Hindkowans

Hindkowans (lit. "Indian-speakers"[6][7]), also known as the Hindki,[8][9] are an Indo-Aryan linguistic-cultural group,[7][10] which is native to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pothohar Plateau and Azad Kashmir regions of Pakistan. Hindkowans speak various Hindko dialects of Lahnda (Western Punjabi).[7][10][11]

Hindkowans
Regions with significant populations
 Pakistan 5,000,000 [1][2]
 India 167 [3][2]
 Afghanistan (Sikhs and Hindus)[4]
Languages
Hindko
Religion
Predominately: Islam (predominantly Sunni),[5] Minorities: Hinduism and Sikhism[4]

At present, Hindkowans can be found in the Pakistani cities of Peshawar, Nowshera, Swabi, Mansehra, Abbottabad, Haripur and Attock.[12] Those who reside in urban centers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan such as Peshawar, Kohat, Nowshera and Swabi are alternatively termed as "Kharian/Kharay" or city-dweller. Other Hindko-speakers, including members of the Muslim, Hindu and Sikh faiths, reside in Afghanistan and are known as Hindki.[4][13] Those Hindko speakers, who after the partition of India migrated to the independent republic, identify with the broader Punjabi community;[2] these Hindkowans reside the Indian states of East Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir.[2][14][15]

Origin

The word "Hindko" is a cover term for a diverse group of Lahnda (Western Punjabi) dialects spoken by people of various ethnic backgrounds in several discontinuous areas in northwestern Pakistan, primarily in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.[16][17] The term "Hindko" is a Pashto word most commonly taken to have originally meant "the Indian language" or "language of Hind",[lower-alpha 1][6][19][7][20] but it has developed to denote the Indo-Aryan speech forms spoken in the northern Indian subcontinent,[6][10][18] in contrast to the neighbouring Pashto, an Iranic language.[7][10][21] Hindko is mutually intelligible with Standard Punjabi and Saraiki (which is variously considered a dialect of Punjabi or a language in its own right),[16][22] and has more affinities with the latter than with the former.[23] Differences with other Punjabi varieties are more pronounced in the morphology and phonology than in the syntax.[24]

Demographics

Hazara Division

The Hazarewal Hindkowans belong to diverse ethnic backgrounds. Almost half the Hindko speakers in Hazara Division, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are Pashtuns. Some of these Pashtuns speak Hindko as their mother tongue while others as a second language. Pashtuns who have adopted Hindko as their mother tongue are the Jaduns, Swatis, Tareens, Yusufzais, Utmanzais, and Tahirkhelis. The non Pashtun Hindko speakers include the Dhunds, Karlals, Tanolis, Mashwanis, Sayyids, Mughals, Turks, Awans, Qureshis, and Gujjars.[25]

Azad Kashmir

Hindko is the dominant language and spoken in the whole of Northern Kashmiri Neelum District as well as parts of Muzaffarabad District.[26]

Peshawar, Nowshera, Kohat

There are a substantial number of Hindko speakers in Peshawar, Nowshera, and Kohat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Prior to the formation of Pakistan, these areas were dominated by Hindko speakers. Typically, Pashtu speakers were predominant in the rural areas while Hindko speakers dominated the urban areas. The majority status of the Hindkowans, however, changed with the partition of India in 1947 that led to the departure of Hindu Hindkowans to an independent India and a higher number of Pashtu speakers settling in urban centers.[27][28][10] The Awans form the majority of Hindkowans in these urban centers.[25]

Attock

Hindkowans of District Attock, Punjab, reside in and form a majority of Attock Tehsil and Pindi Gheb Tehsil. Most of these Hindkowans are Awan, Khattar, and Muslim Rajputs with a minority of Pashtun hindkowans as well.[25][29]

Karachi

Though not native to Karachi, hundreds of thousands of Hindkowans, mostly from Hazara Division, reside in Karachi. Most of these Hindkowans migrated to Karachi in the early 1960s during the Ayub Khan era. However, lack of job opportunities and the 2005 Kashmir earthquake has also caused a large-scale migration from the Hazara division to Karachi.[30]

East Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir

After the partition of India, many Hindkowans who practice Hinduism and Sikhism moved to independent India, chiefly the states of East Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir where they became absorbed into the broader Punjabi community.[2] According to the 1961 Census of India, 162 people answered Hindko as their mother tongue.[31][10]

Afghanistan

Hindko speakers living in Afghanistan are include those of the Muslim, Hindu and Sikh faiths and are referred to as Hindki.[4]

Religion

Today, most of the Hindkowan population in Pakistan is Sunni Muslim.[5]

