2403:3800:3217:5E49:C518:3CC5:3309:E060 at 01:06, 27 August 2021

2021-08-27T01:06:51Z

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{{Short description|Ethnic Mirpuris or south kashmiris and their descendants living outside of the Mirpur district of Pakistani-administered Azad Jammu and Kashmir}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Use Pakistani English|date=July 2020}}
{{infobox ethnic group
| group = Mirpuris
| native_name = میرپوری
| native_name_lang =
| langs = [[Pahari-Pothwari]], [[Urdu]]
| religions = Predominately: [[File:Star and Crescent.svg|18px]] [[Islam]]<ref name="Harris2017"/>

Minority: [[File:Om.svg|15px]] [[Hinduism]],<ref name="Harris2017"/> [[File:Khanda.svg|15px]] [[Sikhism]]<ref name="Harris2017">{{cite web |last1=Harris |first1=Adnan |title=The History of Mirpur as told by Mirpuris and not Wikipedia |url=https://www.portmir.org.uk/paharis/mirpuri-is-there-any-such-thing/ |access-date=27 February 2019 |language=en |date=13 August 2017 |quote=Today, the majority of individuals with roots to erstwhile Mirpur Division actually live in the Diaspora. Britain has the largest Mirpuri community anywhere in the world, and there is also a sizeable Mirpuri community in ‘Jammu’ originally {{sic|comprised|hide=y}} mostly of Hindu and Sikh refugees. The Mirpuri Mahajan community of Jammu is a particularly affluent community that has contributed massively to all sectors of society; Mirpuris {{sic|comprise|hide=y}} an important professional tier in Jammu which includes prominent Judges and politicians.}}</ref>
| related_groups =
}}
The '''Mirpuri diaspora''' refers to individuals with an origin in [[Mirpur District|Mirpur]] now living outside that district.<ref name="Harris2017"/> Migration from Mirpur started occurring in the 1920s, when many Mirpuris left for [[Bombay]] to work on merchant ships.<ref name="Modi2009">{{cite book |last1=Modi |first1=Renu |title=Beyond Relocation: The Imperative of Sustainable Resettlement |date=2009 |publisher=[[SAGE Publishing]] |isbn=9789352802111 |language=en |quote=Migration from AJK in search of greener pastures dates back to the early 1920s when many people shifted to Mumbai for jobs on merchant ships. The second wave of migration was induced by the Mangla dam construction in the 1960s. The difference between the two waves of migration is that while the first one was voluntary, the second one was forced. The construction of the Mangla dam had led to the submergence of vast chunk of fertile land and triggered migration as agro-based activities had collapsed. ... Since the construction work of the dam was with a British company, as per an understanding between the company and the government of Pakistan, 300 displaced persons from Mirpur were given work permits in Britain. After settling in the UK, these people sponsored their relatives living in AJK to immigrate.}}</ref> During the [[partition of British India]] in 1947, many Mirpuri Hindus and Mirpuri Sikhs were forced to flee to cities in the princely state of [[Jammu and Kashmir (princely state)|Jammu and Kashmir]].<ref name="Snedden2015"/> The construction of the [[Mangla Dam]] by the Pakistani Government in the 1960s caused many of Mirpuri Muslims to migrate to the [[United Kingdom]] to work as labourers.<ref name="Modi2009"/><ref name="Bunting2005"/>

== India ==
In the 1920s, some Mirpuris left the area for [[Bombay]], in order to work jobs on the merchant ships of British India.<ref name="Modi2009"/>

Just before the [[partition of India]], there were over 114,000 Mirpuri Hindus and Mirpuri Sikhs living in the [[Mirpur District]] of British India.<ref name="Snedden2015">{{cite book |last1=Snedden |first1=Christopher |title=Understanding Kashmir and Kashmiris |date=2015 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=9781849046213 |pages=167 |language=en|quote=In Mirpur District and Poonch Jagir, Muslims killed large numbers of Hindus and Sikhs, raped and/or abducted females, or forced non-Muslims to flee either to Hindu-dominant parts of Jammu Province or to India. By 1951, of the former approximately 114,000 non-Muslims who in 1941 had lived in areas that later came to compromise Azad Kashmir--that is, 89 per cent of Mirpur District, 87 percent of Muzaffarabad District and 60 per cent of Poonch Jagir--only a paltry 790 non-Muslims remained.}}</ref> Many of them were engaged in business.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Duschinski |first1=Haley |last2=Bhan |first2=Mona |last3=Zia |first3=Ather |last4=Mahmood |first4=Cynthia |title=Resisting Occupation in Kashmir |date=2018 |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]] |isbn=9780812249781 |page=216 |language=en|quote=Wealthy Hindu merchants known as ''mahajans'' who lent money to the community at high interest rates served as a bridge between local citizens and state authorities. In our interview, Justice Abdul Majeed Malik explained that the Mirpuri Hindus still called themselves Mirpuris. He also pointed out that a huge chunk of land in AJK originally belonged to the Hindu families who left AJK in 1947-1948.}}</ref> After the [[partition of India]], in what is known as the [[1947 Mirpur massacre]] females belonging to the Hindu and Sikh communities of Mirpur were abducted and raped by Pakistani tribals, with many Hindu Mirpuris and Sikh Mirpuris being forced to flee to [[Jammu]] and other parts of India In total, approximately twenty thousand Hindu Mirpuris and Sikh Mirpuris were massacred by Pakistani tribals as they were fleeing, while the remaining number found refuge in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, where they settled in the cities of [[Jammu]], [[Kathua]], [[Rajouri]], [[Poonch (town)|Poonch]] and [[Udhampur]]. Conversely prior to the Mirpur Massacre during the [[1947 Jammu massacres]] more than 20,000 Muslims were massacred and many Muslim women and girls were abducted and raped by extremist Hindus and Sikhs, the massacre was aided and abetted by the forces of Maharaja Hari Singh and members of the [[Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh]] with the aim of wiping out the Muslim majority population of [[Jammu]]
as a result this led to a large influx of Muslim refugees into Mirpur who were escaping the massacres in Jammu <ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00856400108723454?journalCode=csas20|doi = 10.1080/00856400108723454|title = What happened to Muslims in Jammu? Local identity, '"the massacre" of 1947' and the roots of the 'Kashmir problem'|year = 2001|last1 = Snedden|first1 = Christopher|journal = South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies|volume = 24|issue = 2|pages = 111–134|s2cid = 143991832}}</ref><ref name="Snedden2015"/><ref name="Gupta2010">{{cite web |last1=Gupta |first1=Prakriiti |title=Over 3,00,000 Hindus, Sikhs from PoK still fighting for their acceptance: Horrific Tales |url=http://udayindia.org/content_08may2010/statescan.html |access-date=27 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110908063433/http://udayindia.org/content_08may2010/statescan.html |archive-date=8 September 2011 |language=en |date=8 May 2010}}</ref> By 1951, only 790 Hindu and Sikh Mirpuris remained left in their hometown.<ref name="Snedden2015"/>

