89-527: Chitral ( Khowar : ݯھیترار , romanized: ćhitrār , lit. 'field') is a city situated on the Chitral River in northern area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa . It serves as the capital of the Lower Chitral District , and was previously the capital of Chitral District , and before that the capital of Chitral princely state . The region was encompassed into West Pakistan between
178-633: A dialect continuum ranging from Persianised to Sanskritised vocabulary, but now they are more and more different in words due to politics. Old Urdu dictionaries also contain most of the Sanskrit words now present in Hindi. Mutual intelligibility decreases in literary and specialised contexts that rely on academic or technical vocabulary. In a longer conversation, differences in formal vocabulary and pronunciation of some Urdu phonemes are noticeable, though many native Hindi speakers also pronounce these phonemes. At
267-442: A common Sanskrit - and Prakrit -derived vocabulary base, phonology , syntax , and grammar, making them mutually intelligible during colloquial communication . While formal Urdu draws literary, political, and technical vocabulary from Persian , formal Hindi draws these aspects from Sanskrit; consequently, the two languages' mutual intelligibility effectively decreases as the factor of formality increases. Urdu originated in
356-406: A core vocabulary of native Sanskrit and Prakrit derived words and a significant number of Arabic and Persian loanwords, with a consensus of linguists considering them to be two standardised forms of the same language and consider the differences to be sociolinguistic ; a few classify them separately. The two languages are often considered to be a single language (Hindustani or Hindi-Urdu) on
445-661: A distinction between Urdu and Hindi, leading to the Hindi–Urdu controversy . According to 2022 estimates by Ethnologue and The World Factbook , produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Urdu is the 10th-most widely spoken language in the world , with 230 million total speakers, including those who speak it as a second language . The name Urdu was first used by the poet Ghulam Hamadani Mushafi around 1780 for Hindustani language even though he himself also used Hindavi term in his poetry to define
534-537: A heavy influence on both as a co-official language. According to Bruce (2021), Urdu has adapted English words since the eighteenth century. A movement towards the hyper-Persianisation of an Urdu emerged in Pakistan since its independence in 1947 which is "as artificial as" the hyper-Sanskritised Hindi that has emerged in India; hyper-Persianisation of Urdu was prompted in part by the increasing Sanskritisation of Hindi. However,
623-507: A literary medium for Indian writers from the Bombay Presidency, Bengal, Orissa Province, and Tamil Nadu as well. As Urdu and Hindi became means of religious and social construction for Muslims and Hindus respectively, each register developed its own script. According to Islamic tradition, Arabic , the language of Muhammad and the Qur'an , holds spiritual significance and power. Because Urdu
712-577: A notable novel being Umrao Jaan Ada . According to the Navadirul Alfaz by Khan-i Arzu, the "Zaban-e Urdu-e Shahi" [language of the Imperial Camp] had attained special importance in the time of Alamgir ". By the end of the reign of Aurangzeb in the early 1700s, the common language around Delhi began to be referred to as Zaban-e-Urdu , a name derived from the Turkic word ordu (army) or orda and
801-692: A phonological level, speakers of both languages are frequently aware of the Perso-Arabic or Sanskrit origins of their word choice, which affects the pronunciation of those words. Urdu speakers will often insert vowels to break up consonant clusters found in words of Sanskritic origin, but will pronounce them correctly in Arabic and Persian loanwords. As a result of religious nationalism since the partition of British India and continued communal tensions, native speakers of both Hindi and Urdu frequently assert that they are distinct languages. The grammar of Hindi and Urdu
890-573: A policy continued by the Mughal Empire , which extended over most of northern South Asia from the 16th to 18th centuries and cemented Persian influence on Hindustani. Urdu was patronised by the Nawab of Awadh and in Lucknow , the language was refined, being not only spoken in the court, but by the common people in the city—both Hindus and Muslims; the city of Lucknow gave birth to Urdu prose literature, with
979-498: A sectarian divide of "Urdu" for Muslims and "Hindi" for Hindus, a divide that was formalised with the partition of colonial India into the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan after independence (though there are Hindu poets who continue to write in Urdu, including Gopi Chand Narang and Gulzar ). Urdu had been used as a literary medium for British colonial Indian writers from
