Saraiki people

The Saraikis (Saraiki: سرائیکی) are a 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] Most of them are ethnically either Punjabi or Baloch.^[4]

Saraikis

سرائیکی
Digital 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

Mostly inhabiting 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,^[5][6] the Saraiki regional identity arose in the 1960s, separating itself from the broader Punjabi ethnic identity; this was a result of a political movement, arising in 1962, to separate the Derawali, Multani and Riasti dialects from the Punjabi language, and to instead declare them to constitute a separate language for which the term Saraiki was adopted,^[7][8][9] hitherto only used for a Sindhi dialect spoken in northern Sindh.^[10][11]

The Saraikis 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 still identify with their ethnic Punjabi identity and are known as Multani, Derawali or Bhawalpuri Punjabis.^[12]

Etymology

Painting of Saraikis (or Seraikis) from a series of twelve paintings, ca.1850

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.^[13] 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'.^[14] This name can ambiguously refer to the northern dialects of Sindhi, but these are nowadays more commonly known as "Siroli"^[15] or "Sireli".^[16]

An alternative hypothesis is that Sarākī originated in the word sauvīrā, or Sauvira,^[17] an ancient kingdom which was also mentioned in the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata.^[18]

Currently, the most common rendering of the term is Saraiki.^[a] However, Seraiki and Siraiki are also commonly used.

Notable people

Main article: List of Saraiki people

See also

• History of Multan
• Saraiki cuisine
• Saraiki literature
• Saraiki diaspora
• Saraikistan
• Jhumar

Notes

1. Saraiki is the spelling used in universities of Pakistan (the Islamia University of Bahawalpur, department of Saraiki established in 1989,^[19] Bahauddin Zakariya University, in Multan, department of Saraiki established in 2006,^[20] and Allama Iqbal Open University, in Islamabad, department of Pakistani languages established in 1998),^[21] and by the district governments of Bahawalpur^[22] and Multan,^[23] as well as by the federal institutions of the Government of Pakistan like Population Census Organization^[24] and Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation.^[25]