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148-638: Shimshal ( Urdu : شمشال ), previously known as Shingshal, is a village located in the Gojal tehsil of the Hunza District in the Gilgit–Baltistan region of northern Pakistan. It lies at an altitude of 3,113 metres (10,213 ft) above sea level and is the highest settlement in the district. It is the largest valley in Gilgit-Baltistan. It encompasses nearly the entire district of Hunza. Situated within
296-633: 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
444-488: A yak race , followed by singing and dancing. In Wakhi language it is called Woolyo. This yak race is the only one of its kind, and is a unique event organised at high mountain settlements of Pakistan. Shimshal Nature Trust is a community-based development organization. In January 2008, The Science and Practice of Ecology & Society Award (SPES) was granted to Shimshal Nature Trust by the Resilience Alliance. Nomus
592-406: 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
740-576: A few introduced species . As the altitude further declines the Indus basin becomes overall quite slow-flowing as it passes through the Punjab Plain . Major carp become common, and chameleonfish ( Badis ), mullet ( Sicamugil ) and swamp eel ( Monopterus ) appear. In some upland lakes and tributaries of the Punjab region snow trout and mahseer are still common, but once the Indus basin reaches its lower plain
888-537: A greater volume of water than the Indus itself before that point. An alternative reckoning begins the river around 300 km further upstream, at the confluence of the Sênggê Zangbo and Gar Tsangpo rivers, which drain the Nganglong Kangri and Gangdise Shan (Gang Rinpoche, Mt. Kailash) mountain ranges. The 2011 remeasurement suggested the source was a small lake northeast of Mount Kailash, rather than either of
1036-537: 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,
1184-507: 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
1332-559: A major role in earlier cultures of the region, including the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation where depictions of fish were frequent. The Indus script has a commonly used fish sign, which in its various forms may simply have meant "fish", or referred to stars or gods. In the uppermost, highest part of the Indus River basin there are relatively few genera and species: Diptychus , Ptychobarbus , Schizopyge , Schizopygopsis and Schizothorax snowtrout, Triplophysa loaches, and
1480-628: A mountain spring and fed with glaciers and rivers in the Himalayan , Karakoram , and Hindu Kush ranges, the river supports the ecosystems of temperate forests , plains, and arid countryside. The northern part of the Indus Valley, with its tributaries, forms the Punjab region of South Asia, while the lower course of the river ends in a large delta in the southern Sindh province of Pakistan. The river has historically been important to many cultures of
1628-577: 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
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#17328524024111776-692: 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
1924-573: 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
2072-498: 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
2220-477: 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
2368-704: A small hydro electricity power station of 0.200MW is under construction at Kuk area of Shimshal that is scheduled to be complete in 2017. The village was inaccessible by motor roads until October 2003, when a new road from the Karakoram Highway at Passu was constructed. It's 56 km to reach the Shimshal Valley from Passu . Self-help or Nomus (in local Wakhi language ) is the major driver for infrastructure development in Shimshal. Shimshalis use numerous seasonal mountain grasslands, located several days walk from
2516-594: 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
2664-571: A teacher from New Zealand and wrote these books based on her experiences teaching and living in Shimshal. The Shimshal River comes from this area and then transforms the shape of Hunza River , which joins the Indus River below the capital city Gilgit . Shimshal River is formed from three sources: Khurdopin Glacier, Shimshal Pass and Zardgorban. The Shimshal River flows into the Khunjrab River and then
2812-419: 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
2960-460: 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,
3108-459: 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,
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#17328524024113256-557: Is "sindhu". In Sanskrit, its range of meanings includes: stream, river; Indus; flood; sea or ocean; region or country in the vicinity of the Indus, Sindh, people of Sindh." The modern name in Urdu is Sindh ( Urdu : سندھ ) or Daryā-i-Sindh ( Urdu : دریائے سندھ , lit. 'The River Sindh'), contrasting to the Province of Sindh ( Urdu : صوبہِ سندھ , romanized : Sūba-i-sindh ). The Ladakhis and Tibetans call
