Kashmiri people

The Kashmiri people are a Dardic ethnic group living in the central valley of Kashmir in the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir. They speak the Kashmiri language. Kashmiri is an Indo-Aryan language. The Kashmiris are also known as Koshur.

Kashmiris

A Kashmiri man with his grandson
Regions with significant populations
India (Jammu and Kashmir)	6,797,587 (2011)*[1]
Pakistan (outside Azad Kashmir)	353,064 (2017)*[2]
Pakistan (Azad Kashmir)	132,450 (as per 1998 census)[3]
Canada	6,165[4]
Languages
Kashmiri
Religion
Majority: Islam (Sunni majority, Shia minority) Minority: Hinduism, Sikhism
Related ethnic groups
Other Indo-Aryan peoples
*The population figures are only for the number of speakers of the Kashmiri language. May not include ethnic Kashmiris who no longer speak the Kashmiri language.

There are about 7.1 million people speaking the Kashmiri language. About 6.7 million^[5] of them live in Jammu and Kashmir, and about 350,000^[6] in Azad Kashmir and the Federally Administered Northern Areas (FANA) in Pakistan. Although all residents of Azad Kashmir call themselves 'Kashmiri', most residents of Azad Kashmir are not ethnic Kashmiris but rather a northern subgroup of Punjabis who speak a northern Punjabi dialect.^[A]

Notes

1. Snedden, Understanding Kashmir and Kashmiris (2015, p. 10): "Confusingly, the term ‘Kashmiri’ also has wider connotations and uses. Some people in Azad Kashmir call themselves ‘Kashmiris’. This is despite most Azad Kashmiris not being of Kashmiri ethnicity."

Bibliography

Scholarly books

• Snedden, Christopher (2015), Understanding Kashmir and Kashmiris, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-1-84904-342-7