Where In India Do They Speak Urdu

In India, although Urdu is not and never was used exclusively by Muslims , the ongoing Hindi–Urdu controversy and modern cultural association of each language with the two religions has led to fewer Hindus using Urdu. In part because the Pakistani government proclaimed Urdu the national language at Partition, the Indian state and some religious nationalists began 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 the Devanagari and Latin script 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. Most south Indian Muslims have their own languages, kannada tamil malayalam for example.

Muslims near Darjeeling speak nepali but also might know urdu. Muslims in bihar might speak their regional dialect and hindi along with urdu words. Muslims in North India do speak a lot of urdu but i think it would be safe to say that most youngsters speak a mixture of urdu hindi hinglish. Because of the hindi education in schools and Bollywood I suppose. A lot of people across the country do speak urdu perfectly and read and write in it though. In many urban cities i find umpteen Muslim youngsters did learn a little when they read quran as kids but they're unable to read the Urdu script now and vocabulary is very less but there's always a desire to learn (I'm trying to improve my vocab).

Quite a few people in Punjab whether they might be sikh hindu or muslim can read the script perfectly though. Hindi and Urdu are generally considered to be one spoken language with two different literary traditions. That means that Hindi and Urdu speakers who shop in the same markets have no problems understanding each other -- they'd both say yeh kitne kaa hay for 'How much is it?

And the Urdu one will be یہ کتنے کا ہے؟ Hindi is written from left to right in the Devanagari script, and is the official language of India, along with English. Urdu, on the other hand, is written from right to left in the Nastaliq script and is the national language of Pakistan. It's also one of the official languages of the Indian states of Bihar and Jammu & Kashmir. Considered as one, these tongues constitute the second most spoken language in the world, sometimes called Hindustani. In their daily lives, Hindi and Urdu speakers communicate in their 'different' languages without major problems.

Both Hindi and Urdu developed from Classical Sanskrit, which appeared in the Indus Valley at about the start of the Common Era. The first old Hindi poetry was written in the year 769 AD, and by the European Middle Ages it became known as 'Hindvi'. Muslim Turks invaded the Punjab in 1027 and took control of Delhi in 1193. They paved the way for the Islamic Mughal Empire, which ruled northern India from the 16th century until it was defeated by the British Raj in the mid-19th century. It was at this time that the language of this book began to take form, a mixture of Hindvi grammar with Arabic, Persian and Turkish vocabulary. The Muslim speakers of Hindvi began to write in the Arabic script, creating Urdu, while the Hindu population incorporated the new words but continued to write in Devanagari script.

Urdu, which was often referred to by the British administrators in India as the Hindustani language, was promoted in colonial India by British policies to counter the previous emphasis on Persian. Urdu replaced Persian as the official language of India in 1837 and was made co-official, along with English. Indeed, in most parts of India, Urdu is not a market-linked language and an Urdu-medium education is not sufficient to interact with the government, hold government employment, or participate in India's cultural mainstream . Instead, Hindi, the other standard dialect of Hindustani, is taught widely across the region and the nation and an official language nationwide.

The promotion of Hindi learning has happened at the expense of teaching Urdu, once the elite language of the country. This promotion of Hindi over Urdu is the central government's answer to a much larger question regarding which language should be India's national language. In the Delhi region of India the native language was Khariboli, whose earliest form is known as Old Hindi . It belongs to the Western Hindi group of the Central Indo-Aryan languages. The contact of the Hindu and Muslim cultures during the period of Islamic conquests and in the Indian subcontinent led to the development of Hindustani as a product of a composite Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb. In cities such as Delhi, the Indian language Old Hindi began to acquire many Persian loanwords and continued to be called "Hindi" and later, also "Hindustani".

In southern India , a form of the language flourished in medieval India and is known as Dakhini, which contains loanwords from Telugu and Marathi. An early literary tradition of Hindavi was founded by Amir Khusrau in the late 13th century. From the 13th century until the end of the 18th century the language now known as Urdu was called Hindi, Hindavi, Hindustani, Dehlavi, Lahori, and Lashkari.

The Turko-Afghan Delhi Sultanate established Persian as its official language in India, 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. 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 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. Try reading some poetry from Faiz Ahmad Faiz and Ahmad Faraz .

