Rehman-Language of Qureshis of Kundal Shahi 2004, język irański

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The Language of the Qureshis of Kundal Shahi
in Azad Kashmir
Khawaja A. Rehman and Joan L.G. Baart
[Prepublication draft, January 9, 2004—comments welcome]
Introduction
In this paper we present some preliminary notes on the language spoken by the Qureshi tribe in Kundal
Shahi, a village in the Neelam valley of Pakistani-administered Kashmir. To our knowledge, this language
has until now not been recorded in the published linguistic literature.
The first formal linguistic research effort on the Kundal Shahi language that we are aware of was made by
three members of the team of the
Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan
. In January 1989, Mr.
Muhammad Arif, Mr. Peter Backstrom, and Mr. Ken Decker visited Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad
Jammu and Kashmir, in order to learn more about the languages spoken in northern Azad Kashmir. During
interviews on this trip, several men from Authmuqam in the Neelam valley mentioned the existence of a
language in Kundal Shahi, near Authmuqam, called “Rowri”. This language was reported to be spoken by
100 to 400 people and was not intelligible to other people.
In April 1989, the same survey team members obtained a three-day permit from the Home Secretary in
Muzaffarabad and travelled up the Neelam valley to Kundal Shahi. Upon their arrival there they began to
inquire about the languages spoken in the area. Initially, people responded that Urdu was the language
spoken in that area. After probing deeper the people would hesitantly respond that their own language was
Pahari or Hindko. Upon further questioning if anybody spoke a language different from Pahari or Hindko,
they began to get reports of “Shina” being spoken in the area. No one had ever heard of “Rowri”.
Eventually, the survey team members found some ten men who spoke “Shina” and considered it their best
language. A number of these men were interviewed, and a wordlist was collected of 210 words as well as
two short stories (K.D. Decker, personal communication, September 3, 2003).
Due to a shortage of time and an abundance of other pressing duties, the materials collected in Kundal
Shahi in 1989 were not included in the published report of the Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan
(O’Leary 1992), and in fact have remained unpublished until the present day.
The first author of the current paper, Mr. Khawaja Rehman, is a native speaker of Kashmiri, who was born
and raised and is still residing in the Neelam valley, in village Khawaja Seri near Sharda. With an MA
degree in English language and linguistics from the University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir,
Muzaffarabad, Rehman developed a keen interest in the existence within the borders of his native district of
the hitherto undescribed language of Kundal Shahi. Starting in April 2002, he began to make regular visits
to the village and to collect language data there, under the guidance of Raja Nasim Akhtar, chairman of the
English department at the University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
In December 2002, Rehman was introduced through the services of Pakistani linguist Tariq Rahman to Mr.
Joan Baart in Islamabad, the second author of this paper. Baart is a descriptive linguist with SIL who has
been working on several languages of Pakistan for a number of years. From that time on, Rehman and
Baart have been working on the Kundal Shahi language together, and the current paper is a first product of
this cooperation. As a resident of the area, Rehman has relatively easy access to Kundal Shahi village and
the speakers of the language, and continues to make regular fieldwork visits. The information presented in
this paper was collected by him. Rehman and Baart have been working jointly on transcription and analysis
of the data, as well as on the writing of this paper.
1
In the paper, we use a standard orientalist transcription for representing Kundal Shahi language data (see
tables 3 and 6 below for explanation). Long vowels, however, are written with a double vowel symbol,
rather than with the customary macron above the vowel (e.g.
baal
‘hair’ instead of
ba2l
).
Geographical location
Kundal Shahi (
kunDal }ai
) is a village (or, rather, a scattered settlement area) that is located in the Neelam
valley, at an elevation of approximately 1,350 meters above sea level, at the point where the Jagran Nallah
(
jaagraa~ naala
) joins the Neelam River (also called Kishanganga). Bates’ gazetteer of Kashmir (Bates
1873:174) listed its geographical location as lat. 34
°
33' N., long. 73
°
53' E. (the place name shown in the
gazetteer is
Darral
; the location corresponds to a
mohalla
of present-day Kundal Shahi that is actually
called
dulaR
). Settlements belonging to the village of Kundal Shahi are found on both sides of the Jagran
Nallah, at a few minutes walking distance from the Neelam valley highway. The distance from
Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, to Kundal Shahi is some 74 kilometers by road.
