Malappuram in Karachi

 

The tiny Malayali community in Karachi has shrunk over the years. Those who remain wait in vain for a passage to India

The nondescript apartment looks like an average home in Karachi. It’s the bar of Chandrika herbal soap in the bathroom and the Mathrubhoomi calendar on the wall, ubiquitous to Malayali homes, that betrays the lineage of its occupants. The flat’s octogenarian owner, BM Kutty, came to Karachi from Kerala in search of greener pastures in 1949, a time when Karachi was just a train ride away from Mumbai. Since then, the political activist has spent six decades of his life as a Pakistani national.

Kutty is part of the shrinking community of Malayalis settled in Karachi. Unlike some Muslims of north India who migrated to Pakistan during Partition, the migration of Malayali Muslims had a different context. The first exodus from Kerala to Karachi took place in 1921, the year of the Mappila Revolt, when landless Malabar Muslims (Mappilas) of Malappuram district in north Kerala launched an armed rebellion against the British and upper-caste Hindus. The uprising was brutally crushed after the British proclaimed martial law, and the Karachi chapter of Mappilas was born.

“Many Mappilas fled to Mumbai or Karachi. Here, they started from scratch with nothing but a kettle and cups, delivering tea to offices. Soon, they were running paan shops and hotels,” says Kutty. Today, most Malayalis in Karachi are small-time owners of shops and restaurants. One can find an odd Malabari restaurant in the city, the masala dosa on the menus of many non-Malabari restaurants, and Malabar betel leaves from Kerala in Karachi’s paan stalls. But few of the city’s Mappilas speak Malayalam. At schools run by the Malabar Muslim Jamaat, established in 1920, a handful of students can speak Malayalam, but second-generation Malayalis are more fluent in Urdu than in their native tongue.

According to the Malabar Muslim Jamaat, the Malayali population in the city is dwindling. From 64,000 in 1986, they are one-tenth of that figure now, living in middle-class colonies like Mahmudabad, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Shershah and the Muslim Malabari colony.

For Karachi’s Mappilas, visiting relatives in Kerala was never a hassle, even after Partition, says Kutty. But after the 1965 India-Pakistan war, the scene changed, as ties between the two countries soured, and trade and travel links were snapped. Those who managed to get a visa went to meet their families in Kerala; some tried to stay on as fugitives in their own homeland only to be deported. “Some with wives and children in Kerala got remarried in Karachi. A few others with means managed to get Indian passports,” says Kutty, who recently published his autobiography Sixty Years in Self-Exile: No Regrets. A few hundred Pakistani Malayalis continue to retrace their steps back home, mainly to Kerala’s northern districts, and are fighting to reclaim their Indian citizenship. But they have to be content with living on long-stay visas until the Indian government decides on their fate.

Why would some of Karachi’s Mappilas want to return to Kerala? The first set of Mappila migrants and others such as Kutty had come here in search of better job prospects. In the Seventies, Malayalis on their way to the Gulf found Karachi their accidental homeland. Abdul Kadar, 54, from Tirur in Kerala, landed on the Karachi coast in 1976. “A travel agent charged me and several others Rs 700 each, promising to take us from Mumbai to Dubai by sea. Our motor launch set sail and when it finally docked, we were told that we were at our destination. I got off along with the others. I realised that I had been duped and brought to Karachi instead,” says Kadar. Stranded in a foreign land with no passport, Kadar was forced to get a Pakistani passport by claiming that he was born there.

Shalini Nair in Indian Express. Here

"When London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Paris have become Islamic banking hubs why can Kerala not become on?": H Abdur Raqeeb

H Abdur Raqeeb

Kerala could become a role model of tapping Islamic finance market to raise badly needed funds for infrastructure development, according to experts.

Mr H. Abdur Raqeeb, Convener, National Committee on Islamic Banking at the New Delhi-based Indian Centre for Islamic Finance (ICIF), made a strong pitch for these funds at the Infrastructure Conference-2011 that began here on Wednesday.

Mr Raqeeb quoted a Kerala High Court observation that no specific prohibition was contained in any statute that made it impermissible to carry out Islamic banking in the country.

Simple regulatory changes could transform India into a regional hub for Shariah-compliant finance and clear the way for a much-needed wave of investment into its infrastructure, he added quoting international experts and consultants.

