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Fig. 35. Map showing distribution of languages.

Languages.—In the area dealt with in this book no less than eleven languages are spoken, and the dialects are very numerous. It is only possible to tabulate the languages and indicate on the map the localities in which they are spoken. For the Panjáb the figures of the recent census are:

A. 1.Tibeto-Chinese41,607
B.Aryan:
(a)Iranian:2.Pashtu67,174
3.Biluchí70,675
4.Kohistání26
(b)Indian:5.Kashmírí7,190
6.Pahárí993,363
7.Lahndí4,253,566
8.Sindhí24
9.Panjábí14,111,215
10.Western Hindi3,826,467
11.Rájasthání725,850

The eastern part of the Indus valley in Kashmír forming the provinces of Ladákh and Báltistán is occupied by a Mongol population speaking Tibeto-Chinese dialects. Kashmírí is the language of Kashmír Proper, and various dialects of the Shina-Khowár group comprehensively described as Kohistání are spoken in Astor, Gilgit, and Chilás, and to the west of Kashmír territory in Chitrál and the Kohistán or mountainous country at the top of the Swát river valley. Though Kashmírí and the Shina-Khowár tongues belong to the Aryan group, their basis is supposed to be non-Sanskritic, and it is held that there is a strong non-Sanskritic or Pisácha element also in Lahndí or western Panjábí, which is also the prevailing speech in the Hazára and Dera Ismail Khán districts of the N.W.F. Province, and is spoken in part of the Jammu province of Kashmír. Pashtu is the common language in Pesháwar, Kohát, and Bannu, and is spoken on the western frontiers of Hazára and Dera Ismail Khán, and in the independent tribal territory in the west between the districts of the N.W.F. Province and the Durand Line and immediately adjoining the Pesháwar district on the north. Rájasthání is a collective name for the dialects of Rájputána, which overflow into the Panjáb, occupying a strip along the southern frontier from Baháwalpur to Gurgáon. The infiltration of English words and phrases into the languages of the province is a useful process and as inevitable as was the enrichment of the old English speech by Norman-French. But for the present the results are apt to sound grotesque, when the traveller, who expects a train to start at the appointed time, is told: "tren late hai, lekin singal down hogaya" (the train is late, but the signal has been lowered), or the criticism is passed on a popular officer: "bahut affable hai, lekin hand shake nahín kartá" (very affable, but doesn't shake hands).

CHAPTER X

THE PEOPLE (continued): RELIGIONS

Religions in N.W.F. Province.—In the N.W.F. Province an overwhelming majority of the population professes Islám. In 1911 there were 2,039,994 Musalmáns as compared with 119,942 Hindus, 30,345 Sikhs, and 6585 Christians.

Religions in Kashmír.—In Kashmír the preponderance of Muhammadans is not so overwhelming. The figures are: