6 - Questioning Muslim Nationalism

Summary

The predicament of Muhajir national recognition was brought into sharp relief for me one winter evening in Karachi, circa 2009, when I stumbled upon a talk show dedicated to the theme of “language and power” (zubaan aur hukmaraan) on a local private satellite television channel. It featured poets representing each of Pakistan's major regional languages, including Sindhi, Balochi, Punjabi, Pashtu, and Urdu, deliberately and favorably highlighting the country's ethnolinguistic diversity. Despite this, Urdu's status as a universalizing “bridge language” was on full display in this setting, as each poet recited a work in their respective regional mother tongue, followed by a lively discussion in Urdu on the commonalities and differences of imagery, form, and political subject matter.

What caught my attention, however, was the presence of a self-identified “Muhajir poet” in a show dedicated to Pakistan's marginalized native poetic cultures. His delivery was in the kind of chaste “Urdu-e-Mualla” that Pakistan's largely non-Urdu-speaking population has grown accustomed to hearing since the advent of state-run radio and television. Although the gentleman's recitation was delivered in Urdu, his comments stood apart from the other panelists in that he did not emphasize the linguistic particularity of Urdu or Muhajirs. The verse's subject matter was more political and existential in character, casting Muhajirs as beings who had crossed a “river of fire” (aag ka darya) to live in Pakistan. Addressing an immediate and impersonal audience made up of the country's native ethnolinguistic communities, the Muhajir poet expressed grievance – “but you still see us as foreign” (tum abhi bhi ghair samajhte ho) – tinged with defiance: “this land is our final place of refuge (thikaana).” The potency of the Muhajir Qaumi Movement (MQM) poet's recitation elicited audible calls of appreciation from the non-Muhajir panelists (“wah! wah!”), suggesting a flow of aesthetic and moral acknowledgment of the collective history being portrayed. This scene of aesthetic recognition was short-lived, however. Later in the program, the Muhajir poet suggested that Muhajirs were “that nation (wo qaum) that brought people from the lower middle classes into power.” To this, two of the panelists politely replied in unison, as if to clarify a factual error: “Muhajirs are not a nation (muhajir aik qaum nahi hain).”