| Hindko | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ہندکو | ||||||
| Pronunciation | [hindkou̯] | |||||
| Spoken in | Afghanistan | |||||
| Region | South Asia | |||||
| Native speakers | approx. 2.2–4 million[1] (date missing) | |||||
| Language family | ||||||
| Writing system | Nasta'liq script | |||||
| Language codes | ||||||
| ISO 639-3 | either: hnd – Southern hno – Northern |
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Hindko (ہندکو, [hindkou̯]), also Hindku, or Hinko,[2] is the sixth main regional language of Pakistan.[3] It forms a subgroup of Indo-Aryan languages spoken by Hindkowans in Pakistan and northern India,[4] some Pashtun tribes in Pakistan, as well as by the Hindki people of Afghanistan. The word "Hindko" has also been interpreted to mean the language of India[5] and most probably "Indus" which is the source of etymology for all these words.[6] The term is also found in Greek references to the mountainous region in eastern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan as Καύκασος Ινδικός (Caucasus Indicus, or Hindu Kush). The language is spoken in the areas of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (including Hazara), Punjab (including Attock), and Pakistan Administered Kashmir.
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, Mansehra, Battagram and Kohistan 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.
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During the pre-Islamic era in present day Pakistan, the language of the masses was refined by the ancient grammarian Pāṇini, who set the rules of an ancient 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. It has undergone very little grammatical corruption, but has borrowed considerable vocabulary from its neighbours, in particular Pashto. It shows close affinity to 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). The language is mutually intelligible with other Lahnda dialects such as Pothwari.
The largest geographically contiguous group of Hindko speakers is concentrated in the districts of Abbottabad, Haripur, Mansehra, Attock of Pakistan, while there are a substantial number of speakers of Hindko in cities like Peshawar, Nowshera, Swabi and Kohat of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province of Pakistan and parts of both Kashmirs.
People who speak Hindko are referred to by some academics as Pathans because of the many Pashtun tribes, for example Shilmani/Sulemani, Mashwanis, Jadoons, Tareen, Tanolis, 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, Durrani, Popalzai, Sadozai, Bangash, Khattak, Yousafzai, 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, and Attock are bilingual in Pashto and Hindko. Similarly there are Pashto speaking people in districts like Abbottabad and Mansehra (especially in Agror Valley and northern Tanawal) who have have become bilingual in Pashto and Hindko.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 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.
The speakers of Hindko live primarily in seven districts: Mansehra, Abbottabad, Haripur, Peshawar, Nowshera, Swabi and Kohat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Attock and Rawalpindi in Punjab and parts of Pakistan-administered Kashmir including Muzaffarabad; Jonathan Addleton states that "Hindko is the linguistic majority in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, represented in nearly one-third of the province's total households." (Pakhtunkhwa referring to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.) In Abbottabad District 88 per cent of households reported speaking Hindko, in Mansehra District 77 per cent, in Peshawar District 35 per cent, and in Kohat District 40 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 north east, Hindko is the dominant language both in terms of domain of usage and in terms of the number of speakers, whereas in the south west, 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.
Hindko speakers are also found throughout Afghanistan, where they are known as Hindkois.[7]
The Gandhara Hindko Board is a leading 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 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. It brings out two regular publications-- "Hindkowan" and "The Gandhara Voice" and a number of occasional publications. Late Professor Dr 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 Mr 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 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.
In 2003 the Gandhara Hindko Board published first a Hindko dictionary which was compiled by a prominent language researcher from Abbottabad, Sultan Sakoon. The board published a second more comprehensive Hindko dictionary in 2007 prepared by Dr 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 70's.
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 and the first Ph.D. thesis on Hindko by Dr E.B.A.Awan. 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. Dr. Syed Mehboob also is the member of Qaumi Flahi Forum an umbrella working for the promotion of Hindko languages under the guidance and supervision of Riffat Akbar Sawati " The Madre Hindko". Dr. Syed Mehboob is a prominent columnist, researcher and journalist who published more than 550 articles, and is also an author of three books.His recent essay "noor e Muhammad nal dowen jahan roshan hen" published in monthly Farogh Peshawar is widle liked and lauded by Hindkowans.
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.
Some of the prominent Hindko poets are:
Shakeel Awan,Hussain Baksh,Munir Awan, Naeem Hazarvi, Shahzad Awan, Tariq Hazarvi, SanamAfreen Saeed Hazara, Afshan Zebi ...... Manzoor Hussain Basir'
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