BENGALEES OF KARACHI
DRONA BANDYOPADHYAY The Bengali speaking community is one of the largest ethno-linguistic community in the Indian subcontinent. They are settled across the world due to series of migration from Bengal to other parts of India and also to the other countries since colonial period. Since Bengal came first under the British colonial rule due to her flourishing pre-modern industrial and mercantile economy and lucrative geo-strategic location in the Induan subcontinent the Bengalees were foremost in availing the opportunities offered by the imperialist British rulers. The Hindu upper caste Bengalees who were historically educated and collectively quite brilliant to accept and utilise new opportunities started to migrate to different cities and towns of India. This was why Hindu Bengali settlements were found from Peshawar to Rangoon and Karachi to Kanyakumari. After the religion based partition of 1947 the Hindu Bengalees left those cities and towns which became part of western Pakistan including Karachi, Quetta, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Lahore, etc. But the brilliance of their renascent enlightenment has left a deep influence intellectual influence in the future life of Pakistan, the newly created Muslim homeland for Muslims of Indian subcontinent . The Nobel Prize winning world famous physicist Dr. Abdus Salam had credited his teacher Prof. Anilendranath Ganguly of Lahore Government College for his stupendous achievement. This singular incident can be exemplified as an epitome of Hindu Bengali contribution in the intellectual development of Pakistani enlightened societal strata. The Muslim Bengalees started to arrive in Karachi during the British period when coastal city was started to be developed as a centre of fishing and trade within the colonial province of Bombay. The fishermen from Noakhali, Chittagong and other impoverished districts of southern and Eastern Bengal came to Karachi for fishing and other laborious jobs. Kazi Nazrul Islam, the most famous Muslim poet of Bengal, also lived in Karachi for a short period of time. During the first World War (1914-1918) he joined in British Indian Army and enlisted in 49 Bengal Regiment. As a soldier he was posted in Karachi and lived in the city from 1917 to 1920. His first prose ‘ Baunduler Atmokahini’ which was published in Saogat in May, 1929 and first poem ‘Mukti’ published in Bangiya Musolman Sahitya Patrika in July, 1919 were written in Karachi. Nazrul also learnt Persian language from a Punjabi Islamic cleric in karachi too. So it can be opined that the city of Karachi had played a significant path-breaking role to evolve the rich and radiant literary production of Nazrul in Bengali literature and music. Pakistan was created in August, 1947. Karachi was selected as the capital of Pakistan. In 1948 Karachi metropolitan area was declared as Federal Capital Territory. From 1948 to 1959 Karachi had remained as national capital and main centre of trade , commerce and industry. Due to this reason people from East Pakistan came in droves to settle and work in the city. The newly emerging Muslim Bengali middle class came to Karachi to work in different government offices including National Secretariat, Karachi Port Trust, State Bank of Pakistan, etc. Many more educated people came from eastern Bengal to work in private sector as Karachi was the economic hub of the country. Many poor people from the eastern wing of Pakistan came to Karachi to work in industrial and fishing sectors in large numbers. After 1971 most of the educated Muslim had decided to go back to independent Bangladesh. The family of Runa Laila also migrated to Dhaka despite her highly successful career in film industry of Lahore and non -playback music industry of Karachi. In early 1970s her popularity was next to legendary Madam Noor Jahan as female playback singer. Not only Runa Laila but also Shehnaz Begum also left Karachi for Dhaka. She also had a quite successful musical career in Pakistan. She is still regarded as ‘Sohni Dharti Girl’ of 1970s as her version of patriotic song ‘ Sohni Dharti Allah Rakhe ‘ composed by highly talented music director Sohail Rana. During the grave political crisis and eventually civil war of 1971 in Pakistan which resulted in brutal destruction of life and property in East Bengal the then celebrated Bengali public figures based not only in Karachi like Runa Laila but also in Lahore like Shabnam and Robin Ghosh took a very indifferent stand on the savage stream of incidents which ravaged East Bengal but paved the political way for independent Bangladesh at the end through the disintegration of Pakistan. The creation of Bangladesh in early 1970s did not stop the migration of poor and unskilled people to come to Karachi in search of livelihood. It is estimated that about 30 lakhs of Bengalees live in Karachi and nearly all of them are poor and unskilled. These Muslim Bengalees have founded 132 colonies of their own for living . Most of them have little access to education and job oriented skill development. They live in inhuman conditions with no availability of basic amenities of life like drinking water, sewerage system, etc. These basic amenities of life are a distant dream to them. The Karachi based Bengalees are patriotic Pakistanis and and stand for the ideals and objectives of Pakistani state. They regard themselves as Muslims first and do not want to go back to Bangladesh which was created by dividing their beloved Pakistan which they call in Urdu ‘ Pyarey Pakistan’. But they have a connection with Bangladesh. Sometimes many of them visit to their ancestral village in Bangladesh in order to spend some days or weeks with their relations. They use Bangladeshi products like pan, jarda, lungi, saree, etc. which are essential objects of Bengali way of life. These Bengalees of Karachi also opened small shops in their colonies like Chittagong Colony, Machhar Colony to sell traditional Bangladeshi products and eateries across different parts of Karachi to offer popular Bangladeshi snacks like samosa, jilipi, peyaju, moya, etc. and cooked food items like bhat, different kinds of bharta, bhaji and fish. Due to nearly total migration …
