User:Mar4d/Marathis

Marathis in Pakistan include Marathi people from the state of Maharashtra who live in Pakistan. They are concentrated in Karachi, where the history of Marathi migration dates back to the mid-18th century when many Maharashtrians had settled in the city after emigrating from Pune and Konkan in search of economic prospects. According to Maneesha Tikekar, there were as many as 25,000 Maharashtrians living in Karachi at some point before the partition of India. During the British Raj period, Sindh was part of the Bombay Presidency and several Marathas were recruited in the region for administrative jobs. Notable disciplines in which the Marathi community was particularly active included healthcare, construction and education.

The first government school in Karachi, Narayan Jagannath High School (established in 1855), was named after Narayan Jagannath, a schoolteacher from Bombay who worked as an education officer in Sindh. Several Maharashtrian schoolteachers were appointed in the education sector. There were also several Maharashtrian students studying in Karachi; two Marathi-medium high schools existed in the city. Many Marathis were engaged in businesses, from salt and biscuit production to printing presses and ship repairs. They would travel back and forth to their native region during the holidays via the existing ferry route between Karachi and Mumbai at that time. In the 1940s, most of the Marathi community migrated to India in the backdrop of the partition of India and the subsequent independence of Pakistan.

There are some Konkani Muslims living in Karachi, originally from the Marathi region.