Shina people
 Shina people of Pakistan and India depicted in Dark Orange | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Gilgit Baltistan, Pakistan Jammu and Kashmir, India | |
 Pakistan | 2,084,673 (in 2004)[citation needed] |
 India | 15,017[1] |
| Languages | |
| Shina, Brokskat | |
| Religion | |
| Islam,[2] Buddhism,[2] Hinduism[2] | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Dardic peoples | |
The Shina, also known as the Shins are a caste residing in southern Gilgit–Baltistan, Chitral and the western part of the Kohistan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, as well as the Dras Valley and Kishenganga Valley in the northern region of Jammu and Kashmir, India. They speak an Indo-Aryan language, called Shina, which has varied dialects, such as Brokskat.[3], Goworo, Chilliso, Bateri,and Ushojo.
The Kohistan and Gilgit region of the Indus Valley, which is also called Shinkari, “the country of the Shins “by the people themselves is inhabited by what are apparently the remains of a number of tribes of cognate race, whose progenitors once inhabited the valleys skirting the Punjab, and possibly extended to the north and north west have been hitherto confounded under the name of Dards -a name which practically, has no real signification.
Geography
In Pakistan, the Shina people are found in Shinkari (the part of the Indus Valley below Gor near Ghorband), Gor, Chilas, Tangir, the Indus Valley below Sazin, and the upper part of the Gilgit Valley above Ponyal.[4][better source needed] 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.
In India, the Shina people are found in Gurais, as well as in Dah Hanu and beyond the city of Leh.[5]
History
The Shina people originally practiced Hinduism,[6][7][8] as well as Buddhism.[2][6][9] As such, the Shina, particularly the Dangariké caste, were referred to by their neighbours as "cow people".[7][10] 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; a dead cow or a suckling calf is considered especially unclean.[11] In Gilgit, Hunza and Nagar, the Hindu Shins formerly practiced sati, which ceased before A.D. 1740.[12] 1877, in that region, marked the last year that Shina men underwent Hindu cremation rites.[12] Many tribes of the Shina people, such as the Gabare, Chillise etc, converted to Islam in the 19th century and this faith is now observed by the majority of the ethnic group;[13] a minority of Shina speakers, chiefly the Brokpa continue to practice Buddhism and Hinduism.[2][9]
Tribes
Shin is caste comprising following tribes:
- Gabare
- Chillise
- Dharme
- Khoke
- Manake
- YashkuNs (before Islam breaching intermarraige rule in Gilgit, Baltistan and Indus Kohistan)
Genetic origins
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) samples belonged to haplogroup M54 which is of South Asian origin. According to the researchers, the high frequency of western mtDNA haplogroups in the Shina samples indicate their West Eurasian ancestral origin. The presence of South Asian haplogroups however reveal minor genetic admixture of Shina with surrounding South Asian groups.[14]
Pre-Islamic Hindu Shin names
Of the Shin names a great number have the suffix of Sing, which is retained in spite of the conversion of the people to Islam. These names are never found among the purely Boorish population of Hunza and Nager, but it is to be noted that the Suffix Sing is found among the earlier Makpon Kings of Iskardo. The suffix is the local version of the Hindu Surname Singh which comes from the Sanskrit word Simha meaning Lion. It is generally used by the Kshatriya ruling class.[15]
Male Shin Names
| Moosing | Hubba Sing | Ram Sing |
|---|---|---|
| Kummosing | Gissing | Poonyar Sing |
| MelSing | Chumar Sing | Singoo |
| Dem Sing | Boonyal Sing | Dingoo |
| Boomersing, Hinnasing | Gelsing ,
|
Female Shin Names
| Sheli Bai | Sookoomull | Rozi Bai | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shubibi | Bibi Harzu | Shermull | ||
| Shoosha Bai | Bai | Doodi | Soti Poti |
Festivals
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.[16] 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.[17]
See also
References
- ^ https://www.efsas.org/Languages%20of%20Erstwhile%20State%20of%20Jammu%20and%20Kashmir.pdf
- ^ a b c d e "Religion Data of Census 2011: XXXIII JK-HP-ST — Scheduled Tribes of northwest India: Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh". Centre for Policy Studies. 24 December 2016. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
Notwithstanding the roots of these tribes in the Hindu antiquity and persistence of that memory in their language and ritual, they have been all converted to Islam perhaps a few centuries ago. Of 48.4 thousand Brokpa, etc., counted in 2011, 45.1 thousand are Muslim. Of the rest, 3,144 are Buddhist and 133 Hindu.
- ^ Crane, Robert I. (1956). Area Handbook on Jammu and Kashmir State. University of Chicago for the Human Relations Area Files. p. 179.
Shina is the most eastern of these languages and in some of its dialects such as the Brokpa of Dah and Hanu and the dialect of Dras, it impinges upon the area of the Sino-Tibetan language family and has been affected by Tibetan with an overlay of words and idioms.
- ^ A glossary of the tribes and castes of the Punjab and NorthWest provinces, compiled by H.A. Rose, vol III Page 405
- ^ Prakāśaṃ, Vennelakaṇṭi (2008). Encyclopaedia of the Linguistic Sciences: Issues and Theories. Allied Publishers. p. 143. ISBN 9788184242799.
Shina (described as spoken in many dialects in Gilgit, Chilas, etc., as far south as Gurez in Kashmir, and Dah Hanu in Baltistan, even beyond Leh.
- ^ a b 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 Brahminical 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 Brahminism 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.
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b Hattaway, Paul (2004). Peoples of the Buddhist World. William Carey Library. p. 46. ISBN 9780878083619.
- ^ Morgenstierne, Georg (1941). Notes on Phalūṛa: an unknown Dardic language of Chitral. J. Dybwad. p. 8.
- ^ A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province: L.-Z. Atlantic Publishers & Dist. 1997. ISBN 978-81-85297-70-5.
- ^ a b 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 clothese and his weapons girded on him was plpaced 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 neighbors 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 circumcized, or to call themselves Mohommedans. 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 Rajput 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.
- ^ Mumtaz, Mah Noor; Ihsan, Haleema; Aziz, Shahid; Hizbullah; Afridi, Sahib Gul; Shams, Sulaiman; Khan, Asifullah (2019). "The genetic composition of Shina population from Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan based on mtDNA analyses". Mitochondrial DNA Part B. 4 (2): 3802–3808. doi:10.1080/23802359.2019.1682474.
- ^ a b Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh John Biddulph Sang e meel Publications Page 99
- ^ 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