Kashmiri is an Indo-Aryan language (in the Dardic sub-group) and the principal language of the Kashmir Valley in India and in the cities of Jammu and Kashmir. It is one of India’s 22 scheduled languages. An estimated 5.5 million persons in India speak it natively, together with around 100.000 or more in Pakistan, who left their homeland when India was partitioned and Pakistan created. Most educated speakers of Kashmiri speak Hindi or English as a second language. The preservation of Kashmiri has been a policy of the government in the Kashmiri valley, where study of the language is obligatory in the schools.