This week 50 years ago: Buddhist monastery, language issue and Feroza Begum.

Byline: Peerzada

We hear a lot about the pluralistic character of Karachi which, some people feel, is fast becoming a thing of the past.It's true that the city had a healthy and inclusive approach to life until the 1970s. In fact, not many people today would believe that once members of the Buddhist community lived in the Sindh capital. Here's a small measure of how things were half a century back: on Jan 26, 1971 it was reported that the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) had allotted a 1000 square-yard plot to the Karachi Buddhist Association (KBA) for the construction of a monastery in KDA Scheme No 5, Clifton. (Yes, there used to be one such association.)

The KDA had resolved that no shop would be allowed to be built around the plot; and the design of the building was to be approved by a KDA architect. The authority's governing body also decided to allot another 1000 square-yard piece of land to the KBA for construction of a culture centre after completion of the monastery provided that the association could prove that it had enough necessary funds for it.

Arguably, this was also the time when cracks in Karachi's ethnic unity had begun to appear in the shape of what was dubbed in those days by the media: 'language controversy'. The same day, Jan 26, three college students belonging to the Muslim Students Federation (MSF) went on a 36-hour hunger strike in support of Urdu in front of the Korangi High School No 4 and, in their view, to protest against the anti-Urdu campaign in Sindh. The three were: Zamir Ahmad, Anwar Mohammad and Ibrahim. Another batch of the same number of students was supposed to replace them after 36 hours. A protest...