Languages Spoken in Bishigram valley, Swat

Report on a language survey trip to the Bishigram valley

by Muhammad Zaman Sagar

On 2nd of November we started our journey from Kalam and reached Madyan at evening time. There we stayed in Nawab Hotel and collected information about the Bishigram valley and the Ushoji people. People told us that the Ushoji people live in Bishigram proper, Karial, Tangi Banda and Kas. They gave us the name of a person called Asar Malik, who is an elder and a respectable person of the area. In the morning we took our breakfast and went to the bus stand. We waited till 8.30 and then the Datsun started moving. When we reached the bus stand in Bishigram, we went from there northwards up to Kas; this was something like 1 hour walk. There we tried to find some Ushoji speakers but instead we met with some Gurnewals, who speak the Torwali language.

In the afternoon we met with an Ushoji man called Mr. Juma Gul; he is in his nineties, and belongs to the Bari Khel tribe. We got some information about their language and their population, etc. We recorded a wordlist and a story from him. He was very cooperative. At evening time we recorded one Mr. Shehzada’s wordlist. We stayed in his house for the night. He is a very hospitable person, also in his late nineties, almost near to one hundred. Unfortunately he couldn’t hear properly. He told us the history of the Ushoji people.

He said that the people had migrated from Kolai in Indus Kohistan due to some feuds. Three brothers called Rasool, Raheem, and Saleem came via Chorat or Paloga valley to Matiltan, Ushu and settled there. They married daughters of Khowar speakers there. Then after a long time they migrated to the Bishigram valley. Here they occupied this land from Torwalis and settled here. Now two major tribes of Ushojis live in this valley. Called Bari Khel and Kaali Khel. In the end the people came to be called Ushojis, because they came to Bishigram from Ushu in Kalam Tahsil. First they were called Ushojis by the outsiders like Pashtoons and Torwalis and now they themselves also accepted the same name and say Ushoji to their own language and the people.

Apart from them there are the Gurnewals who speak a dialect of Torwali, the Qashkharis who speak Khowar, and some Pashto speakers. Up in the valley also Badeshi speakers are reported to live, a language very different from all these other four.

Next morning we recorded a wordlist and story with Mr. Gul Zameen who is in his twenties. Then we recorded the wordlist and a few lines of traditional poetry from Nadir Khan. He is a teenager. At evening time we came back to Madyan and stayed there for the night. The next day we travelled up to Kalam.

Conclusion: The total population of Ushojis is approximately 1,000, and they speak their own language which is close to Shina as well as Indus Kohistani. There are also similarities with Gawri, Torwali and Pashto. Their main income is from agriculture, and also most of the people work as Ara-Kash, which means cutters of wood by saw. They also work in Kalam, Behrain and in Indus Kohistan. During the winter almost 75 percent of them go to the lowlands, especially to the Punjab. There they mostly live in Multan, Chinot and Sialkot; they work there as labourers.

There is a need to preserve a language such as Ushoji, as with the passage of time, they tend to change and mix with the majority languages of the area. Is should also be noted that the Torwali language of this particular area is quite different from the Torwali spoken in Behrain and its vicinity. That should also be documented.