Biharis have enriched Karachi’s cosmopolitan culture and their imprint on the city is perhaps best reflected in making famed Bihari kebabs an integral part of itsculinary attractions.
Punjabi folk singers lined the road, performed bhangra on dhol beats to welcome then Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh to the Pakistani side of the land of five rivers in January 2004. Amarinder was overwhelmed and described hisjourney to Lahore a pilgrimage, as the city "is a central pillar in the edifice of the composite Punjabi culture". His engagements in Pakistan for the next few days were imbued with deep commitment to the promotion of divided Punjab's shared heritage.
Over eight years later, Bihar chief ministerNitish Kumar would take the same route to Pakistan for a five-day visit. Like Amarinder, he may not feel as much culturally at home elsewhere in Pakistan, but parts of its economic hub ofKarachi would be an exception. The city has a sizable Bihari population that had retained its distinct identity despite being clubbed with ethnic Urdu-speakers of the Sindh province and its capital Karachi.
Abdul Kadir Khanzada, who represents Orangi Town in Pakistan's parliament, said he would like to welcome Nitish to his constituency, where a majority of over a million people have their roots in Bihar. "Though my family came from Alwar in Rajputana (Rajasthan) but 70% of my voters are those with roots in Bihar, who would relate to the chief minister's visit," he told TOI from Karachi, which the CM would visit as part of his itinerary.
He said his party had always supported peace process with India and hoped Nitish's visit would boost the ties. "I would speak to my leader in parliament, Farooq Sattar, and see whether we could invite Nitish Kumar to connect with people who have roots in his state."
Biharis have enriched Karachi's cosmopolitan culture and their imprint on the city is perhaps best reflected in making famed Bihari kebabs an integral part of its culinary attractions.
The place where the early immigrants from Bihar settled after the Partition is still known as Bihar colony in Karachi's Layari Town. Mostly well-off immigrants managed to reach Karachi, then Pakistani capital, following riots in Bihar in the run up to the partition and the rest of about three million found it easier to crossover to then East Pakistan - Bangladesh. Around 163,000 of them were repatriated to Pakistan in 70s and 80s after Bangladesh's liberation as they were accused of being collaborators, targeted and faced linguistic discrimination.
Most repatriated Biharis were settled in Orangi Town. Nearly 800,000 Biharis had declared themselves as Pakistanis after the 71 liberation and most had sought to settle in Pakistan.
The repatriation of Biharis to Pakistan was stopped in the 80s after bloody ethnic riots over it that further tilted the politico-ethnic balance in favour of Karachi's dominant Urdu-speaking people and Mutthida Quami Movement, the country's third largest party representing them.
The process started briefly in the 1990s when 321 Biharis were brought to Pakistan on the condition that they would settle in Punjab. A Bihari colony was set up for them 370-km fromIslamabad at Mian Channu in Punjab's Khanewal district. Successive Pakistani governments have since gone back on their promise to bring back an estimated 300,000 million Biharis, also known as stranded Pakistanis, who live in 66 camps without citizenship rights in Bangladesh.
A recent report in a Gulf paper highlighted the miserable condition of Mian Channu's Pakistani Biharis, who along with their brethren in Bangladesh represent the horrors of the double partition that they faced while other communities uprooted in the aftermath of the 1947 division have prospered and moved on.
The report cited the plight of 60-year-old Manzar Husain, who arrived in Mian Channu in 1993, leaving behind his 6-year-old daughter, now a mother of three. He expected her to be on the next flight to Pakistan, but that was not to be and has not since seen her. Further repatriation was halted and Husain has lost all hopes of seeing his daughter and grandchildren.
The National reported that Mian Channu's Bihari colony is now a slum and Punjabis now occupy most of the two-room apartments constructed for Biharis.
But Kamran Asdar Ali, a US-based Pakistani academic whose parents had migrated from Bihar, argued that the community is very diverse in Pakistan. "... Biharis in Pakistan are in all walks of life, from the most wealthy and influential to the most- lowly urban poor, much like in India. Biharis are in the Indian Civil service or are getting admission to St Stephens College, but then there are the rickshaw drivers in Kolkata and the migrant labour in Mumbai. Same in Pakistan."
Scholar and anti-colonial activist Eqbal Ahmad, who was born in Bihar's Sasaram, was among the prominent Pakistani-Biharis, who earned international acclaim.
Ali said Biharis have been given a "politically available identity of being Mohajir", which, he added, "by all means is a constructed ethnicity — a family that migrated from Madras or Bombay is also Mohajir and those who migrated from Bihar or UP are also Mohajirs".
But Bihari Quami Movement was formed a few years earlier in Karachi, which is perhaps indicative of the community's attempt to assert its separate identity.