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#17328590001901068-477: A significant role in the development of the Urdu register. Hindi became the distinct register spoken by those who sought to construct a Hindu identity in the face of colonial rule. As Hindi separated from Hindustani to create a distinct spiritual identity, Urdu was employed to create a definitive Islamic identity for the Muslim population in India. Urdu's use was not confined only to northern India – it had been used as
1157-495: A standard Khowar script continued for decades into the 1970s. This process was not without controversy either. Some literaturists were advocating for keeping the number of letters to a minimum, or in other words removing Arabic letters that do not represent distinct sounds in Khowar and are homophone with other letters (for example ث، ذ، ص , being homophone with س، ز، س respectively). In total, 6 new letters were added to
1246-594: A symbol of their religious identity. Hindus in northwestern India, under the Arya Samaj agitated against the sole use of the Perso-Arabic script and argued that the language should be written in the native Devanagari script, which triggered a backlash against the use of Hindi written in Devanagari by the Anjuman-e-Islamia of Lahore. Hindi in the Devanagari script and Urdu written in the Perso-Arabic script established
1335-419: A uniting language. Urdu was chosen as a symbol of unity for the new Dominion of Pakistan in 1947, because it had already served as a lingua franca among Muslims in north and northwest of British Indian Empire . Urdu is also seen as a repertory for the cultural and social heritage of Pakistan. While Urdu and Islam together played important roles in developing the national identity of Pakistan, disputes in
1424-459: A very significant number among the nearly 800 districts of India, there is a small Urdu-speaking minority at least. In Araria district , Bihar, there is a plurality of Urdu speakers and near-plurality in Hyderabad district, Telangana (43.35% Telugu speakers and 43.24% Urdu speakers). Some Indian Muslim schools ( Madrasa ) teach Urdu as a first language and have their own syllabi and exams. In fact,
1513-573: Is also spoken by a small population. As per the 2017 census, Chitral has a population of 49,780. Khowar language Khowar ( Khowar : کھوار زبان , romanized: khowār , IPA: [kʰɔːwaːr] ), or Chitrali , is a Dardic language of the Indo-Aryan language family primarily spoken in Chitral and surrounding areas in Pakistan . Khowar is the lingua franca of Chitral , and it
1602-584: Is also spoken in the Gupis-Yasin and Ghizer districts of Gilgit-Baltistan, as well in the Upper Swat district . Speakers of Khowar have also migrated heavily to Pakistan's major urban centres, with Peshawar , Islamabad , Lahore and Karachi having significant populations. It is also spoken as a second language by the Kalash people . The native name of the language is Khō-wār , meaning "language" ( wār ) of
1691-596: Is an Eighth Schedule language , the status and cultural heritage of which are recognised by the Constitution of India ; and it also has an official status in several Indian states. In Nepal , Urdu is a registered regional dialect and in South Africa , it is a protected language in the constitution. It is also spoken as a minority language in Afghanistan and Bangladesh , with no official status. Urdu and Hindi share
1780-581: Is derived from Urdu alphabet , with additional letters created to represent sounds unique to Khowar. Similar to Urdu, Khowar is typically written in the calligraphic Nastaʿlīq script . From the end of the 19th century onwards, literaturists and rulers of Chitral princely state have put in much effort to popularize literacy, reading, and writing in Khowar. Initially, Mirza Muhammad Shakur and Prince Tajumal Shah Mohfi adopted Persian alphabet , used in neighbouring Afghanistan . However, Persian alphabet did not have letters for many unique sounds in Khowar. By
1869-515: Is not officially recognised by the Government of Bangladesh . The Urdu spoken by Stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh is different from this dialect. Many bilingual or multi-lingual Urdu speakers, being familiar with both Urdu and English, display code-switching (referred to as " Urdish ") in certain localities and between certain social groups. On 14 August 2015, the Government of Pakistan launched
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#17328590001901958-488: Is one variety, is spoken much more widely, forming the third most commonly spoken language in the world, after Mandarin and English . The syntax (grammar), morphology , and the core vocabulary of Urdu and Hindi are essentially identical – thus linguists usually count them as one single language, while some contend that they are considered as two different languages for socio-political reasons. Owing to interaction with other languages, Urdu has become localised wherever it
2047-572: Is read and written as in other parts of India. A number of daily newspapers and several monthly magazines in Urdu are published in these states. Dhakaiya Urdu is a dialect native to the city of Old Dhaka in Bangladesh , dating back to the Mughal era . However, its popularity, even among native speakers, has been gradually declining since the Bengali Language Movement in the 20th century. It
