This paper revisits the violent annexation of the erstwhile princely state of Hyderabad by the Indian army in 1948 as an inaugural moment of dispossession to reconstruct Hyderabad's twentieth century past along the axes of Muslim belonging and memory. I argue that we must situate twentieth and twenty-first century Hyderabadi Muslim migration in relation to Partition-related displacements and attempts to overcome them through economic conditions provided by migration.

Abstract:Millions of people were forced to migrate after the Partition of the Indian subcontinent. Themassive human displacement enabled the creation of new ethnic identities. This was, especially,pronounced for migrant Muslims in Pakistan who had to settle there and restart their lives. Althoughinitially, they were regarded as religious refugees who had sacrificed everything for Pakistan, soonthey were treated as unwanted outsiders.