3404-630: 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 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
3552-727: Is a Wakhi word commonly known in Shimshal valley. It is a unique social philanthropic (showing concern for humanity) system of the local community. Details are available here Nomus and Oral testimonies from Shimshal. It is one of its kind model of participatory community development in Gilgit-Baltistan area of Pakistan. Shimshal Valley has its largest adventure area in Hunza and is a major attraction for tourists. Its well-known mountains include: Gigantic glaciers include Malangudhi, Yazghail, Khurdopin (5,800 m [19,000 ft]), Braldu, Odver, and Ver Zharav. The main passes include Chafchingoal, Khurdopin, Mai Dur, Braldu, and Boi Sam. Among these,
3700-502: Is a fertile region and often called the "breadbasket" of the country; the damage and toll of the floods on the local agrarian economy was said to be extensive. At least 1.7 million acres (690,000 ha; 2,700 sq mi) of arable land were inundated. The flooding followed the previous year's floods, which devastated a large part of the country. Unprecedented torrential monsoon rains caused severe flooding in 16 districts of Sindh. In Pakistan currently there are six barrages on
3848-656: 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 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,
3996-471: Is connected with the solar power grid in Shimshal. Samina Baig , who is Brand Ambassador of SCOM, played a vital role in providing cellular service to the people of Shimshal. Naubahar School in Shimshal produces 20KVs of electricity using solar panels. This is enough to meet the electricity needs of 18 classrooms and an IT lab. Urdu language Urdu ( / ˈ ʊər d uː / ; اُردُو , pronounced [ʊɾduː] , ALA-LC : Urdū )
4144-401: Is derived from the Indus River. In ancient times, "India" initially referred to those regions immediately along the east bank of the Indus, where are Punjab and Sindh now but by 300 BC, Greek writers including Herodotus and Megasthenes were applying the term to the entire subcontinent that extends much farther eastward. The lower basin of the Indus forms a natural boundary between
4292-597: Is especially critical since rainfall is meagre in the lower Indus valley. Irrigation canals were first built by the people of the Indus Valley civilisation , and later by the engineers of the Kushan Empire and the Mughal Empire . Modern irrigation was introduced by the British East India Company in 1850 – the construction of modern canals accompanied with the restoration of old canals. The British supervised
4440-515: 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
4588-461: Is not part of Khunjerab National Park, but the Shimshal community has set up an organization called SNT (Shimshal Nature Trust) which oversees the entire region and takes care of its own land. It is a community-based organization and is registered with the Government of Pakistan. Annually, in the last week of July or the first week of August, there is a festival at Shimshal Pass where locals partake in
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4736-488: 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
4884-408: Is prone to moderate to severe flooding. In July 2010, following abnormally heavy monsoon rains, the Indus River rose above its banks and started flooding. The rain continued for the next two months, devastating large areas of Pakistan. In Sindh , the Indus burst its banks near Sukkur on 8 August, submerging the village of Mor Khan Jatoi. In early August, the heaviest flooding moved southward along
5032-402: Is protected from river flooding by constructing around 600 km long levees . The right bank side is also leveed from Guddu barrage to Lake Manchar . In response to the levees construction, the river has been aggrading rapidly over the last 20 years leading to breaches upstream of barrages and inundation of large areas. Tarbela Dam in Pakistan is constructed on the Indus River, while
5180-572: 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
5328-543: 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
5476-673: Is shared, though formal Urdu makes more use of the Persian "-e-" izafat grammatical construct (as in Hammam-e-Qadimi , or Nishan-e-Haider ) than does Hindi. The following table shows the number of Urdu speakers in some countries. Indus River The Indus ( / ˈ ɪ n d ə s / IN -dəs ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans- Himalayan river of South and Central Asia . The 3,180 km (1,980 mi) river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet , flows northwest through
5624-704: 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
5772-485: 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
5920-447: Is the "largest contiguous irrigation system developed over the past 140 years" anywhere in the world. This has reduced the flow of water and by 2018, the average annual flow of water below the Kotri barrage was 33 billion cubic metres (43 × 10 ^ cu yd), and annual amount of silt discharged was estimated at 100 million tonnes (98 × 10 ^ long tons). As a result,
