3.3
The British Pakistani Muslim Community
There are over 1.1 million Pakistani Muslims living in the UK comprising well over half of the total Pakistani community in Europe (Office for National Statistics 2011). The main settlement areas are in and around London, Yorkshire and the Humber, the West Midlands and the North-West of England with a much smaller number in Scotland mainly residing in the Central Belt (Shaw 2000).
3.3.1
Origins
According to Shaw (2000), the two main regions of origin are the northern parts of Pakistan bordering Azad Kashmir (disputed territory between India and Pakistan) e.g. Mirpur and Peshawar; and the Pakistani Punjab area e.g. Lahore, Faisalabad. The northern settlers i.e. Kashmiris or Mirpuris, are the largest Pakistani group and live mainly in the West Midlands and the north of England in cities like Bradford and Birmingham, speaking Northern Hindko (also known as Mirpuri or Kashmiri), Pashto or Urdu (Office for National Statistics 2011). The Punjabi settlers have dense pockets in the Yorkshire area but are generally more widespread, with communities in Greater London, Newcastle, Wales and Scotland (Office for National Statistics 2011). Their main languages are Punjabi and Urdu. The northern and Punjabi groups tend to be very different in their cultural practices, with internal tensions between the groups apparent and partly linked to nationalism.
3.3.2
Heterogeneity
Pakistani Muslims also have diverse regional, caste, sectarian and religious identities as well as belonging to more than one distinctive linguistic group (Shaw 2000). More- over, even within such classifications there are intra-group differences. Identity also appears to be context-dependent in the UK, where Pakistanis may speak of a ‘Muslim’ community when building a mosque; a ‘Pakistani’ community to state differences with other groups like Indians; and talk of the ‘original’ community that came to Britain symbolising the collective shared history (Shaw 2000). Due to such distinctions, the term Pakistani Muslim community is a shorthand label for a complex sociological and demographic set of communities.
3.3.3
Sectarianism
The sectarian and ideological divisions in the UK, as well as in Pakistan have resulted in internally divided communities. This is exemplified by several differently affiliated mosques in the same cities; divided along denominational lines as well as national lines, e.g. in Oxford, London, Bradford, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Chapter 3 3.3. The British Pakistani Muslim Community The two major denominational lines of Islam are Sunni and Shia, with Sunni Islam being the most prevalent in the UK. A small denomination called the Ahmadiyya are usually not considered Muslim due to their basic creed. However, there is an Ahmadiyya community in Britain established since the 1980s when they came under legal and physical harassment in Pakistan (Lewis 1994).
In addition to these broad splits, there are many sects within even the majority Sunni Islam for British Pakistani Muslims. This causes further demarcations and disputes, with the two main sects called Barelvi and the Deobandi. Barelvi Sunnis follow the Sufi mystical tradition and often derive from rural communities where they were originally drawn into Islam through devotional songs, e.g. a famous worldwide figure is Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. In contrast, Deobandi Sunnis take a more orthodox and literal understanding of the Quran and Prophetic teachings, shunning mysticism and performing regular missionary work to propagate their message. Whilst most Pakistani Muslims are Barelvi by descent, in recent years there has been a gradual shift towards Deobandi beliefs and practices, particularly in the younger generations which might be linked to its easier alignment with western thought.
3.3.4
Unity
There is still a larger sense of unity and inter-dependence in the Pakistani Muslim community more widely, despite divisions. Local organisations have been set up which articulate the Muslim community’s interests as a whole and bring together the many factions of the faith (Lewis 1994). British Pakistani Muslims are also united by the Urdu language, becoming the lingua franca of communities like Bradford with its di- verse linguistic population, e.g. Kashmiri, Gujarati, Punjabi and Bangladeshi. Another major unifying force is the fear of moral decline living in the West, especially with re- spect to younger generations. Perhaps the greatest concern by older generations is the control of girls’ behaviour, because from a cultural and religious perspective, women should be protected and guarded, especially their chastity. Concerns surround aspects like: schooling such as dress, mixed gender P.E. and sex education; and a fear of western influences such as drinking alcohol, clubbing and pre-marital relationships/sex, which contradict general religious teaching.
3.3.5
First Generation Women
A new era began for the early migrants where women began to feature from the 1960s. Men who were already married sent for their wife and children. Unmarried men were encouraged to marry, and usually to women from their extended family in Pakistan and sometimes linked to worries about male deviance from Pakistani norms (e.g. dating White girls) and the lack of social control in the UK context which was difficult for families back in Pakistan (Ballard 1994, Shaw 2000, Wardak 2000). Apparent moral conformity to religious and cultural values was extremely important, and is still a
Chapter 3 3.3. The British Pakistani Muslim Community pervasive feature of the Pakistani Muslim community. An anthropological study by Shaw (1994) looking at the Oxford Pakistani Muslim community revealed that religion, and especially mosques, became increasingly important with the arrival of women as a way of bringing the men ‘back on track’.
