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Culture & Heritage

The people of various faiths, castes and creeds are living peacefully and in cordial atmosphere in the District. Races like Gujjars, Bakerwals, Paharis, Punjabis, Kashmiris and Dogras are inhabiting in various parts of the District.

Gujjars are mostly residing on the slopes of the mountains; they are having small pieces of land for cultivation, Kachha houses to live in and cattle for supplementing their economy.  Majority of them are living below poverty line.   They comprise 35% population of the District

Bakerwals are the offshoots of the Gujjars.  They are having linguistic, religious and cultural similarities with gujjars, but they are nomadic tribes, most of them rare herds of goat and flocks of sheep.  They are scattered in the District and migrates from one place to another in search of pastures for their cattle.                                                                                                

Paharis inhabit in most of the villages of the District apart from NACs.  They are dominating the population of the District.   Although, the name “Paharis” means ‘Mountaineers’ yet it is confined to those people whose mother tongue is pahari dialect.  They are Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs whose cultural affinity and language is binding strength of their composite cultural heritage.  Their mother tongue is great cementing factor of pahari speaking people, which have been nourishing their age-old secular look out.                                                                                                  

Apart from this, Dogri speaking people also inhabit in some pockets of Sunderbani, Kalakote and Nowshera, while some Kashmiri families are residing in Thannamandi, Behrote and upper reaches of Budhal.  But, all these ethnic groups have lost their separate cultural identity and have became the part of pahariculture.