real identity, unlike what Punjabis, Sindhis etc have.
Outlaw, yes my name is unique among my type, perhaps my parents who lived in Lahore were influenced in this regard.
Lost soul, you have an interesting family history, and I too am a proud citizen of Sindh, albeit one who like you, does not speak much Sindhi. A shame isn’t it?
PT, don’t get too hung up over your Pakistani identity, since ten years ago you too would have been shouting slogans of “Jeay Altaf” had you been in Karachi during those troubled times.
No, I am not an Altaf supporter, far from it, but I do support mohajirs aligning and uniting together politically. Everyone else has a ethnic based political organization, so why can’t people who have lost their identities over time, come together?
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by rvikz: *
how come refugees fromm pakistan to india disappeared in india but
refugees to pakistan still have this name?
[/QUOTE]
Because this has more to do with the mental mindset and background of Urdu speaking people than it has to do with the country of our choice.
Urdu speaking do not have an ethnicty like for example the Sindhis do who migrated to India. The Sindhis in India have not stopped calling themselves Sindhis, have they now? The difference is that most Urdu speaking people base their ethnicity on a langauge alone, as they don't really share a common culture in some respects. And we can't call ourselves Indian or Hindustani Muslims either, since India took that name away.
me mohajir here :) grand parents from agra and gawalier.. umm .. us however, r now finally settled in canada :)
oh n as for political wise.. one of my uncle used to be a supporter of MQM in the beginning.. personally i think he is ugly n darpok!
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*Originally posted by suroor_ca02: *
oh n as for political wise.. one of my uncle used to be a supporter of MQM in the beginning.. personally i think he is ugly n darpok!
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Everyone used to be a supporter of MQM in the begining. :)
As my lovable Indian friend once asked me "What is a Mohazir?" I told him the actual meaning of the word and we then we discussed the reasons behind the name. Can anyone explain why the term is still used, after 50+ years of migration to Pakistan? I really think that Urdu speaking is a better term, because if we go strictly by the "Mohajir" then there were more Punjabi speaking migrants who came to Pakistan than Urdu speaking ones, the obvious difference was that the East Punjabis had no trouble settling in.
I think its a shame that Urdu speakers have been vilified by certain quarters of Pakistan and in particular, Sindh. Karachi's boom and Pakistan in the initial years was totally dependent on the migrants from India and because of their assistance we were able to survive the early days. So I have a lot of respect for the urdu speakers, but still don't undserstand the term mohajir.
If Muhajir means those who migrated from what is called India today to Pakistan then I am a muhajir. We migrated from Indian punjab to Pakistani punjab! Interestingly our relatives who went to Karachi are called muhajirs but we dont ! Never in the process or struggle of pakistan it was planned , unfortunately; that there would be such a mass migration. People migrated in most cases for fear of life and economic well being. People who migrated to Punjab easily assimilated in culture due to language and similar way of life. Most of peopel who opted for Sindh went for larger cities as they came from business class or cities whereas Sindh was largely an agricultural land. Muhajirs may have some problems but so have all the country.
My fathers side migrated, but dont refer to themselves as muhajirs.
*Originally posted by Imdad Ali: *
[quote]
PT, don’t get too hung up over your Pakistani identity, since ten years ago you too would have been shouting slogans of “Jeay Altaf” had you been in Karachi during those troubled times.
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I'd prefer to call myself Pakistani over Mohajir. Whatever I think, whereever I go, I prefer to call myself Pakistani despite of having American Citizenship.
I used to have a great respect for MQM but they didn't support economically people of Karachi.
Ever wonder why Altaf gives his message via telephone calling for strikes in Karachi? Why does he really want? He has already got British nationality. Isn't it enough for him?
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Pakistani Tiger: *
*Originally posted by Imdad Ali: *
I'd prefer to call myself Pakistani over Mohajir. Whatever I think, whereever I go, I prefer to call myself Pakistani despite of having American Citizenship.
I used to have a great respect for MQM but they didn't support economically people of Karachi.
Ever wonder why Altaf gives his message via telephone calling for strikes in Karachi? Why does he really want? He has already got British nationality. Isn't it enough for him?
[/QUOTE]
Look, PT no one is stopping you from saying you are Pakistani, but be realistic. In Pakistan, their is no such thing as Pakistani. You are either Sindhi, Punjabi, Pashtun or Balochi. This is why Altaf created the APMSO. It was a response to what he saw at Karachi U, where every ethnicty had his own student organization, but Urdu spekaing people were left with no group to call their own. It was a natural reaction from mohajirs to organize when they saw other groups doing the same. Yes, MQM has lost a lot of its respect and direction and Altaf has become to much of a urban wadera.
But you can call yourself Pakistani all you like, but in the end you will have to know what your ethnicty is. The poor people in Karachi also used to call themselves Pakistani, but it did not save them from being picked by CIA, Police, Rangers, and Punjabi-Pushtun Ittehad thugs and tortured to death.
Degas, Rajput, unlike in Punjab, there was and still remains a huge urban rural divide in Sindh.
No two opinions regarding that Imdad. Well, ada mokhay Sindhi maan galhiyaan karan achai ti :D che help me out)
And u r absolutely right why ALtaf created APMSo and on whose backing he rose to that position. THere still exists a rural urban divide in Sindh but the fact is, it is to a great extent exploited by the ppl at the helm of affairs as a consequence of which a number of people lost their lives in interior Sindh as well as in Karachi.
PT I am a Proud Pakistani no doubt. But I believe that I don't have to say that. no offence intended , no offence taken) :)
The reality is that the ethno-nationalism is on the rise. No matter how much u want to deny that , it is a growing trend throughout the world.Globalization might be bringing the world closer but at the same time we see the opposite trends at work. Contradictions abound. But,we live in a strange world.