Hindkowans

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Hindkowans
Total population
3,941,176[1]
Regions with significant populations
Pakistan:    3,940,000[2]  India: 4,394[3][4]
Languages
Hindko, Mirpuri, Pashto, Punjabi and Urdu
Religion
Islam (predominantly Sunni),[5], Christian minority estimated at 2%,[6] and small Hindu minority of indeterminate size[7][8]
Related ethnic groups
Punjabi people, Seraiki people, other neighboring Indo-Aryan peoples

Hindkowans are an Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group native to the North-West Frontier Province, Punjab province and Azad Kashmir region of Pakistan and the Jammu and Kashmir state of India.^[4] However, an indeterminate number have left the region and now live in other parts of South Asia.^[9]

Hindkowans speak Hindko, a Lahnda language that is primary in northern Pakistan. Their northern neighbors, however, speak Pashto, the language of the Pashtuns.^[10] In Afghanistan, Hindus still continue to speak Hindko and are referred to as Hindkowan.^[11][12]

Contents 1 Origin 2 Demographics 3 Notable Hindkowans 4 See also 5 References

[edit] Origin

H.A. Rose, author of Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North West Frontier has defined Hindkowans :

“

' Hindkowan, a generic term, applied to all Muhammadans who speak Hindko . In Bannu, the term usually denotes an Awan or Jat cultivator, but in a wider sense it includes all Muhammadans who talk Hindko. A glossary of the tribes and castes of the Punjab and North-West provinces, compiled by H A Rose , vol II Page 333 </ref>

”

The NWFP Imperial Gazetteer (1905) regularly refers to the language as Hindko, which means "Indian mountains."^[13] More than one interpretation has been offered for the term Hindko. Some associate it with Indus river which is of course the etymological source for this term and others such as Hindus, Hindustan, Sindh and India.^[14]

Hindkowans who are sometimes referred to as Punjabi Pathans, this assertion is incorrect as; the Pathans are a Pushtu speaking people of the NWFP and parts of Afghnistan, a Punjabi is anyone from the region of Punjab; therefore a person living in the NWFP and linguistically hindko speaker can not be termed as Punjabi or Pathan or Punjabi Pathan. This term of Punjabi Pathan can more correctly be used to refer to Pathan tribes settled in Punjab, for example the Niazis of Mianwali. The Hindkowans speak the Hindko language and are considered to have mixed Pashtun and local origins. Culturally similar to Pashtuns, they often practice Pashtunwali in Pashtun-majority areas. They are a large minority in major cities such as Peshawar, Kohat, Mardan, and Dera Ismail Khan and in mixed districts including Haripur and Abbottabad where they are often bilingual in Hindko and Pashto.[1]

Long before the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan, Grierson, in the Linguistic Survey of India, employed the term Hindko to mean "the language of Hindus" (viii, 1:34).^[10] Farigh Bukhari and South Asian language expert and historian Christopher Shackle believe that Hindko was a generic term applied to the Indo-Aryan dialect continuum in the Pakistani northwest frontier territories and the adjacent district of Attock in the Punjab province to differentiate it in function and form from Pashto. Linguists classify the language into the Indic subgroup of the Indo-Iranian languages, which is in turn a subgroup of Indo-European languages.

Hindkowans are also called Pathans because a great number of Hindkowans basically are of Pashtoon origin. For example Kakar, Durrani, Popalzai, Sadozai, Khogyani, etc native peoples who live in North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, especially in the city of Peshawar, are Pashtoon by ethnicity but they speak Hindko language.

[edit] Demographics

An estimated 2.4 per cent of the total population of Pakistan speak Hindko as their mother tongue, with more rural than urban households reporting Hindko as their household language.

The largest geographically contiguous group of Hindko-speakers is concentrated in the districts of Abbottabad, Haripur, Mansehra and Kaghan valley of Pakistan, while there are a number of geographically isolated speakers of Hindko in cities like Nowshera and Kohat.

People here tend to associate themselves with larger families instead of a language (or caste as it was formerly known) like Awan, Tanoli, Jadoon, Abbasi, and Karlal. People who speak Hindko are referred to by some academics as Pathans^{[citation needed]} probably because many ethnic people, for example Swatis, Mashwanis, Jadoons, and Tanolis who settled in Districts like Abbotabad, Haripur and Mansehra town, adopted Hindko as their first language and had gained political power in these areas during the British rule and also because of many ethnic Pushtun people who speak Hinkdo as their first language in Peshawar and Kohat^{[citation needed]}. The Hindko speaking people living in major cities Peshawar, Kohat, Mardan are bilingual in Pashto and Hindko.^{[citation needed]} Similarly many Pashto speaking people in districts like Mansehra especially in Agror Valley and northern Tanawal (Shergarh), have become bilingual in Pashto and Hindko.^{[citation needed]}

The speakers of Hindko live primarily in seven districts in NWFP: Mansehra, Mardan, Abbottabad, Haripur, Peshawar, Nowshera and Kohat in NWFP, as well as the Attock and Rawalpindi districts in the Punjab and parts of Kashmir; Jonathan Addleton states that "Hindko is the most significant linguistic minority in the NWFP, represented in nearly one-fifth of the province's total households." In Abbotabad, 98 per cent of households reported speaking Hindko, in Mansehra District 77 per cent, in Haripur District around 90 per cent, in Peshawar District 27 per cent, and in Kohat District 10 per cent (1986).^{[citation needed]} Testing of inherent intelligibility among Hindko dialects through the use of recorded tests has shown that there is a northern (Hazara) dialect group and a southern group. The southern dialects are more widely understood throughout the dialect network than are the northern dialects. The dialects of rural Peshawar and Talagang are the most widely understood of the dialects tested. The dialect of Balakot is the least widely understood.

In most Hindko-speaking areas, speakers of Pashto live in the same or neighbouring communities (although this is less true in Abbottabad and Kaghan Valley than elsewhere). In the mixed areas, many people speak both languages. The relationship between Hindko and Pashto is not one of stable bilingualism. In the northeast, Hindko is the dominant language both in terms of domain of usage and in terms of the number of speakers, whereas in the southwest, Pashto seems to be advancing in those same areas.

Historically, there were two languages each in upper Afghanistan and lower Afghanistan: Persian and Pashto and Hindko and Pashto. Chach Hazara was a great centre of resistance to the British.

The Gandhara Hindko Board has published the first dictionary of the language and its launching ceremony was held on March 16, 2003. According to a press release, Sultan Sakoon, a prominent Hindko poet, has compiled the dictionary.

[edit] Notable Hindkowans

• Field Marshal Ayub Khan, Pakistan's first native Commander in Chief and President Pakistan (1958-1969)
• Dr. Aurangzeb, hassamhur or hussamhur, famous Pakistani writer, columnist and researcher
• Pran Sikhand, Padma Bhushan, a multiple filmfare awards and BFJA award winning Indian Bollywood actor^[15]
• Dilip Kumar vetern indian actor
• Prithviraj Kapoor, Padma Bhushan, a noted pioneer of Indian Theatre and of the Hindi film industry^[16][17][9]

[edit] See also

Chhachi

[edit] References