JAMMU AND KASHMIR:
Punjabi, accounting for the second most numerous group of speakers, dominates in Azad Kashmir, while Dogri, often considered a dialect of Punjabi, is the principal language of Jammu, but its dominance there is much less pronounced than that of Kashmiri in Kashmir. Also within the Indo-European family are several locally dominant languages, most notably Gojri, the language spoken by the Gujar and Bakerwal pastoral communities, and various dialects collectively grouped under the designation "Pahari" (i.e., of the mountains). All these are now lumped by the Indian census under the term "Hindi," in marked contrast to census practice up to the year 1971; and it is no longer possible to disaggregate them. Finally, two mutually comprehensible dialects of Tibetan, Balti and Ladakhi, dominate in Pakistani-held Baltistan and Indian-held Ladakh respectively. The following table provides some overall data:
In interpreting the accompanying map and the foregoing table an important caveat is in order: the transitions from one language area to another do not normally follow administrative boundaries. For example, in Kashmir, the lowlands of all districts are overwhelmingly Kashmiri-speaking while the numerically dominant population in the adjoining hills speaks Gojri. Similar situations apply in respect to speakers of Dogri and Pahari in Jammu. |