Hindkowans

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Hindkowans, also known as the Hindki, is a contemporary designation for speakers of the Hindko dialects of Lahnda who live among the neighbouring Pashtuns in Pakistan. The origins of the term refer merely to the speakers of Indo-Aryan languages rather than to any particular ethnic group. The term is not only applied to speakers of Hindko but also, sometimes, to the Saraiki-speakers in the districts of Dera Ghazi Khan, Mianwali, and Dera Ismail Khan, which border the Pashto-speaking areas. There is no generic name for Hindko speakers because they belong to diverse ethnic groups and often identify themselves by the larger families or castes. However, the Hindko-speaking community belonging to the Hazara Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is sometimes recognised collectively as Hazarewal, while the urban settlers in the cities of Peshawar and Kohat are simply known as Pishoris and Kohatis, respectively. There is also a small diaspora in Afghanistan, which includes members of the Hindu and Sikh community that was established during the Sikh Empire in the first half of the 19th century. Most of them have emigrated since the rise of the Taliban, and the total population of Sikhs, Hindko-speaking or not, was estimated at 300 families (as of 2018). These Hindko-speaking Hindus and Sikhs are commonly referred to as Hindki. Those Hindko speakers, mainly Hindu and Sikhs, who after the partition of British India migrated to the independent republic, identify with the broader Punjabi community; and they reside in the Indian states of Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir. Prior to the partition, the Hindu and Sikh Hindkowans exercised urban economic power in the North-West Frontier Province of British India. They were primarily traders and merchants and over time settled in areas as far as Kalat, Balochistan. The 2023 census of Pakistan enumerated 5.5 million Hindko-speakers in the country.