Karachi and its charisma
Muhammad Ali Siddiqi
AAJ Karachi ki Kahani, Volume I pages: 412 prices: Rs 100 Vol II pages 432, prices: Rs 100 Published by Aaj ki Kitabain, B-37, Block 5, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Karachi. Phones: 811 3474, e-mail aaj@biruni.erum.com.pk This is the story of Karachi — retold not by historians but by writers, poets and journalists. Since the tellers are many, some of them immigrants, others first-generation resi dents, a handful of original settlers (this means the tellers, actually scribes, are Sindhis, Urdu-speaking settlers, Pathans and Britons, and, yes, Mohajirs, and their children) there is bound to be some diver sity in ideas and angles of vision. To those tales richness and substance is provided by the list of authors — a list that ensures adequate representation to all. What is more, it covers a time-span of almost 300 years in the history of Karachi. The credit for this statutory bal ancing act, obviously, goes to Ajmal Kamal and Zeenat Hisam, whose search for documentation has taken many years to materialise. There is neither too much of history, nor too much of sociology here. But then there is enough, and perhaps, more than what is palatable to most of the three. That a publisher should be found for the narrators, too, for you have nei ther any Ajmal Kamal on the list, nor, predictably, Zeenat Hisam. But you have not too many journalists. Instead, a very impressive list of authors whose arti cles, interviews, narratives, etc from a number of books and periodicals have been put together to paint as true a picture as possible of the city’s evolution from its humble beginning as a fishermen’s village to the world’s biggest cities. In fact, it is only after the three centuries have been encapsulated — those who have dwelled in Karachi in the 19th cen tury and after, e.g. the Britishers, the Parsi merchant, Seth Naomal, the Hin du merchants, Sindhi gentlemen with their walking sticks, and so on and so forth — with the first batch of correspon dence politicians and men of letters, to be precise that you get the full feel of the city. The result is a compendium on Karachi: a hundred years hence, this two-vol ume compilation will serve as a source of basic information about this megalopo lis. The book shames us, for how little we know of the city we live in; how we nourished ourselves, unknowingly perhaps, mostly on prejudice, about the nature of the people who inhabited this city. Hindus, it is generally felt, for instance, were the most predominant lot: they ran the trade and commerce, they did not own land, swindled bells in their tem ples, and did things like that. But here you find documentary evidence that at the time of partition the Hindus were about 50 per cent of the city’s total agricul tural land, and another 40 per cent was woodland or fallow. The logic, even if you are not given any evidence, was perhaps begun by the Britishers for dispelling rumours about a series of executions, for the “rebels” of the 1857 war had been taken out and shot, and that was that. But let us not jump time, lest we escape the argument: how did the fishing village of the 18th century grow into the present-day megalopolis that is modern Karachi. Those who tell us about Karachi’s ori gins include translations from the works of expression, in the nine narrations are Naomal Hurchand, John Brunton, K. R. Malkani, R. Hughes (a translation from the gazette), and Arif Hasan. But the treat ment is not strictly on city lines alone. You read different versions (all in English, and seem to be more or less faithful to the original) about Karachi, the fishing village; how the city grew; the Talpur conquest (or the battle, according to one version); what the city had when the former had a wall with fresh water, and how “sweet water” springs that made the city an island, supplied the needs of a wall; the bombardment of the city by British forces and its surrender to the Talpurs; Napier’s “sin” in 1843; the devel opment of city infrastructure; the first newspaper. Arif Hasan, while exploring the social consequences of Sindh’s admin istrative set-up, talks about this. Harchand’s story, translated from Sindhi (The History of Karachi, an address given in 1937 at the Young standard Hindu role during the British rule, etc., in Volume I) sets the trend: an attempt to hide his hatred for Muslim rulers in general and a praise for British rule and ethics. But the Britishers come out as great scoundrels — a point hon estly reflected by all in 1. K. R. Malkani, who migrated to India from Pakistan (he is now a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party). A compendium on Karachi : a hundred years hence, this two-volume compilation will serve as a source of basic information about this megalopolis Napier, he says, was essentially a looter and had come to amass as much one could, and depart… to this end every means was justified (p 34, Vol I). The most fascinating part of the first volume contains articles about the evolution of the city’s trade and com merce between the last 19th and the early 20th century. But it also traces the emergence of Pakhtun on the other. This volume is a translation (from Urdu) by Zeenat Hisam and also has an essay by Dadija and Subrab Katrek — all translat ed into English by Zeenat, and two by Rashed, which was in Sindhi. In Volume II, Arif Hasan has disag gregated the city as it grew, dwelling more on the city’s civic development and land-use problems than pure growth pat terns. His piece is valuable, for it reads lively and manufactured because of his interaction with the people in some of the well-organised and humane city that Karachi was. Arif has captured Karachi, in fact. When he drove it, pedestrians jumped out of the way; when he rode, all kinds came to Karachi from the interior of Sindh or even from outside (1843); and when he got inside a “native”, the town was a hunting ground, with the exception of one instance in history, where the entire commercial activity in Saddar was the monopoly of British officers and their attendants. A galaxy of writers gives political and social history: M. A. Jinnah, Z. A. Bhutto (from his book “The Great Tragedy”), G. M. Syed (from his jail diary), Dr. Feroz Ahmed (a 1972 profile on ethnic elements