The Shina (Shina: ݜݨیاٗ, Ṣiṇyaá) or Gilgitis[7] are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group[8] primarily residing in Gilgit–Baltistan and Indus Kohistan in Pakistan, as well as in the Dras Valley and Kishenganga Valley (Gurez) in the northern region of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in India.[9] They speak an Indo-Aryan language, called Shina and their geographic area of predominance is referred to as Shenaki.
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In Pakistan, the Shina, who are also known as Gilgitis there, is the major ethnic group of Gilgit-Baltistan and the Shina language is spoken by an estimated 600,000 people living mainly in Gilgit-Baltistan and Kohistan.[10][11][12] People belonging to the Shina community people are also settled in the upper Neelum Valley in Pakistan, as well as in Dras, in the far north of the Kargil district of Ladakh in India.[11] Outliers of Shina such as Brokskat speakers are found in Ladakh, Palula and Sawi speakers in Chitral, Ushojo speakers in the Swat Valley, and Kalkoti speakers in Dir.[11] Many Shina people have also migrated to Karachi and Islamabad for employment, carrying out business, and education purposes, and many of them have permanently settled in these cities.[13]
The Shina expanded to the Gilgit region from their homeland in Shinkari, in the Kohistan region on the Indus River sometime around the 9th or 10th century.[14] Soon after the Shina began settling in Chitral, parts of the Nagar Valley, and as far as Baltistan and Kargil.[15]
The Shina people historically practised Hinduism,[16][17][8][6] as well as Buddhism.[6][16][18] However, both Hinduism and Buddhism were regulated to being the religion of the ruling and upper class although Hinduism had more success among the masses.[19] Their chief peculiarity was their feeling towards the cow, which they held in abhorrence and was considered by them as unclean.[20][21] Even after the majority of the ethnic group's conversion to Islam, orthodox Shins would continue to neither eat beef, drink cow's milk nor touch any vessel containing it, because a dead cow or a suckling calf is considered especially unclean, so that purification was necessary even if the garments touched it.[22] In Gilgit, Hunza and Nagar, the Hindu Shins formerly practised sati, which ceased before A.D. 1740.[23] 1877, in that region, marked the last year that Shina men underwent Hindu cremation rites.[23]
The Shina were exposed to Islam around the 12th century. Waves of conversions occurred during the 14th, 16th and 17th centuries. By the late 19th century, most Shina were adherents of Islam.[19] Many castes of the Shina people, such as the Açar'îta caste, converted to Islam in the 19th century coinciding with Pashtunization and this faith is now observed by the majority of the ethnic group.[24][25] A small minority of related ethnic groups, chiefly the Brokpa community, continue to practice Buddhism and Hinduism, though the majority of them are adherents to Islam.[6][18]
Mah Noor et al. (2019) found west Eurasian mtDNA in 89% (8/9) of Shina samples, which included 11.1% (one sample each) from the following haplogroups, H14a, T1a, H2a, T2, U7, U5b and HV2. Besides, 11.1% (1/9) of the samples belonged to haplogroup M54, which is of South Asian origin. The obtained mtDNA sequences of Shina were compared with surrounding north-western Pakistani population groups. The haplogroups frequencies, phylogenetic tree and network analysis identified the west Eurasian ancestral origin of Shina group with nearby maternal ancestral relationships with the Kashmiri population. However, no close genetic relationship of Shina was depicted with nearby residing Kho population group.[26]
The Shina festival of Chili marks the commencement of wheat sowing, as with other celebrations in the Indian subcontinent, including Lohri and Makar Sakranti. Chilli also formerly had a connection with the worship of the cedar.[27] Cedar worship is prevalent among historic the Hindu communities of Himalayas, from the Hindu Kush region to Himachal and Uttarakhand. It is known as Deodar, which is derived from the Sanskrit word Devadaru, which means "wood of the gods" and is a compound of the words deva (god) and dāru (wood, etym. tree). The Cedar is also sacred in Kafiristan.[28]
"The Impact of Dominant Languages on Regional Languages: A Case Study of English, Urdu and Shina" (PDF). September 2020. The researchers have observed that like every living language, Shina is rapidly changing due to its contact with Urdu and English. In schools and colleges of Gilgit-Baltistan, the medium of instruction is either Urdu or English from primary level to the higher level in universities, so the students have to learn both English and Urdu from the beginning. Moreover, Urdu is used as a lingua franca in the entire region as people from different linguistic backgrounds like Balti, Khowar, Wakhi and Brushashki communicate with each other in Urdu. Urdu is also used for trade purposes and by tourists from other parts of the country.
Hastings, James; Selbie, John Alexander (1917). Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics: Mundas-Phrygians. C. Scribner's Sons. p. 606. But the Shins have the characteristic Hindu aversion to eating the flesh of milk (or even ghī made from the milk) of the cow, and eschew fowls and fish. The former language of the people was Sanskrit, and the dialect now in use is called Shina. The basic element in the people is thus probably Indo-Aryan, and their festivals preserve many traces of Hindu beliefs.