The academic said most Pakistani-Biharis may not know about Nitish, his visit and what he has done in Bihar. "But his coming to Pakistan may change that."
It could also reinforce another shared heritage in the public consciousness of India and Pakistan having more in common than what divides them to further cement the bilateral engagement that now seems to be looking up again.
Over eight years later, Bihar chief ministerNitish Kumar would take the same route to Pakistan for a five-day visit. Like Amarinder, he may not feel as much culturally at home elsewhere in Pakistan, but parts of its economic hub ofKarachi would be an exception. The city has a sizable Bihari population that had retained its distinct identity despite being clubbed with ethnic Urdu-speakers of the Sindh province and its capital Karachi.
Abdul Kadir Khanzada, who represents Orangi Town in Pakistan's parliament, said he would like to welcome Nitish to his constituency, where a majority of over a million people have their roots in Bihar. "Though my family came from Alwar in Rajputana (Rajasthan) but 70% of my voters are those with roots in Bihar, who would relate to the chief minister's visit," he told TOI from Karachi, which the CM would visit as part of his itinerary.
He said his party had always supported peace process with India and hoped Nitish's visit would boost the ties. "I would speak to my leader in parliament, Farooq Sattar, and see whether we could invite Nitish Kumar to connect with people who have roots in his state."
Biharis have enriched Karachi's cosmopolitan culture and their imprint on the city is perhaps best reflected in making famed Bihari kebabs an integral part of its culinary attractions.
The place where the early immigrants from Bihar settled after the Partition is still known as Bihar colony in Karachi's Layari Town. Mostly well-off immigrants managed to reach Karachi, then Pakistani capital, following riots in Bihar in the run up to the partition and the rest of about three million found it easier to crossover to then East Pakistan - Bangladesh. Around 163,000 of them were repatriated to Pakistan in 70s and 80s after Bangladesh's liberation as they were accused of being collaborators, targeted and faced linguistic discrimination.
Most repatriated Biharis were settled in Orangi Town. Nearly 800,000 Biharis had declared themselves as Pakistanis after the 71 liberation and most had sought to settle in Pakistan.
The repatriation of Biharis to Pakistan was stopped in the 80s after bloody ethnic riots over it that further tilted the politico-ethnic balance in favour of Karachi's dominant Urdu-speaking people and Mutthida Quami Movement, the country's third largest party representing them.
The process started briefly in the 1990s when 321 Biharis were brought to Pakistan on the condition that they would settle in Punjab. A Bihari colony was set up for them 370-km fromIslamabad at Mian Channu in Punjab's Khanewal district. Successive Pakistani governments have since gone back on their promise to bring back an estimated 300,000 million Biharis, also known as stranded Pakistanis, who live in 66 camps without citizenship rights in Bangladesh.
A recent report in a Gulf paper highlighted the miserable condition of Mian Channu's Pakistani Biharis, who along with their brethren in Bangladesh represent the horrors of the double partition that they faced while other communities uprooted in the aftermath of the 1947 division have prospered and moved on.
The report cited the plight of 60-year-old Manzar Husain, who arrived in Mian Channu in 1993, leaving behind his 6-year-old daughter, now a mother of three. He expected her to be on the next flight to Pakistan, but that was not to be and has not since seen her. Further repatriation was halted and Husain has lost all hopes of seeing his daughter and grandchildren.
The National reported that Mian Channu's Bihari colony is now a slum and Punjabis now occupy most of the two-room apartments constructed for Biharis.
But Kamran Asdar Ali, a US-based Pakistani academic whose parents had migrated from Bihar, argued that the community is very diverse in Pakistan. "... Biharis in Pakistan are in all walks of life, from the most wealthy and influential to the most- lowly urban poor, much like in India. Biharis are in the Indian Civil service or are getting admission to St Stephens College, but then there are the rickshaw drivers in Kolkata and the migrant labour in Mumbai. Same in Pakistan."
Scholar and anti-colonial activist Eqbal Ahmad, who was born in Bihar's Sasaram, was among the prominent Pakistani-Biharis, who earned international acclaim.
Ali said Biharis have been given a "politically available identity of being Mohajir", which, he added, "by all means is a constructed ethnicity — a family that migrated from Madras or Bombay is also Mohajir and those who migrated from Bihar or UP are also Mohajirs".
But Bihari Quami Movement was formed a few years earlier in Karachi, which is perhaps indicative of the community's attempt to assert its separate identity.
The academic said most Pakistani-Biharis may not know about Nitish, his visit and what he has done in Bihar. "But his coming to Pakistan may change that."
It could also reinforce another shared heritage in the public consciousness of India and Pakistan having more in common than what divides them to further cement the bilateral engagement that now seems to be looking up again.
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