Mohajir Militancy in Pakistan: Violence and Transformation in the Karachi Conflict

200 Pages·2010·4.092 MB·English

by  Nichola Khan

Mohajir Militancy in Pakistan
Synthesizing political, anthropological and psychological perspectives, this book
addresses the everyday causes and appeal of long- term involvement in extreme
political violence in urban Pakistan. Taking Pakistan’s ethno- nationalist Mohajir
party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) as a case study, it explores how
certain men from the ethnic community of Mohajirs are recruited to the roles and
statuses of political killers, and sustain violence as a primary social identity and
lifestyle over a period of some years. By drawing on detailed fieldwork in areas
involved in the Karachi conflict, the author contributes to understandings of viol-
ence, tracing the development of violent aspects of Mohajir nationalism via an
exploration of political and cultural contexts of Pakistan’s history, and highlight-
ing the repetitive homology of the conflict with the earlier violence of Partition.
Through a local comparison of ethnic and religious militancy she also updates
the current situation of social and cultural change in Karachi, which is domi-
nantly framed in terms of Islamist radicalisation and modernisation. In her exam-
ination, governance and civil-s ociety issues are integrated with the political and
psychological dimensions of mobilisation processes and violence at micro-,
meso- and macro- levels. This book injects a critical and innovative voice into
the ongoing debates about the nature and meaning of radicalisation and violence,
as well as the specific implications it has for similar, contemporary conflicts in
Pakistan and the developing world.
Nichola Khan is a Lecturer in the School of Applied Social Science at the
University of Brighton, UK.
Routledge contemporary South Asia series
1 Pakistan 8 Regionalism in South Asia
Social and cultural transformations Negotiating cooperation,
in a Muslim nation institutional structures
Mohammad A. Qadeer Kishore C. Dash
2 Labor, Democratization and 9 Federalism, Nationalism and
Development in India and Development
Pakistan India and the Punjab economy
Christopher Candland Pritam Singh
3 China–India Relations
10 Human Development and Social
Contemporary dynamics
Power
Amardeep Athwal
Perspectives from South Asia
Ananya Mukherjee Reed
4 Madrasas in South Asia
Teaching terror?
11 The South Asian Diaspora
Jamal Malik
Transnational networks and
changing identities
5 Labor, Globalization and the
Edited by Rajesh Rai and
State
Peter Reeves
Workers, women and migrants
confront neoliberalism
Edited by Debdas Banerjee and 12 Pakistan–Japan Relations
Michael Goldfield Continuity and change in
economic relations and security
6 Indian Literature and Popular interests
Cinema Ahmad Rashid Malik
Recasting classics
Edited by Heidi R. M. Pauwels 13 Himalayan Frontiers of
India
7 Islamist Militancy in Bangladesh Historical, geopolitical and
A complex web strategic perspectives
Ali Riaz K. Warikoo
14 India’s Open- Economy Policy 22 Maoism in India
Globalism, rivalry, continuity Reincarnation of ultra-l eft wing
Jalal Alamgir extremism in the 21st century
Bidyut Chakrabarty and
15 The Separatist Conflict in Sri Rajat Kumar Kujur
Lanka
Terrorism, ethnicity, political 23 Economic and Human
economy Development in Contemporary
Asoka Bandarage India
Cronyism and fragility
16 India’s Energy Security Debdas Banerjee
Edited by Ligia Noronha and
Anant Sudarshan 24 Culture and the Environment in
the Himalaya
17 Globalization and the Middle Arjun Guneratne
Classes in India
The social and cultural impact of 25 The Rise of Ethnic Politics in
neoliberal reforms Nepal
Ruchira Ganguly- Scrase and Democracy in the margins
Timothy J. Scrase Susan I. Hangen
18 Water Policy Processes in India 26 The Multiplex in India
Discourses of power and A cultural economy of urban
resistance leisure
Vandana Asthana Adrian Athique and Douglas Hill
19 Minority Governments in India 27 Tsunami Recovery in Sri Lanka
The puzzle of elusive majorities Ethnic and regional dimensions
Csaba Nikolenyi Dennis B. McGilvray and
Michele R. Gamburd
20 The Maoist Insurgency in
Nepal 28 Development, Democracy and
Revolution in the twenty-fi rst the State
century Critiquing the Kerala model of
