Report on a language survey trip to the Bishigram valley

 

Compiled by: Muhammad Zaman

Surveyed by: Shamshi Khan and Muhammad Zaman

 

 On 2^nd of November we started our journey from Kalam and reached Madyan at evening time. There we stayed in Nawab Hotel. The same night we purchased stationary, etc., and also we 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. We inquired about vehicles, too. We got to know that the first Datsun leaves at 8 o’clock in the morning with the teachers from Madyan who teach in Bishigram valley.

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. We met on the way with one Asar Malik, but he was not the same man for whom we got the address. That Asar Malik is a Badeshi speaker and he lives some 30 to 45 minutes walk up in the valley. The other Asar Malik couldn’t help us and we walked up to the village. There we tried to find the Ushoji speakers but we met with some Gurnewals, who speak the Torwali language.

In the afternoon we met with a person 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 with him. He was a very cooperative person. At evening time we recorded Mr. Shehzada’s wordlist. We stayed in his house for the night. He is a very hospitable person in his late nineties, almost near to one hundred. But unfortunately he couldn’t hear properly. He told us the history of Ushoji people.

He said that the people had migrated from Kulai 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 the Badeshi speakers also live. Their language is different from all these four languages.

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.

After that we went up to the valley where the Badeshi speakers live. We met with some people, especially Malik Asar, and they gave us some useful information. They said that they came from Badakhshan, a province in Afghanistan. Their villages are bordering Chitral. They first came to Chitral and then to here. They speak their own language Badakhshani, which is called Badeshi by the people. There are some 300 to 400 people who live here. Some people forgot their own language and speak Pashto.

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 are approximately 1000, and they speak their own language but that is not fully Shina or Indus Kohistani, but this language is a mixture of Shina, Gawri, Torwali, Pashto and Indus Kohistani. Their income is coming from agriculture and also most of the people work as Ara-Kash, which means the cutter of wood by saw. And they work in Kalam, Behrain and in Indus Kohistan. In winter almost 75 percent of them go to the down areas especially to Punjab. There they mostly live in Multan, Chinot and Sialkot, etc.; they work there as laborers.

There is a need to preserve such languages like Badeshi and Ushoji, because with the passage of time these languages are changing their shape and are mixing with the majority languages of the area. The Torwali language of the area is also quite different from the Torwali spoken in Behrain and vicinity. It should also be researched.