Hindko and Gujari. c - SIL International

Hindko 5
southwest Pashto seems to be advancing in those same ways. 6
However, Addleton, viewing trends over the past forty years,
sees a strengthening of the position of Pashto overall in the
Hindko-speaking areas: “The influence of Pushto on Hazara
appears to have become more pronounced, due in part to an
influx of Pashtuns replacing the Hindko-speaking Sikhs and
Hindus who formerly held key trading positions and who
departed at independence. Moreover, the proportion of Hindko
speakers who also use Pushto seems to be on the increase”
(1986:59). Such patterns of shifting language affiliation are
hardly surprising in a multilingual environment of this sort. 7
1.1.2 Population centers of Hindko speakers
Speakers of Hindko live primarily in five districts. Four of
these are in the North-West Frontier Province — Mansehra,
Abbottabad, Peshawar and Kohat — while one district, Attock, is
in the Panjab. (See map 2.)
According to 1981 census figures (reported in Addleton
1986:70), 305,505 households of the nation (2.4 percent of the
total) speak Hindko as their mother tongue. Its predominance in
rural areas is reflected in the fact that 2.8 percent of rural
households report Hindko as their household language as
compared with only 1.5 percent of urban households.
6 Note the statement of Shackle (1980:486-7), reporting on Hindko
speakers in Kohat: “The position of Kohati seems to have been seriously
weakened since 1947, as the result of the departure of non-Muslim Kohatispeakers
and their replacement by speakers of Pashto. Pashto also seems to be
spreading amongst long-settled Pashtoon families whose first language was
formerly Kohati. There are still fair numbers of Kohati-speakers … but
bilingualism with Pashto appears to be general.”
From an earlier period we also note a statement of the Gazetteer of
NWFP regarding Kohat: “The language commonly spoken is Pashtu. The
Awans and Hindus talk Hindki … but know Pashto as well” (1905:172).
7 This situation contrasts with the picture of greater stability presented by
Grierson (LSI I:29) during the early years of this century: “It is … rare for one
Aryan-speaking nationality to abandon its language in favour of another Aryan
tongue. We continually find tracts of country on the borderland between two
languages which are inhabited by both communities, living side by side and
each speaking its own language.”