Hindi–Urdu controversy - Revision history

UpdateBot: robot: Update article (please report if you notice any mistake or error in this edit)

2022-06-21T18:39:24Z

robot: Update article (please report if you notice any mistake or error in this edit)

ImportMaster: robot: import pages using Special:Import

2022-05-02T02:12:00Z

robot: import pages using Special:Import

New page

{{Short description|Linguistic Dispute}}
{{More citations needed|date=October 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2016}}{{Use Indian English|date=May 2016}}
[[File:Hapur Junction railway station - Station board.jpg|thumb|300px|The station board of [[Hapur Junction railway station]] in Northern India, with Hindi (top), Urdu (bottom-right) and English (bottom-left) scripts.]]
The '''Hindi–Urdu controversy''' arose in 19th century [[colonial India]] out of the debate over whether the Hindi or Urdu language should be chosen as a national language.

[[Hindi]] and [[Urdu]] are mutually intelligible as spoken languages, to the extent that they are sometimes considered to be [[dialect]]s or [[Register (sociolinguistics)|registers]] of a single spoken language referred to as Hindi-Urdu or sometimes [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]]. The respective writing systems used to write the languages, however, [[digraphia|are different]]: Hindi is written using [[Devanagari]], whereas Urdu is written using [[Urdu alphabet|a modified version]] of the [[Arabic script]], each of which is completely illegible to readers literate only in the other. <ref>{{Cite web |title=Hindustani language {{!}} Origins & Vocabulary {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hindustani-language |access-date=2022-03-31 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

Both Modern Standard Hindi and Urdu are literary forms of the [[Kauravi dialect|Dehlavi dialect]] of Hindustani.<ref name="Taj"/> A Persianized variant of Hindustani began to take shape during the [[Delhi Sultanate]] (1206–1526 AD) and [[Mughal Empire]] (1526–1858 AD) in [[South Asia]].<ref name="Taj"/> Known as [[Deccani language|Deccani]] in [[South India|southern India]], and by names such as Hindi, Hindavi, and Hindustani in [[North India|northern India]] and elsewhere, it emerged as a [[lingua franca]] across much of India and was written in several scripts including Perso-Arabic, Devanagari, Kaithi, and Gurmukhi.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00urduhindilinks/workshop2012/bangha_rekhta.pdf|title=Rekhta: Poetry in Mixed Language, The Emergence of Khari Boli Literature in North India|publisher=[[Columbia University]]|format=PDF|access-date=23 April 2018|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160328003510/http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00urduhindilinks/workshop2012/bangha_rekhta.pdf|archive-date=28 March 2016|df=dmy-all}}</ref>

The Perso-Arabic script form of this language underwent a standardization process and further Persianization in the late Mughal period (18th century) and came to be known as Urdu, a name derived from the [[Turkic languages|Turkic]] word ''ordu'' (army) or ''orda'' and is said to have arisen as the "language of the camp", or "''Zaban-i-Ordu''", or in the local "''Lashkari Zaban''".<ref name="Ayres2009">{{cite book|author=Alyssa Ayres|title=Speaking Like a State: Language and Nationalism in Pakistan|url=https://archive.org/details/speakinglikestat00ayre|url-access=limited|date=23 July 2009|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-51931-1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/speakinglikestat00ayre/page/n32 19]–}}</ref> As a literary language, Urdu took shape in courtly, elite settings. Along with English, it became the official language of northern parts of [[British India]] in 1837.<ref name="Coatsworth2015">{{Cite book|url=http://www.overstock.com/Books-Movies-Music-Games/Global-Connections-Politics-Exchange-and-Social-Life-in-World-History-Hardcover/9911619/product.html#more|title=Global Connections: Politics, Exchange, and Social Life in World History|last=Coatsworth|first=John|publisher=Cambridge Univ Pr|year=2015|isbn=9780521761062|location=United States|pages=159}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|author=Tariq Rahman|author-link=Tariq Rahman|date=2011|title=Urdu as the Language of Education in British India|url=http://www.nihcr.edu.pk/Latest_English_Journal/1.%20URDU%20AS%20THE%20LANGUAGE,%20Tariq%20Rahman%20FINAL.pdf|journal=Pakistan Journal of History and Culture|publisher=NIHCR|volume=32|issue=2|pages=1–42}}</ref><ref name="Metcalf2014">{{cite book|last=Metcalf|first=Barbara D.|title=Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband, 1860-1900|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BdH_AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA207|year=2014|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-5610-7|pages=207–|quote=The basis of that shift was the decision made by the government in 1837 to replace Persian as court language by the various vernaculars of the country. Urdu was identified as the regional vernacular in Bihar, Oudh, the North-Western Provinces, and Punjab, and hence was made the language of government across upper India.}}</ref>

