Settlement Patterns in Chitral Region

Settlement Patterns in Chitral Region

By Prof. Israr-Ud-Din

Human establishments add color to the land-scape, says la Balache (1). A settlement or ‘abadi’ in Chitral often surrounded by luxuriant fruit and shade trees presents a starling contrast to the barren and dry rocks of the country. Water is a primary need of a mankind. The region comprises the Districts of Upper and Lower Chitral which make the northern- most zone of Pakistan. This is a region of low rainfall; therefore, water availability must be of primary importance in the establishment of settlements. Most settlements are found on the alluvial fans, or on certain elevated river- terraces, where soil fertility coincides with easily available water. Villages are also located on the beds of abandoned river courses where similar conditions obtain, as, for example, in Sargooz, Jinal Koch, Rooji and Seen. But vast tracts of land are uninhabited. This is due in part to social and economic, but more especially to adverse physical factors. The region is extremely rugged and mountainous and many valleys, which are occupied by huge glaciers, are uninhabitable. Certain glaciated valleys such as Ziwar gol, Uzhnu gol, Shah Jinali and Lonkuh gol, although potentially habitable in the lower parts, remain devoid of population.

The once settled and prosperous valley of Ziwar, abandoned in the latter half of the eighteenth century because of glacial advance, is once again inhabitable. However, because of the tradition that ‘an area once abandoned is not to be resettled’, people hesitate to return. In contrast with the majority of the uninhabitable areas mentioned above, there are those which have fertile soil, but are at present unsettled because of precarious conditions of water supply (2).

“Settlement distribution reminds one of a wave washing the mountain side, sometimes high, sometimes low… There is a reflection of society’s needs at any one point of time” (3). In Chitral ‘the wave’ has reached 12,000 feet contour line at Baroghil, during the last one hundred years or so. Before that, the Baroghil area was used only as a summer pasture by the Wokhis who later started settling there permanently. Similarly, Gobor, Shiekhan Deh in Bumborat and Shiekhan Deh in Rumboor valleys which lie between 9,000 and 11,500 feet, have been settled after 1890s. Due to the forceful conversion of the Bashgali tribe or red Kafirs of Kafristan by the Amir of Afghanistan in the 1890s, many Bashgalis immigrated to Chitral. The above-mentioned areas were given to this tribe by the then ruler. As these areas have rich pastures and are very near to their original home valleys, so they made a natural choice for the tribe to settle.

In contrast to these settled areas, the village of Madaklasht (9,000 ft.) for example, inhabited by the Badakhshi, is about two hundred and fifty years old. Introduced as blacksmiths and gunsmiths to the royal house in the second half of the eighteenth century, they, according to traditions, were offered any territory they wished. They chose to occupy this village. The explanation for the choice of such an isolated area at such an altitude among hundreds of other better places probably lies in the fact that the tribe belongs to the Ismailia Sect of Islam while the other tribes surrounding them in lower Chitral were either Sunni Muslims or Kalash Kafirs. The appeal of such a place hence lay solely in its isolation.

LOCATION AND SITE OF SETTLEMENTS

Originally settlements were generally sited on the raised side of alluvial fans. One reason for this was that the Khareez type of soil, unsuitable for crops, often occurs there. Another reason was that the roads were mostly along the river banks and the people generally avoided settling alongside them. They preferred, for privacy’s sake, to build their houses one or two miles distant from roads, water availability permitting.

Hill torrents and streams were also important determining factors, several being avoided because of their proneness to flooding. The banks of deeper and less dangerous streams were on the other hand, favoured sites for settlements. Examples of the former were found in Hon-deh and Denin in Chitral, and Gromal and Langa in Drosh. Examples of the latter are found throughout the state.

Apart from such considerations of a physical nature, there have been also social and economic factors in settlement foundation and location. Thus individual dwellings and hamlets are often found by the cultivated fields. From place name evidence and ties of kinship, it is evident that many such settlements are due to the increase in population on older raised sites.   Another reason lies in the land tenure system which prevailed in Chitral before the reforms in 1953. Before this date most village lands were regarded as the State property. The Mehtar (ruler of the State), having supreme power, had the authority to seize and grant at will. In this way, his favorites were given tracts of village land, where they settled and surrounded themselves with a number of agricultural labourers or tenants and their relatives. (4)

The inheritance system prevalent in the country also played an important role in this respect. Because of this system the holdings of villagers are scattered in fragmented pieces of different sizes. Many who inherit land in distant parts prefer to settle near their holdings.

