Editing Urdu (section)

=== Colonial period ===
Before the standardisation of Urdu into colonial administration, British officers often referred to the language as "[[Muslims|Moors]]" or "Moorish jargon". [[John Gilchrist (linguist)|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)''.<ref>{{cite book |title= Genealogies of Orientalism: History, Theory, Politics |publisher= Nebraska Paperback |date= July 2008 |author= David Prochaska, Edmund Burke III }}</ref>

Urdu was promoted in colonial India by British policies to counter the previous emphasis on Persian, and the language also gained official status in colonial India because it was the language of the Muslim elite (such as [[Nawab]]s and [[Zamindar]]s).<ref>{{cite journal|last=Rahman|first=Tariq|author-link=Tariq Rahman|year=2000|title=The Teaching of Urdu in British India|url=http://www.urdustudies.com/pdf/15/06rahmant.pdf|url-status=live|journal=The Annual of Urdu Studies|volume=15|page=55|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141021011359/http://www.urdustudies.com/pdf/15/06rahmant.pdf|archive-date=21 October 2014}}</ref> In colonial India, ordinary Muslims and Hindus alike spoke the same language in the [[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|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 Bhasha|Braj]] or [[Awadhi language|Awadhi]].<ref>{{cite book |last=T. Grahame |first=Bailey |title=History of Urdu Literature |publisher=|isbn=978-0195475180 |language=en}}</ref> Elites from Muslim communities, as well as a minority of Hindu elites, such as [[Munshi]]s of Hindu origin,<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=0iY__P2Y5dQC&dq=hindu+munshis+urdu&pg=PA342 |title= The Hindustan Review: Volume 23 |date= 1911 |author= Sachchidananda Sinha |publisher=  University of Wisconsin- Madison |page= 243}}</ref> wrote 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.<ref name="DelacyAhmed2005"/><ref name="mcgregor_9122">{{citation|last=McGregor|first=Stuart|title=Literary cultures in history: reconstructions from South Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xowUxYhv0QgC&q=0520228219&pg=RA1-PA912|page=912|year=2003|publisher=University of California Press |contribution=The Progress of Hindi, Part 1|isbn=978-0-520-22821-4}} in Pollock (2003)</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bilal |first=Maaz Bin |date=5 November 2021 |title=Till the late 19th century, people were hardly aware of Urdu and Hindi as being two distinct languages |language=en |work=[[The Hindu]] |url=https://www.thehindu.com/society/hindustani-we-spoke-how-urdu-and-hindi-evolved-from-a-common-language/article37337191.ece |access-date=19 December 2022 |issn=0971-751X}}</ref> Urdu and English replaced [[Persian language in South Asia|Persian]] as the official languages in northern parts of India in 1837.<ref name="Ali-1989">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wvUUjCRAUT0C&pg=PA33|title=The Right Hon'ble Syed Ameer Ali: Political Writings|last=Ali|first=Syed Ameer|date=1989|publisher=APH Publishing|isbn=978-81-7024-247-5|pages=33|language=en}}</ref> 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,<ref name="Clyne-2012">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ieMgAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA385|title=Pluricentric Languages: Differing Norms in Different Nations|last=Clyne|first=Michael|date=24 May 2012|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-088814-0|language=en}}</ref> which triggered a backlash against the use of Hindi written in Devanagari by the Anjuman-e-Islamia of Lahore.<ref name="Clyne-2012" />

