Last Sunday the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) organised a public meeting to reject the notion that it is a political party that represents only Urdu-speaking people. Only Altaf Hussain addressed the large crowd in Jinnah Ground in Urdu; the rest of the speakers spoke in Sindhi, Punjabi, Pushto, Balochi, Saraiki, Gilgiti and Bengali.
However, it is doubtful MQM critics were convinced. The doubt does not spring from blind refusal to believe what the eyes and ears showed, but from the undeniable fact the MQM's own ethnicity is rooted in Mohajir culture represented by the Urdu language.
The party certainly has appeal for speakers of other languages in the urban centres of Sindh, especially Karachi which is a cosmopolitan city where one hears not only the languages mentioned above but also languages spoken by settlers such as Gujarati, Marathi (mostly the Kohni dialect), Persian (by Iranian settlers) Sinhali (by the numerous Sri Lankan maids) Tamil and Telagu. English in both American and British accent is also widely spoken, which is the reason why leading papers, journals and one TV channel are in English.
Even though many languages are spoken in Karachi, only Urdu is the lingua franca. With the exception of Karachi, the language heard in the market place, and which serves as the chief medium of communication tends to be the local dialect, or the provincial language.
In Karachi, no matter what one may speak at home employs only Urdu in the markets and all workplaces. A phenomenon peculiar to Karachi is the speed with which Urdu becomes the home language of people whose original tongue may be anything. The first generation Pathan, say, may speak Urdu with a Pushto accent but the second generation is so fluent that it is hard to tell the home language of the person used to be Pushto.
Hence, the impression that MQM represents Urdu speakers is not entirely off the mark. At least in Karachi it is entirely true. However, people who say this are not considering the social aspect of Urdu's proliferation in the city; they only think if one speaks Urdu one is a Mohajir, therefore a member of MQM.
This is incorrect. Past general elections and local bodies polls have shown the MQM has an appeal for many people not only Mohajirs. This is substantiated in urban centres of the province, especially Karachi. The demography of the city has changed phenomenally since 1947. Today the largest ethnic group is Pathan, second Punjabi and third Mohajir. Yet MQM continues to politically dominate. This is not possible if the party was favoured by Mohajirs only. The language colour of ANP and PPP may be said to be Pushto and Sindhi respectively, yet they do not dominate in Karachi. Punjabi could be described as the colour of at least PML Nawaz group. Yet PML(N) is virtually non existent in the city's political scenario.
Those who harp on MQM being a party for Urdu speakers only are living in the past. The party's origin is certainly among the original refugees. It had its beginning from the vicissitudes suffered by the Mohajirs. Thus the original name of the party was Mohajir Qaumi Movement. But as the years went by and other deprived classes of people began to see MQM as the party for the underdog non-Mohajirs joined the party in hordes. Last Sunday's rally effectively demonstrated the multi-lingual spread of the party.
The MQM still does not have support nation-wide. The rally demonstrated only what is true of multi-ethnic people living in urban Sindh. A Pathan in Peshawar or a Punjabi in Lahore is not motivated to support MQM in those cities. If he is a citizen of Karachi his attitude is certainly pro-MQM but not if he continues to be a citizen of Peshawar or Lahore. There he will vote in the traditional mode, usually supporting locally dominating political parties. MQM has made only a minor dent outside urban Sindh. The dent in fact is not much than a mere scratch.
What is true of the MQM is also true of a number of political parties. Except for the PPP no political party has effectively demonstrated national appeal. The Muslim League dons so many different shirts that I have lost count of the number of different PMLs there were and are today. Each of them also has more or less a localised appeal. The power base of most parties continues to be provincial rather than national. Like the MQM they have succeeded in making only a small dent in other provinces.
The question to consider is why then are politicians afraid of MQM's minor inroads into their territory? The reason is that the MQM has the potential of national appeal. Like the PPP in its early days, the MQM does not represent vested political interests, I mean the feudal and tribal agenda. The PPP owes its rise to its appeal to the labour class which Bhutto adroitly exploited with his roti-kapra-makan slogan. The MQM appeals to the working class and middle-class, which despite our economic, educational and social substandard, continues to grow. In every province now there is a middle-class. There is also a non-agri-based labour class. The deprived classes also those who do not support feudalism or tribalism. In every province the industrial and urban workforce is growing. It is the agricultural workforce that has been the mainstay of political power of feudal leaders.
In the agricultural sector more and more people are leaving to seek jobs in cities and towns in non-agricultural work. They are largely migratory, returning to the fields during sowing and harvest, but the economic viability of their homes is no longer agri-based. In Karachi even our drivers and housemaids support families through urban jobs as well as seasonal field work. This socio-economic pattern is changing the outlook of the public and will, consequently, create greater appeal for non-feudal and non-tribal political parties, of which MQM is only one such.
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