6068-471: 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
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6216-530: The 1819 Rann of Kutch earthquake . The Induan Age at the start of the Triassic Period of geological time is named for the Indus region. Accounts of the Indus valley from the times of Alexander's campaign indicate a healthy forest cover in the region. The Mughal Emperor Babur writes of encountering rhinoceroses along its bank in his memoirs (the Baburnama ). Extensive deforestation and human interference in
6364-433: The 2010 Pakistan floods were considered "good news" for the ecosystem and population of the river delta as they brought much-needed fresh water. Any further utilization of the river basin water is not economically feasible. Vegetation and wildlife of the Indus delta are threatened by the reduced inflow of fresh water, along with extensive deforestation, industrial pollution and global warming . Damming has also isolated
6512-566: 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
6660-645: 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
6808-683: 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
6956-514: 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
7104-458: The Hunza valley . Its extensive pasture lands include Shimshal Pamir, Gujerav, Yazghail and Loopghar. The Lok Versa Museum of Shimshal has antiques, artifacts, musical instruments, and daily life items made from wood, showcasing the history of its local community. Two books by Pam Henson about Shimshal, "Shimshal" and "Women of Shimshal," have been published by the Shimshal Trust. Henson is
7252-517: 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
7400-730: The Iranian Plateau and the Indian subcontinent ; this region embraces all or parts of the Pakistani provinces Balochistan , Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , Punjab and Sindh and the countries Afghanistan and India. The first West Eurasian empire to annex the Indus Valley was the Persian Empire , during the reign of Darius the Great . During his reign, the Greek explorer Scylax of Caryanda was commissioned to explore
7548-647: The Jhelum River to Ropar on the upper Sutlej. The coastal settlements extended from Sutkagan Dor at the Pakistan- Iran border to Kutch in modern Gujarat , India. There is an Indus site on the Amu Darya at Shortughai in northern Afghanistan, and the Indus site Alamgirpur at the Hindon River is located only 28 km (17 mi) from Delhi. As of now, over 1,052 cities and settlements have been found, mainly in
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#17328524024117696-597: 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
7844-666: The Nanga Parbat massif . It flows swiftly across Hazara and is dammed at the Tarbela Reservoir . The Kabul River joins it near Attock . The remainder of its route to the sea is in the plains of the Punjab and Sindh, where the flow of the river becomes slow and highly braided. It is joined by the Panjnad at Mithankot . Beyond this confluence, the river, at one time, was named the Satnad River ( sat = "seven", nadī = "river"), as
7992-428: 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
8140-420: The Taunsa Barrage near Dera Ghazi Khan which also produces 100,000 kilowatts of electricity. The Kotri Barrage near Hyderabad is 915 metres (3,000 ft) long and provides additional water supplies for Karachi. The extensive linking of tributaries with the Indus has helped spread water resources to the valley of Peshawar , in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa . The extensive irrigation and dam projects provide
8288-399: 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),
8436-439: 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
8584-487: The 1909 The Imperial Gazetteer of India gave it as "just over 1,800 miles". A shorter figure of 2,880 km (1,790 mi) has been widely used in modern sources, as has the one of 3,180 km (1,980 mi). The modern Encyclopedia Britannica was originally published in 1999 with the shorter measurement, but was updated in 2015 to use the longer measurement. Both lengths are commonly found in modern publications; in some cases, both measurements can be found within
8732-421: 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
8880-479: 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,
9028-418: 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
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#17328524024119176-578: 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
9324-454: The 50 largest rivers in the world in terms of average annual flow . Its left-bank tributary in Ladakh is the Zanskar River , and its left-bank tributary in the plains is the Panjnad River which is formed by the successive confluences of the five Punjab rivers, namely the Chenab , Jhelum , Ravi , Beas , and Sutlej rivers. Its principal right-bank tributaries are the Shyok , Gilgit , Kabul , Kurram , and Gomal rivers. Beginning in
