BOOK REVIEW: Minority communities and Karachi by Khaled Ahmed (http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\04\06\story_6-4-2008_pg3_4)
Role of Minorities in Nation-Building with Focus on Karachi
By Ahmed Salim Church World Service Pakistan/Afghanistan 2007;
Pp242
Out of Karachi's total Hindu population of 9,000, the merchant class dominated. Hindu merchants in Karachi were more prosperous than their counterparts in other parts of Sindh. They were mostly from the Lohano clan which was affiliated to the Waishya caste
The non-Muslims of Pakistan have had a raw deal since 1947 when they decided to remain in the new state. Ahmed Salim with his usual investigative nose to the ground has told the story of their betrayal at the hands of Muslim politicians who had no idea what will happen to their values after independence. Hindus, Christians, Sikhs and Parsis have been short-changed by the Pakistan Muslim League on a moderate programme; the party succumbed to the hardline religious politics of the very clerics who had opposed the idea of Pakistan.
The state got out of hand after 1947 and threatened the non-Muslims, and then gradually journeyed towards eating its own children. The Ahmedi leader Zafrullah Khan assured the Hindu members of the Constituent Assembly in 1949 that the Objectives Resolution was not meant to hurt them, and then saw them abandoned by the state.
The Shias too got together with the Sunnis after 1973 to apostatise the Ahmedis, thinking the state would accept them. By 1985, the state began to support organisations that demanded the apostatisation of the Shia community too. The next in line are the Ismailis, Bohras and Bahais. Pakistan in this mode is like a snake eating its own tail.
The most moving story is that of the Anglo-Indian Christians who decided to stay back in a caste-free Pakistan. They thought since they were mostly involved in education and health and serving mostly Muslims — in addition to picking up their rubbish — they would be spared the wrath of extremists. But Muslim politicians, after being educated in Christian missionary schools — as is the case of Nawaz Sharif — forced death as minimum punishment for blasphemy even when they knew that the law was being used against poor Christians. Ahmed Salim's account is moving in the extreme.
In Lahore, CW Forman was busy providing religious instruction and educational facilities, assisted by six of his missionaries including Pandit Gokal Nath Chatterjee, Radha Raman and Kalicharan Chatterjee. The opened schools in many other cities too, including one in Karachi in 1862. Adult literacy centres were also started by them.
Sisters of Jesus & Mary opened their own convent schools in Murree (1872) and Lahore (1876), and, in 1882-83, the Saint Thomas College commenced its classes. At about the same time schools were started in Hyderabad and Multan, while a girls' school came into being at Rawalpindi. Forman remained busy in Lahore for 45 years. He died in Kasauli in 1894 and was buried in Lahore.
One Wellesley Bailey collected 600 pounds in England and established a mission in India exclusively for aid and treatment of lepers. He went back in 1882, but then he collected another 348 pounds (of which his own contribution was 14 pounds) and dispatched the amount to Wazirabad for the education of children who were new converts to Christianity.
His work was followed up by his son, Graham Bailey, who came out to Punjab as a missionary and acquired scholarly fame as an expert in Punjabi. He compiled a grammar of the language which is still regarded as a basic reference book. His daughter married Dr L Taylor who set up a mission hospital in Jalalpur.
The Parsees came to be known as such in the 19th century. People often say of them: "Parsee, thy second name is philanthropy!" But one can say that about all the communities who came to Karachi from Gujarat. The traders and businessmen of Gujarat — the state of Akbar's Todar Mal — were the most intellectually advanced people in India and deserved to rule it but had to make way for the warriors of the north instead.
All Gujaratis of Karachi are famous for their philanthropy. In the words of Ardeshir Cowasjee, his great grandfather, Hormusjee Jamshedjee Rustamjee used to say that it is the duty of the prosperous to look after their less fortunate brethren. He was a member of the municipality for a long time and also represented the public on the Board of Karachi Port Trust.
Dadabhoy Naurojee and his close companions — Bayramjee Malabar Sorabjee Shahpurjee Bengali, Kaikhusro N Kabraji, and Khurshidjee R Kama — were in the forefront of the Parsee efforts for welfare works in the field of education and health in Karachi and Sindh. KR Kama was also devoted to religious reform and set up the Rahnuma-e-Mazda Yasir Sabha.
Reference must be made to Edulji Dinshaw's philanthropy. In 1885, when Lady Dufferin, wife of the Viceroy, launched an appeal for funds to build hospitals for women in various parts of India, Dinshaw, who had already set up two hospitals in Sindh, came up with a grant of Rs 50,000. When this proved inadequate, he gave another 35,000!
In 1839, Khwajas and Memons numbered 350 in Karachi. But by 1847, Karachi had a big concentration of Khwajas with 300 families.. The Memons were originally Cutchi Hindus who converted to Islam as Sunnis, settling in Karachi, Hyderabad and Sehwan. When the Karachi Municipality was set up in 1852, its first managing committee had eight members including three Muslims. Of the three Muslims, one was a Memon named Saibena Memon, the other was a Bohra, Sheikh Ghulam Husein, and the third, Kazi Noor Muhammad, was a Sindhi.
Out of Karachi's total Hindu population of 9,000, the merchant class dominated. Hindu merchants in Karachi were more prosperous than their counterparts in other parts of Sindh. They were mostly from the Lohano clan which was affiliated to the Waishya caste. In 1933, Karachi Municipality was accorded the status of Karachi Municipal Corporation. Hindu, Muslim and Parsi communities played important roles in it.
Harichand Rai Vishildas, a Hindu, remained the elected President of Municipality from 1911 to 1921. Famous Parsi figure, Jamshed Nussarwanji held the post from 1922 to 1933. He also remained Mayor in 1933-34. The other Parsi mayors include KB Ardeshir H Mama in 1936-37, R K Sidhwa in 1939-40, Sohrab KH Katrak in 1942-43.
The untouchable leader and Pakistan's first Minister for Law & Labour, Jogendra Nath Mandal, bemoaned the fact that the cruel hands of "fate" had snatched the Quaid just when Pakistan and the minority communities most needed him. He was in for more shock when Maulana Shabbir Ahmed Usmani in the Constituent Assembly told him that non-Muslims could not hold key posts and had to pay a special tax, jiziya.
In March 1993 the then prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, declared the Objectives Resolution affixed to the wall of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. But the text thus affixed omitted the word 'freely' when it spoke of the freedom of the non-Muslims to pursue their religions. *
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