Hindi as a standardized literary [[register (sociolinguistics)|register]] of the [[Delhi dialect]] arose in the 19th century; the [[Braj Bhasha|Braj dialect]] was the dominant literary language in the Devanagari script up until and through the nineteenth century. Efforts by Hindi movements to promote a Devanagari version of the Delhi dialect under the name of Hindi gained pace around 1880 as an effort to displace Urdu's official position.<ref name="Paul R. Brass"/>

The last few decades of the nineteenth century witnessed the eruption of the Hindi–Urdu controversy in the [[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|United Provinces]] (present-day [[Uttar Pradesh]], then known as "the [[North-Western Provinces]] and [[Oudh]]"). The controversy comprised "Hindi" and "Urdu" protagonists each advocating the official use of Hindustani with the [[Devanagari]] script or with the [[Nastaʿlīq]] script, respectively. Hindi movements advocating the growth of and official status for Devanagari were established in Northern India. [[Raja Sivaprasad|Babu Shiva Prasad]] and [[Madan Mohan Malaviya]] were notable early proponents of this movement. This, consequently, led to the development of Urdu movements defending Urdu's official status; [[Syed Ahmed Khan|Sir Syed Ahmed Khan]] was one of its noted advocates.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

In 1900, the government issued a decree granting symbolic equal status to both Hindi and Urdu. Hindi and Urdu started to diverge linguistically, with Hindi drawing on [[Sanskrit]] as the primary source for formal and academic vocabulary, often with a conscious attempt to purge the language of Persian-derived equivalents. Deploring this Hindu-Muslim divide, [[Gandhi]] proposed re-merging the standards, using either Devanagari or Urdu script, under the traditional generic term Hindustani. Bolstered by the support of the [[Indian National Congress]] and various leaders involved in the [[Indian Independence Movement]], Hindi, in the Devanagari script, along with English, replaced Urdu as one of the official languages of India during the institution of the [[Indian constitution]] in 1950.