9472-436: 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
9620-465: 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,
9768-426: 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,
9916-420: 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
10064-428: The Himalayas and entrenched itself while they were rising. The Indus River feeds the Indus submarine fan , which is the second largest sediment body on Earth. It consists of around 5 million cubic kilometres of material eroded from the mountains. Studies of the sediment in the modern river indicate that the Karakoram Mountains in northern Pakistan and India are the single most important source of material, with
10212-422: The Himalayas providing the next largest contribution, mostly via the large rivers of the Punjab (Jhelum, Ravi, Chenab, Beas and Sutlej). Analysis of sediments from the Arabian Sea has demonstrated that before five million years ago the Indus was not connected to these Punjab rivers which instead flowed east into the Ganga and were captured after that time. Earlier work showed that sand and silt from western Tibet
10360-405: 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
10508-413: The Indus River "could very well precipitate World War III." Over the years factories on the banks of the Indus River have increased levels of water pollution in the river and the atmosphere around it. High levels of pollutants in the river have led to the deaths of endangered Indus river dolphin. The Sindh Environmental Protection Agency has ordered polluting factories around the river to shut down under
10656-672: The Indus River and its two tributaries the Jhelum River and the Chenab River independently of upstream control by India. The Indus Basin Project consisted primarily of the construction of two main dams, the Mangla Dam built on the Jhelum River and the Tarbela Dam constructed on the Indus River, together with their subsidiary dams. The Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority undertook
10804-543: The Indus River basin: the Eurasian otter in the northeastern highland sections and the smooth-coated otter elsewhere in the river basin. The smooth-coated otters in the Indus River represent a subspecies found nowhere else, the Sindh otter ( Lutrogale perspicillata sindica ). The Indus River basin has high diversity, being the home of more than 180 freshwater fish species, including 22 which are found nowhere else. Fish also played
10952-643: The Indus River from severely affected northern regions toward western Punjab , where at least 1,400,000 acres (570,000 ha) of cropland was destroyed, and the southern province of Sindh. As of September 2010 , over two thousand people had died and over a million homes had been destroyed since the flooding began. The 2011 Sindh floods began during the Pakistani monsoon season in mid-August 2011, resulting from heavy monsoon rains in Sindh, eastern Balochistan, and southern Punjab. The floods caused considerable damage; an estimated 434 civilians were killed, with 5.3 million people and 1,524,773 homes affected. Sindh
11100-572: The Indus River. It is a subspecies of the South Asian river dolphin . The Indus river dolphin formerly also occurred in the tributaries of the Indus river. According to the World Wildlife Fund it is one of the most threatened cetaceans with only about 1,816 still existing. It is threatened by habitat degradation from the construction of dams and canals, entanglement in fishing gear, and industrial water pollution. There are two otter species in
11248-476: The Indus river. Most scholars believe that settlements of Gandhara grave culture of the early Indo-Aryans flourished in Gandhara from 1700 BC to 600 BC, when Mohenjo-daro and Harappa had already been abandoned. The Rigveda describes several rivers , including one named "Sindhu". The Rigvedic "Sindhu" is thought to be the present-day Indus River. It is attested 176 times in its text, 94 times in
11396-619: The Indus: Guddu Barrage , Sukkur Barrage , Kotri Barrage (also called Ghulam Muhammad barrage), Taunsa Barrage , Chashma Barrage and Jinnah Barrage . Another new barrage called " Sindh Barrage " is planned as a terminal barrage on the Indus River. There are some bridges on River Indus, such as Dadu Moro Bridge, Larkana Khairpur Indus River Bridge, Thatta-Sujawal bridge, Jhirk-Mula Katiar bridge and recently planned Kandhkot-Ghotki bridge. The entire left bank of Indus river in Sind province
11544-621: The Khurdopin glacier pass remains a favorite destination for trekkers. There are almost 250 houses in Shimshal and almost every house uses solar panels to generate electricity . On 14 December 2016, Shimshal connected with the rest of the world through a cellular network of the Special Communications Organization known as SCOM . SCOM provides GSM services in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan , and its GSM service