2136-543: Is said to have arisen as the "language of the camp", or " Zaban-i-Ordu " means " Language of High camps " or natively " Lashkari Zaban " means " Language of Army " even though term Urdu held different meanings at that time. It is recorded that Aurangzeb spoke in Hindvi, which was most likely Persianized, as there are substantial evidence that Hindvi was written in the Persian script in this period. During this time period Urdu
2225-704: Is spoken by large numbers of migrant South Asian workers in the major urban centres of the Persian Gulf countries. Urdu is also spoken by large numbers of immigrants and their children in the major urban centres of the United Kingdom , the United States, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, and Australia. Along with Arabic , Urdu is among the immigrant languages with the most speakers in Catalonia . Religious and social atmospheres in early nineteenth century India played
2314-485: Is spoken, including in Pakistan. Urdu in Pakistan has undergone changes and has incorporated and borrowed many words from regional languages, thus allowing speakers of the language in Pakistan to distinguish themselves more easily and giving the language a decidedly Pakistani flavor. Similarly, the Urdu spoken in India can also be distinguished into many dialects such as the Standard Urdu of Lucknow and Delhi , as well as
2403-471: Is used in education , literature , office and court business, although in practice, English is used instead of Urdu in the higher echelons of government. Article 251(1) of the Pakistani Constitution mandates that Urdu be implemented as the sole language of government, though English continues to be the most widely used language at the higher echelons of Pakistani government. Urdu is also one of
2492-566: The Bombay , Bengal , Orissa , and Hyderabad State as well. Before independence, Muslim League leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah advocated the use of Urdu, which he used as a symbol of national cohesion in Pakistan. After the Bengali language movement and the separation of former East Pakistan , Urdu was recognised as the sole national language of Pakistan in 1973, although English and regional languages were also granted official recognition. Following
2581-645: The Central Hindi Directorate was established earlier in 1960, and the promotion of Hindi is better funded and more advanced, while the status of Urdu has been undermined by the promotion of Hindi. Private Indian organisations such as the Anjuman-e-Tariqqi Urdu, Deeni Talimi Council and Urdu Mushafiz Dasta promote the use and preservation of Urdu, with the Anjuman successfully launching a campaign that reintroduced Urdu as an official language of Bihar in
2670-657: The Chitral scouts relieved the Gilgit scouts in Domel and Kamri sectors whilst the Chitral Bodyguard force went towards Skardu . The Chitral bodyguards under the leadership of a Chitral Prince laid one of the longest sieges in military history which ended with the fall of Skardu, the surrender of the Dogras, and the capture of Baltistan . During this time, the Chitral scouts assimilated with
2759-683: The Dakhni ( Deccan ) of South India. Because of Urdu's similarity to Hindi , speakers of the two languages can easily understand one another if both sides refrain from using literary vocabulary. Although Urdu is widely spoken and understood throughout all of Pakistan, only 9% of Pakistan's population spoke Urdu according to the 2023 Pakistani census . Most of the nearly three million Afghan refugees of different ethnic origins (such as Pashtun , Tajik , Uzbek , Hazarvi , and Turkmen ) who stayed in Pakistan for over twenty-five years have also become fluent in Urdu. Muhajirs since 1947 have historically formed
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2848-514: The Devanagari and Latin script ( Roman Urdu ) to allow its survival, or whether this will only hasten its demise and that the language can only be preserved if expressed in the Perso-Arabic script. For Pakistan, Willoughby & Aftab (2020) argued that Urdu originally had the image of a refined elite language of the Enlightenment, progress and emancipation, which contributed to the success of
2937-488: The Gandhari language , it likely came from further south in the first millennium BC, possibly through Swat and Dir . Georg Morgenstierne noted, "Khowar, in many respects [is] the most archaic of all modern Indian languages , retaining a great part of Sanskrit case inflexion, and retaining many words in a nearly Sanskritic form". Khowar has a variety of dialects, which may vary phonemically. The following tables lay out
3026-517: The Ilm Pakistan movement, with a uniform curriculum in Urdish. Ahsan Iqbal , Federal Minister of Pakistan, said "Now the government is working on a new curriculum to provide a new medium to the students which will be the combination of both Urdu and English and will name it Urdish." Standard Urdu is often compared with Standard Hindi . Both Urdu and Hindi, which are considered standard registers of
