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Situating the Post-Partition Muslim Migrant in Pakistan

"Abstract:Millions of people were forced to migrate after the Partition of the Indian subcontinent. The massive human displacement enabled the creation of new ethnic identities. This was, especially,pronounced for migrant Muslims in Pakistan who had to settle there and restart their lives. Although initially, they were regarded as religious refugees who had sacrificed everything for Pakistan, soon they were treated as unwanted outsiders. Ethnic tensions, between natives and migrants, transformed into open political hostilities and Karachi, where several migrants had shifted, would witness violent riots throughout the following decades. These circumstances subvert the idea of Pakistan as a homeland for the post-Partition Muslim migrants who could not feel secure there. It forced them to organize themselves as a new distinct ethnic group called the ‘Muhajir.’ Intizar Husain’s The Sea Lies Ahead and Kamila Shamsie’s
Kartography facilitate a deeper understanding of the dynamics that affected these migrants and how they, eventually, were able to situate themselves in Pakistan. This paper seeks to study these dynamics, and it argues that three stages – becoming, unbecoming and finally, re-becoming – were involved in the transformation of ‘Muhajirs’ from a group of heterogeneous migrants to a distinct and homogeneous ethnic group in Pakistan."

Author(s): 
Soumyadeep Neogi
Language: 
English
URL: 
www.academia.edu/44136220/Situating_the_Post_Partition_Muslim_Migrant_in_Pakistan
Publisher/Sponsor: 
Daath Voyage: An International Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in English , 2020