Advocacy for a standardized Hindi, based on Khari Boli, which would have equal official recognition did not begin until the 1860s,<ref name=mody-modern-hindi->{{cite book|last = Mody|first = Sujata S. |title=The Making of Modern Hindi: Literary Authority in Colonial North India|location=New Delhi|publisher=Oxford University Press| year = 2018| isbn=978-0-19-948909-1|pages=2&ndash;3|quote=From the mid-1860s onwards, advocates for Khari Boli Hindi, current in and around Delhi and written in the Devanagari script, had vied for equal recognition with the officially recognized Urdu.}}</ref> Proponents of Hindi over Urdu as an authorized language also had to take into account the existence of numerous provincial languages such as Awadhi, Braj Bhasha, Bhojpuri, Bundeli, and Maithili, which were considered a part of older Hindi, but which would problematize dialogues for an official, modern standard Hindi.<ref name=mody-modern-hindi-2>{{cite book|last = Mody|first = Sujata S. |title=The Making of Modern Hindi: Literary Authority in Colonian North India|location=New Delhi|publisher=Oxford University Press| year = 2018| isbn=978-0-19-948909-1|pages=2&ndash;3|quote= Advocates of Hindi over Urdu as official language had also to contend internally with multiple regional languages such as Awadhi, Braj Bhasha, Bhojpuri, Bundeli, and Maithili, among others, all included within the rubric of a premodern Hindi, but which would complicate discussions of an official, modern standard Hindi.}}</ref> [[Modern Standard Hindi]] did not emerge before the 20th century.<ref name=cort-urdu-msh1>{{cite book|last=Cort|first=John E.|author-link=John E. Cort|chapter = When Is the 'Early Modern'?: North Indian Digambar Jain Literary Culture|pages=15&ndash;62; 24, 28|title=Literary Cultures in Early Modern North India: Current Research|editor1-last=Bangha|editor1-first=Imre|editor2-last=Stasik|editor2-first=Danuta|location=Oxford and New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2024|isbn=978-0-19-288934-8|quote=(page 24) I start by contrasting two Digambar Jain authors at the early-modern/modern transition: Parasdas Nigotya (fl. 1838&ndash;74, d. 1879) of Jaipur and Nathuram Premi (1881&ndash;1960) of Bombay ... (page=28) Premi started out writing in Brajbhasa; but that he also wrote verse in Urdu indicates that he located himself in a linguistically wider and more cosmopolitan literary milieu.  Premi soon abandoned the older languages and committed himself to writing and propagating Khari Boli Hindi, which in his lifetime became Modern Standard Hindi.}}</ref><ref name=cort-urdu-msh2>{{cite book|last=Cort|first=John E.|author-link=John E. Cort|chapter = When Is the 'Early Modern'?: North Indian Digambar Jain Literary Culture|pages=15&ndash;62; 24, 50|title=Literary Cultures in Early Modern North India: Current Research|editor1-last=Bangha|editor1-first=Imre|editor2-last=Stasik|editor2-first=Danuta|location=Oxford and New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2024|isbn=978-0-19-288934-8|quote=(page 24) I start by contrasting two Digambar Jain authors at the early-modern/modern transition: Parasdas Nigotya (fl. 1838&ndash;74, d. 1879) of Jaipur and Nathuram Premi (1881&ndash;1960) of Bombay ... (page 50) Parasdas reminds us that language use in early modern north India involved complex interactions between more localized written, spoken, and sung language usage and transregional usage of languages such as Sanskrit, Prakrit, Apabhramsha, Maru-Gurjar, Brajbhasa, and Urdu.  Premi's pronounced break with both Brajbhasa and Urdu in favour of the newly developing trensgressional prestige language of Modern Standard Hindi involved a conscious choice of language}}</ref> The recognition of the Hindi script as an official script of courts in North India in 1900 was a key juncture in the evolution of Hindi-based language nationalism.<ref name=mani-hindi-dwivedi-standardization-1>{{cite book|last=Mani|first=Preetha|title=The Idea of Indian Literature: Gender, Genre, and Comparative Method|location=Evanston|publisher=Northwestern University Press|year=2022|isbn=9780810145016|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l-FuEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT25|quote=In the North, the recogniton in 1900 of Devanagari alongside Nastaliq as an official script of the court constituted a pivotal moment in the development of Hindi nationalism.}}</ref> Hindi, which was still not altogether standardized by the 1910s,<ref name=mani-hindi-dwivedi-standardization-2>{{cite book|last=Mani|first=Preetha|title=The Idea of Indian Literature: Gender, Genre, and Comparative Method|location=Evanston|publisher=Northwestern University Press|year=2022|isbn=9780810145016|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l-FuEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT25|quote= Yet, no sense of Hindi as a standardized language distinct from Urdu existed even in the 1910s.}}</ref> and which had hitherto been considered an unrefined language was strictly patrolled to deliver a Sanskritic lexicon that did not permit influence of Urdu to be evident,<ref name=goulding-msh-policing-1910s>{{cite book|last=Goulding|first=Gregory|editor1-last=Anjaria|editor1-first=Ulka|editor2-last=Nerlekar|editor2-first=Anjali|title=The Oxford Handbook of Modern Indian Literatures|year = 2024|location=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780197647912|chapter=Urban Space Across Genre: The Cities of Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh|pages=531&ndash;545; 533|quote=Before and after independence, many of the most important ideas of urban culture in northern India, such as the literary traditions of Lucknow and Delhi, were strongly associated with Urdu; Hindi, by contrast, was at times portrayed as an uncouth, undeveloped language.  In response to this, from the 1910s onward, Hindi was rigorously policed to produce a standard, Sanskritic language that did not allow for the influence of Urdu or of the many languages, now considered dialects, that were spoken in the regions of northern India.}}</ref> [[Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi]] notably preparing the spelling, punctuation, and vocabulary of Modern Standard Hindi.<ref name=mani-hindi-dwivedi-standardization-3>{{cite book|last=Mani|first=Preetha|title=The Idea of Indian Literature: Gender, Genre, and Comparative Method|location=Evanston|publisher=Northwestern University Press|year=2022|isbn=9780810145016|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l-FuEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT25|quote=Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi's editorship of the Hindi journal ''Saraswati'' from 1903 to 1920&mdash;through which Dwivedi carefully crafted the spelling, punctuation, vocabulary, and genres now asociated with ''Khari Boli'' (equated today with modern standard Hindi)&mdash;provided an avenue for expressions of Hindi language to emerge.}}</ref>