3115-597: The Khariboli dialect of the Delhi region). Dakhni (also known as Dakani, Deccani, Desia, Mirgan) is spoken in Deccan region of southern India . It is distinct by its mixture of vocabulary from Marathi and Konkani , as well as some vocabulary from Arabic, Persian and Chagatai that are not found in the standard dialect of Urdu. Dakhini is widely spoken in all parts of Maharashtra , Telangana , Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka . Urdu
3204-643: The Kho people . The word Khō-wār is a cognate with the Serbian and Bulgarian говор (pronounced "govor," meaning "speech"), with the unstable "г" subject to palatalization (as in other related languages, such as the Czech cognate hovor ). During the British Raj it was known to the English as Chitrālī (a derived adjective from the name of the Chitral region ) or Qāshqārī . Among
3293-477: The Punjabi elite of Pakistan, have adopted Urdu as a mother tongue and identify with both an Urdu speaker as well as Punjabi identity. Urdu was chosen as a symbol of unity for the new state of Pakistan in 1947, because it had already served as a lingua franca among Muslims in north and northwest British India . It is written, spoken and used in all provinces/territories of Pakistan , and together with English as
3382-676: The Vedic period . The area which now forms Chitral was reportedly conquered by the Persian Achaemenids and was a part of one of their easternmost satraps. In the third century CE, Kanishka , the Buddhist ruler of the Kushan empire , occupied Chitral. Under the Kushans, many Buddhist monuments were built around the area, mainly Buddhist stupas and monasteries. The Kushans also patronised Buddhist art; some of
3471-399: The de jure legal status and de facto political status of Urdu, how much Urdu is used as language of instruction and chosen by students in higher education, and how the maintenance and development of Urdu is financially and institutionally supported by governments and NGOs. In India, although Urdu is not and never was used exclusively by Muslims (and Hindi never exclusively by Hindus),
3560-538: The 18th century and two similar standard forms came into existence in Delhi and Lucknow . Since the partition of India in 1947, a third standard has arisen in the Pakistani city of Karachi . Deccani , an older form used in southern India , became a court language of the Deccan sultanates by the 16th century. Urdu has a few recognised dialects, including Dakhni , Dhakaiya , Rekhta , and Modern Vernacular Urdu (based on
3649-476: The 1950s (particularly those in East Pakistan , where Bengali was the dominant language), challenged the idea of Urdu as a national symbol and its practicality as the lingua franca . The significance of Urdu as a national symbol was downplayed by these disputes when English and Bengali were also accepted as official languages in the former East Pakistan (now Bangladesh ). Urdu is the sole national, and one of
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3738-479: The 1960s, the Urdu lobby and eventually the Urdu language in Pakistan has been associated with religious Islamism and political national conservatism (and eventually the lower and lower-middle classes, alongside regional languages such as Punjabi, Sindhi, and Balochi), while English has been associated with the internationally oriented secular and progressive left (and eventually the upper and upper-middle classes). Despite governmental attempts at Urduisation of Pakistan,
3827-638: The 1970s. In the former Jammu and Kashmir state , section 145 of the Kashmir Constitution stated: "The official language of the State shall be Urdu but the English language shall unless the Legislature by law otherwise provides, continue to be used for all the official purposes of the State for which it was being used immediately before the commencement of the Constitution." Urdu became a literary language in
3916-680: The 1979 Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and subsequent arrival of millions of Afghan refugees who have lived in Pakistan for many decades, many Afghans, including those who moved back to Afghanistan, have also become fluent in Hindi-Urdu, an occurrence aided by exposure to the Indian media, chiefly Hindi-Urdu Bollywood films and songs. There have been attempts to purge Urdu of native Prakrit and Sanskrit words, and Hindi of Persian loanwords – new vocabulary draws primarily from Persian and Arabic for Urdu and from Sanskrit for Hindi. English has exerted
4005-568: The 37-letter Urdu Alphabet, to create the 43-letter Khowar script. Urdu Urdu ( / ˈ ʊər d uː / ; اُردُو , pronounced [ʊɾduː] , ALA-LC : Urdū ) is a Persianised register of the Hindustani language , an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia . It is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan , where it is also an official language alongside English . In India , Urdu
