Nagpur Footprint In Karachi, Baloch Oasis In Nagpur's Quetta Colony

Time of India

4 days ago

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Nagpur: A left turn from somewhere in the middle of busy Alamgir Road from Old to New Karachi leads to CP & Berar Society — an address that may sound oddly placed in Pakistan, but echoes Nagpur's Capital glory and its colonial past.
More than 1,300km away, navigating a left turn on congested Central Avenue in Nagpur, one stops at Quetta Colony — an alien name in the heart of India, which is the capital of the faraway restive region of Balochistan in Pakistan. These are enduring landmarks named after distant lands left behind by their ancestors.
In Karachi, the biggest city of Pakistan, an Urdu signage and a lonely hoarding offer a fleeting reminder of the erstwhile Central Provinces and Berar, which encompassed vast areas under Maharashtra's Vidarbha region, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, which had Nagpur as capital.
After Partition, Muslims of the region who migrated to Pakistan named the land allotted to them on Karachi's outskirts CP & Berar.
Seven decades later, with Karachi's landscape swiftly changing, CP & Berar Society struggles to remain just more than a name. A handful remain from that generation and one of them who still carry memories of Nagpur and Central Province is the family of AQ Khan, father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb programme.
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The scientist had eloquently written about his childhood days in Nagpur in a newspaper column, a decade ago.
And the Saraiki-speaking Hindus who came from the desert region of Balochistan, 1,700km away, called their new home in Nagpur Quetta Colony. Even today many who come from Balochistan seeking a better life and citizenship under CAA land up at Quetta Colony here.
An enthusiast of Karachi's heritage, Iqbal A Rehman Mandavia, shared the manuscript of his upcoming book on the city with The Times of India.
"Turning leftwards from Bahadurabad circle on Alamgir Road leads to CP & Berar Society. Refugees from Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are settled here," it reads. It's a concrete jungle now. The migrant families that came after Partition were each allotted 120 square yards of land, and CP & Berar Society was established.
"There were around 400 homes in Karachi's CP & Berar Society," says Mandaviya.
Over the years, people moved out, and plots were bought over by Memons — a Gujarati-speaking business community.
"Now, CP & Berar Society is largely a Memon area, dotted with multi-storied apartments with flats costing as much as Rs4 crore," says Mandaviya. His script also talks of a grand CP mosque and Karachi's first fast-food restaurant — Toso — that came up in 1976. It was just an anglicised version of the Urdu/Hindi word 'Thooso', which means gorging.
"Thooso is a typical Nagpurian word for overeating," said Tejinder Singh Rawal, who helped TOI translate the document.
"My mother came from Balaghat, and my father was from Bhandara. Both were from Central Provinces," says Qadir Khan (name changed). The two cities are in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra now. His family, like others from the erstwhile province, did not live in Karachi's CP & Berar Society, but the connection remained. "My mother used to talk about monkeys climbing the roof of their homes and breaking the 'kavelus'. We used to wonder what a kavelu was.
That is what they called roof tiles in CP, but it's not part of Karachi jargon. So is not 'santra' — the Nagpur oranges she longed for. Here we call the fruit 'malta' or 'kinoo'," he says.
Back in Nagpur, Quetta Colony is more known to the rest of the city for its Navratri garba celebrations. Like the Memons in Karachi's CP & Berar Society, Gujarati-speaking Hindus too have carved a niche for themselves in Quetta Colony. Priced apartments and bungalows have replaced refugee quarters.
However, Quetta Samaj, a community guild, keeps migrants who came from places like Noshki, Sibi and Usta Mohammed, together. The Batras, Chugs, Thutejas, Ahujas and Kalaras regularly gather at a temple-cum-gurdwara in the colony.
Sporadic migration to India continues in the hope of getting citizenship. The newcomers from Balochistan also land at Quetta Colony or pockets within a couple of kilometres. These are Saraiki-speaking people.
The language that belongs to Pakistan's Multan and Bahawalpur pockets is also spoken in parts of Balochistan. "During Partition, Hindus from different parts of Pakistan came to Nagpur. The Sindhis settled mainly in Jaripatka, Khamla and Chapru Nagar.
The Saraikis were allotted land here, and we named it Quetta Colony. The fresh migrants also prefer staying here," says Rajesh Muniyar, president of Quetta Samaj. Secertray Rajesh Kingre says the Quetta Samaj is their identity now.
Maya Thutheja, who came to Nagpur after her marriage in the late 1970s, remembers her village on the outskirts of Quetta. "The weather was cold even in summers. Life was comfortable for Hindus even after Partition. Later, we began to feel unsafe, and my family too moved to India after my marriage," she says. Shreechand Kalra came in 2006 from Haji Shaher, 120km off Quetta, to join his three brothers. "Things may have changed now, but in those days, minorities did not face trouble in Baloch areas.
I shifted to India because my brothers stayed here," he says.
Amarlala Chugh, 64, came in the 1990s, leaving his home on Jinnah Road, Quetta, and settled in Nagpur's Quetta Colony, where his relatives were already living.
For third-generation settlers like Muniyar, little is known about Balochistan, except that their ancestors came from a city called Quetta and that sticks on their identity. However, Muniyar is concerned about dwindling numbers of his community in the area.
There were more than 200 homes, now reduced to 40. "Sometimes I wonder if those who have large plots here can build a flat scheme exclusively for the Quetta Samaj.
Each group has its own identity," says Muniyar.
Close to the Quetta Colony stands Karachi Samaj Bhavan, a community hall built by Sindhi community living away at Chapru Nagar to mark their distinct identity. Similarly, the road to Karachi's CP & Berar Society passes though Dhoraji, a locality named after the temple town of Gujarat. It's a tale of two cities, geographically and culturally far apart, but carrying a shared legacy of Partition and communion.