Prior to the partition of India, the Hindu Hindkowans exercised economic power in the North-West Frontier Province of colonial India.[28][32][10][33][34] Some of these Hindu Hindkowans are traders and over time, have settled in areas as far as Kalat, Balochistan.[35][36] Other Hindu Hindkowans migrated to India from the NWFP after the partition of India in 1947.[10][15]

A community of Sikh Hindkowans exists and prior to the partition of India, they were active in "key areas in the urban economy of the province"; like the Hindus, many Sikh Hindkowans migrated to an independent India after the partition of colonial India in 1947.[28][32][10][33][34][15]

Notable Hindko-speakers

See also

Notes and references
  1. "Indian" here refers to the historic meaning of India as the northern Indian subcontinent, which was known as Hindustan or Hind.[6][7][18]
  1. https://tribune.com.pk/story/1719994/headcount-finalised-sans-third-party-audit
  2. Venkatesh, Karthik (6 July 2019). "The strange and little-known case of Hindko". Mint. Retrieved 24 September 2019. In India, Hindko is little known, and while there are Hindko speakers in parts of Jammu and Kashmir as well as among other communities who migrated to India post Partition, by and large it has been absorbed under the broad umbrella of Punjabi.
  3. http://www.languageinindia.com/aug2002/indianmothertongues1961aug2002.html#:~:text=The%20Language%20Tables%20published%20by,speech%20forms%20of%20the%20individuals.
  4. Venkatesh, Karthik (6 July 2019). "The strange and little-known case of Hindko". Mint. Retrieved 24 September 2019. Besides Pakistan, Hindko is also spoken in Afghanistan, where it is referred to as Hindki and largely understood to be the language of its non-Muslim population, i.e. Afghan Hindus and Sikhs. This is not entirely correct, for there are Hindko-speaking Muslims in Afghanistan as well as Pashto-speaking non-Muslims.
  5. "Hindko, Southern". SIL International. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  6. Venkatesh, Karthik (6 July 2019). "The strange and little-known case of Hindko". Mint. Retrieved 10 October 2019. Also, scholars post-Grierson understood Hindko to mean the “language of the people of Hind, i.e. India" and not the Hindus, which was a term used for a religious community.
  7. West, Barbara A. (2010). Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania. Infobase Publishing. p. 285. ISBN 9781438119137. The term Hindko as used in Pakistan refers to speakers of Indo-Aryan languages who live among the primarily Iranian Pashtuns of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). The origins of the term refer merely to "Indian speaking" rather than to any particular ethnic group.
  8. Rensch, Calvin Ross; O'Leary, Clare F.; Hallberg, Calinda E. (1992). Hindko and Gujari. National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University. p. 4. The term Hindki is often used to refer to a speaker of the Hindko language (Shackle 1980: 482), but in popular usage it may refer to the language as well. In older literature it was frequently used for the language--for example, in the Imperial Gazetteer of NWFP, which regularly calls it Hindki (1905: 130, 172, 186 ff.).
  9. Rensch, Calvin Ross (1992). Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan: Hindko and Gujari. National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University. p. 4. The term Hindki is often used to refer to a speaker of the Hindko language (Shackle 1980: 482), but in popular usage it may refer to the language as well.
  10. The rise and development of Urdu and the importance of regional languages in Pakistan. Christian Study Centre. p. 38. Shackle suggests Hindko simply means "Indian language' and describes it as a "collective label for the variety of Indo-Aryan dialects either alongside or in vicinity of Pushto in the northwest of the country'. Hindko is the most significant linguistic minority in the NWFP, represented in nearly one-fifth (18.7%) of the province's total households. ... The Influence of Pushto on Hazara appears to have become more pronounced, due in part to an Influx of Pashtuns replacing the Hindko-speaking Sikhs and Hindus who formerly held key trading positions and who departed at independence.
  11. Masica, Colin P. (1993). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Cambridge University Press. pp. 18–19. ISBN 9780521299442. The worst of the latter is "Hindko", a term (basically meaning 'the language of the Indians' - as contrasted with Pathans) applied not only to several forms of "Northern Lahnda" but also to the Siraiki dialects of Dera Ghazi Khan and Mianwali Districts (also called Derawali and Thali respectively), and of Dera Ismail Khan (Northwestern Frontier Province).
  12. Qadeer, Mohammad A. (2006). Pakistan: Social and Cultural Transformations in a Muslim Nation. Taylor & Francis. p. 40. ISBN 978-0415375665.