4094-581: The Capital was relocated to Delhi and named Shahjahanabad and the Bazar of the town was named Urdu e Muallah. In the Akbar era the word Rekhta was used to describe Urdu for the first time. It was originally a Persian word that meant "to create a mixture". Amir Khusrau was the first person to use the same word for Poetry. Before the standardisation of Urdu into colonial administration, British officers often referred to
4183-426: The English liked to use the name "Moors" for Urdu: I have a deep knowledge [ je possède à fond ] of the common tongue of India, called Moors by the English, and Ourdouzebain by the natives of the land. Several works of Sufi writers like Ashraf Jahangir Semnani used similar names for the Urdu language. Shah Abdul Qadir Raipuri was the first person who translated The Quran into Urdu. During Shahjahan's time,
4272-502: The Gilgit scouts and went on towards taking the Kargil pass. The city has an average elevation of 1,500 m (4,921 ft). In contrast to more southerly valleys of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Chitral has a dry Mediterranean climate ( Köppen Csa ) with almost no rainfall during the very hot summers. Precipitation occurs mainly from spring thunderstorms brought about by western frontal systems. In
4361-618: The Heathens, or from the Persians, or other Nations. In 1715, a complete literary Diwan in Rekhta was written by Nawab Sadruddin Khan . An Urdu-Persian dictionary was written by Khan-i Arzu in 1751 in the reign of Ahmad Shah Bahadur . The name Urdu was first introduced by the poet Ghulam Hamadani Mushafi around 1780. As a literary language, Urdu took shape in courtly, elite settings. While Urdu retained
4450-405: The Indian government do not actively support the preservation of Urdu in professional and official spaces. Because the Pakistani government proclaimed Urdu the national language at Partition, the Indian state and some religious nationalists began in part to regard Urdu as a 'foreign' language, to be viewed with suspicion. Urdu advocates in India disagree whether it should be allowed to write Urdu in
4539-425: The Indian subcontinent (12th to 16th centuries) led to the development of Hindustani as a product of a composite Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb . In cities such as Delhi, the ancient language Old Hindi began to acquire many Persian loanwords and continued to be called "Hindi" and later, also "Hindustani". An early literary tradition of Hindavi was founded by Amir Khusrau in the late 13th century. After
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#17328590001904628-671: The Pashtuns and Badakhshanis it is known as Kashkār . Another name, used by Leitner in 1880, is Arnyiá or Arniya , derived from the Shina language name for the part of the Yasin (a valley in Gilgit-Baltistan) where Khowar is spoken. The Khowar language expanded throughout Chitral from the northern part of the region, specifically from the Mulkhow and Torkhow Valley . According to Morgenstierne ,
4717-445: The absorption of vocabulary from various regional Pakistani languages, while some Urdu vocabularies has also been assimilated by Pakistan's regional languages. Some who are from a non-Urdu background now can read and write only Urdu. With such a large number of people(s) speaking Urdu, the language has acquired a peculiar Pakistani flavor further distinguishing it from the Urdu spoken by native speakers, resulting in more diversity within
4806-439: The area of the Ganges-Yamuna Doab , though significant development occurred in the Deccan Plateau . In 1837, Urdu became an official language of the British East India Company , replacing Persian across northern India during Company rule ; Persian had until this point served as the court language of various Indo-Islamic empires . Religious, social, and political factors arose during the European colonial period that advocated
4895-728: The basic phonology of Khowar. Khowar may also have nasalized vowels and a series of long vowels /ɑː/ , /ɛː/ , /iː/ , /ɔː/ , and /uː/ . Sources are inconsistent on whether length is phonemic, with one author stating "vowel-length is observed mainly as a substitute one. The vowel-length of phonological value is noted far more rarely." Unlike the neighboring and related Kalasha language , Khowar does not have retroflex vowels. Allophones of /x ɣ h ʋ ɾ/ are heard as sounds [χ ʁ ɦ w ɹ] . /q x ɣ f/ are restricted to Perso-Arabic loanwords in most IA languages but they occur natively in Khowar. Khowar, like many Dardic languages , has either phonemic tone or stress distinctions. Khowar orthography
4984-566: The conquest of the Deccan , and a subsequent immigration of noble Muslim families into the south, a form of the language flourished in medieval India as a vehicle of poetry, (especially under the Bahmanids ), and is known as Dakhini , which contains loanwords from Telugu and Marathi . From the 13th century until the end of the 18th century; the language now known as Urdu was called Hindi , Hindavi , Hindustani , Dehlavi , Dihlawi , Lahori , and Lashkari . The Delhi Sultanate established Persian as its official language in India,