== Background ==
{| class="wikitable" width="300" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px; "
! colspan="2" | Status change of languages
|-
|[[Hindustani language|Hindustani]] in [[Urdu alphabet|Perso-Arabic]] script and [[English language|English]] made official languages in northern parts of [[British Raj|British India]], replacing [[Persian language|Persian]]
|1837<ref name="Maria Isabel Maldonado Garcia 2015 223">{{cite book | title=Urdu Evolution and Reforms| author=Maria Isabel Maldonado Garcia| year=2015| pages=223| publisher=Punjab University Department of Press and Publications, Lahore, Pakistan}}</ref>
|-
|[[Hindustani language|Hindustani]] in [[Kaithi]] and [[Devanagari]] scripts replaced [[Urdu alphabet|Perso-Arabic]] script in [[Bihar]] by [[British Raj]]
|1881<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-05-01 |title=Kaithi: This 200-year-old script is fading into oblivion |url=https://archive.ph/9KibI |access-date=2022-05-01 |website=archive.ph}}</ref><ref name="Paul R. Brass"/>
|-
|[[Hindi]] in [[Devanagari]] granted equal status to [[Urdu]] in the United Provinces
|1900<ref name="Kenneth W. Jones"/>
|-
|Urdu declared sole national language in [[Pakistan]]
|1948<ref name="Maria Isabel Maldonado Garcia 2015 223"/>
|-
|[[Hindi]] granted separate status and official precedence over Urdu and other languages in the [[India|Republic of India]]
|1950<ref>{{Cite web |last=JAVAID |first=ARFA |date=1 April 2022 |title=What is the national language of India? |url=https://archive.ph/2022.03.31-183037/https://www.jagranjosh.com/general-knowledge/national-language-of-india-1617710309-1}}</ref>
|-
|}
{{further|History of Hindustani}}
Hindustani was the native language spoken in northern India (what is historically known as the region of [[Hindustan]]), and it belongs to the [[Western Hindi]] language class of Central Indo-Aryan languages.<ref name="Taj"/> Mughal rulers brought with them to India the Persian language.<ref name="Taj1997"/> In cities such as Delhi, Hindustani began to acquire some Persian loanwords and continued to be called "Hindi" as well as "Urdu".<ref name="Taj"/><ref>{{cite book|title=First Encyclopaedia of Islam: 1913-1936|year=1993|publisher=[[Brill Academic Publishers]]|language=en|isbn=9789004097964|page=1024|quote=Whilst the Muhammadan rulers of India spoke Persian, which enjoyed the prestige of being their court language, the common language of the country continued to be Hindi, derived through Prakrit from Sanskrit. On this dialect of the common people was grafted the Persian language, which brought a new language, Urdu, into existence. Sir George Grierson, in the Linguistic Survey of India, assigns no distinct place to Urdu but treats it as an offshoot of Western Hindi.}}</ref> While Urdu retained the grammar and core vocabulary of the local Delhi dialect, it adopted the [[Nastaleeq]] writing system.<ref name="Taj">{{cite web |last1=Taj |first1=Afroz |title=About Hindi-Urdu |url=http://www.unc.edu/~taj/abturdu.htm |publisher=[[The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]] |access-date=30 June 2019 |language=en |date=1997 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100419162950/https://www.unc.edu/~taj/abturdu.htm |archive-date=19 April 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> <ref>{{Cite web |title=Urdu language {{!}} History, Origin, Script, Words, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Urdu-language |access-date=2022-03-31 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