Indians mix alot of hindhi words with urdu which I get but then to say that they speak urdu is not accurate. And the place where urdu is spoken in india is not a majority either. So majority of your people if they even know urdu speak with an accent. Like most of the indian people who answer questions in the urdu section. My point of saying that is that youre saying that Punjabis have an accent but indians pronounce so many things wrong.

Punjabis have to study Urdu and urdu poetry just like everyone else and they do not have an accent when they speak urdu. Something you do not have in India unless you speacialize in it. The Punjabis in the villages who speak urdu are like Scottish people who speak English.That is not the correct accent of urdu. Im sure the part of India whose native language is urdu speak it perfectly. Because the MAJORITY since others aparently dont count speak with an accent and their own words.

Hope my city with 21.2 million people exists for you since its not panjabi. Some who are from a non-Urdu background now can read and write only Urdu. With such a large number of people speaking Urdu, the language has acquired a peculiar Pakistani flavour further distinguishing it from the Urdu spoken by native speakers, resulting in more diversity within the language.

In Karnataka, there are a number of demographic concentration of muslims. The northern core deccan region of Gulbarga-Bidar is one of them, and another is the the southern stretch of the coast, Mangalore up to the town of Bhatkal. The core deccan region has a very old tradition of Persian Islamicate political and cultural influence. The vernacular Kannada spoken there is saturated with Persian words, not to the extent of Hindustani, but unlike what one would expect in south India. This is the region of the Bahamani sultanate, Adil shahis, and Barid shahi dynasties and the sufi saint Bande Nawaz. In contrast, the coastal region is remarkably distinct ethnographically, irrespective of religious identity.

Unlike the deccan plateau, Urdu was completely alien to this region until recently. Near Mangalore, many Muslims speak a language called Beary which is influenced by Malayalam, Tulu and Arabic. In Bhatkal it is a language called Navayati, which uses the Nastaliq script and is a creole of sorts between Konkani and Arabic.

Certain Navayatis I know have told me they are the descendants of Yemeni/Iraqi merchants and the local Jains. The Delhi Sultanate had made Persian as their official language, and this continued even during the Mughal Empire. Amir Khusrau in the 13th century was a famous scholar who wrote his renditions and poems in Hindavi. Though the language was the written and spoken language of the region, it was only at the end of Aurangzeb's rule in the 18th century that it began to be called Zaban-e-Urdu. Before that, the language was known by its many names, including Hindi, Hindavi, Dehlavi, etc., and it was the language of all irrespective of them being Hindus or Muslims. It flourished in the elite and courtly surroundings retaining its core vocabulary from the Indo-Aryan language base akin to the local Khariboli but its writing or script was adopted in the Persian style of calligraphy.

In 1973, Urdu was recognised as the sole national language of Pakistan – although English and regional languages were also granted official recognition. To the extent sanskrit forms the basis of most north indian languages, I agree that it is a common cultural heritage. But I do not want to debate whether sanskrit can be regarded the common heritage of all indians in a social-cultural-religious sense. So much so that Manpreet Singh Badal , who speaks a very Urduized version of Punjabi was ridiculed for his vocabulary by some people and the poor guy is trying to explain to them that this is my language! Urdu or Hindi are anyway not the languages of choice for the elite, it is English.

The Urdu-Muslim relation has become so strong that in central Maharashtra (who have nothing to do with Urdu!), Muslim children go to Urdu schools! But people find this logical, but I as a first generation Punjabi am not supposed to be an Urdu speaker! I wear a Salwar Kameez and speak Urdu (remember Javed Akhtar's point about language and clothing), my friends ask me if I have embraced Islam! But half the women of this country wear Salwar Kameez and that is logical!

The Punjabis, Sindhis and Kashmiris have paid a very high price as a result of this political mariginalization. Sindhi language is also written in the Nastaliq script , but because the Sindhi kids today in Bombay never studied Urdu, they cannot even read Sindhi! The same is the case with Punjabi; thank the Sikhs for inventing the Gurmukhi script, because even Punjabi was written in the Shahmukhi script.

Urdu is the sole national, and one of the two official languages of Pakistan . It is spoken and understood throughout the country, whereas the state-by-state languages 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 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 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.