5073-425: The early 20th century, as under British Colonial rule, Urdu education and literacy became ever more popular among Indian Muslims (see Hindi–Urdu controversy ), Chitrali literaturists, namely Sir Nasir ul-Mulk and Mirza Muhammad Ghafran saw Urdu script as a better fit for Khowar. Nonetheless, Urdu also lacked sounds that existed in Chitrali. Thus, new letters were proposed and created. But the process of settling on
5162-415: The early 21st century an increasing percentage of Indian Muslims began switching to Hindi due to socio-economic factors, such as Urdu being abandoned as the language of instruction in much of India, and having limited employment opportunities compared to Hindi, English and regional languages. The number of Urdu speakers in India fell 1.5% between 2001 and 2011 (then 5.08 million Urdu speakers), especially in
5251-403: The finest examples of the image of Buddha were produced in the region under the Kushan rule. From 1571 to 1969, Chitral was the dominion of the Kator Dynasty . The British and Sikh garrison suffered a siege by the Chitralis, possibly aided by Afghan forces, in 1895. The garrison was relieved after six weeks, and the British installed the young Shuja ul-Mulk as Mehtar ("ruler"). He ruled for
5340-412: The grammar and core Indo-Aryan vocabulary of the local Indian dialect Khariboli, it adopted the Nastaleeq writing system – which was developed as a style of Persian calligraphy. Throughout the history of the language, Urdu has been referred to by several other names: Hindi, Hindavi, Rekhta, Urdu-e-Muallah, Dakhini , Moors and Dehlavi . In 1773, the Swiss French soldier Antoine Polier notes that
5429-417: The independence movement. But after the 1947 Partition , when it was chosen as the national language of Pakistan to unite all inhabitants with one linguistic identity, it faced serious competition primarily from Bengali (spoken by 56% of the total population, mostly in East Pakistan until that attained independence in 1971 as Bangladesh ), and after 1971 from English. Both pro-independence elites that formed
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#17328590001905518-430: The language as " Moors " or "Moorish jargon". John Gilchrist was the first in British India to begin a systematic study on Urdu and began to use the term "Hindustani" what the majority of Europeans called "Moors", authoring the book The Strangers's East Indian Guide to the Hindoostanee or Grand Popular Language of India (improperly Called Moors) . Urdu was then promoted in colonial India by British policies to counter
5607-458: The language in the Perso-Arabic script in courts and government offices, though Hindus continued to employ the Devanagari script in certain literary and religious contexts. Through the late 19th century, people did not view Urdu and Hindi as being two distinct languages, though in urban areas, the standardised Hindustani language was increasingly being referred to as Urdu and written in the Perso-Arabic script. Urdu and English replaced Persian as
5696-518: The language of Bollywood films tend to contain a large number of Persian and Arabic words and thus considered to be "Urdu" in a sense, especially in songs. India has more than 3,000 Urdu publications, including 405 daily Urdu newspapers. Newspapers such as Neshat News Urdu , Sahara Urdu , Daily Salar , Hindustan Express , Daily Pasban , Siasat Daily , The Munsif Daily and Inqilab are published and distributed in Bangalore, Malegaon, Mysore, Hyderabad, and Mumbai . Outside South Asia, it
5785-883: The language. In India, Urdu is spoken in places where there are large Muslim minorities or cities that were bases for Muslim empires in the past. These include parts of Uttar Pradesh , Madhya Pradesh , Bihar , Telangana , Andhra Pradesh , Maharashtra ( Marathwada and Konkanis), Karnataka and cities such as Hyderabad , Lucknow , Delhi , Malerkotla , Bareilly , Meerut , Saharanpur , Muzaffarnagar , Roorkee , Deoband , Moradabad , Azamgarh , Bijnor , Najibabad , Rampur , Aligarh , Allahabad , Gorakhpur , Agra , Firozabad , Kanpur , Badaun , Bhopal , Hyderabad , Aurangabad , Bangalore , Kolkata , Mysore , Patna , Darbhanga , Gaya , Madhubani , Samastipur , Siwan , Saharsa , Supaul , Muzaffarpur , Nalanda , Munger , Bhagalpur , Araria , Gulbarga , Parbhani , Nanded , Malegaon , Bidar , Ajmer , and Ahmedabad . In
5874-450: The language. Ordu means army in the Turkic languages . In late 18th century, it was known as Zaban-e-Urdu-e-Mualla زبانِ اُرْدُوئے مُعَلّٰی means language of the exalted camp . Earlier it was known as Hindvi, Hindi and Hindustani . Urdu, like Hindi , is a form of Hindustani language . Some linguists have suggested that the earliest forms of Urdu evolved from the medieval (6th to 13th century) Apabhraṃśa register of
