ABSTRACT
Karachi, today, is essentially a city of migrants, the result of successive waves of in-migration triggered by past events and decisions that took place predominantly on the national and the international political stage. This chapter presents an overview of urban geopolitical and developmental histories of post-Partition Karachi in order to show how in-migration of multiple communities and the ethno-political affiliations of various state-backed actors have impacted the planning and development of the city. It discusses the connection between language, ethnicity and politics and how this contributes to ethno-spatial appropriation and contestation, ethnicity-based service monopolies and uneven planning and development of the city. By viewing the urban geopolitics of the city through the spatial-political trajectory of the Muhajir community in Karachi since Partition, the chapter examines the synergistic and often divisive relationship between ethnicity, politics and urban development, an issue shared by numerous contested, post-colonial urban environments today.