11692-474: The Odver stream, particularly during the warmer months of the year which typically span from June to October. The absence of electricity for seven months poses a significant challenge for the local community in Shimshal. During this prolonged period, residents have had to resort to various alternatives such as kerosene oil, firewood, solar panels, and compressed natural gas in cylinders to meet their energy needs However,
11840-586: The Pakistan Environmental Protection Act, 1997. Death of the Indus river dolphin has also been attributed to fishermen using poison to kill fish and scooping them up. As a result, the government banned fishing from Guddu Barrage to Sukkur . The Indus is second among a group of ten rivers responsible for about 90% of all the plastic that reaches the oceans. The Yangtze is the only river contributing more plastic. Frequently, Indus River
11988-526: The Passu River before ending in Attabad Lake. The village of Shimshal was founded in 1450 by Mamu Singh, the brother of "Chu Singh". Both were Burushaski peakers and they belonged to the "Brong Family". Mamu Singh was fond of hunting and other mountain sports. One day, in search of ibex, he went to Gojal. During his hunting trip, he fell in love with a beautiful girl who he then married. They started to live in
12136-519: The Rann of Kutch during its floods breaching flood banks . The major cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation , such as Harappa and Mohenjo-daro , date back to around 3300 BC, and represent some of the largest human habitations of the ancient world. The Indus Valley Civilisation extended from across northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India , with an upward reach from east of
12284-658: The River Indus" from Achaemenian Old Persian "hindu," denoting an eastern province of the Achaemenid empire ( Persian language hind India), and Avestan hiṇdu , həṇdu "river," (natural) frontier; with same Proto Indo-Iranian language -root as Sanskrit sindhu (river), specifically the River Indus; hence also the region of the Indus, the province Sindh (which also developed into Hellenistic Greek Σίνθος ("the River Indus"). This river's traditional name in Sanskrit and Tibetan
12432-566: The Ror dynasty of Sauvīra . The Indus River came into the knowledge of the Western world early in the classical period , when King Darius of Persia sent his Greek subject Scylax of Caryanda to explore the river, c. 515 BC . Etymologically, English language word "Indus" comes from Late Latin Indus (1598), specifically a use of classical Latin Indus (inhabitant of India, Indian) from ancient Greek Ἰνδός "inhabitant of India, Indian,
12580-445: 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
12728-407: 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
12876-406: The area of Boiber. Once, he climbed up to the summit of Karun Kuh which provided him a chance to view the entire region and to see the grazing ground of Lup Goz, which they traveled to with a flock of sheep and goats. Later, he climbed on the high ground running east, and saw the vast area of "Shimshal Valley" (Shingshal). He noticed that there were signs of existence of a water channel. He came to
13024-495: The area. The Pakistan Army came to Shimshal in the late 1960s and was posted in Pamir because of border disputes with China. Many Shimshalis worked as porters for the army. Today, many Shimshalis work as porters for trekking and mountaineering groups and expeditions. Shimshal Pass (4,735 m [15,535 ft]) 36°26′0″N 75°41′15″E / 36.43333°N 75.68750°E / 36.43333; 75.68750 rises above
13172-561: The basis for Pakistan's large production of crops such as cotton, sugarcane and wheat. The dams also generate electricity for heavy industries and urban centres. The Indus River is sacred to Hindus. The Sindhu Darshan Festival is held on every Guru Purnima on the banks of the Indus. The ethnicities of the Indus Valley (Pakistan and Northwest India) have a greater amount of ANI (or West Eurasian) admixture than other South Asians, including inputs from Western Steppe Herders , with evidence of more sustained and multi-layered migrations from
13320-1450: The catfish Glyptosternon reticulatum . Going downstream these are soon joined by the golden mahseer Tor putitora (alternatively T. macrolepis , although it often is regarded as a synonym of T. putitora ) and Schistura loaches. Downriver from around Thakot , Tarbela , the Kabul –Indus river confluence, Attock Khurd and Peshawar the diversity rises strongly, including many cyprinids ( Amblypharyngodon , Aspidoparia , Barilius , Chela , Cirrhinus , Crossocheilus , Cyprinion , Danio , Devario , Esomus , Garra , Labeo , Naziritor , Osteobrama , Pethia , Puntius , Rasbora , Salmophasia , Securicula and Systomus ), true loaches ( Botia and Lepidocephalus ), stone loaches ( Acanthocobitis and Nemacheilus ), ailiid catfish ( Clupisoma ), bagridae catfish ( Batasio , Mystus , Rita and Sperata ), airsac catfish ( Heteropneustes ), schilbid catfish ( Eutropiichthys ), silurid catfish ( Ompok and Wallago ), sisorid catfish ( Bagarius , Gagata , Glyptothorax and Sisor ), gouramis ( Trichogaster ), nandid leaffish ( Nandus ), snakeheads ( Channa ), spiny eel ( Macrognathus and Mastacembelus ), knifefish ( Notopterus ), glassfish ( Chanda and Parambassis ), clupeids ( Gudusia ), needlefish ( Xenentodon ) and gobies ( Glossogobius ), as well as
