Karachi: How the City Got its Name

From the Sand and the Sea A Study of the Origins of Karachi Hafsa Tameez 43625

HIS 205 Professor Thomas DeGeorges American University of Sharjah Fall 2013

Table of Contents Introduction and Hypothesis Research Methodology Modern History to 1500 CE The Many Names of Karachi Debal Kolachi-jo-goth Kalachi-jo-kun Dirbo Krokola Maritime Industry and References Climate Change and the Harappan Civilisation Connecting the Dots Conclusion Bibliography

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Introduction and Hypothesis Most cities have a variety of legends as to how they were conceived. From the mythical Romulus to the eagle that signalled the building of Tenochtitlan, these stories give people a sense of identity and roots by which to identify themselves. Take these roots away and the question of belonging falls moot. Karachi is one such city with a past that is lost in legends. To all extents and purposes, the city seems like it simply appeared out of the sea and the sand since there is no written record to claim otherwise. So where does this city come from? Was it built like Islamabad? Or did it grow and evolve like Lahore or Peshawar? Seeing as how it is a densely populated metropolitan center, the notion of an archaeological dig to answer the question one way or another is not possible.

Modern Karachi is a hodge podge of multiple ethnicities that immigrated into the city after the partition. The majority of this Muhajir population finds itself hard pressed to find information about Karachi during the British occupation, much less possess any knowledge of the city’s beginnings. This creates a painfully missed opportunity to connect to the city that is now home to millions of residents. Knowledge of Karachi’s history has the potential to go a long way in connecting people through its heritage and spirit.

The earliest records of Karachi date back to only 300 years. However, in light of several factors such as the geographic location of the city relative to the ancient Harappan civilisation along the Indus River and the references to the Sindh coast in the writings of the Vedas, Ramayana, Puranas, and the Mahabharta which predate the 18th century, its seems far-fetched to imagine that the beginnings of Karachi could be so recent.

Old Farmers Market (Sabzi Mandi), Karachi, 1954 (all images compiled by Dr. Junejo)

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Research Methodology Karachi’s older residents however, have their own share of oral legends and myths that claim to explain how the city came about. Often these stories capture the fancy of writers and find their way into newspaper and other print. However, the difficulty in confirming one story over another stems from the fact that not all the stories mention the location by the same name. The name ‘Karachi’ is indeed a recent development. As is the case with oral folklore, the lack of dates makes it difficult to understand the time frame and chronology of events. Furthermore, the noticeable absence of written sources severely limits the amount of reliable material by which to verify the stories’ legendary claims. Fortunately, much of the folklore incorporates a description of the coastal region which can be used to identify the location. Often in references such as Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, the area of Karachi is often described by its proximity to the Indus delta, and often associated with a body of water, most notably that of a whirlpool. The unique nature of these descriptors allowed them to be used as the predominant determining factors in selecting the stories that were relevant to Karachi. This assembly of origin stories are then analysed and weighed against confirmed historical data and theories such as military campaigns and climate change. Although any derived timeline is theoretical and based on indirect evidence, it is nevertheless a convincing and appealing portrait of the city’s past.

By using the geographic descriptors in the local collection of myths, legends and histories pertaining to the Sindh coast, and working in a reverse-chronological manner by linking these connections to confirmed historical events, it is possible to theoretically track the history of Karachi as far back as the Harappan Civilisation.

Modern History to 1500 CE The modern city of Karachi is located along the Arabian coast and is famous in Pakistan for its sea port and its vibrant diversity of inhabitants. However, along with that, it is also infamous for the conflict between the numerous resident ethnicities which often erupts in violence and bloodshed.

According to many historians and writers like Shamsie, this history of violent conflict can ultimately be blamed on the 1947 partition and the overpopulation that occurred as a result of immigration from India (2012). When Pakistan was separated from India, a large percentage of the immigrating population from India settled in the coastal Sindh area, drawn by the lure of the sea and Karachi’s prospect of prosperity. A city that had hosted a homogenous population of less than 20,000 Sindhis and British officers until the 20th century suddenly had to manage a million people consisting of dozens of various ethnicities (Shamsie, 2012).

Bunder Road Karachi in early 1900 (above) and in 1960’s (Below)

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Nonetheless, the region of Karachi is no stranger to invading ethnicities. Prior to the British, Karachi was host to the Talpurs since 1783 who invaded Sindh and turned the obscure city into a major port, thus attracting international attention, including the later 1839 British occupation (Burton, 2006). Nevertheless, while the Talpurs can be credited with developing Karachi as a sea port they are not the ones who founded the city (Rahpoto, 2009). That credit goes to Bhojomal, a trading merchant who moved into the area and laid the foundations of what would later become a grand city, naming it ‘Karachi’ (Iftekhar, 2012; ISI, 2004). Thus in 1729, Karachi emerged from a fishing village marking this as the city’s earliest record. Officially, this is the birth of Karachi.