In Mulkhow tehsil, fetile terraces and gentle sloping nature of the eastern side of the Mulkhow- Tirich divide have made it possible to locate settlement there. Settlement growth, however, started on the valley floor but the increase in population has impelled the settlers upward alongside the streams arising from springs. The avoidance of landslip is a secondary factor in this movement. In the villages Kosht, Kusham, Sahrt and Madak this pattern also results from seasonal transhumance, several families having houses at both levels.

The Kalash tribesmen build their houses on hill-sides to gain space for cultivable areas. Defence was probably as an important factor in the past because, until about a hundred and fifty years ago, there was a constant threat of attacks on the Kalash valleys from the valleys of Kafristan (now Nuristan in Afghanistan) by the then Red Kafirs.

The Wokhi of the Baroghil area live in scattered dwellings and site their houses with a view to shelter from the cold northern winds of winter.

In Hairan Kot, the only wholly Pathan area in Chitral town, houses are built along the slope in such a way that everyone has his door almost on his neighbor’s roof. One reason for this may be the prevailing traditions in the districts of Dir and Swat, from which the tribe originates, where most of the houses are built in the same fashion for defense purposes. Inter-village feuds between different tribes, in tribal line is quite frequent and lead to producing the compact settlements which are special features of most of the Pathan lands. The Pathan tribe which has settled in Chitral has preserved this traditional idea of building houses along the slope in nucleated form.

SETTLEMENT PATTERN

Except in the valleys of Damil, Upper Ashrat, Melph and the Baroghil area where dwellings are scattered, the general pattern of settlement in the whole area is of dispersed hamlets. This type of settlement consists of a main site with hamlets spread all over the village lands. Thus three distinct patterns are created. The main settlement unit is the ‘oolat’ or village. ‘Oolats’ are situated on alluvial fans or on hill slopes as in Mulikhow tehsil. They are generally isolated from one another by such physical boundaries as water-sheds, interlocking spurs, ridges and rivers. An ‘oolat’ possesses a common pasture and used to have a village Kamati or committee to regulate affairs. This unit was also often assessed for collecting usher (taxes). 

The ‘oolat’ is divided into deh or gram and tseq deh (subdeh) or dur. Dur which means homestead is the primary unit of a settlement. It is inhabited, with a few exceptions, by the family of the same descent. In certain cases, various durs are named after the families who live in them. For instance, Salan-dur in Rach, Kuloom-dur and Batulan-dur in Kushum, Sharan-dur in Sahrt, Kotalan-dur and Shikaran-dur in Zaini etc.

A number of tseq deh or dur which form one part of the ‘oolat’ make a gram or deh. The communal or social and economic interdependence of the people, ‘grambeshi’ (or neighborliness) as it is locally termed, is limited to this unit of the ‘oolat’. A mosque, in the case of Sunni Muslims, or a Jamat Khana in the case of Ismaili Muslims, is also associated with the deh. It is built in a central position for all the tseq deh and is used both for offering prayers and as a meeting place. This unit has played a remarkable role in forming the Khow tribe which is an assimilation of families and clans numbering more than a hundred, and who came from “ethnologically and historically different background”.(5)

Certain tseq dehs have grown into deh due to the increase of population in the family itself and through immigration. Many such dehs are named after the families who were the original inhabitants. For example Mustajapan-deh and Qazian-deh in Chitral, Darkhanan-deh and Torian-deh in Ayun, Amirbegan-deh in Buni, Beganan- deh in Baranis, Bahrian-deh in Sahrt. The tribe Kalash used the word ‘dam’ for a deh. Hence the deh of Azur-dam, Kal-dam, and Chik-dam in Drosh are of Kalash origin.