Urdu, like Hindi, is a form of the same language, [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]].<ref>{{cite book | title=Urdu Evolution and Reforms| author=Maria Isabel Maldonado Garcia| year=2015| page=223| publisher=Punjab University Department of Press and Publications, Lahore, Pakistan}}</ref> It evolved from the medieval (6th to 13th century) [[Apabhraṃśa]] register of the preceding [[Shauraseni language]], a [[Middle Indo-Aryan languages|Middle Indo-Aryan language]] that is also the ancestor of other modern Indo-Aryan languages. Around 75% of Urdu words have their etymological roots in [[Sanskrit]] and [[Prakrit]],<ref name="Ahmad2002">{{cite book|last=Ahmad|first=Aijaz|title=Lineages of the Present: Ideology and Politics in Contemporary South Asia|year=2002|publisher=Verso|language=en|isbn=9781859843581|page=113|quote=On this there are far more reliable statistics than those on population. ''Farhang-e-Asafiya'' is by general agreement the most reliable Urdu dictionary. It was compiled in the late nineteenth century by an Indian scholar little exposed to British or Orientalist scholarship. The lexicographer in question, Syed Ahmed Dehlavi, had no desire to sunder Urdu's relationship with [[Persian language|Persian]], as is evident even from the title of his dictionary. He estimates that roughly 75 per cent of the total stock of 55,000 Urdu words that he compiled in his dictionary are derived from Sanskrit and Prakrit and that the entire stock of the base words of the language, without exception, are derived from these sources. What distinguishes Urdu from a great many other Indian languages ... is that is draws almost a quarter of its vocabulary from language communities to the west of India, such as [[Persian language|Persian]], Turkish, and Tajik. Most of the little it takes from Arabic has not come directly but through Persian.}}</ref><ref name="Dalmia2017">{{cite book|last=Dalmia|first=Vasudha|title=Hindu Pasts: Women, Religion, Histories|date=31 July 2017|publisher=[[SUNY Press]]|language=en|isbn=9781438468075|page=310|quote=On the issue of vocabulary, Ahmad goes on to cite Syed Ahmad Dehlavi as he set about to compile the Farhang-e-Asafiya, an Urdu dictionary, in the late nineteenth century. Syed Ahmad 'had no desire to sunder Urdu's relationship with [[Persian language|Persian]], as is evident from the title of his dictionary. He estimates that roughly 75 per cent of the total stock of 55.000 Urdu words that he compiled in his dictionary are derived from Sanskrit and Prakrit and that the entire stock of the base words of the language, without exception, are from these sources' (2000: 112-13). As Ahmad points out, Syed Ahmad, as a member of Delhi's aristocratic elite, had a clear bias towards Persian and Arabic. His estimate of the percentage of Prakitic words in Urdu should therefore be considered more conservative than not. The actual proportion of Prakitic words in everyday language would clearly be much higher.}}</ref><ref name="Taj1997">{{cite web|url=http://www.unc.edu/~taj/abturdu.htm|title=About Hindi-Urdu|last=Taj|first=Afroz|year=1997|publisher=[[University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]]|language=en|access-date=27 March 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107083412/http://www.unc.edu/~taj/abturdu.htm|archive-date=7 November 2017|df=dmy-all}}</ref> and approximately 99% of Urdu verbs have their roots in Sanskrit and Prakrit.<ref name="PTI1995">{{cite book |title=India Perspectives, Volume 8 |date=1995 |publisher=PTI for the Ministry of External Affairs |page=23 |language=en |quote=All verbs in Urdu are of Sanskrit origin. According to lexicographers, only about 25 percent words in Urdu diction have Persian or Arabic origin.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dawn.com/news/681263/urdus-origin-its-not-a-camp-language|title=Urdu's origin: it's not a "camp language"|work=dawn.com|access-date=5 July 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924135247/http://www.dawn.com/news/681263/urdus-origin-its-not-a-camp-language|archive-date=24 September 2015|df=dmy-all|date=2011-12-17|quote=Urdu nouns and adjective can have a variety of origins, such as Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Pushtu and even Portuguese, but ninety-nine per cent of Urdu verbs have their roots in Sanskrit/Prakrit. So it is an Indo-Aryan language which is a branch of Indo-Iranian family, which in turn is a branch of Indo-European family of languages. According to Dr Gian Chand Jain, Indo-Aryan languages had three phases of evolution beginning around 1,500 BC and passing through the stages of Vedic Sanskrit, classical Sanskrit and Pali. They developed into Prakrit and Apbhransh, which served as the basis for the formation of later local dialects.}}</ref> The remaining 25% of Urdu's vocabulary consists of loanwords from Persian and Arabic.<ref name="Ahmad2002"/><ref name="PTI1995"/>

The conflict over language reflected the larger politicization of culture and religion in nineteenth century colonial India, when religious identities were utilized in administration in unprecedented ways.<ref>{{Cite book|title="Religious Identity and the Indian Census," in The Census in British India: New Perspectives, ed. by N.G. Barrier|last=Jones|first=Kenneth|publisher=Manohar|year=1981|location=New Delhi|pages=73–101}}</ref> In time, Hindustani written in Perso-Arabic script also became a [[literary language]] with an increasing body of literature written in the 18th and 19th century. A division developed gradually between Hindus, who chose to write Hindustani in Devanagari script, and Muslims and some Hindus who chose to write the same in Urdu script. The development of Hindi movements in the late nineteenth century further contributed to this divergence.<ref name="Paul R. Brass"/> [[Sumit Sarkar]] notes that in the 18th and the bulk of the 19th century, "Urdu had been the language of polite culture over a big part of north India, for Hindus quite as much as Muslims". For the decade of 1881-90, Sarkar gives figures which showed that the circulation of Urdu newspapers was twice that of Hindi newspapers and there were 55% more Urdu books as Hindi books. He gives the example of the author [[Premchand]] who wrote mainly in Urdu till 1915, until he found it difficult to publish in the language.<ref name="Sarkar1983">{{cite book|author=Sumit Sarkar|title=Modern India, 1885-1947|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x1uBQgAACAAJ|year=1983|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0-333-90425-1|pages=85–86}}</ref>