  13. Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). "Hindki". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. HINDKI, the name given to the Hindus who inhabit Afghanistan.
  14. Sardar, Ziauddin; Yassin-Kassab, Robin (2012). Pakistan?. Oxford University Press. p. 71. ISBN 9781849042239. Peshawar, the oldest living city in South Asia, has developed in four phases which correspond to the city's major settlements. The inner city – ander shehr – has been inhabited constantly since at least 539 BCE. People here mostly speak Hindko, which after Pashto is the region's most widely spoken language -- a language that also attests to the city's Indo-Aryan origin. Hindko-speakers from the inner city have supplied some of Bollywood's most celebrated screen talent. Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapur, Vinod Khanna; they were all born here. ... The whole Kapur family, which has a long history in Bollywood cinema, traces its origins to the inner city. Peshawar also gave India one of its greatest English language novelists in Mulk Raj Anand.
  15. "Pakistan's regional languages face extinction". The National. 7 January 2017. Retrieved 4 September 2020. Instead they are exchanging anecdotes and ideas in their native Hindko – literally, “the language of India” – at a conference organised to promote the increasingly marginalised language. It is one of 72 tongues, including the official languages Urdu and English, spoken by Pakistan’s 200 million people, according to a 2014 parliamentary paper that classed 10 as either “in trouble” or “near extinction”. According to scholars, Hindko’s decline as the foremost language of Peshawar city began in 1947 when Hindu and Sikh traders left after the partition of British India.
  16. Kachru, Braj B.; Kachru, Yamuna; Sridhar, S. N. (27 March 2008). Language in South Asia. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-46550-2.
  17. For the heterogeneity of the dialects, see Rensch (1992, p. 53); Masica (1991, pp. 18–19); Shackle (1980, p. 482): the term Hindko is a "collective label" which "embraces dialects of very different groups, not all of which are even geographically contiguous.". For the ethnic diversity, see Rensch (1992, pp. 10–11)
  18. Sumra, Mahar Abdul Haq (1992). The Soomras. Beacon Books. p. 36. The India of the ancient times extended from the Hindukush (Hindu meaning Indian, Kush meaning Koh or a mountain)... Apart from the names of places and streams there are many other words also which have 'Hind' as their adjectival parts. ... Hindko (the language of Peshawar and Abbotabad), Hindwana (water-melon), Indi maran (a wrestling skill), Hindvi (language other than Persian and Arabic spoken or written by locals) etc.
  19. Christophe Jaffrelot (2004). A History of Pakistan and Its Origins. Anthem Press. ISBN 9781843311492. Hindko could mean 'Indian language' as opposed to Pashto, which belongs to the Iranian group.
  20. C. Shackle (1980). "Hindko in Kohat and Peshawar". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 43 (3): 482–510. doi:10.1017/s0041977x00137401. JSTOR 615737. Grierson took 'Hindko' to mean 'the language of Hindus'
  21. Rensch 1992, pp. 3–4
  22. Rahman 1996, p. 211.
  23. Shackle 1979, pp. 200–1.
  24. Shackle 1980, p. 486.
  25. RASHID, Haroon Ur; AKHTAR, Raja Nasim (31 December 2014). "A Phonemic and Acoustic Analysis of Hindko Oral Stops". Acta Linguistica Asiatica. 4 (1): 9–28. doi:10.4312/ala.4.1.9-28. ISSN 2232-3317.
  26. Akhtar Raja, Nasim (2004), "Aspectual Complex Predicates in Punjabi", The Yearbook of South Asian Languages and Linguistics (2003), Walter de Gruyter, doi:10.1515/9783110175806.99, ISBN 978-3-11-020775-0
  27. Hock, Hans Henrich; Bashir, Elena, eds. (2016). The Languages and Linguistics of South Asia: A Comprehensive Guide. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 291. ISBN 978-3-11-042330-3. Since 1947, with the departure of non-Muslim Hindko speakers and their replacement by Pashto speakers, Hindko has lost ground in Kohat.
  28. Papers in language and linguistics, Volume 1. Bahri Publications. 1986. p. 50. Essentially, what has occurred is an occupation by Pashto-speaking Pathans of key areas in the urban economy of the province which before 1947 were traditionally exercised by Hindko- speaking Hindus and Sikhs.
  29. Shackle, Christopher (1980). "Hindko in Kohat and Peshawar". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 43 (3): 484–86. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00137401. ISSN 0041-977X.
  30. "Hazarawals key to scoring high in Karachi - Pakistan Today". www.pakistantoday.com.pk. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
  31. Thirumalai, M. S.; Mallikarjun, B., eds. (5 August 2002). "Mother Tongues of India According to the 1961 Census". Language in India. Central Institute of Indian Languages. 2.
