The Saraikis (Saraiki: سرائیکی), are a Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group native to the Southwestern region of the Punjab province of Pakistan. They are multi-ethnic in origin and speak the Saraiki language.
سرائیکی | |
|---|---|
 Depiction of Saraiki men near Derawar Fort | |
| Total population | |
| c. 20 million[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Pakistan | 20,324,637[2] |
| Languages | |
| Saraiki | |
| Religion | |
Majority  Sunni Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Other Indo-Aryan peoples | |
They are mainly found in a region of southern Punjab known as Saraik or Saraikistan, as well as in most parts of Derajat, which is located in the region where southwestern Punjab, southeastern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and northeastern Balochistan meet.[3][4][5] Derajat is bounded by the Indus River to the east and the Sulaiman Mountains to the west.
The Saraiki people follow many religions, though most are predominantly followers of Islam. A small minority of Saraikis follow Christianity, Hinduism and Sikhism. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, many Hindus and Sikhs migrated to India where they are known as Multanis, Derawalis and Bhawalpuris.[6]
Etymology
_from_a_series_of_twelve_paintings,_ca.1850.jpg)
The present extent of the meaning of Sirāikī is a recent development, and the term most probably gained its currency during the nationalist movement of the 1960s.[7] It has been in use for much longer in Sindh to refer to the speech of the immigrants from the north, principally Siraiki-speaking Baloch tribes who settled there between the 16th and the 19th centuries. In this context, the term can most plausibly be explained as originally having had the meaning "the language of the north", from the Sindhi word siro 'up-river, north'.[8] This name can ambiguously refer to the northern dialects of Sindhi, but these are nowadays more commonly known as "Siroli"[9] or "Sireli".[10]
An alternative hypothesis is that Sarākī originated in the word sauvīrā, or Sauvira,[11] an ancient kingdom which was also mentioned in the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata.[12]
Currently, the most common rendering of the term is Saraiki.[a] However, Seraiki and Siraiki are also commonly used.
Notable people
See also
References
Sources
- Dani, A.H. (1981). "Sindhu – Sauvira : A glimpse into the early history of Sind". In Khuhro, Hamida (ed.). Sind through the centuries : proceedings of an international seminar held in Karachi in Spring 1975. Karachi: Oxford University Press. pp. 35–42. ISBN 978-0-19-577250-0.
- Rahman, Tariq (1995). "The Siraiki Movement in Pakistan". Language Problems & Language Planning. 19 (1): 1–25. doi:10.1075/lplp.19.1.01rah.
- Shackle, Christopher (1976). The Siraiki language of central Pakistan : a reference grammar. London: School of Oriental and African Studies.
- —— (1977). "Siraiki: A Language Movement in Pakistan". Modern Asian Studies. 11 (3): 379–403. doi:10.1017/s0026749x00014190. ISSN 0026-749X. JSTOR 311504. S2CID 144829301.
- —— (2007). "Pakistan". In Simpson, Andrew (ed.). Language and national identity in Asia. Oxford linguistics Y. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-922648-1.
External links
Media related to Saraiki people at Wikimedia Commons