Professor [[Paul R. Brass]] notes in his book, ''Language, Religion and Politics in North India'', {{quote|The Hindi-Urdu controversy by its very bitterness demonstrates how little the objective similarities between language groups matter when people attach subjective significance to their languages. Willingness to communicate through the same language is quite a different thing from the mere ability to communicate.<ref name="Paul R. Brass"/>}}

== Controversy ==

=== British language policy ===
{{Further|Persian language in South Asia}}
In 1837, the British East India company replaced Persian with local vernacular in various provinces as the official language of government offices and of the lower courts. However, in the northern regions of the Indian subcontinent, Urdu in [[Urdu script]] was chosen as the replacement for Persian, rather than [[Hindi]] in the [[Devanagari]] script.<ref name="Paul R. Brass">Language, Religion and Politics in North India by Paul R. Brass, Publisher: iUniverse, Incorporated, {{ISBN|978-0-595-34394-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title=The political awakening in India| author=John R. McLane| year=1970| pages=105| publisher=Prentice-Hall. Inc, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey}}</ref> The most immediate reason for the controversy is believed to be the contradictory language policy in North India in the 1860s. Although the then government encouraged both Hindi and Urdu as a medium of education in school, it discouraged Hindi or Nagari script for official purposes. This policy gave rise to conflict between students educated in Hindi or Urdu for the competition of government jobs, which eventually took on a communal form.<ref name="Kenneth W. Jones">Religious Controversy in British India by Kenneth W. Jones, p124, {{ISBN|0-7914-0827-2}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=EmY9fsUTjwYC&pg=PA123&dq=hindi+urdu+controversy#PPA124,M1 Google book]</ref>

=== Hindi and Urdu movements ===
{{See also|Urdu movement}}
In 1867, some Hindus in the [[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh]] during the [[British Raj]] in [[India]] began to demand that [[Hindi]] be made an official language in place of [[Urdu]].<ref name = "PK">[http://www.storyofpakistan.com/articletext.asp?artid=A133 Urdu-Hindi Controversy], from [http://www.storyofpakistan.com/ Story of Pakistan].</ref> [[Raja Sivaprasad|Babu Shiva Prasad]] of Banares was one of the early proponents of the Nagari script. In a ''Memorandum on court characters'' written in 1868, he accused the early Muslim rulers of India for forcing them to learn Persian. In 1897, [[Madan Mohan Malaviya]] published a collection of documents and statements titled ''Court character and primary education in North Western Provinces and Oudh'', in which he made a compelling case for Hindi.<ref name="Kenneth W. Jones"/><ref name="Ulrich Ammon, Marlis Hellinger">Status Change of Languages by Ulrich Ammon, Marlis Hellinger</ref>

Several Hindi movements were formed in the late 19th and early 20th century; notable among them were [[Nagari Pracharini Sabha]] formed in [[Banaras]] in 1893, Hindi Sahitya Sammelan in [[Allahabad]] in 1910, Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha in 1918 and Rashtra Bhasha Prachar Samiti in 1926.<ref name="Ulrich Ammon, Marlis Hellinger"/> The movement was encouraged in 1881 when Hindi in Devanagari script replaced Urdu in Persian script as the official language in neighboring [[Bihar]]. They submitted 118 memorials signed by 67,000 people to the Education Commission in several cities.<ref name="Paul R. Brass"/><ref name="Ulrich Ammon, Marlis Hellinger"/> The proponents of Hindi argued that the majority of people spoke Hindi and therefore introduction of Nagari script would provide better education and improve prospects for holding Government positions. They also argued that Urdu script made court documents illegible, encouraged forgery and promoted the use of complex Arabic and Persian words.