13468-425: The conclusion that this flat barren land had been cultivated some time in the past. Thus, Mamu Singh decided to cultivate the abandoned land. He repaired the broken water channel and got water running through it for irrigation. After cultivations in the new settlement Mamu Singh decided to relocate from Astan to Shimshal along with his wife and herds.. They had a son who went on to produce further descendants, populating
13616-422: The construction of one of the most complex irrigation networks in the world. The Guddu Barrage is 1,350 m (4,430 ft) long – irrigating Sukkur , Jacobabad , Larkana and Kalat . The Sukkur Barrage serves over 20,000 km (7,700 sq mi). After Pakistan came into existence, a water control treaty signed between India and Pakistan in 1960 guaranteed that Pakistan would receive water from
13764-571: The construction of the Chashma-Jhelum link canal – linking the waters of the Indus and Jhelum rivers – extending water supplies to the regions of Bahawalpur and Multan . Pakistan constructed the Tarbela Dam near Rawalpindi – standing 2,743 metres (9,000 ft) long and 143 metres (470 ft) high, with an 80-kilometre (50 mi) long reservoir. It supports the Chashma Barrage near Dera Ismail Khan for irrigation use and flood control and
13912-557: The course of the Indus. It was crossed by the invading armies of Alexander . Still, after his Macedonians conquered the west bank—joining it to the Hellenic world, they elected to retreat along the southern course of the river, ending Alexander's Asian campaign. Alexander's admiral Nearchus set out from the Indus Delta to explore the Persian Gulf , until reaching the Tigris . The Indus Valley
14060-583: 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
14208-459: The delta population of Indus River dolphins from those further upstream. Large-scale diversion of the river's water for irrigation has raised far-reaching issues. Sediment clogging from poor maintenance of canals has affected agricultural production and vegetation on numerous occasions. Irrigation itself is increasing soil salinization, reducing crop yields and in some cases rendering farmland useless for cultivation. The Tibetan Plateau contains
14356-454: The disputed region of Kashmir , bends sharply to the left after the Nanga Parbat massif , and flows south-by-southwest through Pakistan , before emptying into the Arabian Sea near the port city of Karachi . The river has a total drainage area of circa 1,120,000 km (430,000 sq mi). Its estimated annual flow is around 175 km /a (5,500 m /s), making it one of
14504-415: 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
14652-455: The ecology of the Shivalik Hills has led to a marked deterioration in vegetation and growing conditions. The Indus valley regions are arid with poor vegetation. Agriculture is sustained largely due to irrigation works. The Indus river and its watershed have a rich biodiversity. It is home to around 25 amphibian species. The Indus river dolphin ( Platanista indicus minor ) is found only in
14800-414: 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
14948-420: The first woman climber from Pakistan to scale Mt. Everest and all highest peaks in seven continents around the globe. Rajab Shah has the honor of scaling all five highest peaks in Pakistan. Both Rajab Shah and Mehrban Shah have received a Presidential Award for Pride of Performance in the field of mountaineering. Some people call Shimshal The Valley of Mountaineers in Pakistan. Shimshal is the largest village of
15096-477: The five rivers are Jhelum , Chenab , Ravi , Beas and Sutlej , all of which finally flow into the Indus. The Indus also supports many heavy industries and provides the main supply of potable water in Pakistan. The total length of the river varies in different sources. The length used in this article is 3,180 km (1,980 mi), taken from the Himalayan Climate and Water Atlas (2015). Historically,
15244-517: The flows of the Indus could be severely, severely affected by glacier melt as a consequence of climate change ," and reduced by perhaps as much as 50 per cent. "Now what does that mean to a population that lives in a desert [where], without the river, there would be no life? I don't know the answer to that question," he says. "But we need to be concerned about that. Deeply, deeply concerned." U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke said, shortly before he died in 2010, that he believed that falling water levels in
15392-501: The former group is absent and the latter are rare. Many of the species of the middle sections of the Indus basin are also present in the lower. Notable examples of genera that are present in the lower plain but generally not elsewhere in the Indus River basin are the Aphanius pupfish, Aplocheilus killifish, palla fish ( Tenualosa ilisha ), catla ( Labeo catla ), rohu ( Labeo rohita ) and Cirrhinus mrigala . The lowermost part of