No region in Pakistan uses Urdu as its mother tongue, though it is spoken as the first language of Muslim migrants in Pakistan who left India after independence in 1947. 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, although the people from differing provinces may have different native languages. Urdu is a Hindustani language with its roots in Sanskrit and Prakrit.

In the medieval era due to the influence of Persian speaking rulers, many Persian and few Arabic words were added into its vocabulary. However, the fact remains intact that Urdu was born and flourished in Hindustan/India and is definitely not a language of foreign origin. Urdu is widely spoken in India accounting to almost 5 to 6.5% of the total population of India. Moreover, it also happens to be one of the 22 official languages of India. The language was romanticised by various 'shayars' who eloquently used Urdu to put forth their thoughts and feelings.

The principal forms of Urdu poetry like 'Ghazal, Nazm, Qasida' were popularised by the 'shayars' who were patronised by the Mughal rulers and the Nawabs. Even after the downfall of its rich patrons, Urdu poetry continued to flourish amongst the common masses and interestingly reached its pinnacle under the British Rule. The history and origins of any language will have complicated and lateral developments. It is difficult for any language to have a linear and time lined progression. Similarly, the evolution or origin of Urdu has multiple theories surrounding its existence and growth.

However, being itself is an essence of what true integration of cultures might mean. Hindustani was the language whose grammar and syntax was 'Hindi' and whose script was 'Urdu'. It was this language that was spoken, written and expounded by the great minds of its time, including Amir Khusrau. The Hindustani or Hindavi language is what later was referred to as Urdu, but it was laden heavily with vocabulary from both Sanskrit and Persian.

Many linguists count both Hindi and Urdu as the same language because of their grammar and vocabulary similarities. Many others cite it as a socio-political reason for reading and counting them as two separate languages. Hence Urdu emerges perhaps as a wonderful amalgamation of cultures that decided to flourish by taking the best of each other. And in the course, creating a linguistic and literary treasure that finds keepers till date.

It is the national language in Pakistan and one of the official languages of India. Spoken by an estimated 165 million people around the world – It has more native speakers in India than in Pakistan. Finally, I agree with Ibn-e-Farid and Farouqui that self-help is best, that the Urduwallas will have to take the initiative and find the needed resources themselves. Self-pity and putting blame on others will not get them far.

If Muslims can teach their children to vocalise the Qur'an, they can also simultaneously teach them to read Urdu. Where they have to fight against the prejudice of the authorities is in the area of primary education, which should be available to every child in his or her mother tongue. That, unfortunately, has not been the case -- particularly in the so-called Hindi belt. There, even the facilities available in 1947 were deliberately destroyed by the official proponents of Hindi. The criminal damage they caused has not been corrected yet./4/ According to R. That is the only way they can successfully compete with their peers in these radically changing times.

It is most heartening to note that the efforts of people like Hakim Abdul Hamid and Mr. A. R. Sherwani are directed in that direction and indeed bearing fruit. When it comes down to discussing the languages most commonly spoken in India, English is one of them. With a population of 2,59,678 speakers, the English language is also one of the official languages of India's federal government. It is the official language in some Indian states such as Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. I never said Urdu is the common heritage of all Indians; it absolutely isn't.

However, there are large swathes of India where Urdu, or rather Hindustani is spoken as lingua franca. The large majority of Hindus don't feel any attachment for Urdu because too large a majority of Muslims feel too much of an attachment. Certainly, it has been promoted by several Muslims in literary circles, but IMO, that has had a negative impact on the post-partition destiny of Urdu.

When Owaisi speaks Urdu in the parliament, he is ensuring its death. As far as scripts are concerned, you can very well use any script you choose. Devnagiri is a far superior and better equipped script to deal with Indo-Persian languages, including Farsi. When Hindustani can be effortlessly written in Devnagiri, so can any other language. More over, Nastaliq carries it with the Arabic stigma for millions of Hindus who refuse to learn their own language because of the script that is used.

It was always 'fused with Hindi', so there is nothing wrong with it. Only Muslim supremacists take offence to it fusing with a older and superior language. Half of English is Latin though it is Germanic in its origin. Roman script is the future as far as educated youth in India are concerned, and a standardized approach will ensure that all Indian languages are used daily.