Abstract
Analysing narratives as a site of identity constructions and negotiation is an expanding genre in the field of linguistics. The present study explores the Mohajir identity of Urdu Speaking in Pakistan through the narratives of the natives. This research is a qualitative analysis of the narratives that are formed through the semi structured private interviews of Urdu Speaking Mohajir/ immigrants in Pakistan. The interpretive analysis of the interviews reflected the subjective reception of the discursive practices, which were found to be negative and the term “Mohajir” was declared to have an undesirable connotation with the associated discourses having a similar impact. The study recommends that the word “Mohajir” should be excluded from the everyday discourse. There is a need for avoidance of the racist, exclusionary and discriminatory discourses and discursive practices because such discourses eventually become public and generate anti-immigrant sentiments. At the same time discourses of unification should be promoted so as to establish harmonious discursive practices for a peaceful coexistence of different ethnic and linguistic groups living in Pakistan.
Highlights
Defined by the census of Pakistan, 1951, “A Mohajir is a person who has moved into Pakistan as a result of partition or for the fear of disturbances connected therewith”
The present study explores the Mohajir identity of Urdu Speaking in Pakistan through the narratives of the natives
The present study explores this Mohajir identity through the narratives of the natives
Summary
Defined by the census of Pakistan, 1951, “A Mohajir is a person who has moved into Pakistan as a result of partition or for the fear of disturbances connected therewith”. The term Mohajir remained tagged with immigrants who came from the north, west and central provinces of India. These immigrants were in minority in the total post-partition migration. “Mohajir ethnicity became synonymous with the new political identity of the descendants of Urdu speaking Indian migrants who settled in Urban Sindh” The term “Urdu Speaking” was coined because most of the people who migrated from the minority provinces of India and settled in Sindh spoke Urdu or some dialect of it as their mother tongue, though there were immigrants in good number from Gujrat and Bombay whose mother tongue was not Urdu, this new identity formation was more a social construct than a natural one
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