by Fahmida Riaz), Hatim Alvi and A.K. Brohi (from his book “Testament of a liberal”); pieces on the maker of modern Karachi, Jamshed Nusserwanjee). Mir Imdad Ali’s “Anis-ul-Musafreen”, a travelogue of sorts on Karachi,” translated from Persian by Fahmida Riaz. Akhtar Hameed Khan, who was also based in Karachi for long, reminisces about the Karachi of her child hood. Before we come to Arif Hasan and Fahmida Riaz (to be more remarkable about this volume of translations by A. Hasan Manzar (25 North, 67 East ) about modern Karachi?), we must note, first, what Arif means by “native” Karachi. He experienced it, and when he returned 37 years later, his account, again translated by Asad Mohammed Khan about Saddar. M. Yusuf P. K. “Pathans of Karachi” is a very good translation (by a whole lot of bookshops, Indus Coffee House, George V, and a number of other things that vanished bread that was an intrinsic part of the city’s culture), apart from the… Arif’s narrative (which is in itself a story) captures the city’s modern history and how it was seen by its immigrants: its jargon and dialogue, where needed. Zeenat, who has translated many of the pieces, says she had to “inhabit paranoia and vomit prejudices.” When he said “she made it all,” she was referring, in his own way, to his “Lament for the Fall-out of Agra” (p 58 Volume II). There is irony, bitterness and sarcasm which all ethnic and religious chauvinists must necessarily reproduce: there is no blunt truth they contain. Longer on in this piece, however, is a quotation from an abeas of four sentences. … from the prayer-rug, on which our city is “the city of light”, to the “present blood-curdling slogan (now commonly known as “the city of darkness”)… “Migrant lands-born and bred in Karachi dialogue that” (Arif Hasan, p 243, Vol II). Most of the early Sindhis (from western India) had the same arrogance and man ners as the immigrants (p 243). “By this time, the city itself had had completed over half a century since… Sindhi, Gujarati, Memon, Parsi, Kutchi, had been branded traitor and Indian agent,” (p 250). … The city had, apart from the Indian agents, Pathans, Balochi, Sindhi… Fakir Habib Jalib, Mazhar Ali Khan and Habib Ibrahim Jalees no longer than the combined list of traitors was long… and even they had to escape the city (p 275). … “and the earth split asunder, and four tongues came.” “What are you doing, old woman, in this land of blood,” (Vol II, p 278). “Blood-letting, my son, on this ocean of blood.” “What will you do with the blood — in this spray of blood?” “What will I do in this spray of blood?” “What will I do in this spray of blood?” “I will make money in this spray of blood” (p 279), “this ocean of blood” (in this spray of blood” (p 62, Vol II). In addition, this volume consists of four pieces, all except one translated into English. Three are original English interest in sociology, Arif examines the issue from many angles. Also, he is the first to directly trace the cause of the continuous changes in the Indian acts on the demographic situation to the changing political reality. He is also the first with the changes in architecture since the Afghan War, e.g., “high-rise apartments and the use of the term ‘flats'”. He cites the gross violation of basic norms of plan ning, “the conversion of refugee ‘town ships’, the uncontrolled spread of ‘squatters’ colonies, the disappearance of ‘green’ belts, public ‘maidans’, ‘parks’, the water traps for animals… He presents Karachi’s total environmental degradation and notes anomalies harder: “the city has been redesigned by the military.” Trucks, buses, hand-carts, push carts, fruit stands, powerful lobbies and mafias, even “rampant corruption”. But since they does not control civic development as it did, there must be a change of heart, otherwise… “it is the shopkeepers sabotaged many vehicles: they blockaded all public areas and their directions” (p 411). Packed with demographic data is his piece “Lyari: The Fading Glory,” about a village that grew to become Subrab Goth. Here he meets people from all walks of life, including Pathans and the newly arriv ing Afghan refugees, in whose wake came the drug mafia and “Afghan” Mohmonds. They were all peaceful people. “But today, things are different,” he adds. “Subrab GTwo decades ago, a number of drug smugglers. He blames the fed eral and provincial agencies, which will ingly bungling the job, and pulling down all legal structures, e.g. the KDA, the KMC, the police… their officers work in the Aligarh and Qasbah Colony massacre of 1986.” About tender hearts, Teenveen Siddiqi laments (p 316) that the city has lost its soul, for it “shelters robbers, car thieves, harbour criminals, terrorists, drug push ers, gun-runners, pimps” (p 323). He quotes a former police chief who advocates “stop ping by providing skilled and semi skilled labour” (p 328), and “setting up for bogus schools,” typists for computers, and setting up all sorts of shops (p 332). Arif concludes (p 430) on a hopeful note: “There may be truth in this, but it will be a long time before this city will ever… “virtually every home is a workshop” (p 432)…” (Vol II, p 432). (For a detailed discussion on this aspect, see “The basis of Karachi’s economic activity” (p 232, Vol II)). Asif Farrukhi’s and Mera Tully’s (three) translations from sampling modern poetry — Gujarati, Sindhi, Punjabi, Christians, in the form of inter views, and an abstract from a paper read at a seminar are also included. Ajmal and Zeenat contribute to the book (Vol II) with a long list of book format, translations, and original writings. It comprises detailed translations from Zeenat’s original Urdu text in Vol I, while Zeenat’s account of a quiet and gentle people, “The Gujaratis,” is a tril ogy. She presents Mohar for what it is — a collection of translations from English, and a translation of his wife’s own sen sitive apparatus. There is very little that one can say by way of a criticism of this book. Even then, the book, as a collection of transla tions, suffers from the problem that the need for including some historic phe nomenon was felt, while the selection did not… “it is the only book that I can think of coming out with a bound volume, with a map” (p 200, Vol I). Period maps and a sociological data are not included.
