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Hindkowans

Name of Hindko-speakers in Pakistan From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hindkowans
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Hindkowans,[1][2] also known as the Hindki,[3][4] is a contemporary designation for speakers of Indo-Aryan languages who live among the neighbouring Pashtuns, particularly the speakers of the Hindko language.The origins of the term refer merely to the speakers of Indo-Aryan languages rather than to any particular ethnic group.The term is not only applied to speakers of Hindko but also to the Saraikis in the districts of Dera Ghazi Khan, Mianwali, and Dera Ismail Khan, which border the southern Pashto-speaking areas.

Quick Facts ہندکو, Regions with significant populations ...

The 2017 census of Pakistan estimated that Hindko is spoken by 5 million people in the country.[5]

There is no generic name for Hindko speakers because they belong to diverse ethnic groups and often identify themselves by the larger families or castes. However, the Hindko-speaking community belonging to the Hazara Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are sometimes recognised collectively as Hazarewal.[6] These include the Gujjar,[7][8] Pashtun tribes (Tahirkheli, Yusufzai, Jadoon, Tareen),[9] Khokhar,[7] Sayyids, Awans, Mughals, Malik, Tanolis, Swatis, Turks, and Qureshis.[9]

There is also a small diaspora in Afghanistan, which includes members of the Hindu and Sikh community that was established during the Sikh Empire in the first half of the 19th century.[10] Most of them have emigrated since the rise of the Taliban, and the total population of Sikhs, Hindko-speaking or not, was estimated at 300 families (as of 2018).[11] These Hindko-speaking Hindus and Sikhs are commonly referred to as Hindki.[12][13]

Those Hindko speakers, mainly Hindu and Sikhs, who after the partition of India migrated to the independent republic, occasionally identify with the broader Punjabi community;[14] these Hindkowans reside the Indian states of Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir.[14][15][16]

Prior to the partition of India, the Hindu and Sikh Hindkowans exercised urban economic power in the North-West Frontier Province of colonial India.[17][18][19][20][21] They were primarily traders and merchants and over time, settled in areas as far as Kalat, Balochistan.[22][23][19][16]

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Origin

The word "Hindko" refers to an Indo-Aryan language spoken by many different communities across Pakistan, primarily in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.[24][25] The term "Hindko" originally meant "the Indian language" or "language of Hind",[a][26][28][2][29] but it has developed to denote the Indo-Aryan speech forms spoken in the northern Indian subcontinent,[26][19][27] in contrast to the neighbouring Pashto, an Iranic language.[2][19][30]

A portion of Hindko speakers in the Hazara Division claim Pashtun ancestry.[9] Some of those speak Hindko as their mother tongue while others as a second language.[9]

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In the medieval era of the Indian subcontinent, the Hindko speakers of Peshawar practiced Hinduism; the Aroras were among the castes who inhabited that area.[31] During the Muslim period in the Indian subcontinent, significant conversions to Islam occurred and today, most of the Hindko-speaking population in Pakistan is Sunni Muslim.[32] Those Hindko speakers of the Hindu and Sikh faiths, during the partition of India migrated to the independent republic around 1947.[14]

Hindko speakers tend to identify themselves by the larger families or castes. The Hindko-speaking community belonging to the Hazara Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are sometimes recognized collectively as Hazarewal.[33] A portion of Hindko speakers in the Hazara Division claim Pashtun ancestry.[9] Some of those speak Hindko as their mother tongue while others as a second language.[9] These include the Gujjar,[7][8] Pashtun tribes (Tahirkheli, Yusufzai, Jadoon, Tareen),[9] Khokhar,[7] Sayyids, Awans, Mughals, Malik, Tanolis, Swatis, Turks, and Qureshis.[9]

The most common second language for Hindko-speakers in Pakistan is Urdu and the second most common one is Pashto.[34] In most Hindko-speaking areas, speakers of Pashto live in the same or neighboring communities (although this is less true in Abbottabad and Kaghan Valley). The relationship between Hindko and its neighbors is not one of stable bilingualism. In terms of domains of use and number of speakers, Hindko is dominant and growing in the north-east; in Hazara for example, it is displacing Pashto as the language in use among the few Swatis that speak it,[35] and in the Neelum Valley of Azad Jammu & Kashmir, it is gaining ground at the expense of the minority languages like Kashmiri.[36] In the cities of Kohat and Peshawar, on the other hand, it is Hindko that is in a weaker position. With the exodus of the Hindko-speaking Hindus and Sikhs after partition and the consequent influx of Pashtuns into the vacated areas of the urban economy, there have been signs of a shift towards Pashto.[37][38]

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Notable Hindko-speakers

See also

Notes and references

Bibliography

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