Swatis (Urdu: سواتی) are people inhabiting the Hazara division in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Today Swatis usually speak HindkoorPashto as their primary languages and identify themselves with Hindkowans and Pashtuns. Of Dardic origins,[1][2] Swatis originally spoke Dardic languages such as Gibri and Yadri and were native inhabitants of Swat valley. They were Pashtunized after Yousafzai occupation of Swat in the 16th century and were displaced to Kohistan.[3][4] In historic accounts Pashtuns referred to Swatis as "Dehgan"; this was not an ethnic designation but simply referred to the fact that they were villagers.[1] They are also sometimes called Tajiks, a common ethnonym used by Pashtuns to describe their Dardic neighbours.[5][6] Hemphil (2009) rejects Ibbetson's (1916:95-6) assertion of Swatis as a "race of Hindu origin" from peninsular India, suggesting, instead, that Swatis show a higher affinity to their neighbours in the northwest and with people in the Indus valley, to the south.[7] Khan Khel Swati is a sub-section in various sections of all three branches of the Swati.[8]
The Afghans referred to the Shalmanis, Swatis, Gibaris, Tirahis, and certain other peoples of the Peshawar area as Dehgan peoples. This is not an ethnic designation, but simply refers to the fact that they were villagers or peasants. Linguistic evidence points to their being Dardic peoples related to speakers of Pashai, Khowar, Shina, Burushashki and Kashmiri.
The language of the Swatis being Dardic they were not separately named, but comprised in the denomination of Dards...
of peoples that had lived there before the time of Afghan occupation... are Swati people.
As use of Dardic languages has declined, ethnonyms have shifted. In the west the residents of Kabul Kōhestān became Islamicized in the early 19th century, and Pashto speakers now call them Tajiks, after the Persian speakers across the Hindu Kush mountains in Central Asia
The ethnic groups speaking Dardic languages in Afghanistan called themselves "Tājiks".
Gibari Deshrais : Jehangiris, Arghushal Malkals, Iznali Mandravis
