Importance of Karachi in Pakistani literature Essay

Discuss the connection between 1947 partition and the fiction of second generation writings. In 1947 partition when people started to migrate to the highest degree of the Urdu speaking settled in Karachi. The local Sindhis were not very literate besides laborers, workers etc but when the Urdu speaking migrated, most of them were highly educated, thus the white collar jobs were given to them. This gave rise to a major conflict between the local Sindhis and the Muhajirs. Mujajirs were looked upon with hatred because the local people plan theyve snatched their rights. There was a tussle between the two groups. Karachi was becoming the battleground of ethnicity. Karachi is the biggest metropolis of the country with its economic, industrial and financial hub and the main commercial port. According to past times census, half of Karachis 8.9 million states had Urdu as its mother tongue, another quarter was made up of speakers of Pashtu and Punjabi while Sindhis were just five per cent o f the population of the capital of Sindh, and half of them constituted in the suburban area of Malir.On the other hand, Karachi had more Pashtuns than Peshawar, the capital of Pakhtunkhwa In late 70s and early 80s in that respect were economic issues over the country and the workers from different areas migrated to Karachi, especially the Pathan and Punjabi purely of economic reason. Most of the transport system was dominated by Pathans so it was a blow for the local Sindhis that these strangers are coming to our cities snf tking jobs that belong to us. Same was the case with the Punjabis. They were laborours who used to work on low wages but the main thing was that they were employed. Karachi is a multiethnic, multilingual, multicultural and multireligious metropolitan city. There are many communities in Karachi.There are Ethnic minoritiesSectarian minoritiesReligious minoritiesSame thing was happening with the karachians as it was with Bengalis. Bengalis were immigrants on 194 7 but in 1971 they were once again asked to leave the country and move to Bangladesh. There was ethnic crisis in Karachi in 1980s and 1990s. It was really hard to live there at that time. Every single day people were massacred. When you have grudges in your mind, it multiplies, you cant forget about it. These conflicts are highlighted inKamila Shamsies novels as well as in Tawfeeq Rafats poems. In his poem Karachi 1968 he writes,No, I do not think I shall come in hurtWith this grey protrude. It shortens my breathAnd pinches my eyes.According to Tawfeeq Rafat, Karachi is a dead city. There is no activity there except that of violence. There is eco melancholia everywhere. Jonathan Raban has described city into two types. lumbering city Material fabric of built environment.Soft city individualized interpretation of city.So when the karachians dream about Karachi, how it will return to its normal place is example of soft city. Likewise Tawfeeq Rafat talks about a positive region. Chil dren salute smartly as we pass,And the old women gathering faggotsHave a smiling to spare for the stranger.The people of Karachi never truly got independence. They are suffering from 1947 till now. All they do is hope for a positive region where they can live happily, where they are not taunted for being a muhajir, where they can live a peaceful life according to their own will and all these things are highlighted by the second generation writers. They refer back to 1947 because all of this started from that point.