116-572: Hindustani Muslims are the Urdu-speaking , Hindustani people of Muslim faith. Hindustani Muslims include: This article about ethnicity is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Urdu-speaking Native speakers of Urdu are spread across South Asia . The vast majority of them are Muslims of the Hindi–Urdu Belt of northern India , followed by the Deccani people of
232-633: 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
348-867: A historical Muslim presence , such as the Deccanis , the Biharis and Dhakaiyas (who speak Dhakaiya Urdu ) in Bangladesh, the Urdu-speaking members of the Madheshi community in Nepal, some Muslims in Sri Lanka and a section of Burmese Indians . In addition, there are Urdu-speakers present amongst the South Asian diaspora, most notably in the Middle East , North America (notably
464-454: A Biradari (brotherhood) whose affairs are controlled by annually elected Sardars, the chief of the Biradari. they control all the activities of the community both internally and in relation with the outside world. The delinquent is severely ostracised which in their parlance, the man punished is not respectable enough to smoke the same Huqqa or drink from the same bowl as the honourable Biradari. If
580-406: 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
696-477: A first or second language, which would additionally account for a much larger number of total speakers in South Asia. From the early Muslim kingdoms developed Indian Muslim clan-groups who were well-rooted social groups that acted as warrior lineages providing court officers and military soldiers. These evolving communities or tribes played a key role in providing a local Muslim leadership. The language developed at
812-537: 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,
928-760: A large number of unemployed Indian Muslim horsemen, who were employed in the army of the East India Company . Thus 75% of the cavalry branch of the British army was composed of a social group referred to as the "Hindustani Mahomedans". This included Indian Muslim Baradaris of the Urdu-Hindustani Belt such as the Ranghar(Rajput Muslims) , Sheikhs , Sayyids , Mughals , and Indianized Pathans . British officers such as Skinner , Gardner and Hearsay had become leaders of irregular cavalry that preserved
1044-507: 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
1160-577: 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
1276-692: 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
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#17330945336751392-573: 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
1508-518: A regime of religious, literary and military training which was focused on the transformation of the recruit's identity, who played a significant role as a kind of artificial family in-group attached to their patron. Before Muhammad Khan's death, the separation between the various tribes and castes broke down, forming a homogenous group, so that Muhammad Khan had founded his own Indian Muslim tribe or caste. To increase his independence from his nobles further, he continued to encourage immigration of Pashtuns of
1624-498: 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
1740-510: A separatist political force, throwing a Western cloak of nationalism over the Islamic concept of culture. Furthermore, in 2008 Syed Nadeem Ahmed brought forward the idea of Urdu Nationalism by presenting his theory of "Urdu Qaum" based on Urdu language and culture. The distinct sense of value, culture and tradition among Indian Muslims originated from the nature of Islamization of the Indian populace during
1856-477: 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
1972-724: A specific group of Indian Shaikhzadas called the Bukhari Sayyids. These were descendants of Makhdum Jahanian or Jalal Bukhari who was born in Multan in Punjab, and so in recent history were immigrants from the Punjab, but retained the title Bukhari due to genealogical links to the saint Jalaluddin Bukhari. By the 16th century, they had lived for several generations in Hindustan and were Indian Muslims associated with specific regions in Hindustan. Among these
2088-594: 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
2204-623: A tribe of Indian Muslims who claim descent from the Bani Israil . The Qidwai were recruited in the household cavalry of Shuja-ud-Daula , which was mainly composed of the Sheikhzadi. These clans had not taken any profession other than a soldier or a civil officer. Abdul Majid Daryabadi belonged to the Qidwai clan in Daryabad and FS Hussain belonged to the Qidwai in Lucknow . Medieval sources refer to
2320-419: 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
2436-460: 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,
