The Polyglots of Dardistan

The talk briefly traces the history of the geo-cultural region known in academia as Dardistan, a brief note on the history of the inhabitants of Dardistan—the Dards—and the linguistic diversity of this region with a major focus on North Pakistan. It will also focus the need of safeguarding this diversity along with its rich cultural and oral traditions, and literature. A brief about the work the communities of these languages do for their languages also include in it.

About the Speaker

Zubair Torwali is a researcher, author, an activist, and educator based in Swat, Pakistan. Zubair has published his works in English, Urdu, and in the Torwali language. He has authored and supervised several books in and about Torwali. His book in English, Muffled Voices, provides insight into Pakistan’s social, cultural, and political issues. Zubair has more than two dozen research articles to his credit, along with hundreds of articles in the English dailies and weeklies of Pakistan. His forthcoming books are ‘Language, culture and ethnicity’, ‘Language endangerment: the state and communities’, ‘Sherbano, a novel in Torwali’, and ‘Orthographical considerations for minority language activists’. He co-founded Idara Baraye Taleem wa Taraqi (IBT), an organization focused on education, development, and the empowerment of the marginalized mountain communities of upper Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan, in Pakistan.