 The villages in tributary valleys and on small alluvial fans differed in respect of their social and territorial organization. The whole valley was considered as a single ‘oolat’. Pastures were common to the whole valley and the Kamati was also appointed for the whole valley. Each alluvial fan or group of settlements on one piece of land is treated as deh and these form together a unit of ‘grambeshi’. ‘Tseq dehs’ are constituted in the same way as on the larger fans, for example Bumborat, Birir, Rumboor and Shishi Kuh valleys.

In the settlements on the smaller alluvial fans as in the main valley, every fan is taken as a ‘gram’ or deh. A few ‘gram’ lying near each other on various fans are taken as an ‘oolat’.

In the above types another one called “Shal Dan” (Farmstead) is also to be added. This is the smallest type is size and sited separately along the farms of the big land lords, e.g. rulers and princes etc. where they settle their tenants. The farmstead would include a few houses for the tenants and their families, stables for the animals and store houses to keep fodder, agricultural implements and other necessaries of life. This is also worth mentioning that during the last many decades many of the “oolat” have grown up into semi-rural villages and have developed into important service centres for the surrounding areas by offering such facilities as Government establishments, health and education centres, shopping centres or bazars, hotels etc. In the future these semi-rural settlements are going to be turned into regional towns. It is needed that whatever expansions or developments are to taken place should be planned right from now to save the problems of the town planners in the years to come.

The dispersed settlements briefly mentioned at the beginning of this discussion occur in the Baroghil area and on the Damil, Upper Melph and Ashrat valleys. Here the houses stand separate from each other in the midst of their respective fields. The distance between the dwellings is the most significant in this type. Factors controlling this are:

1. In the Damil, Upper Melph and Upper Ashrat valleys the slopes of spurs and ridges restrict the spread of settlement. Forests found in abundance in the Damil and Ashrat valleys, also hinder the grouping of settlements.
2. The scanty areas available for cultivation, in the Damil, Upper Ashrat and Upper Melph valleys, are so far apart and inaccessible that each cultivator lives on his own land, remote from his nearest neighbor.
3. Dispersed settlement in the Broghil area, a region of recent immigration as mentioned earlier, results from the pastoral nature of the economy.

To summarize the study, which was carried out in early 1960s, indicates that the dispersed hamlets form a general feature of the greater part of Chitral Region. It is only in the valleys of Damil, Upper Ashrat, Melph and the Baroghil areas where dwellings are found to be scattered as single houses in the fields. The main settlement unit is an ‘oolat’ which is sub divided into two hierarchal units of ‘deh’ and ‘dur’. A ‘deh’ is made up of several durs which constitutes the basic unit of occupancy in the region. The villagers in the tributary valleys differ in their social and territorial organizations from those on small alluvial fans.

References and Footnotes

1. V. de la Balache, Principles of Human Geography (London: 1926), p.271.
2. For details see Israr ud-Din, A Social Geography of Chitral State (London: unpublished M.Sc. Thesis, University of London), pp. 13-16 and 189-191. Also see Settlement Patterns and House. Types in Chitral State, In Pakistan Geog. Review, 21-38, Lahore,
3. E. Jones Human Geography (London Chatto and Windues, 1965), p. 116.
4. These exceptions are created by the land tenure system in the past and the inheritance system prevalent in the region. It has already been mentioned that the favorites of the rulers were granted lands in a village “where they settled and surrounded themselves with a number of agricultural labourers.” But there were also many of them who preferred to settle in one of the tseq-dehs. Thus many tseq-dehs contain families more than one.

The scattered holdings are a common feature in the whole region, which is the result of the inheritance system. Many who inherit land in distant parts prefer to settle near their holdings. Then others who have holdings in the same area begin to settle and thus a considerable size of tseq deh grow up, inhabited by different families. It is worth mentioning that, generally speaking, outside Chitral in the plains the following settlement types are met.

1. Farmstead or “Zari Basti”
2. Hamlet (‘Deh Qarya’)
3. Village (Moza or Gaoon). These villages are of very big size having compact or nucleated shape.
4. Semi-rural village (Neem Dehi Qarya).
5. G. Morgenstierns “Names Languages and Tribes of Chitral”, Encyclopedia of Islam, vol. 2 (London: New ed. 1963), p. 31.