Peshawari people

Peshawaris, also known as Peshoris (Hindko: پشوری)^[1] and Kharay (Pashto: خارے, romanized: Xāryān, lit. 'city dwellers'), are the indigenous urban Hindko-speaking community^[2][3][4] originating from and native to the city of Peshawar, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.^[5] The dialect of Hindko spoken in the Peshawari households is known as the Peshori Hindko, or simply Peshori, which also serves as the standardised literary dialect of the Hindko language.^[6]

Peshoris have inhabited Peshawar for thousands of years,^[5] and formed majority in the city until the 1960s.^[7] Today they are a minority ethnic group mostly confined to the historic Walled City (Androon Shehr), owing to the rural-to-urban migration of rural Pashtuns into the city, linguistic shift to Pashto and Urdu as well as the influx of Afghan refugees following the Soviet-Afghan War, among other factors.^[8][9][10] They constitute 5.5% of the urban population of Peshawar, or around 105,000 people (this number only reflects the fraction of total city population that speaks Hindko as first language, thus neglecting a significant fragment of Peshoris, especially youth members - which has shifted to Urdu as the primary tongue, leading to an overall underestimation^[11]), according to the 2023 Census of Pakistan.^[12]

Culture

Similar to the widely recognised Pashtunwali tradition or tribal code of honour of Pashtuns, the Peshoris adhere to an urban cultural code known as Peshoritop (Hindko: پشوری پن), which encapsulates their distinct identity and social practices. This code, rooted in the traditions of Peshawar, emphasises four key principles:^[10]

1. Storytelling
2. Hospitality
3. Self-esteem
4. Hyper-social Community Structure^[7]

Notable people

• Putras Bukhari^[1]
• Dilip Kumar^[13]
• Ismail Gulgee^[1]
• Farigh Bukhari^[1]
• Shah Rukh Khan^[10]
• Dr. Sayed Amjad Hussain^[14]
• Z. A. Bukhari^[15]
• Ahmad Ali Saayein^[16]
• Dr. Elahi Akhtar Baksh Awan^[17]
• Haji Muhammad Adeel^[18]
• Ghulam Ahmad Bilour^[19]
• Malik Tariq Awan^[20]
• Syed Qasim Ali Shah^[21]
• Raj Kapoor^[22]
• Khatir Ghaznavi^[23]
• Raza Hamdani^[24]
• F. C. Kohli^[25]
• Abdur Rahim Popalzai^[26]
• Anil K. Chopra^[27]
• Abdur Rehman Peshawari^[28]
• General Yahya Khan^[29]
• Mirza Mahmood Sarhadi^[30]
• Rubina Khalid^[31]
• Afzal Bangash^[32]
• Mulk Raj Anand^[22]
• Firdous Jamal^[33]
• Rasheed Naz^[34]
• Zia Sarhadi^[35]
• Vinod Khanna^[36]
• Khalida Rashid Khan^[37]
• Mahjabin Qazalbash^[38]