Between, roughly, Tithwal and Sharda, the Neelam valley runs parallel to the Kaghan valley in the West,
and is separated from it by a range of high mountains, some peaks of which reach an altitude of over 4,000
meters above sea level. The Line of Control (LoC), which separates the Indian-administered part of
Kashmir from the Pakistani-administered part, runs through, or close to, the Neelam valley, at some points
right along the river and at other points across the mountains on the left side of the river. At Kundal Shahi,
the LoC is removed by a few kilometers from the bank of the Neelam River. This makes Kundal Shahi a
relatively safe place as far as cross-border shelling is concerned, and for this reason the
tehsil
headquarters,
formerly in Authmuqam 10 kilometers up the valley, have been shifted in recent years to Kundal Shahi.
On the right bank of the Jagran Nallah in Kundal Shahi, a small hydro-electric power station has been built.
Also on the right side, an area of dense forest stretches down towards the bank of the stream.
Name of the people and the language
The language under study in this paper is spoken by an ethnic group in Kundal Shahi called Qureshi. They
make up the majority of the population of Kundal Shahi village, probably around 90 percent. The tribal
name
Qureshi
as such is widespread in Pakistan. As Wikeley (1915:87) reported, “Koréshis are found
throughout the Punjáb, they are most numerous in the Rawalpindi, Multán and Jhang districts […] The
Koréshis claim descent from the tribe to which the Prophet belonged […] The tribe is respected by
Muhammadans for its sanctity.” The language that is being described in this paper seems to be unique to
Kundal Shahi and is not associated with the Qureshis in general.
There are families of some other tribes in the village as well, including Sheikhs, Mughals, and Sayyids, but
these constitute only a small minority of the population. All these other tribes speak Hindko as their native
language. (We use the name “Hindko” in this paper, which seems to be the more common name among the
people of the Neelam valley; whether the variety spoken in the Neelam valley is actually more closely
related to the Hindko of the Kaghan valley, or to varieties of the Pahari of the Murree hills and the Pothwari
of the plains of district Rawalpindi, is something that remains to be determined.)
The people of the Qureshi tribe in Kundal Shahi do not have a specific name for their language. They may
refer to it simply as
apii~ boúoúl
‘our own speech’. Hindko-speaking outsiders may refer to the language as
kunDal }ai dii zabaan
‘language of Kundal Shahi’, or as
raawRii
. The latter term is regarded as pejorative.
According to our understanding, it was originally used by Hindko speakers to refer to the Pashto language
and then consequently its use was extended to include some other non-Hindko languages as well.
In this paper we refer to the language as the
Kundal Shahi language
, and simply as
Kundal Shahi
(abbreviated
KS
) in contexts where there is no potential confusion as to whether we are talking about the
language or the village.
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Linguistic environment
As stated above, the Qureshis in Kundal Shahi share their village with Hindko-speaking tribes, although
within the village area these latter are only a small minority. All the villages surrounding Kundal Shahi are
Hindko-speaking. In the upper parts of the Jagran Nallah, permanent settlements of Gujars are found.
Hindko is the predominant language of the Neelam valley. Kashmiri, too, is spoken in several villages of
this area. In some of these villages, the Kashmiri speakers live among the Hindko speakers. A few other
villages are entirely Kashmiri. Also in the main Neelam valley, both settled and nomadic Gujars are found.
In the highest inhabitable parts of the valley on the Pakistani side of the LoC there are two villages where
Shina is spoken (Phulawai and Taobat). Pashto is spoken in two villages of the Neelam valley that are
located on the LoC, Dhakki and Changnar (Chaknot).
