International Journal of English Linguistics; Vol. 8, No. 4; 2018 ISSN 1923-869X E-ISSN 1923-8703 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 14 The Mohajir Identity in Pakistan: The Natives’ Perspective Fouzia Rehman Khan 1 & Fehmida Manzoor 1 1 Sardar Bahadur Khan Women’s University, Quetta, Pakistan Correspondence: Fouzia Rehman Khan, Department of English, Sardar Bahadur Khan Women’s University, Quetta, Pakistan. Tel: 92-333-786-6702. E-mail: fozia.wu@gmail.com Received: January 1, 2018 Accepted: February 7, 2018 Online Published: March 17, 2018 doi:10.5539/ijel.v8n4p14 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v8n4p14 Abstract Analysing narratives as a site of identity constructions and negotiation is an expanding genre in the field of linguistics. The present study explores the Mohajir identity of Urdu Speaking in Pakistan through the narratives of the natives. This research is a qualitative analysis of the narratives that are formed through the semi structured private interviews of Urdu Speaking Mohajir/ immigrants in Pakistan. The interpretive analysis of the interviews reflected the subjective reception of the discursive practices, which were found to be negative and the term “Mohajir” was declared to have an undesirable connotation with the associated discourses having a similar impact. The study recommends that the word “Mohajir” should be excluded from the everyday discourse. There is a need for avoidance of the racist, exclusionary and discriminatory discourses and discursive practices because such discourses eventually become public and generate anti-immigrant sentiments. At the same time discourses of unification should be promoted so as to establish harmonious discursive practices for a peaceful coexistence of different ethnic and linguistic groups living in Pakistan. Keywords: narratives, identity, immigrants, Mohajir 1. Introduction Defined by the census of Pakistan, 1951, “A Mohajir is a person who has moved into Pakistan as a result of partition or for the fear of disturbances connected therewith”. The history witnessed an unprecedented movement of 8 million people who migrated to Pakistan (Refugee Review Tribunal, 2008). According to Raza (2005), the Mohajirs are considered as culturally displaced community of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The question of Mohajir identity remains an unsolved political issue in Pakistan. The present study explores this Mohajir identity through the narratives of the natives. The study is significant because the focus of related literature has moved from structuralist perspective to the role of narrative in the identity construction and performance in interaction (Farrell, 2008). The data collected in the form of narratives for this study as a discursive form is important as it assembles and organizes the narrator’s concept of himself. In Urdu, the term Mohajir explicitly refers to an emigrant or refugee whose decision to leave the homeland is directly related to the preservation of his/her faith. A Mohajir refers to one who has performed the act of “hijrat”; this word also comes from Arabic and connotes “separation, migration, flight, specifically the flight of the prophet Mohammad from Mecca to Madina” (Mohajir, 1998, p. 813). It therefore means that hijrat is not the usual kind of migration but an exalted one that comes with a complete historical and a religious background and implies sacrifice of one’s land, property and even relatives for the sake of one’s faith- this therefore becomes a defining characteristic of Mohajir identity. Hijrat differs from other migration for its purity of purpose and like other migrations it comes at a heavy cost of uprooting people physically making them estranged to the new culture. At the time of partition of Indo-Pak subcontinent the newly formed state of Pakistan used this word for the people coming from India and in a way bestowed holiness on them, making an obligation on the locals to be good hosts. Interestingly, a majority of the total immigrants who migrated from the East Punjab to the West Punjab, a part of Pakistan, stopped calling themselves and were not called by others as Mohajirs because they assimilated quite quickly on account of their shared language and culture. The term Mohajir remained tagged with immigrants who came from the north, west and central provinces of India. These immigrants were in minority in the total post-partition migration. The Mohajirs settled in Sindh but their case was too different from those migrated and later assimilated in Punjab. They remained unassimilated in Sindh. In the beginning days of