SHARED RISK

“When London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Paris have become Islamic banking hubs why can Kerala not become one and lead the country to become a developed economy in the near future?,” he wondered.

Islamic banking focuses on transparency, cooperative ventures, shared risk and ethical investing attracts a wide range of both Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

In Malaysian Islamic banks, more than 40 per cent of investors and 60 per cent of borrowers are non-Muslims, mostly Chinese.

One in five applicants for some of the Islamic products is a non-Muslim in the Islamic Bank of Britain.

ISLAMIC BONDS
Asset-backed Islamic bonds, known as ‘Sukuks,' provide funds for long-term investment.

This tool is used in a number of developing and developed countries. India too should seek to make use of these resources, Mr Raqeeb said.

The fact is, Islamic finance can do wonders. Post 9/11, petro-dollars have been actively eyeing for a safe investment destination.

And this is the opportunity that India should avail of, given that it is not just a safe but vibrant investment destination.

HUGE MONEY
An estimated $1.5 billion in funds is sloshing around West Asia as of now. The region will have $8 trillion to invest by year 2020.

Ms Muliani Indrawati, Managing Director, World Bank, has confirmed that the World Bank Group has ‘formally recognised Islamic finance and has designated it a priority area in their financial sector programme.'

The World Bank has always closely cooperated with the Islamic financial services sector. This demonstrates its commitment to help strengthen the institutional development of the industry.

Vinson Kurian reports in Business Line. Here

SHOCKING Report: Endosulfan and plight of mothers of Kasargod

 PREGNANT WOMEN in Kasargod district are fighting the endosulfan tragedy in their own way — by opting for abortion. A sacrifice conducted in silence, even a 10-year campaign against the chemical has not yet convinced the government to ban its use.

Without the intervention of the welfare state, they are now released from the fear of death and chronic disease. They have seen enough. They have lost many in a short span of time. Around 1,000 people have already died in the past seven years. Another 4,600 persons are living with chronic diseases. Most of them have babies with congenital defects — bedridden since birth. They spend their life nursing their babies till their death. They know that their babies will not grow up or go to school like normal children. They have gone through all this.

Doctors call it the ‘Hiroshima syndrome’. But these mothers have never heard of the place. They have been aborting their babies and successive governments have failed to do anything about this havoc that the deadly chemical has unleashed. Hardened by life, these women don’t want to deliver deformed children anymore. They are struggling to come to terms with the tragedy at a time when India is trying to resist a global ban on endosulfan.

carmine

Carmine Crasta, 31, lives in Yenthadukka village, close to cashew plantations owned by the state government. Her seven- year-old son Martin was born with neurological problems. Husband Maurice D’Souza, a carpenter, spends 60 percent of his earnings on the treatment of his only son. Carmine has terminated four pregnancies in the past seven years. “It was a hard decision. But I had no choice. How could I have another baby like him?” Carmine says, tears welling up in her eyes.

The couple were married in 2001. She conceived the following year only to suffer a miscarriage in eight weeks. “After six months, I became pregnant again,” she says. “We were very happy. Doctors also assured us that everything was fine and I delivered him. He was a normal baby. Very cute. But when he didn’t crawl after a year, we took him to hospital, where he was diagnosed with a neurological disorder. We have approached several doctors since then, but there is no change in his condition. I’ve not lost hope. I pray to God for a miracle.” In spite of repeated prayers, her saints have failed Carmine.

Jeemon Jacob in Tehelka. More

Islamic Banking in Kerala...!

Here is the good news!
It is official now. The kerala government is seriously contemplating to establish Islamic Bank in the state. As a first step it is seriously planning to introduce Interest free banking norms through financial institutions. According to Mr Isaac Thomas, state's finance minister,''We find it extremely important to accelerate the economic growth in the state in view of the financial meltdown".
It should be noted that kerala's banks get remittances of about 37000 crores of rupees every year from its two million strong overseas workers, majority of them practising Muslims who do not like to claim interest on their deposits.
To read the full story click the photo below.
Read more: Isaac moots new mechanism to help jobless Gulf returnees

But, still it is long way to go. There are miles to go before Islamic banking becomes a living reality. It has to be beneficial to the common man as well as NRIs.
Hats off to those who are striving for this noble cause. Particularly, to Janab H. Abdur Raqeeb Sahib and his team.
Read Abdur Raqeeb Sahib's interview in Arab News