The Mirpuri diaspora constitutes individuals with an origin in the Mirpur District of Azad Kashmir, Pakistan, now living outside that district.[1] Migration from Mirpur started occurring in the 1920s, when many Mirpuris left for Bombay to work on merchant ships.[2] During the partition of British India in 1947, many Mirpuri Hindus and Mirpuri Sikhs were forced to flee to cities in the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir.[3] The construction of the Mangla Dam by the Pakistani Government in the 1960s caused many of Mirpuri Muslims to migrate to the United Kingdom to work as labourers.[2][4]
In the 1920s, some Mirpuris left the area for Bombay, in order to work jobs on the merchant ships of British India.[2]
Just before the partition of India, there were over 114,000 Mirpuri Hindus and Mirpuri Sikhs living in the districts which later became Azad Kashmir.[3] Many of them were engaged in business.[5] After the partition of India, in what is known as the 1947 Mirpur massacre, females belonging to the Hindu and Sikh communities of Mirpur were abducted and raped by Pakistani tribals, with many Hindu Mirpuris and Sikh Mirpuris being forced to flee to Jammu and other parts of India. In total, approximately 20,000 Hindu Mirpuris and Sikh Mirpuris were massacred by Pakistani tribals as they were fleeing, while the remaining number found refuge in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, where they settled in the cities of Jammu, Kathua, Rajouri, Poonch and Udhampur. By 1951, only 790 Hindu and Sikh Mirpuris remained in their hometown.[3]
Pakistan[]
In colonial India in the 1880s, some Mirpuris migrated to the city of Karachi to work on merchant ships.[6]
Within Pakistan, Azad Kashmiris have migrated towards many provinces outside of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, chiefly Punjab, Sindh (particularly Karachi) and the capital territory of Islamabad.[7][8][9]
United Kingdom[]
Main article: British Mirpuri
Mirpuris are believed to form around 70% of the British Pakistani population.[4] Many of these individuals migrated to the United Kingdom in the 1960s to work as labourers after the construction of the Mangla Dam by the Pakistani government flooded agricultural fields.[2][4] The majority of them adhere to the Barelvi movement of Sunni Islam.[4] In the United Kingdom, the Mirpuri diaspora is present in the cities of Birmingham and Bradford.[10]
References[]
^ abcdHarris, Adnan (13 August 2017). "The History of Mirpur as told by Mirpuris and not Wikipedia". Retrieved 27 February 2019. Today, the majority of individuals with roots to erstwhile Mirpur Division actually live in the Diaspora. Britain has the largest Mirpuri community anywhere in the world, and there is also a sizeable Mirpuri community in ‘Jammu’ originally comprised mostly of Hindu and Sikh refugees. The Mirpuri Mahajan community of Jammu is a particularly affluent community that has contributed massively to all sectors of society; Mirpuris comprise an important professional tier in Jammu which includes prominent Judges and politicians.
^ abcdModi, Renu (2009). Beyond Relocation: The Imperative of Sustainable Resettlement. SAGE Publishing. ISBN9789352802111. Migration from AJK in search of greener pastures dates back to the early 1920s when many people shifted to Bombay for jobs on merchant ships. The second wave of migration was induced by the Mangla dam construction in the 1960s. The difference between the two waves of migration is that while the first one was voluntary, the second one was forced. The construction of the Mangla dam had led to the submergence of vast chunk of fertile land and triggered migration as agro-based activities had collapsed. ... Since the construction work of the dam was with a British company, as per an understanding between the company and the government of Pakistan, 300 displaced persons from Mirpur were given work permits in Britain. After settling in the UK, these people sponsored their relatives living in AJK to immigrate.
^ abcSnedden, Christopher (2015). Understanding Kashmir and Kashmiris. Oxford University Press. p. 167. ISBN9781849046213. In Mirpur District and Poonch Jagir, Muslims killed large numbers of Hindus and Sikhs, raped and/or abducted females, or forced non-Muslims to flee either to Hindu-dominant parts of Jammu Province or to India. By 1951, of the former approximately 114,000 non-Muslims who in 1941 had lived in areas that later came to compromise Azad Kashmir--that is, 89 per cent of Mirpur District, 87 percent of Muzaffarabad District and 60 per cent of Poonch Jagir--only a paltry 790 non-Muslims remained.
^ abcdBunting, Madeleine (18 July 2005). "Orphans of Islam". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
^Duschinski, Haley; Bhan, Mona; Zia, Ather; Mahmood, Cynthia (2018). Resisting Occupation in Kashmir. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 216. ISBN9780812249781. Wealthy Hindu merchants known as mahajans who lent money to the community at high interest rates served as a bridge between local citizens and state authorities. In our interview, Justice Abdul Majeed Malik explained that the Mirpuri Hindus still called themselves Mirpuris. He also pointed out that a huge chunk of land in AJK originally belonged to the Hindu families who left AJK in 1947-1948.
^Leiken, Robert (2011). Europe's Angry Muslims: The Revolt of The Second Generation. Oxford University Press. ISBN9780199752621. The same chain migration channels the Mirpuris of Azad Kashmir to places like Bradford or Birmingham's Ward End or Beeston.
Islam[1]
Minority: 
Hinduism,[1] 
Sikhism[1]
Azad Kashmir topics
Non-resident Indians and people of Indian origin
Overseas Pakistanis