The [[Hindi-Urdu controversy]] in 1867, highlighted the linguistic and cultural divide between Hindus and Muslims in British India, with Urdu emerging as a symbol of the linguistic patriotism of Indian Muslims. This division played an important role in the political movement of Muslims, eventually leading to the formation of the [[All-India Muslim League]] in 1906, whose formation eventually resulted in the creation of Pakistan, as a separate Muslim state in the Indian subcontinent.<ref>{{cite web|title=Role of Urdu Language in Pakistan Movement: A Historical Review|url=https://www.muslim-perspectives.com/Publication-Detail?publication=85/Role-of-Urdu-Language-in-Pakistan-Movement:-A-Historical-Review|website=MUSLIM PERSPECTIVES}}</ref> The controversy began to emerge when certain Hindu leaders and organizations, including the Banaras Institute and the Allahabad Institute, advocated for replacing Urdu with Hindi as the official language. This firm stance contributed to prompting [[Syed Ahmad Khan|Sir Syed Ahmed Khan]]—who was an advocate of the Hindu-Muslim unity, but later known as the 'Father of [[Two-nation theory|Two-Nation Theory]]'—to advocate for the use of Urdu.<ref name="Urdu, Hindi, and Hindustani">{{cite web|title=Literary Notes: Hindi, Urdu, Hindustani and Moulvi Abdul Haq|url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1640826|date=16 August 2021|author=[[Rauf Parekh]]|website=DAWN}}</ref> He regarded Urdu as a lingua franca of the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent, since Urdu was the secondary language to Persian, which was serving as the official language of the Mughal court. Sir Syed also considered Urdu "a common legacy of Hindus and Muslims",<ref>Muslim Politics and Leadership in the South Asian Sub-continent, Yusuf Abbasi, 1981, page 65-66</ref> and supported the use of Urdu through his writings. Under Sir Syed, the [[Scientific Society of Aligarh]] translated Western works only into Urdu. The [[Urdu movement]], which was a sociopolitical movement aimed at making Urdu as the universal lingua-franca of Muslims was fuelled by [[Aligarh movement]] of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. This movement strongly influenced the Muslim League and the [[Pakistan Movement]].