== Pakistan ==
In colonial India in the 1880s, some Mirpuris migrated to the city of [[Karachi]] to work on merchant ships.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Parekh |first1=Bhikhu |last2=Singh |first2=Gurharpal |last3=Vertovec |first3=Steven |title=Culture and Economy in the Indian Diaspora |url=https://archive.org/details/cultureeconomyin00pare |url-access=limited |date=2003 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=9781134490530 |page=[https://archive.org/details/cultureeconomyin00pare/page/n225 213] |language=en}}</ref>

Within [[Pakistan]], Azad Kashmiris have migrated towards many provinces outside of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, chiefly [[Punjab, Pakistan|Punjab]], [[Sindh]] (particularly [[Karachi]]) and the capital territory of [[Islamabad Capital Territory|Islamabad]].<ref name="Akhtar2013">{{cite book|author=P. Akhtar|title=British Muslim Politics: Examining Pakistani Biraderi Networks|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lTohAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA32|date=9 October 2013|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|isbn=978-1-137-27516-5|pages=32–}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/136350-Kashmiris-in-Sindh-to-vote-for-two-AJK-seats-today|title=Kashmiris in Sindh to vote for two AJK seats today|work=The News|date=21 July 2016|access-date=22 May 2017|first=Zia Ur|last=Rehman}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=MIGRANT POPULATION BY PLACE OF BIRTH |author=Population Census Organization, Govt. of Pakistan |url=http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/pco/statistics/other_tables/migrant.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101113175441/http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/pco/statistics/other_tables/migrant.pdf |archive-date=2010-11-13 }}</ref>

== United Kingdom ==
{{Main|British Mirpuri}}
Mirpuris are believed to form around 70% of the [[British Pakistani]] population.<ref name="Bunting2005">{{cite web |last1=Bunting |first1=Madeleine |title=Orphans of Islam |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jul/18/july7.religion |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=27 February 2019 |language=en |date=18 July 2005}}</ref> Many of these individuals migrated to the United Kingdom after in the 1960s to work as labourers after the construction of the [[Mangla Dam]] by the Pakistani Government flooded agricultural fields.<ref name="Modi2009"/><ref name="Bunting2005"/> The majority of them adhere to the [[Barelvi]] Movement of Sunni Islam.<ref name="Bunting2005"/> In the United Kingdom, the Mirpuri diaspora is present in the cities of [[Birmingham]] and [[Bradford]].<ref name="Leiken2011">{{cite book |last1=Leiken |first1=Robert |title=Europe's Angry Muslims: The Revolt of The Second Generation |date=2011 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=9780199752621 |language=en |quote=The same chain migration channels the Mirpuris of Azad Kashmir to places like Bradford or Birmingham's Ward End or Beeston.}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{cite web |author=Ataullah Siddiqui |url=http://www.islamfortoday.com/britain.htm |title=Muslims In Britain: Past And Present |publisher=Islamfortoday.com |date=November 1995 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100324181858/http://www.islamfortoday.com/britain.htm |archive-date=24 March 2010}}

{{Azad Kashmir topics}}
{{NRI-PIO}}
{{overseas Pakistani}}
{{Overseas Asians}}

[[Category:Mirpuri diaspora| ]]
[[Category:Azad Kashmiri diaspora]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in India]]
[[Category:Indian diaspora by ethnic group]]
[[Category:Pakistani diaspora]]

Mirpuri diaspora - Revision history

2403:3800:3217:5E49:C518:3CC5:3309:E060 at 01:06, 27 August 2021