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#17330945336752552-459: 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,
2668-542: 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 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,
2784-462: 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
2900-488: 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
3016-572: 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
3132-543: 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
3248-704: 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
3364-485: 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
3480-515: Is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan , where it is also an official language alongside English . In India , Urdu 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
3596-471: 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
Hindustani Muslims - Misplaced Pages Continue
3712-714: The Aligarh Movement and the Deoband Movement . It was made the official language of British India in 1825 and got large opposition from the Hindus and thus sparking the Hindi-Urdu controversy in 1867. This resulted in Sir Syed's Two Nation Theory in 1868. The Urdu language was used in the emergence of a political Muslim self-consciousness. Syed Ahmed Khan converted the existing cultural and religious entity among Indian Muslims into
3828-699: The All-India Muslim League . The Gardezi tribe of Manikpur are an Indian community of Sayyids who had settled in Manikpur since the 12th century. In the 1700s, Raji Muhammad Khan who belonged to the Gardezi tribe of Manikpur was the Mir-i-Atish, or artillery chief, of the Mughal Emperor Jahandar Shah after he had blown up prince Jahan Shah's powder magazines. The first immigrants to Mau were
3944-675: The Awadh than to the Rohillas of Rampur, and sympathized with the Nawab of Awadh. A large number were recruited in the army of Ghulam Muhammad Khan of Rampur during the Second Rohilla War . A large number led by Diler Khan betrayed the Nawab of Rampur and defected to the side of the Nawab of Awadh. Khan Barkat Ali Khan who belonged to the Shahjahanpur Pathans as a risaldar rendered services to
4060-717: The Barha country in Uttar Pradesh between Meerut and Saharanpur . Their settlements, known as Qasbas , are named Behra Sadaat . Due to their reputation for bravery, to the point of recklessness, the Barah tribe held the hereditary right to lead the vanguard of the Army of the Mughal Empire in every battle. 6 years after Aurangzeb's death, the Barha Sayyid nobles became highly influential in
4176-566: 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
4292-645: 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
4408-683: 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
4524-673: The Deccan plateau in south-central India (who speak Deccani Urdu ), and most of the Muhajir people of Pakistan . The historical centres of Urdu speakers include Delhi and Lucknow . Another defunct variety of the language was historically spoken in Lahore for centuries before the name "Urdu" first began to appear. However, little is known about this defunct Lahori variety as it has not been spoken for centuries. The term "Urdu-speakers" does not encompass culturally non-native speakers who may use Urdu as
4640-514: 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
4756-517: 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
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4872-450: 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
4988-423: The Moors is different from that of the ancient original inhabitants of India, but is oblig'd 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 the Heathens , or from the Persians , or other Nations. The rural Upper Doab and Rohilkhand
5104-399: The Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent . The Biradari, a term of Persian origin literally translating to "brotherhood", is the word used for a social unit based on kinship such as tribe or clan. The chief of the Biradari is the "Sardar", who is usually an elder man annually elected as the greatest man in the Biradari. Decisions on important matters are taken only after consulting
5220-428: 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
5336-438: The Saharanpur branch of the family. Many great figures also arose from the Yusufpur branch of the family such as Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari , Qazi Faridul Haq Ansari , Shaukatullah Shah Ansari and former Indian Vice-President, Hamid Ansari . The Ranghar were classified as an "agricultural tribe" by the British Raj administration and were recruited heavily in the British Indian Army , especially in Skinner's Horse .