Speakers
The Qureshi tribe in Kundal Shahi comprises approximately 1,500 to 2,000 people. Some fifty years ago,
all members of the tribe would use the Kundal Shahi language actively on a daily basis. However, in more
recent years a process of language shift has been taking place, so that the newer generations (roughly,
people under twenty years old) do not learn to speak their ancestral language anymore and learn Hindko
instead as their native language.
According to our interviewees, at the current time only some 20 percent of the members of the tribe still
use the language actively on a daily basis. A much larger group (more than 50 percent) can still understand
the language even though they do not use it in daily conversation. The younger children do no longer fully
understand the language, although they usually know at least some words and phrases.
Among the other tribes living in Kundal Shahi, there are some people who have learned the language of the
Qureshis to some extent. However, this is not very common, as Hindko is the language that is normally
used in interaction between the Qureshis and other tribes.
History
According to a local tradition (related to the first author by Mr. Jalal-ud-Din, currently one of the oldest
members of the community), the ancestor of the Qureshis in Kundal Shahi was a man called Kamaal Khan.
He lived in a village in Kashmir called Tijjar, located to the north-west of the town of Sopore.
Approximately three hundred years ago, Kamaal Khan left Tijjar and traveled to Muzaffarabad, where he
lived for a while. After a power struggle with one of his grandsons, Kamaal Khan was forced to leave
Muzaffarabad. He surveyed several places in the Neelam valley, and then chose the location of Kundal
Shahi and settled there.
Two sons of Kamaal Khan, Sikandar Khan and Hyder Khan, went with him to Kundal Shahi. There was
also a third brother, whose name was Hatim Khan. He settled in Kian Sharif, higher up in the Jagran valley.
His son, Shah Gul, moved with his family from there to the Kaghan valley. At first he was not allowed to
settle there, but he went back and got a letter of introduction from the ruler of the Neelam valley, Raja Sher
Ahmad. With this letter, he was able to settle in Andhera Bela in Kaghan. From Andhera Bela, the sons of
Shah Gul proceeded to Babusar, and from there to a place called Gosher in the Chilas area. Their
descendants are still found there today. In Chilas, this community is known by the name of
Timre
. Also, a
group stayed behind in Andhera Bela in the Kaghan valley and their descendants are still there until the
present day.
Mr. Jalal-ud-Din reports that of the two clans (Sikandar Khan and Hyder Khan) that stayed behind in
Kundal Shahi, the clan of Hyder Khan developed a pattern of frequent intermarriage with other tribes,
taking wives from other tribes and giving their daughters in marriage to men of other tribes. The clan of
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Sikandar Khan have always married within the tribe. The
nambardars
(village headmen) of Kundal Shahi
used to come from the clan of Hyder Khan.
Socio-economic conditions
Traditionally, the people of Kundal Shahi are subsistence farmers, combining agriculture and animal
husbandry. The main crops nowadays are maize and wheat. As to animals, the people mainly keep cattle
and chickens. Hardly any of them keep goats or sheep. In the winter, cows are kept in the village. In the
summer, the families take their cattle to the summer pastures and stay there for a period of two months.
Additional income is earned from employment in government jobs, while some people run shops in the
bazaar. Some people go to the major cities of Pakistan to find employment, and a few even go to the
countries of the Gulf region to work there. Some wealth came to the village due to the presence of a
Swedish firm, Skanska, who carried out a hydro-electric power project in the Jagran valley and hired many
people from Kundal Shahi at lucrative salaries.
The village has a few Urdu-medium primary schools (including one for girls), a high school for boys, and
recently a degree college for boys was shifted from Authmuqam to Kundal Shahi for security reasons. A
number of English-medium private schools have also started to operate in the village. Most of the village
boys and some of the girls are attending school in Kundal Shahi.
The hillsides of the Jagran valley are covered by a dense forest, which is being managed by the government
of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. It is said that the best quality of deodar in all of Azad Kashmir is found in the
Jagran valley. The people of Kundal Shahi are sometimes employed in forestry work, but the community
does not have ownership rights over the forest, nor do they receive forest royalties.