5963-497: The leadership of the Muslim League in Pakistan and the Hindu-dominated Congress Party in India had been educated in English during the British colonial period, and continued to operate in English and send their children to English-medium schools as they continued dominate both countries' post-Partition politics. Although the Anglicized elite in Pakistan has made attempts at Urduisation of education with varying degrees of success, no successful attempts were ever made to Urduise politics,
6052-466: The legal system, the army, or the economy, all of which remained solidly Anglophone. Even the regime of general Zia-ul-Haq (1977–1988), who came from a middle-class Punjabi family and initially fervently supported a rapid and complete Urduisation of Pakistani society (earning him the honorary title of the 'Patron of Urdu' in 1981), failed to make significant achievements, and by 1987 had abandoned most of his efforts in favour of pro-English policies. Since
6141-404: The main languages of instruction, although the people from differing provinces may have different native languages. Urdu is taught as a compulsory subject up to higher secondary school in both English and Urdu medium school systems, which has produced millions of second-language Urdu speakers among people whose native language is one of the other languages of Pakistan – which in turn has led to
6230-400: The majority population in the city of Karachi , however. Many newspapers are published in Urdu in Pakistan, including the Daily Jang , Nawa-i-Waqt , and Millat . No region in Pakistan uses Urdu as its mother tongue, though it is spoken as the first language of Muslim migrants (known as Muhajirs ) in Pakistan who left India after independence in 1947. Other communities, most notably
6319-403: The most Urdu-speaking states of Uttar Pradesh (c. 8% to 5%) and Bihar (c. 11.5% to 8.5%), even though the number of Muslims in these two states grew in the same period. Although Urdu is still very prominent in early 21st-century Indian pop culture, ranging from Bollywood to social media, knowledge of the Urdu script and the publication of books in Urdu have steadily declined, while policies of
6408-564: The most alive language and moving ahead with times" in India. This phenomenon pertains to the decrease in relative and absolute numbers of native Urdu speakers as opposed to speakers of other languages; declining (advanced) knowledge of Urdu's Perso-Arabic script, Urdu vocabulary and grammar; the role of translation and transliteration of literature from and into Urdu; the shifting cultural image of Urdu and socio-economic status associated with Urdu speakers (which negatively impacts especially their employment opportunities in both countries),
6497-552: The next 41 years. In 1947, following the division of the British colony of India, princely states were offered the choice to either remain independent or to choose one of the two new dominions. Initially, Chitral chose to remain an independent Monarchy. Later, the Mehtar of Chitral, who was a friend of Quaid E Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah , acceded to Pakistan and thus Chitral became one of the princely states of Pakistan . Through 1969 to 1972, it
6586-461: The official languages in northern parts of India in 1837. In colonial Indian Islamic schools, Muslims were taught Persian and Arabic as the languages of Indo-Islamic civilisation ; the British, in order to promote literacy among Indian Muslims and attract them to attend government schools, started to teach Urdu written in the Perso-Arabic script in these governmental educational institutions and after this time, Urdu began to be seen by Indian Muslims as
6675-565: The officially recognised languages in India and also has the status of "additional official language" in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh , Uttar Pradesh , Bihar , Jharkhand , West Bengal , Telangana and the national capital territory Delhi . Also as one of the five official languages of Jammu and Kashmir . India established the governmental Bureau for the Promotion of Urdu in 1969, although
6764-438: The ongoing Hindi–Urdu controversy and modern cultural association of each language with the two religions has led to fewer Hindus using Urdu. In the 20th century, Indian Muslims gradually began to collectively embrace Urdu (for example, 'post-independence Muslim politics of Bihar saw a mobilisation around the Urdu language as tool of empowerment for minorities especially coming from weaker socio-economic backgrounds' ), but in
6853-483: The original abode of the Khowar language was northern Chitral in the valleys around Mastuj . The Khowar language started expanding into southern Chitral around the early 14th century. Khowar shares a great number of morphological characteristics with neighbouring Iranian languages of Badakhshan , pointing to a very early location of proto-Khowar in its original abode in Upper Chitral, although from its links with
6942-511: The position and prestige of English only grew stronger in the meantime. There are over 100 million native speakers of Urdu in India and Pakistan together: there were 50.8 million Urdu speakers in India (4.34% of the total population) as per the 2011 census; and approximately 16 million in Pakistan in 2006. There are several hundred thousand in the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, United States, and Bangladesh . However, Hindustani, of which Urdu
