The streets of Kharadar are narrow and labyrinthine, an agglomeration of old and new structures built cheek-by-jowl in the dense urban core of Karachi. Walking through the neighborhood, one encounters a palimpsest of architectural styles, types, and forms, each signaling a story of cultural identity and transformation.
Many of the colonial era structures, for example, present hybrid façades, with Western neoclassical massing, gables, columns, pilasters, and parapets, punctuated by Gujarati screens, brise soleil, curvilinear balconies, and the occasional Mughal dome, volute, or filigree. These façades register tensions between British and Gujarati architectural visions and ways of life. Some grills still proudly display British emblems, while others feature Gandhi's profile in their monograms—a reminder of pre-partition allegiances when Gujarat's Hindu and Muslim merchants shared these streets as one community. Meanwhile, a wide range of Modern, functionalist residential and commercial buildings mark the postcolonial era of urban infill and expansion.
Figures 1,2,3, Old British colonial and mercantile buildings, photographs by Farishtay Zaidi, Saddar Sacred Trails team
Nestled among these varied forms, a new typology has emerged as part of the rapidly densifying city: the pocket mosque. Situated firmly in the vernacular, the pocket mosque is an insertion of sacred space into the urban fabric by local artisans and building owners collaborating without architects or formal contractors.
This spatial articulation is perhaps most visible in the neighborhood's pocket mosques. The decorative element of the jaali below (fig. 4, 5) expresses cultural identity. The desire and aspiration to construct a traditional grand dome has been encapsulated in the design and iconography of the patterned jaali, which would otherwise not be possible in these confined spaces. The dome, traditionally a volumetric physical structure, becomes a patterned negative space in door lintels, while miniaturized minarets and arcades are woven into metalwork patterns—this is a creative adaptation of sacred architecture to dense urban constraints.
Figures 4, 5, Pink pocket mosque and jaali detail, photographs by Farishtay Zaidi
Figures 6 and 7: Blue Pocket Mosque, Street in Mithadar Neighborhood, photographs by Radhya Kareem
Another example of pocket mosque transformations can be seen above in Figures 6 and 7. Using the silhouette of the dome, the entrance lintel forms a negative archway, evoking a typical square base dome topped silhouette. The windows on the upper floors follow a similar pattern. Mirror mosaic tiles adorn the lintel with flower motifs and sacred text. Two miniature minarets as well as an arcade have all been accommodated in merely a door frame. The image to the left shows the pocket mosque sitting amidst the narrow street. The image was taken on a quiet Sunday morning but is otherwise bustling with activity from the surrounding shopfronts of the bazaar and cloth market that this mercantile neighborhood is famous for.
Figures 8 and 9: Mirror Work water tank, photographs by Radhya Kareem
In figures 8 and 9, a public water fountain funded and maintained by a nearby mosque turns the water tank into a small dome. The small mirror work mosaic is something that has been slowly adopted in the area and is seen in yogurt/milk shops/ shrines. The iconography depicts different sacred islamic architecture. The first image is a depiction of the great mosque of Damascus and the other two images show the Prophet’s mosque in Medina, as well as the Kaaba in Mecca.
These new variations on traditional visual and spatial language extend beyond mosques. The wrought iron lattices enclosing a Sufi shrine wrapped around a Banyan tree, for example, demonstrates how traditional security barriers have evolved into sacred ornaments. Here, iron lattices painted in fluorescent pink and green feature heart-shaped paan leaves and vegetative motifs, while the interior is studded with mirror work incorporating floral patterns and religious text with urdu nastaaliq script. Similarly, public water fountains provided by mosque organizations now feature small domes and mirror mosaics—a decorative technique absent in the province of Sindh but more resonant with the Mughal sheesh mahal of Lahore. Though the Mughals never ruled Karachi, their aesthetic has become intrinsic to Pakistani identity-making in these spaces.
Figures 10, 11, Sufi Shrine with mirror work interior and flower, paan leaf jali, Shahaan Reki, photographs by Radhya Kareem
Yet this emerging sacred vernacular is interspersed amid older visual identity narratives in the neighborhood. A building just across the street from the Sufi shrine is a partially open Hindu temple (figure 12). The building style holds clues to older Portuguese Catholic Goan influences, a small votive figure on top of its arched entryway, recent modifications include deep blue colored shuttered doors and geometric wooden lattice work. These small-scale changes, along with the proliferation of Islamic motifs, are gradually reshaping the neighborhood's sacred narratives. The pastiche reveals the pluralistic identity of the neighborhood. It is important to acknowledge the politics of erasure taking place with new forms of popular construction that will erase previous religious identity narratives. It is, however, less dramatic than the looming threat of concrete high-rises and megamall apartment complexes slowly cropping up in the area.
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