HISTORY AND GROWTH OF VULNERABLE COMMUNITES

Colonization Partition

What makes Karachi’s growth unique is its history of forced migration and geopolitical crisis. Being located near the mouth of the Indus River, Karachi was a small fishing village in the 18th century. Not until the late 1700’s did the settlement begin to function as a trading port. As the city expanded, the British East India Company captured the city for its geographically advantageous location on the Arabian Sea and naturally protected harbor. Infrastructure improvements followed British annexation in 1842 resulting in a network of railroads connecting Karachi to the hinterland of Pakistan and the adjacent Delhi-Punjab network. Functioning as a thriving seaport as well as airport, Karachi became the economic center for the Sindh region. (Khan, 2022)

As World War II came to a close, rising tension between the British Empire and the colonized region of India resulted in India’s independence in 1947. Two countries were created: Pakistan, separated into east and west, and India. Today, West Pakistan is modern day Pakistan, and East Pakistan is modern day Bangladesh. This division was created to separate the Muslim minority from the Hindu majority as British rule segregated these religious communities through political processes breeding conflict between the once peacefully coexisting groups.

The splitting of India came to be known as the Partition, one of the deadliest and most violent events in Indian and Pakistani history. (Roy, 2021). Estimates of the event vary widely, ranging from two hundred thousand to two million people who lost their lives during the chaotic and forced migration. Approximately 14 to 16 million people were displaced as Muslims moved to Pakistan and Hindus moved to India. (Ansari, 2022)

PARTITION (CONT.)

The Partition created massive migration and displacement, pushing Karachi towards becoming one of the largest megacities in the world and contributing to the creation of informal settlements around the growing city. By 1951, the city had over doubled in population size, having a growth rate of 9.4 percent year over year. Approximately 900,000 refugees, primarily Urdu speaking Muslims known as the Muhajir, entered the city dividing the property left behind by the 230,000 Hindus who left Karachi.

The imbalance of infrastructure from the population that left compared to the population that entered caused urban densities to skyrocket. Homes designed for single families had to be divided to make room for the sudden growth in population. With the majority of the population leaving Karachi, only 16 percent of the inhabitants at the time were native-born and the region became religiously homogeneous in a once diverse landscape (United Nations, 1988).

Internal Migration

The Partition produced a substantial migration of refugees and many of them found home in Karachi, however, this would not be the last time Karachi saw growth through populations fleeing their homes looking for safety and opportunity. Due to the infrastructural investments during British rule and the connection to longstanding trade routes, Karachi became the main economic driver for Pakistan and from 1947 to 1959 became Pakistan’s capital city. Shortly after, Rawalpindi became capital followed by Islamabad which has remained as the capital ever since. This change in the capital city did not stop Karachi’s growth as industry started to develop around the main ports, further evolving the economy. Although the migration between India and Pakistan eventually stalled over border disputes, Karachi continued to grow.

People who migrated to Pakistan, but not to Karachi, found themselves in an overburdened agriculture sector unable to find sustainable work. With too many workers and not enough land to cultivate, people looked elsewhere for employment and made their way to Karachi (United Nations, 1988). By 1960, Pakistan’s urban population only accounted for around 22 percent of the population. That ratio has continued to climb and presently is around 37 percent (World Bank, 2018).

Bangladesh Independence Afghanistan Instability

In 1971, the Bangladeshi liberation war broke out forcing people to flee genocide and relocate primarily in India and Pakistan. Bangladesh, or East Pakistan, was unfairly represented in the national political system and began to protest the 1970 election. Civil unrest stirred over talks of representation resulting in Pakistan carrying out the atrocity known as Operation Searchlight. Pakistani soldiers murdered an estimated 3 million Bangladeshi citizens causing a massive refugee crisis (Boissoneault, 2016). This isolated Bengali people in Pakistan and they became faced with extreme discrimination.

Even today, ethnic Bengali people in Pakistan are not recognized as citizens and no longer have a country to go home to as they are a part of an era when there was more than one Pakistan. Even though many people have been living in Pakistan for over 40 years, they are still fighting for citizenship and legal identification (Maryam, 2021).

It is estimated that over 200,000 Bengali people live in Karachi, however, because of the lack of identification and civil rights given to ethnic Bangladeshi people, it is a difficult population to track (Hashim, 2018). Likely, this estimation is below the actual population count.

Looking on to the 1980’s until the present, the next major population increase came from refugees fleeing the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Roughly 3.7 million Afghans fled to Pakistan, around 600,000 to Karachi (Hasan, 2010). This rapid migration caused substantial growth for Karachi, placing more demand on the already straining infrastructural system.

Currently, Afghan families that have lived in Karachi for decades are facing many of the same problems as the Bengali people. Afghan and Bengali children born in Pakistan are not given citizenship, which creates populations that do not have national identification and therefore very little rights or respect. Presently, there are over 3 million Afghan refugees still in Pakistan.

Repatriation efforts have stalled with continued instability as the United States (US) withdrew all their troops from Afghanistan in 2021, resulting in a Taliban take over and another Afghan refugee crisis. The Chief Executive Officer of Pakistan Society for Human Rights & Prisoners Aid, Mudassar Javed, went on record stating population estimates for Afghan populations could be closer to 3 million in Karachi alone (European Union Agency for Asylum, 2022). While not clear how grossly miscounted refugee populations are in Pakistan, it is clear that migrating refugee populations make up a substantial portion of Karachi’s growth over the past several decades.