Hindko ( , हिन्दको
/hindkoŭ/), also Hindku, or
Hinko, is part of the Lahnda subgroup of Indo-Aryan languages spoken by Hindkowans in Pakistan
and northern
India
,<. as="" well="" by="" the="" Hindki people of Afghanistan
. The literal meaning of the word "Hindko" is
"Mountains of India"---a name the Persians gave to the entire Himalaya
Mountains
. The word "Hind" is the Persianised reference
to the regions associated with the Indus River
immediately to the east of Persia
and "Ko"
means mountains. The word Hindko has also been interpreted
to mean the language of India.
The term is also found in Greek references to
the mountainous region in eastern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan as Καύκασος Ινδικός (Caucasus
Indicus
). The language is spoken in the areas of the
North West
Frontier Province
(including Hazara), Punjab (including Attock), and Azad Jammu and
Kashmir
by an estimated 2.2 to 4 million
people.
There is no generic name for these people because they belong to
diverse ethnicities and tend to identify themselves by the larger
families or castes. However the people of the largest group in the
districts of Haripur, Abbottabad and Mansehra are sometimes
recognised collectively as Hazarawal, named after the defunct
Hazara Division that comprised these
districts. In Peshawar city they are called Peshawari or "Kharay"
by Pashtuns meaning City-dwellers or
Hindkowans.
History and Origin
During the pre-Buddhist era in present day Pakistan, the language
of the masses was refined by the ancient grammarian
Pāṇini, who set the rules of a language
called
Sanskrit which was used principally
for Hindu scriptures (analogous to
Latin in
the Western world). Meanwhile, the vernacular language of the
masses,
Prakrit developed into many tongues
and dialects which spread over the northern parts of
South Asia. Hindko is believed to be closely
related to
Prakrit. Due to the geographic
isolation of the regions, it has undergone very little grammatical
corruption, but has borrowed considerable vocabulary from its
neighbours, in particular
Pashto. It shows
close affinity to
Punjabi and the
Lahnda sub-group of
Indo-Aryan tongues and can be
sub-divided into a northern and southern dialect (the southern
dialect shows some similarity with
Saraiki
as opposed to Punjabi).On the language is mutually intelligible
with other Lahnda dialects such as Pothwari, western Punjbai, and
Mirpuri.
Speakers
The
largest geographically contiguous group of Hindko speakers is
concentrated in the districts of state Abbottabad
, Haripur, Mansehra
, Attock, Muzaffarabad and Kaghan valley of
Pakistan, while there are a substantial number of geographically
isolated speakers of Hindko in cities like
Peshawar
, Mardan
and Kohat
.
People here tend to associate themselves with the larger families
instead of a language (or caste as it used to be called).
The
Awans
for example, have a great history of bravery and
are known as lords of the Hazara Division. Other tribes are
Turks,
Tanoli,
Tareen,
Jadoon,
Abbasi,
Karlal,
Kashmiri,
Swati,
Sarara,
Mughal,
Tahirkheli etc. People who speak
Hindko are referred to by some academics as
Pathans probably because of the many Pashtun tribes,
for example Jadoons, Tareen,
Tanolis and
Tahirkhelis, who settled in places like
Hazara, adopted
Hindko as their first
language and gained political power in these areas during the
British rule, and also because of many ethnic Pashtuns such as
Kakar, Durani, Popalzai, Sadozai, Ghaznavi and Khogyani, etc who
speak Hindko as their first language in Peshawar and Kohat are
Pashtuns by origin. The
Hindko speaking
people living in major cities Peshawar, Kohat, Nowshera are
bilingual in Pashto and Hindko. Similarly many Pashto speaking
people in districts like Abbottabad and Mansehra (especially in
Agror Valley and northern Tanawal) have become bilingual in Pashto
and Hindko.
The NWFP Imperial Gazetteer (1905) refers to the language as
Hindko. More than one interpretation has been offered for the term
Hindko.
Some associate it with Hindustan (as the word may have been used during
the medieval Muslim period in the Indian subcontinent), others with the
Indus
River which is of course the etymological source of all
these terms. 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
northwest frontier territories and adjacent district of Attock in
the Punjab
province to differentiate it from
Pashto.
Linguists classify the language into the Indic subgroup of
Indo-European languages and consider it to be one of the
Indo-Iranian languages of the area.
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.