5452-429: The Turkan-e-Chahalgani , the Corps of Forty Turkic slave emirs, whose power was broken up by Ghiyas ud din Balban , and as a result they fled and settled down in the different villages of Katehr, near Badayun which was an important centre of the empire. They primarily speak Urdu and are Indian Muslims in customs, traditions, and language. Suspicious of outside interference, the Turk villages are closely knit together into
5568-418: The War of 1857 , Abdul Latif Khan of Khanpur, the head of the Barah Basti Pathans raised the standard of revolt against the East India Company , writing a petition to the Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar promising to come to the Dehli court, and to bring some elephants with him, representing that he had been unwell. Nawab Walidad Khan of Malagarh occupied Aligarh and Khurja and attracted to his standard
5684-399: 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),
5800-400: The irregular cavalry but rarely enlisted in the infantry. Muhammad Khan or Nawab Khair Andesh Khan , a prominent Kamboh Nawab of Meerut in the reign of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb , built a fort in Meerut , the gate of which is the Khairnagar Darwaza. In 1690 he also built the Khairul Masjid wal Mu'abid in the heart of Meerut city, as well as Khairandeshpur in Etawah. The Qidwai are
5916-439: 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
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#17330945336756032-421: 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
6148-479: 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,
6264-418: 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
6380-578: 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
6496-445: The 20th century, Mohsin-ul-Mulk founded the Urdu Defence Association , or the Anjuman-i Taraqqi-i Urdu, committed to the perpetuation of the Urdu language. The Alvis (the term derived from the Arabic term al-Alawi , meaning 'of Ali ') are those who claim descent from the 4th Rashidun caliph , Ali ibn Abi Talib (the cousin, son-in-law, and companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad ), through his wives whom he married after
6612-403: The Bangash and Afridi clan in Tirah. In India they were referred to as qaum-i-bangash which became a wider and more diffused label. 1.5 million residents in the regions of Moradabad , Amroha and Sambhal , belonging to an Indian Muslim brotherhood descending from Turks, primarily from the era of the Delhi Sultanate. According to Professor Abhay Singh, these community originate from the era of
6728-459: The Biradari, and once taken binding on every member, especially in rural life. Despite their tribal geneaologies tracing to foreign regions, these elites embellished rural seats and traditions within India, developing a sense of pride in home (watan). Families of Muslim service people from gentry families were bound together by tight marriage alliances, which often became permanent arrangements. Bitter factionalism over between clans over land-rights
6844-435: The British during the Anglo-Sikh War of 1848. After his retirement he settled down in Lahore and devoted work to the Anjuman-i-Islamiya. He gave constant support to the Aligarh Movement and to Sayyid Ahmad Khan, and was instrumental in the establishment in the first Girls School at Lahore. The Kamboh tribe likely originated in Punjab . The Muslims are referred to by the name of Zuberi. The Kamboh Sheikhs were found among
6960-478: The British had been expelled from Delhi, interpreted as the breakdown of British authority, acted as a catalyst for mutiny as well as revolt. Regiments in other parts of northern India only revolted after Delhi had fallen. British characterizations of Muslims as fanatics took the fore during and after the Great Rebellion, as well as produced the Indian Muslims as a unified, cogent group, who were easily agitated, aggressive, and inherently disloyal. Even in later days,
7076-436: 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
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#17330945336757192-465: 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 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,
7308-426: 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,
7424-420: 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
7540-405: 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
7656-523: The Marathas. According to the Urdu poet, Mir Taqi Mir, it was a Sayyid of Amroha , Syed Sadaat Ali, who convinced him to pursue poetry in Urdu, the verse which resembled Persian poetry, which was the "language of Hindustan by the authority of the king". The first use of the term Rohilla was in the 1600s, to refer to the community of Diler Khan Rohilla, who was born in India, and was the founder of his community in Shahjahanpur and Hardoi . This community over generations had become culturally closer to
7772-399: The Mughal Court under leadership of the Sayyid Brothers , Qutb-ul-Mulk and Hussain Ali Khan , who became de-facto sovereigns of the empire when they began to make and unmake emperors. The Sayyids had developed a sort of common brotherhood among themselves and took up the cause of every individual as an insult to the whole group and an infringement to the rights of Sayyids in general. In
