HISTORY OF KARACHI
KARACHI is the most populous
city in Pakistan and one of the most populous
cities in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is
situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian
Sea coast. It is the former capital of Pakistan and capital of the
province of Sindh. Ranked as a beta-global city, it is Pakistan's
premier industrial and financial centre, with an estimated GDP of
over $200 billion (PPP) as of 2021. Karachi paid $9billion (25% of
whole country) as tax during fiscal year July 2021 to May 2022 according to FBR
report. Karachi is Pakistan's most cosmopolitan city, linguistically,
ethnically, and religiously diverse, as well as one of Pakistan's most
secular and socially liberal cities. Karachi serves as a transport hub, and contains
Pakistan’s two largest seaports, the Port of Karachi and Port
Qasim, as well as Pakistan's busiest airport, Jinnah International
Airport. Karachi is also a media center, home to news channels,
film and fashion industry of Pakistan. Most of multinational companies and
banks have their headquarters in Karachi. Karachi is also a tourism hub due to
its scenic beaches, historic buildings and shopping malls.
The region
has been inhabited for millennia, but the city was formally founded as the
fortified village of Kolachi as recently as 1729. The
settlement greatly increased in importance on arrival of the East India
Company in the mid-19th century. British administrators embarked on
substantial projects to transform the city into a major seaport, and connect it
with the extensive railway network of the Indian subcontinent.
At the time of the partition of India in 1947, the city was the
largest in Sindh with an estimated population of 400,000 people. Following
the independence of Pakistan, the city experienced a dramatic shift in
population and demography with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Muhajir
(Urdu-speaking people) Muslim refugees from India, coupled with a
substantial exodus of its Hindu residents, whose numbers declined from 51.1% to
1.7% of the total population. The city experienced rapid economic growth
following Pakistan's independence, attracting migrants from throughout the
country and other regions in South Asia. According to the 2017 Census of
Pakistan, Karachi's total population was 16,051,521, with 14.9 million of
those people residing in the urban areas of the city. Karachi is one of the
world's fastest-growing cities, and has significant communities
representing almost every ethnic group in Pakistan. Karachi holds more
than two million Bangladeshi immigrants, a million Afghan refugees,
and up to 400,000 Rohingyas from Myanmar.
Karachi is now Pakistan's premier industrial and financial centre. The city has a formal economy estimated to be worth $190 billion as of 2021, which is the largest in the country. Karachi collects 35% of Pakistan's tax revenue, and generates approximately 25% of Pakistan's entire GDP.
Approximately
30% of Pakistani industrial output is from Karachi, while Karachi's ports
handle approximately 95% of Pakistan's foreign trade. Approximately
90% of the multinational corporations and 100% of banks operating in Pakistan
are headquartered in Karachi. Karachi is considered to be Pakistan's
fashion capital, and has hosted the annual Karachi Fashion Week since
2009.
Known as
the "City of Lights" in the 1960s and 1970s for its vibrant
nightlife, Karachi was beset by sharp ethnic, sectarian, and political
conflict in the 1980s with the large-scale arrival of weaponry during
the Soviet–Afghan War. The city had become well known for its high
rates of violent crime, but recorded crimes sharply decreased following a
crackdown operation against criminals, the MQM political party,
and Islamist militants, initiated in 2013 by the Pakistan
Rangers. As a result of the operation, Karachi dropped from being ranked
the world's 6th-most dangerous city for crime in 2014, to 128th by 2022.
EARLY HISTORY OF KARACHI :
The 15th–18th century Chaukhandi tombs are located
29 km (18 mi) east of Karachi.
The region around Karachi has been
the site of human habitation for millennia. Upper
Paleolithic and Mesolithic sites have been excavated in
the Mulri Hills along Karachi's northern outskirts. These earliest
inhabitants are believed to have been hunter-gatherers, with
ancient flint tools discovered at several sites.
The expansive Karachi region is
believed to have been known to the ancient Greeks, and may have been the
site of Barbarikon, an ancient seaport which was located at the nearby
mouth of the Indus River. Karachi may also have been referred to as Ramya in
ancient Greek texts.