15540-482: The general region of the Ghaggar-Hakra River and its tributaries. Among the settlements were the major urban centres of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, as well as Lothal , Dholavira , Ganeriwala , and Rakhigarhi . Only 40 Indus Valley sites have been discovered on the Indus and its tributaries. However, it is notable that majority of the Indus script seals and inscribed objects discovered were found at sites along
15688-518: 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
15836-473: 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
15984-541: 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
16132-458: 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
16280-570: 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
16428-883: 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
16576-779: 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,
16724-466: 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
16872-404: 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
17020-451: 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
17168-403: 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
17316-564: 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),
17464-461: 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
17612-517: 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
17760-438: 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
17908-501: The plural, and most often used in the generic sense of "river". In the Rigveda, notably in the later hymns, the meaning of the word is narrowed to refer to the Indus river in particular; for example, in the list of rivers mentioned in the hymn of Nadistuti sukta . The Rigvedic hymns apply a feminine gender to all the rivers mentioned therein, except for the Brahmaputra . The word "India"
18056-511: 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
18204-476: 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
18352-550: The region. The 3rd millennium BC saw the rise of Indus Valley Civilisation , a major urban civilization of the Bronze Age. During the 2nd millennium BC, the Punjab region was mentioned in the Rigveda hymns as Sapta Sindhu and in the Avesta religious texts as Hapta Həndu (both terms meaning " seven rivers "). Early historical kingdoms that arose in the Indus Valley include Gandhāra , and
18500-461: The river Senge Tsangpo (སེང་གེ་གཙང་པོ།), Baltis call it Gemtsuh and Tsuh-Fo , Pashtuns call it Nilab , Sher Darya and Abbasin , while Sindhis call it Sindhu , Mehran , Purali and Samundar . The Indus River provides key water resources for Pakistan's economy – especially the breadbasket of Punjab province , which accounts for most of the nation's agricultural production, and Sindh. The word Punjab means "land of five rivers" and
18648-412: The river and its delta are home to freshwater fish, but also several brackish and marine species. This includes pomfret and prawns . The large delta has been recognized by conservationists as an important ecological region. Here, the river turns into many marshes, streams and creeks and meets the sea at shallow levels. Palla fish ( Tenualosa ilisha ) of the river is a delicacy for people living along
18796-453: The river is also determined by the seasons – it diminishes greatly in the winter while flooding its banks in the monsoon months from July to September. There is also evidence of a steady shift in the course of the river since prehistoric times – it deviated westwards from flowing into the Rann of Kutch and adjoining Banni grasslands after the 1816 earthquake. As of 2011 , Indus water flows in to
18944-559: The river is the Sênggê Kanbab ( Sênggê Zangbo ) or "Lion's Mouth", a perennial spring not far from the sacred Mount Kailash , marked by a long low line of Tibetan chortens . There are several other tributaries nearby, which may form a longer stream than Sênggê Kanbab, but unlike the Sênggê Kanbab, are all dependent on snowmelt . The Zanskar River , which flows into the Indus in Ladakh, has
19092-663: The river now carried the waters of the Kabul River, the Indus River and the five Punjab rivers. Passing by Jamshoro , it ends in a large delta to the South of Thatta in the Sindh province of Pakistan. The Indus is one of the few rivers in the world to exhibit a tidal bore . The Indus system is largely fed by the snow and glaciers of the Himalayas , Karakoram and the Hindu Kush ranges. The flow of
19240-436: The river. The population of fish in the river is moderately high, with Sukkur , Thatta , and Kotri being the major fishing centres – all in the lower Sindh course. As a result, damming and irrigation have made fish farming an important economic activity. The Indus is the most important supplier of water resources to the Punjab and Sindh plains – it forms the backbone of agriculture and food production in Pakistan. The river
19388-636: 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