During the 1937 Lucknow session of the All-India Muslim League, the Raja of Mahmudabad, [[Mohammad Amir Ahmed Khan]] encouraged Urdu-speaking communities in British India to actively support and safeguard the Urdu language using all possible means.<ref name="Trek to Pakistan">{{cite book|title=Trek to Pakistan|isbn=9789699988998|author=Ahmad Saeed, Kh. Mansur Sarwar}}</ref>

[[Liaquat Ali Khan]], who was later the first prime minister of Pakistan, stated in 1939: 'We left [[Arabic language]] for this India and for the Hindus, we left [[Turkish language]] and adopted a language which came into existence and made progress in this country - a language which is not spoken anywhere else. Now, it is demanded of us that we should speak the language of Balmeek. We have taken many steps forward for the sake of Hindu-Muslim unity. We shall not now take another step forward. We are standing at the edge of our limit. Anyone who wishes to meet us should come here'.<ref name="Trek to Pakistan" /><ref>Farman Fatehpuri, Hindi-Urdu Tanaza, Islamabad, 1976, p.441</ref> On December 31, 1939, [[Sulaiman Nadvi|Sayyid Sulaiman Nadvi]], while delivering his presidential address at the Urdu Muslim Conference in [[Calcutta]], said, "In the brightness of the modern-daylight, something darkly unfair is being done and which is that every government official from top to bottom is engaged in doing his utmost in promoting the cause of Hindi. In my opinion, it is a disfavour to the [[Indian National Congress|Congress]] rather than a favour; it is reinforcing the misconception in the minds of the Muslims that it is what we can do with half the powers, what else we will do with full powers; as a result of which the country will be divided into two parts".<ref>Sayyid Suleman Nadvi, Nuqoosh-e-Sulaimani, Karachi, 1967, pp.163-165</ref><ref name="Trek to Pakistan" /> A renowned Congressite, [[Tufail Ahmad Manglori]], once acknowledged that the passage of a resolution against Urdu in the [[United Provinces (1937–1950)|United Provinces]] caused deep distress among Muslims. He noted that the Hindi-Urdu controversy contributed to increasing divisions between the two communities, which continued to widen over time.<ref name="Trek to Pakistan" /><ref>Musalmanon Ka Roshan Mustaqbil, p. 333.</ref> Before the establishment of Pakistan, many Muslims of colonial India actively supported Urdu as their national language, and the language emerged as a symbol of unity during the Pakistan Movement by demonstrating that it possessed all the essential traits to affirm the need for a separate state for the Muslims of colonial India.<ref>{{cite web|title=Experts discuss role of Urdu language in Pakistan Movement|url=https://tribune.com.pk/story/2460198/experts-discuss-role-of-urdu-language-in-pakistan-movement|website=THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE|date=March 22, 2024|author=}}</ref>

British language policy played a role in shaping political developments that eventually led to the partition of colonial India into India and Pakistan. This outcome was paralleled by the linguistic divide of the Hindi-Urdu continuum, with the emergence of Sanskritized Hindi and Urdu adopting more Persian influences.<ref>{{cite book |last1=King |first1=Christopher Rolland |title=One Language, Two Scripts: The Hindi Movement in Nineteenth Century North India |date=1999 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-565112-6 |page=78|language=en|quote=British language policy both resulted from and contributed to the larger political processes which eventually led to the partition of British India into India and Pakistan, an outcome almost exactly paralleled by the linguistic partition of the Hindi-Urdu continuum into highly Sanskritized Hindi and highly Persianized Urdu.}}</ref>

Urdu had been used as a literary medium for British colonial Indian writers from the [[Bombay Presidency|Bombay]], [[British Bengal|Bengal]], [[Orissa Province|Orissa]],<ref name="Ahmad-2009">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I2QmPHeIowoC&pg=PA119|title=Geography of the South Asian Subcontinent: A Critical Approach|last=Ahmad|first=Aijazuddin|date=2009|publisher=Concept Publishing Company|isbn=978-81-8069-568-1|pages=119|language=en}}</ref> and [[Hyderabad State]] as well.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tariq |first=Rahman |url=https://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/30566/06-Rahman.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |title=Urdu in Hyderabad State |publisher=The Annual of Urdu Studies}}</ref>