The ancient site of krokola, a
natural harbor west of the Indus where Alexander the Great sailed his
fleet for, Achaemenid Assyria may have been located near the mouth of
Karachi's Malir River, though some believe it was located near Gizri.
No other natural harbor exists near the mouth of the Indus that could
accommodate a large fleet. Nearchus, who commanded Alexander's naval fleet,
also mentioned a hilly island by the name of Morontobara and an
adjacent flat island named Bibakta, which colonial historians
identified as Karachi's Manora Point and Kemari (or Clifton),
respectively, based on Greek descriptions. Both areas were island until well
into the colonial era, when silting in led to them being connected to the
mainland.
In 711 CE, Muhammad bin
Qasim conquered the Sindh and Indus Valley and the port of Debal,
from where he launched his forces further into the Indus Valley in
712. Some have identified the port with Karachi, though some argue the
location was somewhere between Karachi and the nearby city of Thatta.
Under Mirza Ghazi Beg,
the Mughal administrator of Sindh, the development of coastal Sindh
and the Indus River Delta was encouraged. Under his rule,
fortifications in the region acted as a bulwark
against Portuguese incursions into Sindh. In 1553–54, Ottoman admiral Seydi Ali Reis, mentioned a small
port along the Sindh coast by the name of Kolachi which may
have been Karachi. The Chaukhandi tombs in Karachi's modern
suburbs were built around this time between the 15th and 18th centuries.
KOLACHI SETTLEMENT (KARACHI) :
The Manora Fort, built-in 1797 to defend Karachi, was
captured by the British on 3 February 1839 and
upgraded 1888–1889.
19th
century Karachi historian Seth Naomal Hotchand recorded that a small
settlement of 20–25 huts existed along the Karachi Harbor that was known
as Dibro, which was situated along a pool of water known as Kolachi-jo-Kun. In
1725, a band of Baloch settlers
from Makran and Kalat had settled in the hamlet after
fleeing droughts and tribal feuds.
A
new settlement was built in 1729 at the site of Dibro, which came
to be known as Kolachi-jo-Goth ("The village of Kolachi"). The
new settlement is said to have been named in honor of Mai Kolachi, a
resident of the old settlement whose son is said to have slain a man-eating
crocodile. Kolachi was about 40 hectares in size, with some smaller
fishing villages scattered in its vicinity. The founders of the new
fortified settlement were Sindhi Baniyas, and are said to arrive from
the nearby town of Kharak Bandar after the harbour there silted in 1728 after
heavy rains. Kolachi was fortified, and defended with cannons imported
from Muscat, . Under the Talpurs, the Rah-i-Bandar road
was built to connect the city's port to the caravan terminals. This road
would eventually be further developed by the British into Bandar Road, which
was renamed Muhammad Ali Jinnah Road.
The
name Karachi was used for the first time in
a Dutch document from 1742, in which a merchant ship de
Ridderkerk is shipwrecked near the settlement. In 1770s, Karachi
came under the control of the Khan of Kalat, which attracted a second wave
of Balochi settlers. In 1795, Karachi was annexed by the Talpurs, triggering a
third wave of Balochi settlers who arrived from interior Sindh and southern
Punjab. The Talpurs built the Manora Fort in 1797, which
was used to protect Karachi's Harbor from al-Qasimi pirates.
British Control:
An 1897 image of Karachi's Rampart Row Street in Mithadar.
Some of Karachi's most recognized structures, such as Frere
Hall, date from the British Raj.
Karachi
features several examples of colonial-era Indo-Saracenic architecture,
such as the KMC Building.
The British
East India Company captured Karachi on 3 February
1839 after HMS Wellesley opened fire and quickly
destroyed Manora Fort, which guarded Karachi Harbour at Manora Point.