Karachi Harbor, 1860

However within the proximity of the city itself, we find the first proof that Karachi predates the 18th century. This proof comes in the form of the World Heritage Site, the Chaukundi Tombs. The tombs are an elaborate masterpiece of Sindhi artistic talent and are associated with a marriage of Sindhi and Mughal artistic style. This would date the graveyard between 1500-1800 CE (Khan 1989).

Given the close proximity of the graveyard’s location to the current city, it is illogical to believe that there was not a significant settlement there to warrant the construction of this elaborate burial site.

While this is legitimate proof that a settlement did indeed exist prior to Bhojomal, the scale of the graveyard also suggests that the settlement was a large one. In addition, during the occupation, the British uncovered a number of ancient Hindu sites in the area, with Agni’s temple being the most prominent one. While these monuments have not survived, they do indicate an ancient Rig Vedic influence in the area (Burton, 2006). Given the nature of Mughal and Hindu sites, while they are located outside of a populated city, they are not completely isolated in the wilderness. While the existence of a fishing-dominated community from Bhojomal’s record accounts for civilisation in the area, the refinement of the tomb seems to suggest that the community was more than a collection of mere fishermen huts at this point in time. Digging into the history of this fishing village uncovered a handful of stories that claim to pertain to Karachi’s location.

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The Many Names of Karachi Debal Further proof of Karachi’s existence comes from records of the conquest of the Muslims. An account tells that when Muhammad Bin Qasim arrived in the area in 721 CE, he found a city already there. The records name this city as Debal and while it matches Karachi in its descriptions of its location relative to the Indus delta, it has been neither proved nor disproved whether both cities are indeed one and the same (ISI, 2004; Bailee, 1997). Ruins of forts and walls around Karachi would offer the argument that Debal is perhaps Karachi’s youngest ancestor and was transformed by the Muslim rule in the 1200’s.

Kolachi-jo-goth (Kolachi’s Village) The next name that modern Karachi is linked with is Kolachi, the name derived from the most well-known of the Karachi history legends. The most complete compilation of this story, in the ‘Risalo’ of the famous Sindhi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai (1689 – 1752), tells of a woman by the name of Mai (Lady) Kolachi whom the city was named after (Bhittai, 1961). Since the ‘Risalo’ was not written until the 1700’s, the story was mostly told in oral fashion, thus giving rise to multiple versions of the tale by the time it started appearing in print.

In one version, Mai Kolachi moved in and settled in the area to raise her family and the settlement eventually grew into a city (Shamsie, 2012). In another version, Mai Kolachi lived in a small fishing village with her seven sons. When six of them get eaten by a crocodile, the seventh set out and killed the creature in vengeance. In honour of her son ridding the village of the pestilence, the village elders named the village Kolachi (Iftekhar, 2012). In yet a third version, Mai Kolachi’s husband got lost in sea, either due to a storm or a strong current. When the other fishermen refused to go search for him due to bad weather, she set out herself and brought her husband back. The villagers were so impressed by her bravery that they renamed the village in her honour (Kumar, 2002). In the last version, Mai Kolachi was of the nomadic Kulachi tribe who came and settled in the fishing village located there (Biagi, 2011).

These legends are collectively and tentatively dated around the 1700’s (Iftekhar, 2012).

However, as with the case of the 1729 record, this date ignores the possibility of previously existing settlements. Three of the four Kolachi legends deal with the similar themes, suggesting some continuity among the different versions. More importantly, three of the four legends begin with a fishing hamlet already in existence there before the involvement of Mai Kolachi. This poses the intriguing question as to where this village came from. Therefore, we may be led to believe that while the Kolachi legends may not be as recent as many believe, they do not signify the earliest beginnings of Karachi.

Kalachi jo kun (Kalachi’s Whirlpool) Another variation of the Kolachi jo goth story describes the region as a collection of small villages as opposed to one main one. These little settlements collectively derived their name from the salt crevices that marked the land, and the whirlpool (Kun) nearby (Iftekhar, 2012). Though the villages were originally located along the coast and were inhabited by traders, merchants and fishermen, a change in sea levels rendered the area unnavigable and forced the locals to move in search of accommodations more suitable to their trades (Biagi, 2011; Bailee, 1997; ISI, 2004). With connection to the fourth Mai Kolachi story, this migration may have signalled the beginning of the Kulachi tribe nomads, some of whom, like Mai Kolachi, may have settled on the coast.

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Dirbo Another version of the local stories reverts again to describing the region as consisting of one village instead of many. This story describes a fishing village of about 20-25 huts. The main geographic markers of this village are a sand dune with a large pool of water nearby (Farrukhi, 2010).