The newly arrived women took on many roles in the household, not least looking after the many men that stayed with her partner, whether relatives or family friends. Many women had an extremely difficult time during this early period. This was because they did not know anybody in their new environment; had little or no grasp of English; no support structures; and were living under poor, often cramped conditions with little or no privacy.
By the 1980s, due to such frictions, lack of personal space and increasing wealth, many Pakistanis began buying their own council houses and becoming landlords. Pak- istanis also started buying their own businesses in the face of increasing unemployment in industrial areas, seeking financial help from family and friends. As a result, men be- gan sending less money to Pakistan as they had families of their own to support in the UK. Furthermore, most first generation women did not take jobs as it was considered against some ideals of ‘purdah’ (modesty of women); a man with a working wife could lose ‘izzat’ (honour, respect) as it would suggest he was incapable of providing for his family (Shaw 2000).
However many women did work informally from home to help their weak economic situations, e.g. by sewing ‘shalwar kamiz’ (traditional Pakistani clothing); cooking samosas; and working unpaid in family businesses such as corner shops. Because they often also had young children, they could not necessarily work outside the home even if they wanted to because there was no free available childcare at the time, e.g. in-laws, mothers or sisters as in Pakistan (Shaw 2000). Whilst some women were unfortunately subordinated, depressed, isolated and confined to the home and childcare; in some instances they were actually liberated from their communal responsibilities. For ex- ample, they had freedom from the hierarchical family structures of their in-laws back in Pakistan having more personal control over their daily lives. Importantly though, these women had little interaction with the wider British community and their daily lives were centred on their families, allowing very limited integration to occur.
As the early Pakistani community gradually moved into different jobs such as be- coming shop owners, status and caste (‘biradari’) differences began to matter. The idea of biradari has been adopted from the Hindu caste system, based on nominally occupationally-linked descendent groups (Shaw 1994). Broadly speaking, there are three main groups, with Ashrafs ranking the highest to the Kammis at the bottom. The caste system may be viewed in a similar way to the social class-based system in the West though direct comparisons are difficult and not easily transferable. The caste system is also more rigid and structured, based on genetic heritage, and especially so in India. An individual cannot change their caste in the same way as for example a working class individual might move to middle class status through occupational and
Chapter 3 3.3. The British Pakistani Muslim Community monetary success. Typically, in-biradari marriage was the norm, as it was seen to forge greater kinship and status ties. Biradari is patri-lineal so if a man decided to marry a woman from a lower caste, his children would still retain his biradari and not that of his wife. However, if a woman marries a man from a lower caste, it would be regarded negatively as her future generations would be degraded to a ‘lower’ caste. Endogamous marriage was also prevalent at this time, allowing women more contact and support with her own family sphere.
With the arrival of women during the 1970s and subsequently children, not only did the status competition intensify in terms of which biradari one belonged to, but also in terms of monetary success. This led to the concept of ‘lena dena’, a cultural tradition of exchanging gifts mainly by women between families, allowing families to judge one another’s wealth, generosity and status (Shaw 1994). Another cultural tradition is that of ‘Khatmi-Quran’ where women read the entire Qur’an collectively in one sitting by taking one part each, with customary food being served afterwards by the host, and this responsibility is then rotated among family and friends. Women’s Committees were another tradition introduced by Pakistani women in order to provide financial help. These functioned with every member depositing a fixed amount of money into a fund run by the women each month, and each month someone’s name is drawn who will receive the total amount collected that month, ensuring that each person receives the fund within a prescribed period depending on the number of members. This also allowed for flexibility, so that if one member was in dire need of money one month, they could request that they be given the money, so it was not always randomly selected. At this time, ideas about health and illness were also drawn from Pakistan as well as religious norms, e.g. spiritual healers or ‘pirs’. Such social practices and ideologies did not facilitate integration for Pakistani women, as they did not need to venture out of their own communities to socialise or out of economic need.
As time went on, the strength of the community grew. The idea of a permanent re- turn home to Pakistan became unrealistic as families settled and children started to go to school. The beginnings of a mini Pakistani Muslim ethnic economy also started, e.g. community language classes, religious classes after school for children, ladies clothes shops, halal butchers, radio stations and TV broadcasting catering exclusively for the Pakistani community. These types of social, political, religious and cultural resources meant individuals had many different opportunities to hear and use their native lan- guages as well as stay in tune with cultural and religious customs. The micro-economies acted as social and linguistic maintenance mechanisms, providing employment but also creating an environment where it was more natural to partake in Pakistani traditions and use the community language (Edwards 2000, Clyne 1997).