Edited by Mahendra Lawoti and development
Anup K. Pahari K. Ravi Raman
21 Global Capital and Peripheral 29 Mohajir Militancy in Pakistan
Labour Violence and transformation in the
The history and political economy Karachi conflict
of plantation workers in India Nichola Khan
K. Ravi Raman
Young Mohajirs, Liaquatabad 1995.
Mohajir Militancy in Pakistan
Violence and transformation in the Karachi
conflict
Nichola Khan
First published 2010
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.
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© 2010 Nichola Khan
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Khan, Nichola.
Mohajir militancy in Pakistan : violence and transformation in the Karachi
Conflict / Nichola Khan.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Muhajir Qaumi Muvment. 2. Violence–Pakistan. I. Title.
HV395.5.K46 2010
954.9105'2–dc22 2009036188
ISBN 0-203-85812-3 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0-415-55490-X (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-203-85812-3 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-55490-9 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-85812-7 (ebk)
Contents
List of figures viii
Acknowledgements ix
1 Introduction 1
2 The Mohajirs transposed 25
3 The transformation: a violent becoming 49
4 Partition reprised: grievance, unification and violence 77
5 Women in the homeland 104
6 God’s justice in Liaquatabad: Jamaat e Islami and the
Islami Jamiat Tuleba 117
7 Conclusion 142
Afterword 156
Bibliography 159
Index 181
Figures
Young Mohajirs, Liaquatabad 1995 Frontispiece
1 View of the Lyari River, Liaquatabad 1994 20
2 Liaquatabad 1995 21
3 Burnt vehicles on Teen Hatti bridge, Liaquatabad 1995 22
4 ‘Mazloomoun ka sathi hai, Altaf, Altaf Hussain’, Liaquatabad
2005 95
Acknowledgements
Perhaps the task of translating human passions into academic inquiry may be an
ultimately unattainable objective, but it is through honest representation that I
have tried to render the distillation of certain significant moments. Though it
may be a truism, in this book I have sought to blend the fabric of my own and
others’ lifeworlds into an exploration of various personal, political and intellec-
tual transformations.
It is with a deep debt of gratitude that I acknowledge the support I received
from institutions, academics, friends and informants. First, I thank the Economic
and Social Research Council (UK) for funding three years of doctoral research at
the University of Sussex. I thank the University of Sussex for providing me with
a teaching scholarship, travel and maintenance grants, as well as an intellectual
home. To my mentors and teachers in the Anthropology Department, foremost I
am indebted to Ann Whitehead for directing her formidable intellect to the chal-
lenges and pleasures of formulating and refining the arguments of this book from
its initial conceptualisation through to its present form. Her patience and wisdom
in pushing me to think rigorously, analytically – and often disquietly – about
ideas and practices of violence were invaluable. Our joint contemplations have
bequeathed to me the desire to make both intellectual and human sense of what
are always the messy quanta of real life.
I am also grateful for the lively intellectual climate that vitalises the Anthro-
pology Department at Sussex, and in particular to several individuals. To James
Fairhead, aside from many provocative questions posed on ethics and violence, I
am grateful for inspiring me to keep good humour and faith, amidst the trials of
university life. Thanks to Geert de Neve, Jane Cowan, Jock Stirrat and Nigel
Eltringham for invaluable comments on earlier sections and versions of this
work. Others across the social sciences who raised exacting challenges associ-
ated with the interdisciplinary pursuit of violence, ethnicity and South Asian pol-
itics include Mick Johnson and Ian Duncan at Sussex, and Robin Luckham,
Fiona Wilson and Jerker Edström at IDS. Amongst the community of cross-
cultural psychologists, I am grateful for the interpolations of Peter Smith and
Tom Farsides (Sussex) on methodology, for the critical interpositions of Harry
Triandis (Urbana- Champaign), and to Itesh Sachdev (SOAS) for urging atten-
tiveness to the entanglements of history and psychology. Particular thanks go to