Paki bashing

"Paki" is a racial slur typically referring to people of Pakistani descent, but often indiscriminately directed towards people with perceived origins from the Indian Subcontinent. The slur is used chiefly in the United Kingdom, and is also considered pejorative in Canada.

"Paki" is derived from the exonym Pakistan(i). Unlike other -stan countries, where the first part of the name typically refers to the indigenous people (e.g. the Tajiks of Tajikistan, Turkmens of Turkmenistan, Afghans of Afghanistan), the name of Pakistan was coined by the Cambridge University's political science student and Muslim nationalist Rahmat Ali, and was published on 28 January 1933 in the pamphlet Now or Never. After coining the name of the nation-state, Ali noticed that there is an acronym formed from the names of the "homelands" of Muslims in northwest India:

Pak also means "pure" in Persian, Urdu, and Pashto. There was no "Pak" or "Paki" ethnic group prior to the creation of the state.

The use of the term "Paki" was first recorded in 1964, during a period of increased immigration to the United Kingdom. It has also been directed to people of other South Asian backgrounds, as well as people from other demographics who resemble South Asians. In the 1970s and 1980s, violent gangs opposed to immigration took part in attacks known as "Paki-bashing", which targeted people and premises of any South Asian origin, or any other ethnic minority.

In the 21st century, some younger British Pakistanis have attempted to reclaim the word, drawing parallels to the African American reclamation of the slur "nigger", and the LGBT reclamation of the slur "queer".Peterborough businessman Abdul Rahim, who produces merchandise reclaiming the word, equates it to more socially accepted terms such as "Aussie" and "Kiwi", saying that it is more similar to them than it is to "nigger", as it denotes a nationality and not a biological race. However, other Pakistanis see use of the word as unacceptable even among members of their community, due to its historical racist use.

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