For those of you who're not aware of it, Burnes Road in Karachi is
named after James Burnes, a doctor who also worked as a spy for the
British Raj in the subcontinent, back in the 18th century.
In Sindh ke Darbar,
a book based on the memoirs of James Burnes, the former secretary of
Sindhi Literary Board, Aijaz Mangi preludes with the following passage
on Burnes:
Dr Burnes was the member of a nation which planned
to take over Sindh and systematically make it part of the British Raj.
As such, he deemed the native population there to be inferior and
despicable. But one must admit that the observations of Dr Burnes are an
invaluable and accurate insight into how things were back at that time;
very informative and highly interesting.
Following Partition, the road named after Dr Burnes was renamed to 'Shahrah-e-Liaquat', but if you ask around for directions with that name, I doubt a single soul would be able to help you.
Ask for 'Burns Road' and just about anyone will be able to point you to the street of Mazaydar Haleem, biryani, dahi baray, quorma, gola kabab, halwa puri, mithai and what not.
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