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
The Deccanis ( ur, ) or Deccani People are an ethnoreligious community of Urdu-speaking Muslims who inhabit, or trace their ancestry from, the Deccan region of Southern and Central India, and speak the Deccani dialect. The community traces its ...
of the
Deccan plateau in south-central India (who speak
Deccani Urdu
Deccani (also known as Deccani Urdu and Deccani Hindi). https://knowledgehubadda.blogspot.com/2022/02/blog-post_74.html? m=1 or Dakni, Dakhni, Dakhini, Dakkhani and Dakkani (, ''dekanī'' or , ''dakhanī''), is a variety of Hindustani spoken ...
) and the
Muhajir people of
Pakistan.
The historical centres of Urdu speakers include
Delhi and
Lucknow, as well as the
Deccan, and more recently,
Karachi.
Another defunct variety of the language was historically spoken in
Lahore but 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.
Although 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
India, where it is one of
22 official languages.
The Urdu-speaking community is also present in other parts of
the subcontinent with a
historical Muslim presence, such as the
Biharis and
Dhakaiyas
The Old Dhakaites ( bn, পুরান ঢাকাইয়া, Puran Dhakaiya) are an Indo-Aryan ethnocultural group viewed as the ''original'' inhabitants of Dhaka. They are sometimes referred to as simply Dhakaiya. Their history dates bac ...
(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
Burmese Indians are a group of people of Indian origin who live in Myanmar (Burma). The term 'Burmese Indian' refers to a broad range of people from South Asia, most notably from present-day countries such as India, Bangladesh and also Pakis ...
.
In addition, there are Urdu-speakers present amongst the South Asian diaspora, most notably in the
Middle East,
North America (notably the United States and Canada),
Europe (notably the United Kingdom),
the
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
region,
Africa (notably
South Africa and
Mauritius),
Southeast Asia (notably
Singapore)
and Oceania (notably
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and
Fiji
Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...
).
Other communities, most notably the
Punjabi elite of Pakistan, have adopted Urdu as a
mother tongue
A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...
and identify with both an Urdu speaker as well as
Punjabi
Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan
* Punjabi language
* Punjabi people
* Punjabi dialects and languages
Punjabi may also refer to:
* Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...
identity.
History
Before the origin of the word "Urdu", Europeans used the label
"Moors dialect", which simply meant "Muslim", to describe the language associated with the Muslims in North India, such as John Ovington, who visited India during the reign of
Aurangzeb
Muhi al-Din Muhammad (; – 3 March 1707), commonly known as ( fa, , lit=Ornament of the Throne) and by his regnal title Alamgir ( fa, , translit=ʿĀlamgīr, lit=Conqueror of the World), was the sixth emperor of the Mughal Empire, ruling ...
in 1689:
The language of 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.
In the 19th 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 the
Aligarh Movement and the
Deoband Movement.
See also
*
Urdu speakers by country
*
States of India by Urdu speakers
Notes
References
External links
*
*
{{Muhajir communities
Muhajir communities
Ethnic groups in Pakistan
Linguistic groups of the constitutionally recognised official languages of India