Saxena, Anju; Borin, Lars (22 August 2008). Lesser-Known Languages of South Asia: Status and Policies, Case Studies and Applications of Information Technology. Walter de Gruyter. p. 137. ISBN 978-3-11-019778-5. Shina is an Indo-Aryan language of the Dardic group, spoken in the Karakorams and the western Himalayas: Gilgit, Hunza, the Astor Valley, the Tangir-Darel valleys, Chilas and Indus Kohistan, as well as in the upper Neelam Valley and Dras. Outliers of Shina are found in Ladakh (Brokskat), Chitral (Palula and Sawi), Swat (Ushojo; Bashir 2003: 878) and Dir (Kalkoti).
Nicolaus, Peter (2015). "Residues of Ancient Beliefs among the Shin in the Gilgit-Division and Western Ladakh". Iran & the Caucasus. 19 (3): 201–264. doi:10.1163/1573384X-20150302. ISSN 1609-8498. JSTOR 43899199. It seems quite evident that the Shin expanded to the north from Shinkari, the Land of the Shin, which has been identified as the Kohistan region on the Indus River. However, the homeland of the Shin (the old Shinkari region) must have covered also parts of the present Gilgit Division, in particular the district of Diamer. As of yet, the period during which this conquest took place has not been de-termined. However, an educated guess would place it somewhere within the 9th and 10th century.
John Biddulph (1880). Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing. pp. 39, 115. In Nager there is a caste called Shoto, which exists nowhere else; they work in leather, and rank below the Doms, who take daughters from them without giving in return ... like the Shins they have come from the south to settle in these valleys. The names of many of the rules and of a number of places, not only in the Indus and Gilgit Valleys, but also in the Chitral Valley, point to a Hindu origin. Amongst the names of places may be mentioned Seo (Siva, or Mahadeo), Shogram (Siva's village), Shogoor (Siva's priest), and Swami ... some form of Hinduism was introduced by the Shins into the Gilgit Valley, and, to a greater or less degree, wherever their rule extended. In valleys in which they were outnumbered by the former inhabitants, the result was, doubtless, a mixture of Buddhism and Hindooism, grafted on a form of demon-worship existing in the country.
O'Leary, Clare F.; Rensch, Calvin Ross; Decker, Sandra J. (1992). Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan: Languages of Chitral. National Institute of Pakistan Studies at Quaid-i-Azam University. Phalura had previously been Hindus like the Shin. He referred to the area around Chilas, south of Gilgit, as Dangaristan and discussed how the term Dangarik has been applied to the Shina-speaking people.
Hattaway, Paul (2004). Peoples of the Buddhist World. William Carey Library. p. 46. ISBN 9780878083619. Bakshi, S. R. (1997). Kashmir Through Ages (5 Vol). Sarup & Sons. p. 131. ISBN 978-81-85431-71-0. Drew notices that they hold the cow in abhorrence. They will not drink cow's milk, nor will they burn cow-dung, the universal fuel of the East, and in a pure Shin village no one will eat fowls or touch them.
A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province: L.-Z. Atlantic Publishers & Dist. 1997. p. 406. ISBN 978-81-85297-70-5. The most remarkable characteristic of the Shins is their feeling with regard to the cow, a point to which Drew first called attention. In spite to their conversion to Islam this feeling is still maintained in Nagar, Gilgit, Astor, and the Indus valley above Bunji. In that valley below Astor the feeling has died out, but in the places mentioned orthodox Shins will not eat beef, drink milk or touch a vessel containing it. A sucking calf, or any portion of a dead animal, is especially unclean, so that purification is necessary if even the garments chance to touch it.
John Biddulph (1880). Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing. p. 114. Women's urns are readily distinguished by a number of wooden spindle whorls, mixed with the bones. ... in Gilgit, Gor, Hunza, and Nager, that suttee was formerly practiced. The dead man, with his finest clothes and his weapons girded on him was placed on the pyre, and as the fire burnt up, the woman arrayed in her jewellery and her richest clothes, leaped into the flames. The burning of the dead ceased to be practised more than sixty years ago. ... in 1877, a very old man in Darel scandalised his neighbours by calling his sons to him on his death bed, and after having his arms and valuables brought to him, desiring to be burnt with them when dead ... He and a man of Gor, who died twenty years ago, are known to have always refused to be circumcised, or to call themselves Mahommedans. They were probably the very last Hindus in Dangaristan.
Schmidt, Ruth Laila; Kohistani, Razwal (2008). A Grammar of the Shina Language of Indus Kohistan. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 11. ISBN 9783447056762. The Açar'îta themselves told Strand that they have been living in Ashret for "for these approximately eight of nine hundred years as the Shina tribe... We are still making our lives in this homeland, and our language is Shina. We are one people from Chilas; originally, we are from Chilas." ... Biddulph mentions that many Muslims Shins had the surname "Sing". It is also a ruling class name, and the earlier form siṃha is a frequent element in the colophons of the Gilgit Manuscripts (dateable to probably not later than the 9th century C.E.). Bota/bôTâ appears to be a cognate with Bóṭi. The conversion to Islam among the Açar'îta appears to have taken place, according to Strand, between 1820-1840 C.E.
The making of a frontier Five years' experiences and adventures in Gilgit By Algernon George Arnold Durand Page 210
The making of a frontier Five years' experiences and adventures in Gilgit By Algernon George Arnold Durand Page 209
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