7888-689: The Rajputs, to the campaigns in Kandahar. The current Shahi Imam of the Jāmi’ah Masjid in Delhi is a Bukhari Sayyid. Indo-Persian cultural synthesis meant that Indo-Persian influence played a large role in the making of Indo-Muslim cuisine in Northern India. Characteristic ingredients of this cuisine include onions and garlic, spices such as cloves, cardamom, nutmeg, mace, back pepper and cinnamon, and use of yoghurt, cream and butter. Special dishes include biryani , qorma , kofta , seekh kabab , nihari , haleem , nargisi koftay , roghani naan , naan , sheer-khurma (dessert) , other Indo-Persian origin flat-breads and chai (sweet, milky tea) . Although
8004-458: The Ranghars were the nucleus of the 3rd Bengal Light Cavalry which captured Delhi in 1857 Barabasti refers to a Biradari of Indian Pathans named after their origin from twelve villages known as Barah Basti in Bulandshahr , where "Barah" means "twelve" in Hindustani, similar to the naming of the Indian Muslim Barah Sayyids of Muzaffarnagar . Like other Pathans in Northern India, they are quite Indian in language, manners and appearance. In
8120-487: The United States and Canada), Europe (notably the United Kingdom ), the Caribbean region, Africa (notably South Africa and Mauritius ), Southeast Asia (notably Singapore ) and Oceania (notably Australia and Fiji ). 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
8236-445: 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
8352-407: 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 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
8468-453: The army was a form of Urdu referred to in colonial usage as "military Hindustani". The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was initiated by the 3rd Bengal Light Cavalry in Meerut, which was composed mainly of Indian Muslims. The mutineers made for Delhi, where its garrison revolted, massacring its British population, and installed Bahadur Shah Zafar as its nominal leader. The spread of the word that
8584-583: The court language of various Indo-Islamic empires . Religious, social, and political factors arose during the European colonial period that advocated 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
8700-785: The death of Fatima , the prophet's daughter. In the Indian subcontinent , they settled mainly in Hyderabad and present-day Uttar Pradesh . The former president of Pakistan, Arif Alvi belongs to the same Alvi clan. Like Urdu-speaking people, the Alvis of Kakori are referred to as Moulvizadigan (Moulvis) or Makhdûmzadigan (Makhdûms) indicating whether they are descendants of Mullah Abu Bakr Jami Alavi, who settled in Kakori in 1461 or descendants of Qari Amir Saifuddin Alavi, who settled in Kakori in 1552, they are mostly known as Shaikh . The Ansaris who claim origin from
8816-566: The descendants of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (the stand-bearer of the Islamic prophet, in Medina ), mainly through the 13th century Khwaja Abdullah Pir Haravi , inhabited the town of Panipat . Prominent Ansaris in the pre-modern era include Lutfullah Khan Sadiq, the governor of Shahjahanabad under the Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah . His brother Sher Afkan Panipati possessed an armed train composed solely of Indian Muslims or Hindustanis. In
8932-719: The descendants of the Khwaja Bayazid Ansari, the ethnic Ormur leader and founder of the Roshaniyya movement who had settled in Mau and Shamsabad. Muhammad Khan Bangash, the first Hindustani Pathan mercenary, was rewarded with the jagir of Farrukhabad area. He was so illiterate that he did not understand a single word of Persian or Pashto . Being few in number, the bulk of Muhammad Khan's soldiers were elite slaves known as 'disciples', primarily Hindu Rajputs and sometimes Brahmins who were adopted, converted to Islam and submitted to
9048-621: The districts of Bulandshahr . Nahar Ali Khan, who received the Taluqa of Pitampur from the Emperor Shah Alam II in 1774, offered resistance against the East India Company with his nephew Dunde Khan. Mir Muhammad Baquar Ali Khan was the Raja Of Pindrawal while Nawab Saeed-ul-Mulk Chhatari , the last Prime Minister of the Nizam of Hyderabad , was one of the most prominent politicians of
9164-415: 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
9280-414: 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 the preceding Shauraseni language , a Middle Indo-Aryan language that is also the ancestor of other modern Indo-Aryan languages. In
9396-643: The fanatic Muslims of Barah Basti community from which many of the sowars of the Irregular Cavalry were recruited, along with the Sayyids of Shikarpur , and his 'near relation' Ismail Khan, who was the kotwal of Meerut and had served in the Skinner's Horse . The Lalkhanis are Muslim Rajput converts from the Bargujar tribe, who assimilated to Lalkhani identity after their conversion. The Lalkhanis held estates in
9512-518: 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
9628-473: 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
9744-541: 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
9860-458: 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
9976-570: 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
10092-883: 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
10208-729: 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,
10324-466: 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
10440-404: 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
10556-450: The majority of Urdu-speakers reside in Pakistan (including 30 million native speakers, and up to 94 million second-language speakers), where Urdu is the national and official language, most speakers who use Urdu as their native tongue live in northern India , where it is one of 22 official languages . The Urdu-speaking community is also present in other parts of the subcontinent with
10672-451: 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
