Karachi City of Lights
Karachi is the city of lights if you want to know about the history of Karachi one of the biggest cities of the world so you are in the right place. Today I am going to tell you about the almost three hundred years old history of Karachi. Share this information with your friends and family as well.
Karachi is the biggest, largest city of Pakistan located in province Sindh. Karachi is the commercial, industrial, economic, educational, communication hub of Pakistan. Karachi is the 6th largest city in the world. Karachi is the capital city of the province of Sindh.
The city is located on the northern shores of the Arabian Sea, west of the Indus River. Pakistan's largest port and airport is also located in this city.
It was the Capital city of Pakistan from 1947 to 1960. Kolachi used to be the name of an ancient fishing village on the site of present-day Karachi after some time Karachi name was used to pronounce for Kolachi.
The British laid the foundation for the city's development in the 19th century. On the occasion of Pakistan's independence in 1947, Karachi was chosen as the capital of the nascent state as a result, millions of refugees fled the city.
The economic activities have been started in the city before other cities as it was the capital and largest port of the country was situated in this city as well.
In 1959 despite the relocation of the capital, the population and economy of Karachi did not slow down. The workers and job seekers were used to come to Karachi from all over Pakistan so it is the main reason that's different ethnic, religious, and linguistic groups settled here that's why Karachi was used to call as Mini-Pakistan.
The tensions between these groups in the eighties and nineties Karachi was also a victim of language riots. Seeing the deteriorating situation, the Pakistan Army also had to intervene in Karachi.
Due to fast-growing economic activities in the country, Karachi has become a safe city to live in, in the 21st century. Peace and stability in the city are quite better now and we can see rapid growth in different sectors of the economy of the city and country as well.
Now let me tell you about its history as the Greeks knew the city by various names like Koro-kola where Alexander the Great encamped in the Indus Valley to prepare for his army's return to Babylon.
This place is known as Manorra near the port of Karachi. Apart from this Arab people were knew this place as a port of Debal Where Muhammad bin Qasim started his victories over Sindh in 712AD.
According to famous English historian Elite, some places of present Karachi and Manora were called Debal. It was for the name of a woman who has been migrated here from Kolanch of province Balochistan she was famous as Mai Kolachi.
She belonged to a Baloch family. In the Beginning name of the city was Kolachi afterward it became Karachi in the era of British rule here.
In 1772 Mai Kolachi port was announced to trade with Masqat and Bahrain that's why this village starts to transform as a leading trading hub so other communities came here like the Baloch community.
As authorities realize a rapid growth in the population of the city they made a wall around it and import some cannons to install around the wall for security reasons. There was two Darr around the wall of the city.
In the Balochi language, Darr is called a gate. One gate was at sea that's why its name was Kharu darr in Balochi linguistic and Khara darr in Sindhi linguistic. The second gate was at Leyari Nadi so it was famous with the name of Mithu darr in Sindhi linguistic and Mitha darr in Balochi linguistic.
Since 1775 Karachi was a part of the Khan of Qallat kingdom in that year the war broke out between the Khan of Qallat kingdom and rulers of Sindh. So Sindh rulers made a government by winning that war.
After that by becoming a part of a much bigger country and success in trade with other countries of the region. It attracted more and more people so it cost to increase the population of the city as well as the British Empire.
British came here on February 03, 1839 AD, and captured Karachi city. After three years they announce it as a Zila of British Hindustan. To make it a more important seaport of the region British kept an eye on the development of the city. In British rule of law, Karachi got an immense development in the city as well as the seaport of it.
Meanwhile, the founder of Pakistan Mr. Muhammad Ali Jinnah was born in Karachi in 1876 AD and Karachi has become a developed city based on a city railway station and the port.
The architecture of most of the buildings in the city was classical British colonial which is quite different from other cities of the subcontinent. you can explore those buildings as tourists.
Karachi became a center of cultural, literary, and educational activities. In the 1880s they linked India with Karachi by new railway tracks to get more trade.
In 1881 AD the population of Karachi jumped to 73500, in 1991 AD 105,189, and in 1901 AD 115,407.
In 1989 Karachi became the largest Centre of wheat production in the eastern world. When Dehli became the Capital city of the British Empire it increased in the number of travelers from Karachi.
In 1936 AD when Sindh was declared a province of the country, Karachi became a Capital city. And When Pakistan became a sovereign state, Karachi was the capital city of Pakistan. At that time population was about only 400,000 people of the city.
Now it has been changed to the capital city is Islamabad but Karachi is still an economic hub for the whole country.
Cultural highlights of the city are poetry, drama, and music. There are exhibitions in the city's museum on regular basis to promote culture and heritage which includes Mohatta Palace and the national museum.
It shows national and international documentary films at annual film festivals here in Karachi. Karachi's culture is a combination of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Western civilizations. Karachi has a large number of middle-class families as compared to other cities of Pakistan.
Karachi is one of the fastest-growing cities in the world and has to face rapid growth in population and other problems like traffic, pollution, poverty.
Nowadays Karachi is facing a traffic problem, There are excessive numbers of motor vehicles that exist as per its road infrastructure. To overcome this problem the Govt. started development programs like under-passes and over-head bridges.
There are a 20 times higher rate in Karachi of pollution as per international guidelines which tells us how unhealthy is to live here. Not only traffic but to burn wastage is also a big reason for its pollution.
Illegal encroachments on open spaces with the help of Govt. officials and politicians are becoming more and more hazardous for citizens and the next generation. Apart from all these problems water supply and electricity are other problems which exist here in Karachi for citizens.