  32. Language forum, Volume 9. Bahri Publications. 1984. p. 50. Essentially, what has occurred is an occupation by Pashto-speaking Pathans of key areas in the urban economy of the province which before 1947 were traditionally exercised by Hindko- speaking Hindus and Sikhs.
  33. Journal of Asian history, Volumes 35-36. O. Harrassowitz. 2001. The real opposition to Pashto came, however, from the speakers of Hindko. A large number of Sikhs and Hindus, all speaking Hindko, lived in the cities of N.W.F.P. and had a voice in the legislative assembly, this was often perceived as the non-Muslim opposition to Pashto.
  34. Language, ideology and power: language learning among the Muslims of Pakistan and North India. Oxford University Press. 2002. p. 367. The real opposition to Pashto came, however, from the speakers of Hindko. A large number of Sikhs and Hindus, all speaking Hindko, lived in the cities of N.W.F.P. and had a voice in the legislative assembly, this was often perceived as the non-Muslim opposition to Pashto.
  35. The social organization of the Marri Baluch. Indus Publications. 1966. p. 11. ...is in the hands of a small caste of Hindu merchants. These Hindus are Hindko-speaking and regard Kalat as their homeland, where they generally keep their families and go for some months every year to visit and to obtain supplies. While in the Marri area, they must be under the protection of a local Marri chief or the Sardar himself.
  36. Viking fund publications in anthropology, Issue 43. Viking Fund. 1966. p. 11. ...is in the hands of a small caste of Hindu merchants. These Hindus are Hindko-speaking and regard Kalat as their homeland, where they generally keep their families and go for some months every year to visit and to obtain supplies. While in the Marri area, they must be under the protection of a local Marri chief or the sardar himself.
  37. https://www.samaa.tv/culture/2017/08/ahmed-faraz-poet-love-revolt/
  38. https://nation.com.pk/09-Jan-2013/remembering-war-veteran-sir-anwar-shamim
  39. https://www.dawn.com/news/1389148
  40. Patel, Reply to All | Aakar (25 November 2011). "Does Pakistan have a saviour in Imran Khan?". Livemint. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  41. https://www.geo.tv/latest/202660-more-women-are-running-for-office-but-the-glass-ceiling-is-still-intact
  42. Bergen, Peter; Tiedemann, Katherine (14 February 2013). Talibanistan: Negotiating the Borders Between Terror, Politics, and Religion. ISBN 9780199893072.
  43. https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/342191-the-unending-tragedies-of-peshawar-s-bilour-family
  44. https://www.dawn.com/news/1549533
  45. My Life : Dilip Kumar. General Press. 4 December 2018. ISBN 9789388118927.
  46. https://www.hipinpakistan.com/news/1158227
  47. http://www.pakistanherald.com/profile/senator-r-iqbal-zafar-jhagra-81
  48. https://www.thenews.com.pk/tns/detail/566562-son-soil
  49. https://topnewsurdu.com/imran-ashraf-biography-education-age-hobbies-and-career/
  50. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKyA5x7J5q8
  51. Shāh, Sayyid Vaqār ʻalī (1992). "Muslim League in N.W.F.P."
  52. https://www.thenewstribe.io/2013/09/11/pm-convinces-sardar-mehtab-abbasi-for-kpk-governorship/
  53. Adams, p.100-101
  54. Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi Archived 18 April 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Official website of the Jamaat-e-Islami.
  55. https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/608093-why-hazara-province-movement-has-resumed-from-karachi
  56. https://clarionindia.net/qateel-shifai-the-failed-businessman-who-gave-a-new-lease-of-life-to-urdu-poetry/
  57. "Peshawarites still remember the Kapoor family". Daily Times. 29 December 2003.
  58. http://www.senate.gov.pk/en/profile_comm.php?uid=869&catid=&subcatid=&cattitle=
  59. Chitkara, M. G. (2001). Indo-Pak Relations: Challenges Before New Millennium. ISBN 9788176482721.
  60. https://twitter.com/Yasir_HameedQ/status/680817796071161857?s=19
  61. http://www.petaro.org/staff-adjutants/adj-ZI-Abbasi.htm

Bibliography
  • Masica, Colin P. (1991). The Indo-Aryan languages. Cambridge language surveys. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-23420-7.
  • Rahman, Tariq (1996). Language and politics in Pakistan. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-577692-8.
  • Rensch, Calvin R. (1992). "The Language Environment of Hindko-Speaking People". In O'Leary, Clare F.; Rensch, Calvin R.; Hallberg, Calinda E. (eds.). Hindko and Gujari. Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan. Islamabad: National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University and Summer Institute of Linguistics. ISBN 969-8023-13-5.
  • Shackle, Christopher (1979). "Problems of classification in Pakistan Panjab". Transactions of the Philological Society. 77 (1): 191–210. doi:10.1111/j.1467-968X.1979.tb00857.x. ISSN 0079-1636.
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