INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

camps and in the subsequent years built up one-storied quarters. Ashok Nagar,
Kamla Nagar and Lajpat Nagar are today neighborhoods (close to Gurubagh Gurdwara)
with large Sikh and Sindhi populations that initially were set up as refugee
camps. Since many of the Sikh migrants were traders the Municipal Corporation
provided them smaller premises in the area nearby Nichibagh Gurdwara to establish
business. 133
The number of individuals from Punjab and Pakistan with migrant status was
larger and amounted for 14960 individuals in total. The smaller representation of
women in this category (37 percent) suggests that many were migrant workers. Migration
histories of my informants evince that Sikh migrants from Pakistan could be
on various routes before they eventually ended up in Varanasi. Many lived temporarily
at different locations in the new Indian states of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh in
search for a new place of settlement, while others resorted to the Sikh centre at Patna
Sahib in Bihar and from there
DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGES
BETWEEN 1951 AND 2001
Varanasi Male Female
District
Census 1951 1285 61% 39%
Census 1961 2516 58% 42%
Census 1971 2883 62% 38%
Census 1981 3883 56% 44%
Census 2001 4496 54% 46%
Figure 3.
continued to Varanasi. It is
apparent that people made
active use of their social networks
and some had established
business contacts with
Varanasi and surrounding
towns prior to the partition,
which now became determining
factors of settlement. 134
Census reports for the
later part of the twentieth century
indicate that many migrants
from Pakistan settled permanently in Varanasi. The Sikh population continued
to grow due to natural additions in families and the arrival of new migrants from
other states seeking job opportunities. The demographic changes between 1951 and
2001 suggest an important female migration to the city (See Figure 3). Studies on the
Sikh Diaspora have frequently observed a typical migration pattern according to
which the first migrants are males who will later bring their wives and other family
members to the country of settlement. This pattern, however, is not merely characteristic
of Diaspora communities outside India but counts for migrating Sikhs in India as
well. Female migration is more or less inbuilt in the marriage practices of the Sikhs. In
line with the normative patrilocal system of arranged marriages women are expected
133
Multiple interviews, 2000-2001. At the time of my fieldwork the governmental quarters from
the 1950s were still preserved in Ashok Nagar and Kamla Nagar, near Bharat Mata Mandir.
134
A woman said the religious reputation of Varanasi was decisive for the settlement of her
family. Her grandfather from Marachi in Pakistan expressly wanted to spend his last days in
Kashi, believing that he would gain liberation, and consequently he moved with his whole
family to the city.
50
Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008