Political conditions
Some one or two hundred years ago, the people of Kundal Shahi invited a religious authority to come and
live with them for the purpose of imparting religious education to them and to be the prayer leader in their
mosque. The descendants of this religious teacher are still there and are popularly known as Mians.
Although they are no longer religious leaders, the Mian family still provides political leadership to this
community and also in the wider region. One man, Mian Ghulam Rasul (now deceased) was a minister in
the government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and was elected four times to the AJK Legislative Assembly.
The Qureshis of Kundal Shahi still regard this family as their leaders. The Mians of Kundal Shahi speak
Hindko as their mother tongue, but some of them, including Mian Ghulam Rasul, could also speak the KS
language. In elections, the people of Kundal Shahi usually vote overwhelmingly in favor of the Mians, who
are aligned with the Pakistan People’s Party (Azad Kashmir). Other political parties hardly get any support
in Kundal Shahi.
One man from the Qureshi tribe has served as a Union Council chairman, and he, too, is regarded as a local
leader.
The area has been deeply affected by the division of Kashmir. Before 1947, the people of the Neelam
valley related to Srinagar as the capital of the state of Jammu and Kashmir and as its administrative,
judicial, educational, employment, and trading centre. After the division of Kashmir these ties were cut off
and people had to relate primarily to Muzaffarabad and the areas beyond Muzaffarabad (Hazara,
Rawalpindi) for all these purposes. Only in the 1960s and 1970s a road was constructed from Muzaffarabad
to places like Kundal Shahi and other villages higher up in the Neelam valley.
As a result of the frequent hostilities between the Pakistani and Indian armies, travel from Kundal Shahi to
Muzaffarabad may be hazardous and time-consuming. If one travels along the main road, there is a stretch
of approximately twenty kilometers that can often only be traveled by foot. The road in that area runs right
4
along the LoC and in times of increased tension between the two countries the Indian army does not allow
vehicular traffic there. The alternative is to take a by-pass through Leswa village. This increases the
distance to be traveled by thirty kilometers.
Religion
The majority of the people of Kundal Shahi belong to the Barelvi sect of Sunni Islam. This sect also runs a
madrassa
in the village. Interestingly, the orientation of the Mian family (mentioned above) is Deobandi
rather than Barelvi. Some people of the village go to Muzaffarabad and the Punjab to study in Barelvi
madrassas. According to many of our interviewees, the people of Kundal Shahi regard Saadat Ali Shah, the
current
pir
of Choora Sharif in Attock district, as their spiritual leader.
In the Jagran valley there is a shrine of a saint in the village of Kian Sharif, located higher up on the
hillside, several kilometers from Kundal Shahi. This shrine attracts visitors from all over the Neelam valley
and Muzaffarabad as well.
The sociolinguistic situation
All members of the Qureshi tribe in Kundal Shahi, male and female, are fluent speakers of Hindko, which
is the language of wider communication in the area. According to our interviewees, some twenty or thirty
years ago most of the women of the tribe could only speak the KS language and hardly understood any
Hindko, but nowadays the women, too, are bilingual in Hindko.
As stated above, the KS language is used actively on a daily basis by only some 20 percent of the Qureshi
tribe. Mostly these are people over forty years of age. Younger children usually do not speak the language
and will understand only some words and phrases of the language. In between there is a whole group of
people who do not use the language actively but who do understand it fully.
Educated people of the tribe speak Urdu in addition to Hindko and KS. A few highly educated people know
English as well.
The KS language is primarily used in the homes and with other speakers outside of the home when no
Hindko speakers are participating in the conversation. In the schools the language is not used. Urdu is the
language of education and informally Hindko may be used for classroom explanation.
In May 2003 the first author interviewed eleven male members of the Qureshi tribe in Kundal Shahi. The
ages of the interviewees ranged from 25 to 75 years old. All were born, raised, and are currently residing in
Kundal Shahi. The interviewees were asked about the first language of their father, the first language of
their mother, the language that their parents used with them, the language that currently feels easiest to
them, the language that they use with the women in their house, and the language that they use with the
children in their house. The responses to these questions are presented in table 1.
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