7031-543: The preceding Shauraseni language , a Middle Indo-Aryan language that is also the ancestor of other modern Indo-Aryan languages. In the Delhi region of India the native language was Khariboli , whose earliest form is known as Old Hindi (or Hindavi). It belongs to the Western Hindi group of the Central Indo-Aryan languages. The contact of Hindu and Muslim cultures during the period of Islamic conquests in
7120-476: The previous emphasis on Persian. In colonial India, "ordinary Muslims and Hindus alike spoke the same language in the United Provinces in the nineteenth century, namely Hindustani, whether called by that name or whether called Hindi, Urdu, or one of the regional dialects such as Braj or Awadhi ." Elites from Muslim communities, as well as a minority of Hindu elites, such as Munshis of Hindu origin, wrote
7209-588: The princely state of Chitral under the rule of the Katur Dynasty . The existence of the Gandharan Grave Culture in Chitral, found in various grave sites scattered over its valleys gives an insightful knowledge of its inhabitants following the Indo-Aryan migrations , after the decline of Indus Valley civilization . The Gankorineotek cemetery in Singoor is home to several ancient burial sites, dating back to
7298-636: The same language, Hindustani (or Hindi-Urdu), share a core vocabulary and grammar . Apart from religious associations, the differences are largely restricted to the standard forms : Standard Urdu is conventionally written in the Nastaliq style of the Persian alphabet and relies heavily on Persian and Arabic as a source for technical and literary vocabulary, whereas Standard Hindi is conventionally written in Devanāgarī and draws on Sanskrit . However, both share
7387-583: The style of Urdu spoken on a day-to-day basis in Pakistan is akin to neutral Hindustani that serves as the lingua franca of the northern Indian subcontinent. Since at least 1977, some commentators such as journalist Khushwant Singh have characterised Urdu as a "dying language", though others, such as Indian poet and writer Gulzar (who is popular in both countries and both language communities, but writes only in Urdu (script) and has difficulties reading Devanagari, so he lets others 'transcribe' his work) have disagreed with this assessment and state that Urdu "is
7476-425: The two official languages of Pakistan (along with English). It is spoken and understood throughout the country, whereas the state-by-state languages (languages spoken throughout various regions) are the provincial languages , although only 7.57% of Pakistanis speak Urdu as their first language. Its official status has meant that Urdu is understood and spoken widely throughout Pakistan as a second or third language. It
7565-411: The winter the nighttime temperature occasionally drops to −10 °C. Winter snowfall in the town can be quite heavy with an accumulation of up to 60 cm being quite common, at higher elevations snowfall can reach as high as 20 metres (70 ft). Urdu is the official language of the city. According to the 1981 census, Khowar is the main language and is spoken by 98% of the population. Kalasha
7654-512: The years 1969 and 1972. It has a population of 49,780 per the 2017 census. Nothing definitive is recorded about the town’s first settlers. In the 3rd century AD, Kanishka , the ruler of the Kushan Empire , occupied Chitral. In the 4th century AD, the Chinese overran the valley. Raees rule over Chitral began in 1320 and came to an end in the 15th century. From 1571 onwards Chitral was the capital of
7743-558: Was fully integrated into Pakistan as the administrative district of Chitral. Chitral played an instrumental role in the 1947–1948 first Kashmir war . Immediately after acceding to Pakistan, Mehtar Muzaffar ul-Mulk proclaimed Jihad to 'liberate' Kashmir from the Dogras . At this point, the Gilgit scouts were retreating and the Dogra forces had made gains in the Burzil pass. Under these circumstances,
7832-591: Was intentioned as means of unification for Muslims in Northern India and later Pakistan, it adopted a modified Perso-Arabic script. Urdu continued its role in developing a Pakistani identity as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan was established with the intent to construct a homeland for the Muslims of Colonial India. Several languages and dialects spoken throughout the regions of Pakistan produced an imminent need for
7921-547: Was referred to as "Moors", which simply meant Muslim, by European writers. John Ovington wrote in 1689: The language of the Moors is different from that of the ancient original inhabitants of India but is obliged to these Gentiles for its characters. For though the Moors dialect is peculiar to themselves, yet it is destitute of Letters to express it; and therefore, in all their Writings in their Mother Tongue, they borrow their letters from
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