The significance of this story lies in the fact that Dirbo may be the village that the Kulachi jo Kun immigrants may have settled in, later making it the very place Mai Kolachi may have resided in. This would explain the likelihood of it being renamed Kolachi later on.

Krokola The village’s intimate connection to the sea also finds roots in the stories that describe Alexander the Great’s short stay in the area. According to the tales, Alexander and his general Nearchus stayed in the alleged ancestor of modern city of Karachi after leaving the Indus delta to resupply his troops before setting sail for Babylonia in 326 BCE. At that time, the city was known as Krokola to the Greeks (Shamsie, 2012; Iftekhar, 2012; ISI, 2004). According to one Karachi author, Kumar, the word Krokola means “Ladies’ Harbour”. This would signify a higher status of women in the area when compared to later periods of history. Initial interpretations pointed to the possibility that the Mai Kolachi legends had already taken place before Alexander. However, in light of the fact that the city changed names many times and the large time window this leaved unaccounted for, it is highly unlikely that those remote Kolachi legends would have survived this long. The more logical explanation could be a remnant of the Harappan culture which has been speculated to promote more gender equality in comparison to Mesopotamia and Egypt (Mehta, 2006).

Maritime Industry and References As a coastal city with the advantage of being situated close to the famed Indus River, the Sindh coast has had a long history of interacting with other known civilisations through maritime trade. While the trade routes connecting the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea is a complex subject in its own right, understanding the time frame of this trade route becomes an important tool in understanding the scope of the settlements in the region. The trade routes between what are now the modern cities of Karachi and Mumbai and their landings have found reference in the “Periplus of the Erythraean Sea” dated between 300 and 100 BCE, describing a vast network of trade (Vashi, 2008).

This vast web may also be the reason for the Sindh coast to merit mention in writings such as the Puranas, Ramayana and Mahabharta under the generic category of areas associated with Sindhu - the classical name of the Indus River (Panhwar, 2007). There are also records of the Sindhi merchants among Arab settlements. The coast was an important link between Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Arabian Gulf with the rest of the Indus riverine societies, a fact that is well supported by archaeological evidence (Tignor, 2011). The booming trade attracted other explorers to the region, including the expedition of Skylax in 509 BCE when he was sent by Darius to explore the navigability of the Indus delta (Afzal, 2013). Such writings and records push the date of the inhabited region back to at least 500 BCE. Since most of the delta is not navigable except for the middle tributaries, major cities such as Barbaricum profited most from the trade. Since Karachi’s location is removed from the delta, it was not as auspicious as a major port (McIntosh, 2008; Biagi, 2011). However, the bustling trade would certainly allow for civilisation to exist along the entire coastal region. The prominence of trade also creates an important linkage to stories like Kalachi jo kun, where devastation by factors like change in climate and sea levels may be responsible for the lack of prominence in global knowledge.

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Climate Change and the Harappan Civilisation Once having established the existence of Karachi as far back as 500 BCE and as having an important role in the trading network between the coast and the river settlements of the Indus, the abundance of foreign artefacts uncovered in nearby archaeological digs leads to the question of what role the Karachi coast played in inland trade. Connections to the Harappan civilisation are more difficult to verify than the local folklore since the written language is as of yet undecipherable. In recompense, investigation into this last leg of local history relies on geographical data of the region found in maps and climate studies.

Geographical data has proven that the current course of the Indus is much further east than it was in the distant past (McIntosh, 2008). This is echoed by the pattern in the location of the several excavated Harappan cities, one of which lies in the vicinity of modern Karachi. This would suggest that at some point in history, the Indus delta must have played a prominent role in the region as opposed to today.

Map of Harappan Sites (http://decodehindumythology.blogspot.ae/2011/10/finding-saraswati.html)

According to studies, climate change would have been a factor in the change of the river’s course. Seven millennia ago, the Indus was a raging monster until a general increase in temperature tamed it enough for the Harappan civilisation to flourish there for two-three thousand years. At this point another rise in temperature caused it to dry too much, rendering it unsuitable to sustain the civilisation and the later cities migrated east towards the Ganges plains until nothing remained at the time of the Vedic invasion in 1700 BCE (McIntosh, 2008; Choi, 2012; Climate Change, 2012). Such drastic changes would have dried up the coastal regions hampering navigation and trade and ultimately leading to the systems failure of the Harappan civilisation (Tignor, 2011 ). Nevertheless, the possibility of a settlement existing in the Karachi region is highly likely. Keeping in mind such 7

changes as the change of a river’s course and the changing sea levels, the numerous periods of acknowledgement and obscurity in Karachi’s history would make sense when explained in terms of the navigability of the surrounding waterscape.

