>>8839samefag the most fascinating ethnic group that came out of Pakistan's complex history and is basically considered the model citizen despise an extreme minority is the Muhajir
Muhajir is an odd complex ethnic identity, I'm not sure if any other like it exists in the world, muhajir is a Arabic origin term roughly translating to one who flees or immigrant
In the chaos and mass casualties in the violence of the partition between India and Pakistan, Millions of people moved to what they hoped would be safer territory, with Muslims heading towards Pakistan, and Hindus and Sikhs in the direction of India. As many as 14-16m people may have been displaced
but here's the thing today in Pakistan the decedent's of the vast majority those who left India are not considered muhajirs, you see those who identity as muhajirs are not the decedent's of Punjabi and Sindhi Muslims who immigranted to Pakistan, they are the decedent's of basically everyone else(see my family fled from Kashmir to Pakistan like so many others but we are not considered Muhajirs)
From utter padesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Gujrat and so on, all the non Punjabi, Rajputs and sindhis who didn't speak the local languages or understand the local cultures were first classified first as Urdu speaking muhajirs but during the 70's started being referred to as just muhajirs, an identity based not on what the muhajirs are but rather what they aren't and for many they are not 'sons of the soil" a term with various translations through out Pakistan depending on the ethnic group
They are in odd position in that they are minority but unlike the Bengalis are over represented in Pakistans most educted and have a higher literacy rate then the majority of the country and by the state standards they are the Ideal citizen i.e they speak Urdu, are mostly Urban and Identify with their Muslim identity but most people generally dislike them
Giving the full history for the muhajirs would be far too long but they have played a huge role in Pakistans identity and they might be coming to end in Pakistan
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