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 | |
The Saraikis (Saraiki: سرائیکی), are a Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group native to the Southwestern region of the Punjab provinceofPakistan. They are multi-ethnic in origin and speak the Saraiki language.
They are mainly found in a region of southern Punjab known as SaraikorSaraikistan, 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]
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.
Punjab's diversity of dialects, Saraiki and Pothohari contrasting with the heartland Punjabi, was striking at the time of independence. Since then, the increased mobility of the population and the absorption of refugees from India have stimulated homogenizing tendencies both linguistically and ethnically. NWFP, although symbolically a Pashtoon is also a province of many ethnicities and languages, for example, Hindku-speaking people inhabit the Peshawar Valley and Hazara district, and Saraiki speakers are found in the Derajats.
Media related to Saraiki people at Wikimedia CommonsAuthority control databases: National  |
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