Location of known Harappan Sites along former Indus River course (maps taken from McIntosh, 2008)

Connecting the Dots By the interrelated nature of the local folklore and a thorough analysis, it is quite possible to begin to connect the dots and track the origins of Karachi’s history from approximately 2000 BCE up until present day.

Through the study of geology and the settlements of Harappan, the earliest beginnings of Karachi can be attributed to 3000-2000 BCE, along the height of the Harappan Civilisation. However, due to climate change which led to a drop in sea levels and a more easterly course of the Indus, the existing settlement dwindled into smaller close-knit communities of traders and merchants which survived on to approximately 300 CE (McIntosh, 2008; Choi, 2012; Climate Change, 2012). One of these communities may have been Krokola, which had the role of playing host to Alexander and his armies (Shamsie, 2012; Iftekhar, 2012; ISI, 2004). This would explain the continuing Harappan influence on the region, such as the gender status potentially suggested in its name (Kumar, 2002; Mehta, 2006).

This small handful of communities then participated in the Indian Ocean trade routes (Afzal, 2013). However, a mild drying spell that lasted until the 600’s CE rendered the area mostly unnavigable for trade led to the end of most of these communities such as the Kulachi jo Kun (Iftekhar, 2012). Over a period of time, these former traders and merchants were forced to move, many either forming what later became known as the nomadic Kulachi tribe or settling into the surviving villages such as Dirbo.

At this point in history, the timeline diverges on the issue of Debal. When Muhammad bin Qasim arrived in 712 CE, he made port in Debal. The question posed here is whether Karachi was called Debal before it was called Dirbo, or whether Debal was indeed a separate community. The argument swings in favour of the latter. Since the time of the Muslim arrival in 712 CE, major changes in Karachi’s infrastructure only appeared 500 years later. This would seem to imply that 8

though Debal may have been one of the offspring of the small trading communities, it was distinct from Dirbo.

At the time of settlement, Dirbo is still described as a small community of a handful of families. One of these families was that of Mai Kolachi. While the legends cannot agree on what deed led to her fame, they do agree that the village was ultimately named Kolachi. This effectively places the Mai Kolachi legends around 600-700 CE. Kolachi remained a small community until the Muslims took over, where it became known as Kurrachee. Linguistically, the name change is more evidence that the Mai Kolachi legends predate the eighteenth century, since the otherwise change from Kurrachee to Kolachi and back to Karachi creates an absurd and redundant transition. In the 1200’s, the Muslims turned Kurrachee into a port city and brought it out of its long period of obscurity. Under their leadership, the city grew to a population of 8000 and began to attract trade and finance in the form of Sindhis, Hindus, Mughals, and many others (Farrukhi, 2010).

The year 1729 found the city permanently named as “Karachi”, and in 1783 under the Talpurs Karachi was named the main regional harbour. Where the distance of the region from the river delta was the city’s main reason for decline in the past, in a rare moment of irony, the Talpurs were attracted to Karachi due to its independence from the unreliable Indus River (Iftekhar, 2012).

By 1839, Karachi had acquired a population of 14000, and a reputation that attracted the British. The British occupation lasted until 1947 when Karachi became the first capital of Pakistan and swelled to a population of a million people, each searching for identity within a new land (Shamsie, 2012).

Elphingstone (now Zebunnisa Street), Karachi, 1940’s

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Conclusion While this prospective timeline is sketchy at worst and hopeful at best, it is drawn from the oral traditions of common people, making it tied into the local traditions. Archaeological certainty is impossible, so the next best source is the collective memory of people. That source is woven with legacy. Many like Kumar argue that the most endearing legacy of Karachi’s past lies in its opportunities and respect for women. While modern Karachi does have the highest percentage of working women in well-paid or political offices that is not its most remarkable legacy.

With such a rich past, Karachi becomes perhaps the most perfect example of the growth of a city. Karachi is defined by its struggle against nature and infamy, and its numerous periods of rise and fall from prosperity to obscurity. Indeed, more than any other city, Karachi’s rich heritage personifies the very spirit of the people who inhabit it, each searching for success despite their humble beginnings. While Karachi’s residents are segregated based on their ethnic identities, each person is tied into the spirit of Karachi’s struggle. While knowledge of our city’s past may not unite us, it does offer the unique bond of shared purpose. Whether for the local Sindhi residents or for the migrant Muhajirs, history and heritage forge bonds of identity. The city has played host to and sheltered Indus dwellers, fishermen, merchants, Hindu traders, Muslim conquerors, and British officials; and has been known as Krokola, Dirbo, Kalachi jo kun, Kolachi, and Kurrachee. It has grown silently since before 2000 BCE waiting for its moment of recognition. Karachi has permanently risen from the depths of obscurity; it is about time her story comes to light as well.

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