Demographics
The
speakers of Hindko live primarily in six districts: Mansehra, Abbottabad
, Haripur
, Peshawar
, Nowshera and
Kohat
in NWFP,
Attock
and Rawalpindi
in Punjab and parts of Pakistan-administered Kashmir
including Muzaffarabad
; Jonathan Addleton states that "Hindko is the
linguistic majority in the NWFP, represented in nearly one-fifth of
the province's total households." (NWFP referring to
North-West
Frontier Province
.) In Abbottabad District 98 per cent of households
reported speaking Hindko, in Mansehra District 77 per cent, in
Peshawar District 17 per cent, and in Kohat District 10 per cent
(1986). 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 Abottabad, it is
now being advanced due to usage of Urdu words. It is Spoken by the
Mashwanis,Jadoons, Tanoli, Mughals, and Awans. 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.
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, compiled the
dictionary.
Some
Hindko speakers are found in northern
India because after the partition
of India, many Hindu Hindko speakers
emigrated to India, preserving
their language and passing it on to their children. Hindko
speakers are also found throughout Afghanistan, where they are
known as
Hindkis, and are also primarily
practice
Hinduism.
Literature and writers
The Gandhara Hindko Board an organisation that has been active in
the preservation and promotion of the Hindko language and Hindkowan
culture since 1993. The board was launched in Peshawar in year 1993
to preserve and promote Hindko language—the second language of the
North-West Frontier Province (also called Gandhara province) of
Pakistan. It brings out two regular publications-- "Hindkowan" and
"The Gandhara Voice" and a number of occasional publications. The
board is headed by Professor Dr Zahoor Ahmad Awan of Peshawar city
who has to his credit 60 books and publications. The board has
published first Hindko dictionary and several other books on a
variety of topics. With head office in Peshawar, the organisation
has regional offices in other cities of the province where Hindko
language is spoken and understood. The organisation has arranged a
number of mega events to raise awareness among the Hindkowans about
the importance of their language and culture. The board seeks
respect for and due attention to all the languages spoken in
Gandhara province.
In 2003 the Gandhara Hindko Board published first a Hindko
dictionary which was compiled by a proment language researcher from
Abbottabad, Sultan Sakoon. The board publishhed second more
comprehensive Hindko dictionary in 2007 which has been prepared by
an internationally known linguist from Walled City of Peshawar,
Professor Dr Elahi Bakhsh Awan of University of London.
The Idara-e-Faroghe Hindko based in Peshawar is another body that
is promoting the Hindko language. Riffat Swati and Aurangzeb
Ghaznavi are main people of this organisation. The Idara has
published the first Hindko translation of the Quran by Haider Zaman
Haider. A monthly Magazine Faroogh is also published regularly from
Peshawar under supervision of Aurangzeb Ghaznavi. In Karachi
Dr.Syed Mehboob is also working for the promotion of Hindko
language.
Many organisations like Bazm-e-Ilm-o-Fun Abbottabad and
Halqa-e-Yaraan Shinkyari are contributing in their own way to the
cause of promoting Hindko language and literature. Mr. Asif Saqib,
Prof. Sufi Abdur Rasheed, Col. Fazal-e-Akbar Kamal, Mr. Sharif
Hussain Shah, Prof. Muhammad Farid, Prof.Yahya Khalid, Mr. Nazir
Kasalvi and Muhammad Hanif have contributed a lot in this regard.
Mr. Sultan Sakoon has written the First Hindko dictionary that has
been published by Gandhara Hindko Board. Mr Sultan Sakoon stands
out for his literary contribution as he is a prolific writer and
his books including those on Hindko proverbs and Hindko riddles
have been published.
See also
References
- 1974: Phonology of Verbal Phrase in Hindko,Dr E.B.A. Awan
published by Idara-e-Farogh-e-Hindko Peshawar in 1992.
- 2004: Hindko Sautiyat,Dr E.B.A. Awan, published by Gandhara
Hindko Board Peshawar in 2004.
- 2005: Hindko Land - a thesis presented by Dr E.B.A. Awan at the
World Hindko Conference at Peshawar in 2005.
- 1980: "Hindko in Kohat and Peshawar." Bulletin of SOAS, 1980,
482-510
- 1978: "Rival linguistic identities in Pakistan Punjab." Rule,
protest, identity: aspects of modern South Asia (ed. P. Robb &
D. Taylor), 213-34. London: Curzon
- 1986: Addleton, Jonathan S., "The Importance of Regional
Languages in Pakistan," al'Mushir, Vol. 28, No. 2 (1986),
pp. 55–80.
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