19536-475: The same work. An extended figure of circa 3,600 km (2,200 mi) was announced by a Chinese research group in 2011, based on a comprehensive remeasurement from satellite imagery, and a ground expedition to identify an alternative source point, but detailed analysis has not yet been published. The ultimate source of the Indus is in Tibet , but there is some debate about the exact source. The traditional source of
19684-583: 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
19832-549: The surface. In November 2011, satellite images showed that the Indus river had re-entered India and was feeding the Great Rann of Kutch , Little Rann of Kutch and a lake near Ahmedabad known as Nal Sarovar . Heavy rains had left the river basin along with the Lake Manchar , Lake Hemal and Kalri Lake (all in modern-day Pakistan) inundated. This happened two centuries after the Indus river shifted its course westwards following
19980-524: 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
20128-425: 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
20276-525: The two points previously used. The Indus then flows northwest through Ladakh (Indian-administered Kashmir) and Baltistan and Gilgit (Pakistan-administered Kashmir), just south of the Karakoram range. The Shyok , Shigar and Gilgit rivers carry glacial waters into the main river. It gradually bends to the south and descends into the Punjab plains at Kalabagh , Pakistan. The Indus passes gigantic gorges 4,500–5,200 metres (15,000–17,000 ft) deep near
20424-620: The valley is the Shimshal River, a tributary that feeds into the Hunza River . Shimshal itself is a border village, serving as a linkage point between Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan region and China . The total area of Shimshal is estimated at approximately 3,800 km (1,500 sq mi) and there are around two thousand inhabitants with a total of 250 households. Shimshal comprises four major hamlets: Farmanabad, Aminabad, Center Shimshal, and Khizarabad. Shimshal obtains hydroelectricity from
20572-496: The village, to sustain herds of yaks , goats, and sheep. The area was founded by Mamo Singh and his wife named Khudija. The people of Shimshal are Wakhi and they speak the Wakhi language . They belong to the Ismaili sect of Shia Islam . The community follows Aga Khan , a spiritual leader. Shimshal has produced several well-known mountaineers for Pakistan. Among those, Samina Baig is
20720-527: The village. It lies on the watershed between the Indus River and Tarim River basins, and leads to the valley of the Shimshal Braldu River, a tributary of the Shaksgam River on the border with China. Francis Younghusband was probably the first Englishman to reach the pass (1889). At the time it was used by raiders from Hunza to attack caravans traveling between Leh and Yarkand . The pass
20868-472: The west. Originally, the delta used to receive almost all of the water from the Indus River, which has an annual flow of approximately 180 billion cubic metres (240 × 10 ^ cu yd), and is accompanied by 400 million tonnes (390 × 10 ^ long tons) of silt. Since the 1940s, dams, barrages and irrigation works have been constructed on the river. The Indus Basin Irrigation System
21016-455: 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
21164-635: The world's third-largest store of ice. Qin Dahe, the former head of the China Meteorological Administration, said the recent fast pace of melting and warmer temperatures will be good for agriculture and tourism in the short term, but issued a strong warning: Temperatures are rising four times faster than elsewhere in China, and the Tibetan glaciers are retreating at a higher speed than in any other part of
21312-513: The world... In the short term, this will cause lakes to expand and bring floods and mudflows... In the long run, the glaciers are vital lifelines of the Indus River. Once they vanish, water supplies in Pakistan will be in peril. "There is insufficient data to say what will happen to the Indus," says David Grey, the World Bank's senior water advisor in South Asia. "But we all have very nasty fears that
21460-591: 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
21608-503: Was later dominated by the Mauryan and Kushan Empires , Indo-Greek Kingdoms , Indo-Scythians and Hepthalites . Over several centuries Muslim armies of Muhammad ibn al-Qasim , Mahmud of Ghazni , Muhammad of Ghor , Timur and Babur crossed the river to invade Sindh and Punjab , providing a gateway to the Indian subcontinent. Indus is an antecedent river , meaning that it existed before
21756-604: Was reaching the Arabian Sea by 45 million years ago, implying the existence of an ancient Indus River by that time. The delta of this proto-Indus river has subsequently been found in the Katawaz Basin , on the Afghan-Pakistan border . In the Nanga Parbat region, the massive amounts of erosion due to the Indus river following the capture and rerouting through that area are thought to bring middle and lower crustal rocks to
21904-452: 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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