10788-540: The military and service gentry of the region in the Mughal empire. Amroha became a hereditary jagir, as the family of Saiyyid Khwaja Ahmad Khan, sadat-i-Amroha, held pargana Amroha in their jagir for about a hundred years. When the Marathas invaded and plundered Rohilkhand , the country of Western Uttar Pradesh was burnt with the exception of Amroha owing to a few thousand Amrohi Sayyid soldiers that drove out and conciliated with
10904-577: The modern era, the Urdu poet Altaf Hussain Hali , wrote the book Musaddas-e Hali is considered by Pakistani scholars as an important text leading to the development of the Pakistan Movement . Many other towns were also inhabited by the descendants of Abdullah Ansari . Lucknow 's Firangi Mahal is home to many Ansari scholars, Saharanpur , Kakori , Gorakhpur , Aligarh and Yusufpur . Indian political activist Muhammad Mian Mansoor Ansari hailed from
11020-403: 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
11136-564: 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),
11252-616: The offender repends and expresses a desire to retrieve his guilt, he must atone by means of a grand feast to the community. Occasions of celebration in the villages include the event of Ghazi Salar Masud's invasion on his way to Bahraich, which are celebrated with wrestling and fencing matches. The Sadaat-i-Amroha belong mainly to the Naqvi sub-group, because they are descendants of the Sufi saint Syed Sharfuddin Shah Wilayat. The Amrohi Sayyids formed
11368-461: 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
11484-517: 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
11600-438: 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
11716-511: 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
11832-476: 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
11948-739: The reign of the Emperor Bahadur Shah I . When Ruh-ul-Amin Khan of Bilgram reportedly entered state service with only 60 horsemen and foot soldiers, the Grand Vizier Munim Khan created him a mansab of 6000 and made him his close associate. In the 20th century, Syed Hussain Bilgrami was one of the early leaders of the Muslim League . The Barha tribe of Sayyids are an Indian Muslim community claiming Zaidi Sayyid descent who are named after
12064-549: The same clans were dominant groups in the associations in the defence of Urdu and district Muslim Leagues which were among the first forays of Muslims into electoral and pressure-group politics. In the19th century, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and his followers such as Mohsin-ul-Mulk further advocated for the adoption of Urdu as the language of Indian Muslims , and led organizations such as the Anjuman-i Taraqqi-i Urdu and Urdu Defence Association , which won popular support in
12180-636: 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
12296-583: 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
12412-526: The time of Sultans of Dehli due to the mixture of people, likely to be soldiers, from Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Afghan and Indian background. As early as 1689, Europeans used the label "Moors dialect" , which simply meant "Muslim", to describe Urdu, the language associated with the Muslims in North India, such as John Ovington, who visited India during the reign of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb : The language of
12528-455: The traditions of Mughal cavalry, which had a political purpose because it absorbed pockets of cavalrymen who might otherwise become disaffected plunderers. The Governor-general insisted that it was incumbent upon the British to "give military employment" to various north Indian Muslim soldiers, particularly those "formerly engaged in military service of the Native powers". The lingua franca spoken in
12644-592: The two languages' mutual intelligibility effectively decreases as the factor of formality increases. Urdu originated in 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
12760-425: 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
12876-455: 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 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
12992-796: Was Shaikh Farid Murtaza Khan , the Indian Muslim of Delhi who was the Mir Bakhshi of Akbar and Jahangir. The Bukhari Sayyids, the Barha Sayyids and the Kambohs were specially favoured for high military posts. Jahangir mentioned the great commanders and armies as involved in the Deccan campaigns with Shah Jahan as a prince, especially the Sayyids of Barha and Bukhara, the Shaikhzadas, the Hindustani Pathans and
13108-614: Was also a common feature of society. The Sadaat-i Bilgram are a tribe of Indian Muslim Sayyid families who inhabit the historic district of Bilgram in Hardoi District . The Bilgrami Sayyid were important power brokers in the southern part of Awadh , and remained an important and influential clan, throughout the Middle Ages. The Bilgrami Sayyids were supporters of the Indo-Muslim Shaikhzada faction of Munim Khan II during
13224-410: Was dominated by a literate and homogenous elite, who embraced a distinctive Indo-Persian style of culture. This service gentry, performing both clerical and military service for the Mughal empire and its successor states, provided cultural and literary patronage that contninued, even after the political decilne, to act as preservers of Indo-Persian traditions and values. The end of Muslim rule saw
13340-541: 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
13456-547: 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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