A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province has defined Hindkowans as follows: The NWFPImperial Gazetteer of India regularly refers to their language as Hindko, which means "Indian mountains." According to the publication Hindko and Gujari: In Afghanistan, a group of Hindu Hindkowans who speak Hindko are referred to as Hindki, which according to Grierson is a variant of the term Hindko. The Hindkis are also sometimes applied in a historical sense to the Buddhist inhabitants of the Peshawar Valley north of the Kabul River, who were driven thence about the 5th or 6th century C.E. and settled in the neighbourhood of Kandahar.
Religion
The Hindu Hindkowans, prior to the partition of India exercised economic power in the North-West Frontier Province and because they spoke Hindko, this was perceived as an opposition to the influx Pashto-speaking Pashtuns in the region. Some of these Hindu Hindkowans are traders and over time, have settled in areas as far as Kalat, Balochistan. Other Hindu Hindkowans migrated to India from their native region of the NWFP after the partition of India in 1947. During the Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent, which took place from the 12th century A.D. onwards, many of the Hindkowans converted to Islam. Today, most of the Hindkowan population in Pakistan is SunniMuslim. Later, with the spread of Sikhism and the rise of the Sikh Empire beginning in the eighteenth century A.D., some Hindkowans became Sikhs. Like the Hindus, many Sikh Hindkowans migrated to Hindustan after the partition of India in 1947.
Demographics
Hindko speakers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa include the Dhunds, Karlals, Tanolis, Mashwanis, Sayyids, Mughals, Turks, Awans, Qureshis, and Gujjars. There are a substantial number of Hindko speakers in Peshawar, Nowshera, and Kohat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Prior to the formation of Pakistan, these areas were dominated by Hindko speakers. Typically, Pashtu speakers were predominant in the rural areas while Hindko speakers dominated the urban areas. The majority status of the Hindkowans however, changed as a higher number of Pashtu speakers started settling in urban centers resulting in the Hindko speakers of these cities in becoming a minority. The Awans form the majority of Hindkowans in these urban centers. Hindkowans of District Attock, Punjab, reside in and form a majority of Attock Tehsil and Pindi Gheb Tehsil. Most of these Hindkowans are Awan, Khattar, and Muslim Rajputs. Hindko is the dominant language and spoken in the whole of Northern Kashmiri Neelum District as well as parts of Muzaffarabad District. Hundreds of thousands of Hindkowans, mostly from Hazara Division, reside in Karachi. Most of these Hindkowans migrated to Karachi in the early 1960s during the Ayub Khan era. However, lack of job opportunities and the 2005 Kashmir earthquake has also caused a large-scale migration from the Hazara division to Karachi.
