Swatis () are people inhabiting the Hazara division in the

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ; , ; abbr. KP or KPK), formerly known as the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Northern Pakistan, northwestern region of the country, Khyber ...

province of

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. Of Dardic origins, Swatis originally spoke

Dardic languages The Dardic languages (also Dardu or Pisaca), or Hindu-Kush Indo-Aryan languages, are a group of several Indo-Aryan languages spoken in northern Pakistan, northwestern India and parts of northeastern Afghanistan. This region has sometimes been re ...

such as Gibri and Yadri and were native inhabitants of Swat valley. They were Pashtunized after

Yousafzai The Yusufzai or Yousafzai (, ), also referred to as the Esapzai (, ), or Yusufzai Afghans historically, are one of the largest tribes of Pashtuns. They are natively based in the northern part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ( Malakand, Dir, Swat, Shangl ...

occupation of Swat in the 16th century and were displaced to Kohistan. In historic accounts Pashtuns referred to Swatis as "Dehgan"; this was not an ethnic designation but simply referred to the fact that they were villagers. They are also sometimes called Tajiks, a common ethnonym used by Pashtuns to describe their Dardic neighbours. Hemphil (2009) rejects Ibbetson's (1916:95-6) assertion of Swatis as a "race of Hindu origin" from peninsular India, suggesting, instead, that Swatis show a higher affinity to their neighbours in the northwest and with people in the

Indus valley The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans- Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northwest through the disp ...

, to the south. Khan Khel Swati is a sub-section in various sections of all three branches of the Swati.

References

{{Ethnic groups in Pakistan Tribes of Pakistan Pakistani names Ethnic groups in Afghanistan Mansehra District Battagram District