Karachi's population at the time was an estimated 8,000 to 14,000, and was
confined to the walled city in Mithadar, with suburbs in what is now
the Serai Quarter. British troops, known as the "Company
Bahadur" established a camp to the east of the captured city, which became
the precursor to the modern Karachi Cantonment. The British further
developed the Karachi Cantonment as a military garrison to aid the
British war effort in the First Anglo-Afghan War.
Portuguese
Goan community started migrating to Karachi in the 1820s as traders. The majority
of the estimated 100,000 who came to Pakistan are primarily
concentrated in Karachi.
Sindh's
capital was shifted from Hyderabad to Karachi in 1840 when Karachi
was annexed to the British Empire after Major General Charles
James Napier captured the rest of Sindh following his victory against
the Talpurs at the Battle of Miani. Following the 1843
annexation, on 17 February the entire province was amalgamated into
the Bombay Presidency for the next 93 years, and Karachi remain the
divisional headquarter. A few years later in 1846, Karachi suffered a large
cholera outbreak, which led to the establishment of the Karachi Cholera Board
(predecessor to the city's civic government).
The
city grew under the administration of its new Commissioner, Henry Bartle
Edward Frere, who was appointed in the 1850s. Karachi was recognized for its
strategic importance, prompting the British to establish the Port of
Karachi in 1854. Karachi rapidly became a transportation hub for British
India owing to newly built port and rail infrastructure, as well as the
increase in agricultural exports from the opening of productive tracts of newly
irrigated land in Punjab and interior Sindh. By 1856, the value
of goods traded through Karachi reached £855,103, leading to the establishment
of merchant offices and warehouses. The population in 1856 is estimated to
have been 57,000. During the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, the 21st
Native Infantry, then stationed in Karachi, mutinied and declared allegiance to
rebel forces in September 1857, though the British were able to quickly defeat
the rebels and reassert control over the city.
Following
the Rebellion, British colonial administrators continued to develop the city's
infrastructure, but continued to neglect localities like Lyari, which was
home to the city's original population of Sindhi fishermen and Balochi nomads. At
the outbreak of the American Civil War, Karachi's port became an important
cotton-exporting port, with Indus Steam Flotilla and Orient
Inland Steam Navigation Company established to transport cotton from
interior Sindh to Karachi's port, and onwards to textile mills in
England. With increased economic opportunities, economic migrants from
several ethnicities and religions, including Anglo-British, Parsis Marathis
and Goan Christians, among others, established themselves in
Karachi, with many setting-up businesses in the new commercial district
of Saddar. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, was born in
Karachi's Wazir Mansion in 1876 to such migrants from Gujarat.
Public building works were undertaken at this time
in Gothic and Indo-Saracenic styles, including the
construction of Frere Hall in 1865 and the later Empress
Market in 1889.
With
the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, Karachi's position as a
major port increased even further. In 1878, the British Raj connected Karachi
with the network of British India's vast railway system. In 1887, Karachi
Port underwent radical improvements with connection to the railways, along with
expansion and dredging of the port, and construction of a
breakwater. Karachi's first synagogue was established in
1893. By 1899, Karachi had become the largest wheat-exporting port in the
East. In 1901, Karachi's population was 117,000 with a further 109,000
included in the Municipal area.
Under
the British, the city's municipal government was established. Known
as the Father of Modern Karachi, mayor Seth Harchandrai
Vishandas led the municipal government to improve sanitary conditions in
the Old City, as well as major infrastructure works in the New Town after his
election in 1911. in 1914, Karachi had become the largest wheat-exporting port
of the entire British Empire, after large irrigation works in interior
Sindh were initiated to increase wheat and cotton yields. By 1924,
the Drigh Road Aerodrome was established, now the Faisal
Air Force Base.
Karachi's
increasing importance as a cosmopolitan transportation hub leads to the
influence of non-Sindhis in Sindh's administration. Half the city was born
outside of Karachi by as early as 1921. Native Sindhis were upset by this
influence, and so on 1 April 1936, Sindh was established as a province
separate from the Bombay Presidency with Karachi was once again made capital of
Sindh. In 1941, the population of the city had risen to 387,000.
