Hindko

Varieties of Hindko are primarily spoken in a core area in the district of Attock in the northwestern corner of the province of Punjab, and in two neighbouring regions: in Peshawar to the north-west, and Hazara to the north-east, both in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province). The Hindko of Hazara also extends east into nearby regions of Kashmir.

The central dialect group comprises Kohati (spoken in the city of Kohat and a few neighbouring villages in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and the three closely related dialects of Attock District, Punjab: Chacchi (spoken in Attock and Haripur Tehsils), Ghebi (spoken to the south in Pindi Gheb Tehsil) and Awankari (spoken in Talagang Tehsil, now part of Chakwal District).[17][18] Rensch's classification based on lexical similarity[lower-alpha 3] also assigns to this group the rural dialects of Peshawar District.[19] Shackle, however, sees most[lower-alpha 4] of them as closely related to the urban variety of Peshawar City.[20]

In a group of its own is Peshawari,[lower-alpha 5] the prestigious urban variety spoken in the city of Peshawar and the one that is promoted as a standardised literary language.[21] It has a wide dialectal base[22] and has undergone the influence of Urdu and Standard Punjabi.[19][23]

A separate group is formed in the northeast by the relatively homogeneous dialects of the Hazara region,[24][25] which are collectively known as Hazara Hindko or Northern Hindko, with the variety spoken in Kaghan Valley known as Kaghani,[26] and the variety of Tanawal known variously as Tanoli Hindko, Tanoli or Tinauli.[27] Hindko is also spoken further east into Kashmir. It is the predominant language of the Neelum Valley, in the north of Pakistan-administered Azad Kashmir, where it is locally known as Parmi (or Pārim; the name likely originated in the Kashmiri word apārim 'from the other side', which was the term used by the Kashmiris of the Vale of Kashmir to refer to the highlanders, who spoke this language).[28] This variety is also spoken across the Line of Control into Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.[29]

The whole dialect continuum of Hindko is partitioned by Ethnologue into two languages: Northern Hindko (ISO 639-3 code: hno)[26] for the dialects of Hazara, and Southern Hindko (ISO 639-3: hnd)[30] for the remaining varieties. This grouping finds support in the results of the intelligibility testing done by Rensch, which also found out that the southern dialects are more widely understood throughout the Hindko area than are the northern ones.[31]

Hindko dialects gradually transition into other varieties of Lahnda and Punjabi to the south. For example, to the southwest across the Salt Range are found dialects of Saraiki,[32] and at least one of these – the one spoken in the Dera Ismail Khan District – is sometimes also referred to as "Hindko".[33] To the southeast, Hindko is in a dialect continuum with Pahari–Pothwari, with the Galyat region of Abbottabad district and the area of Muzaffarabad in Azad Kashmir approximately falling on the boundary between the two.[34]

There are Hindko diasporas in neighbouring countries. Some Hindu Hindkowans and Sikh Hindowans migrated to India after the partition of India in 1947.[35][36] These Hindko speakers in India identify with the broader Punjabi community.[14] There is also a small diaspora in Afghanistan, which includes members of the Sikh community who became established there during the Sikh Empire in the first half othe 19th century. Most of them have emigrated since the rise of the Taliban, and the total population of Sikhs, Hindko-speaking or not, is estimated at around 300 families (as of 2018).[37]

There is no generic name for the speakers of Hindko because they belong to diverse ethnic groups and tend to identify themselves by the larger families or castes. However, the people of the largest group in the districts of Haripur, Abbottabad, Mansehra, Battagram and Kohistan are sometimes recognised collectively as Hazarawal, named after the defunct Hazara Division that comprised these districts. The ethnic groups that speak Hindko include various Pashtun tribes (Tahir Kheli, Swati Pathans, Tanoli,[38] Dilazak, Yusufzai, the Jadun and the Tarin), as well as Saiyids, Avans, Moughals, Bulghadris, Turks, Qureshis and Gujars.[39]

The most common second language for Hindko-speakers in Pakistan is Urdu and the second most common one is Pashto.[40] 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). The relationship between Hindko and its neighbours 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 Swati Pathans,[41] and in the Neelam Valley of Azad Kashmir it is gaining ground at the expense of the minority languages like Kashmiri.[42] 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 Partitition and the consequent influx of Pashtuns into the vacated areas of the urban economy, there have been signs of a shift towards Pashto.[43][35]

The Gandhara Hindko Board is a leading organisation that has been active in the preservation and promotion of the Hindko and culture since 1993. The board was launched in Peshawar in year 1993 to preserve and promote Hindko —the second most spoken of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. It brings out four regular publications— Hindkowan, The Gandhara Voice, " Sarkhail" and "Tarey" and a number of occasional publications. Late professor Zahoor Ahmad Awan of Peshawar city, the author of 61 books and publications, was the founding-chairman of the board. Now the board is headed by Ejaz Ahmad Qureshi. 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 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.

In 2003 the Gandhara Hindko Board published first a Hindko dictionary which was compiled by a prominent linguists from Abbottabad, Sultan Sakoon. The board published a second more comprehensive Hindko dictionary in 2007 prepared by Elahi Bakhsh Awan of the University of London. He is the author of Sarzamin e Hindko, and Hindko Sautiyat. His three booklets on Hindko phonology were published by the University of Peshawar in the late 1970s.

The Idara-e-Faroghe Hindko based in Peshawar is another body that is promoting the Hindko. Riffat Akbar 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 and the first Ph.D. thesis on Hindko by E.B.A. Awan. A monthly magazine Faroogh is also published regularly from Peshawar under supervision of Aurangzeb Ghaznavi. In Karachi Syed Mehboob is working for the promotion of Hindko. His articles are frequently published in Farogh monthly. He is organiser of Hindko Falahi Forum.

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 and literature. Asif Saqib, Sufi Abdur Rasheed, Fazal-e-Akbar Kamal, Sharif Hussain Shah, Muhammad Farid, Yahya Khalid, Nazir Kasalvi, and Muhammad Hanif have contributed a lot in this regard. Sultan Sakoon has written the First Hindko dictionary that has been published by Gandhara Hindko Board. 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.

• 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.
• 1978: "Rival linguistic identities in Pakistan Punjab." Rule, protest, identity: aspects of modern South Asia (ed. P. Robb & D. Taylor), 213-34. London: Curzon
• Monthly Farogh Peshawar Hindko magazine March 2010.
• Karachi main Hindko zaban o adab Dr.Syed Mehboob ka kirdar " by Kamal Shah
• Toker, Halil (2014). A practical guide to Hindko Grammar. Trafford Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4907-2379-2. (based on the Hindko of Peshawar)

Hindko test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

• Gandhara Hindko Board