Back سرائيكي Arabic Seraikilər Azerbaijani Сераики Bulgarian Seraiki Catalan Seraiki Spanish Saraiki Italian Jolma Saraiki KGE Saraiky (vahoaka) Malagasy सराइकी जाति Nepali سرائیکی لوک PNB
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 multi-ethnic community native to central Pakistan, unified by their use of the Saraiki language and a shared regional identity that transcends tribal and ethnic affiliations.[3]
The region inhabited by Saraiki people is known as Southern Punjab as well as most parts of Derajat, which is located in the region where southwestern Punjab, southeastern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and northeastern Balochistan meet.[4][5][6] 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 Sunni 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.[7]
- ^ "Saraiki". Ethnologue.
- ^ "Pakistan Census 2017" (PDF). www.pbs.pk. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
- ^ Mughal, Muhammad A. Z. (1 September 2020). "Ethnicity, marginalization, and politics: Saraiki identity and the quest for a new Southern Punjab province in Pakistan". Asian Journal of Political Science. 28 (3). Routledge: 301. doi:10.1080/02185377.2020.1814360. ISSN 0218-5377.
- ^ "About Punjab: Geography". Tourism Development Corporation, Government of the Punjab. Archived from the original on 2007-12-02. Retrieved 2007-12-14.
- ^ "People & Culture". Government of the North-West Frontier Province. Archived from the original on 2007-11-17. Retrieved 2007-12-14.
- ^ Qadeer, Mohammad (2006-11-22). Pakistan – Social and Cultural Transformations in a Muslim Nation. Routledge. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-134-18617-4.
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.
- ^ Bhatia, Tej K.; Ritchie, William C. (2008-04-15). The Handbook of Bilingualism. John Wiley & Sons. p. 803. ISBN 9780470756744.