Post Independence:
At
the dawn of independence following the success of the Pakistan Movement in 1947, On 15 August 1947 Capital of Sindh shifted
from Karachi to Hyderabad and Karachi was made the national capital of
Pakistan.
Karachi
was Sindh's largest city with a population of over 400,000. The city had a
slight Hindu majority, with around 51% of the population being Hindu. Partition
resulted in the exodus of much of the city's Hindu population, though Karachi,
like most of Sindh, remained relatively peaceful compared to cities in
Punjab. Riots erupted on 6 January 1948,
after which most of Sindh's Hindu population fled to India, with
assistance of the Indian government.
Karachi
became the focus for the resettlement of middle-class Muslim Muhajir refugees
who fled India, with 470,000 refugees in Karachi by May 1948, leading to a
drastic alteration of the city's demography.
In 1941, Muslims were 42% of Karachi's population, but by 1951 made up 96% of
the city's population. The city's population had tripled between 1941 and
1951. Urdu replaced Sindhi as Karachi's most widely spoken language; Sindhi
was the mother tongue of 51% of Karachi in 1941, but only 8.5% in 1951, while
Urdu grew to become the mother tongue of 51% of Karachi's
population. 100,000 Muhajir refugees arrived annually in Karachi until
1952. Muhajirs kept arriving from different parts of India till 2000.
Karachi
was selected as the first capital of Pakistan, and was administered as a
federal district separate from Sindh beginning in 1948, the capital of
Sindh shifted again Hyderabad to Karachi until the national capital was shifted
to Rawalpindi in 1958. While foreign embassies shifted away
from Karachi, the city is host to numerous consulates and honorary consulates. Between 1958 and 1970, Karachi's role as capital
of Sindh was ceased due to the One Unit programme
enacted by President Iskandar Mirza.
Karachi
of the 1960s was regarded as an economic role model around the world,
with Seoul, South Korea, borrowing from the city's second
"Five-Year Plan". Several examples of Modernist
architect were built in Karachi during this
period, including the Mazar-e-Quaid mausoleum, the
distinct Masjid-e-Tooba, and the Habib Bank Plaza (the tallest
building in all of South Asia at the time). The city's population by 1961 had
grown 369% compared to 1941. By the mid-1960s, Karachi began to attract
large numbers of Pashtun, Punjabis and Kashmiris
from northern Pakistan.
The
1970s saw a construction boom funded by remittances and investments from
the Gulf States, and the appearance of apartment buildings in the
city. Real-estate prices soared during this period, leading to a worsening
housing crisis. The period also saw labour unrest in
Karachi's industrial estates beginning in 1970 that were violently
repressed by the government of President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto from
1972 onwards. To appease conservative forces, Bhutto banned alcohol in Pakistan,
and cracked-down of Karachi's discotheques and cabarets - leading to the
closure of Karachi's once-lively nightlife. The city's art scene was
further repressed during the rule of dictator General Zia-ul-Haq. Zia's Islamization policies lead the Westernized
upper-middle classes of Karachi to largely withdraw from the public sphere, and
instead form their own social venues that became inaccessible to the
poor. This decade also saw an influx of more than one million Behari immigrants
into Karachi from the newly made country Bangladesh which separated from Pakistan in 1971.
The
1980s and 1990s saw an influx of almost one million Afghan refugees
into Karachi fleeing the Soviet–Afghan War. This
was followed by refugees escaping from post-revolution Iran. At this time, Karachi was also rocked by political
conflict, while crime rates drastically increased with the arrival of weaponry
from the War in Afghanistan. Conflict
between the MQM party, and ethnic Sindhis,
Pashtun, Punjabis and Balochis was
sharp. The party and its vast network of supporters were targeted by
Pakistani security forces as part of the controversial Operation
Clean-up in 1992 – an effort to restore
peace in the city that lasted until 1994. Anti-Hindu riots also broke out
in Karachi in 1992 in retaliation for the demolition of the Babri
Mosque in India by a group of Hindu nationalists earlier that year.
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