Seraiki people

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Seraikis
سراییکی

Total population

16 million

Regions with significant populations

Pakistan
India

Languages

Siraiki

Religions

Islam

Related ethnic groups

Sindhis,Dogra,Punjabis,Indo-Aryans

The Siraiki people (Urdu: سراییکی ) are an ethnic group from the south-western areas of Pakistan. The Siraikis are based in the former Princely state of Bahawalpur, Multan, Lodhran, Khanewal, Rajanpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, MuzafarGarh, Layah, Bhakkar, Mianwali, Dera Ismail Khan, Khushab,Sargodha and Jhang, though they live in surrounding areas of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and North West Frontier Province. It is, however, important to notice that almost 36% of Sindhis are Baloches overwhelming majority of who speak Siraiki. The Siraikis maintain that they have a separate language and culture, whilst some Punjabis view Seraiki as merely a dialect of Punjabi.

Ali-Al-Kufi 712 A.D also in his book(Shash nama) about Sindh says that Saraiki is a dialect of Sindhi language.Ali-Al-Kufi was considered an authority on subject of Sindh and because of this reason he was invited by the Arab rulers several times to provide useful information about Sindh and its people. He explainded in detail that there is one language spoken in country Sindh and its called Sindhi. He further said that 'Sareki' is its one of its(Sindhi's)three dialects.

A Siraiki campaign(struggle) grew in the 1960's with the aims of establishing language rights and stopping what was seen as exploitation and repression by the traditionally Punjabi dominated government. Siraiki land has always been very fertile, producing much of Pakistan's wheat and cotton. However little money has been invested back, thus leading to impoverishment and underdevelopment.

The campaign continued on into the 1970's, by which time political activists had drawn up a map of a proposed Seraikistan region, including most of southern Punjab and Dera Ismail Khan in the North West Frontier Province (note that this excluded Sindhi and Baloch areas, possibly because of strong nationalist movements in those regions).

In 1977 General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq took power in a coup of Pakistan. Under his strongly centralist rule the Seraiki movement went underground.

General Zia killed in a plane crash in 1988 and the Siraiki movement re-emerged. By now the aims were to have a Siraiki nationality recognised, to have official documents printed in Seraiki, a Siraiki regiment in the army, employment quotas and more Siraiki language radio and television(recentlly one TV is working).

In 1993 moves were made to settle Biharis in Seraiki areas. This was resisted by the Siraikis and the plan was eventually shelved. Siraikies claim that they are not merely an ethnic group but a nation.

At the time of partition of the country, when Hindus constituted between 40 and 60% of the population of the regions in Sindhi, Punjab and the Siaraiki region, the majority of the Hindus migrated to India, while a substantial population migrated to the UK and other countries(only 20,000 Seraikis in India)

We are aware that in Delhi alone there are about 25,000 Seraiki families, most of who identify themselves as Punjabi. Many of their children do not speak the language or have only heard it at home. Seraiki is getting assimilated or replaced by Punjabii and Hindi which of course is not an issue neither social nor political for the Hindu Seraiki in India today. There are localities like Gujranwala town Mianwali Nagar and others that are named after respective towns the "refugees" came from.

Apart from this group of the Seraiki diaspora, there are several cities and villages in the Indian Punjab, where the Seraikis settled. Rohtak for one, is virtually a resettlement of the Seraikis. Then there is a large population of Seraikis in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Madras/ Chennai and Indore, as also in several cities in Uttar Pradesh and Madya Pradhesh. Bangalore, my city, has at least 200 Multani families.

There might be 2 reasons for there being little information about the Seraiki Hindus.

1. Most Seraikis know themselves to be Multani, and not Seraiki, in India. They are unaware of the developments in Pakistan, both from the linguistic as well as the political spheres. Seraiki as a nomenclature was popularized much later, after partition. The word Seraiki was not very well known amont the migrants, who were largely uneducated or were exposed to newer education systems when they arrived in India. Although "Seraiki" used to identify the language in schools of the Seraiki system in pre-partition Pakistan, it was only known to those either the Seraiki elite or to those that attended Seraiki schools.

2. For various reasons, most Multanis in India identify themselves as Punjabi. Obviously our culture, customs and family names are common with the Punjabis, and Multanis may be considered a sub-group with the Punjabi nation, or perhaps the other way round (Multani as a language predates Punjabi and Sindhi,and may be considered the mother of the two).