Organisations such as [[Anjuman Taraqqi-e-Urdu]] were formed in defence of the official status given to Urdu.<ref name="Paul R. Brass"/> Advocates of Urdu argued that Hindi scripts could not be written faster, and lacked standardisation and vocabulary. They also argued that the Urdu language originated in India, asserted that Urdu could also be spoken fluently by most of the people and disputed the assertion that official status of language and script is essential for the spread of education.

Communal violence broke out as the issue was taken up by firebrands. [[Syed Ahmed Khan|Sir Syed Ahmed Khan]] had once stated, "I look to both Hindus and Muslims with the same eyes & consider them as two eyes of a bride. By the word nation I only mean Hindus and Muslims and nothing else. We Hindus and Muslims live together under the same soil under the same government. Our interest and problems are common and therefore I consider the two factions as one nation." Speaking to Mr. Shakespeare, the governor of [[Varanasi|Banaras]], after the language controversy heated up, he said "I am now convinced that the Hindus and Muslims could never become one nation as their religion and way of life was quite distinct from one another."

In the last three decades of the 19th century the controversy flared up several times in [[North-Western Provinces|North-Western provinces]] and [[Oudh]]. The Hunter commission, appointed by the Government of India to review the progress of education, was used by the advocates of both Hindi and Urdu for their respective causes.

=== Gandhi's idea of Hindustani ===
Hindi and Urdu continued to diverge both linguistically and culturally. Linguistically, Hindi continued drawing words from Sanskrit, and Urdu from Persian, Arabic and [[Chagatai language|Chagatai]]. Culturally Urdu came to be identified with Muslims and Hindi with Hindus. This wide divergence in the 1920s was deplored by [[Gandhi]], who exhorted the re-merging of both Hindi and Urdu, naming it Hindustani, written in both Nagari and Persian scripts.<ref name="Paul R. Brass"/> Though he failed in his attempt to bring together Hindi and Urdu under the Hindustani banner, he popularised Hindustani in other non-Hindustani speaking areas.<ref name="Ulrich Ammon, Marlis Hellinger"/>

=== Muslim nationalism ===

It has been argued that the Hindi–Urdu controversy sowed the seeds for [[Muslim nationalism in India]]. Some also argued that [[Syed Ahmad]] had expressed separatist views long before the controversy developed.<ref name="Paul R. Brass"/>

=== Linguistic purism ===

Because of linguistic purism and its orientation towards the pre-Islamic past, advocates for pure Hindi have sought to remove many Persian, Arabic, and Turkic loanwords and replaced them with borrowings from Sanskrit. Conversely, formal Urdu employs far more Perso-Arabic words than does vernacular Hindustani.

== Urdu to Hindi ==
In April 1900, the colonial Government of the North-Western Provinces issued an order granting equal official status to both Nagari and Perso-Arabic scripts.<ref>{{cite book |author=Christopher R. King |title=One language, two scripts |year=1994 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=155 |chapter=Chapter V: The Hindi-Nagari movement |chapter-url=http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00urduhindilinks/king/05_chapter.pdf |isbn=0-19-563565-5}}</ref> This decree evoked protests from Urdu supporters and joy from Hindi supporters. However, the order was more symbolic in that it did not provision exclusive use of Nagari script. Perso-Arabic remained dominant in North-Western provinces and [[Oudh]] as the preferred writing system until independence.<ref name="Kenneth W. Jones"/>

[[C. Rajagopalachari]], chief minister of [[Madras Presidency]] introduced Hindi as a compulsory language in secondary school education though he later relented and opposed the introduction of Hindi during the Madras anti-Hindi agitation of 1965.<ref name="indiatoday">{{cite news|title=Tongue tied|url=http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/Tongue+tied/1/2692.html|first=A. R.|last=Venkatachalapathy|work=[[India Today]]|date=December 20, 2007}}</ref> [[Bal Gangadhar Tilak]] supported Devanagari script as the essential part of nationalist movement. The language policy of Congress and the [[Indian independence movement|independence movement]] paved its status as an alternative [[Official languages of India|official language of independent India]]. Hindi was supported by religious and political leaders, social reformers, writers and intellectuals during independence movement securing that status. Hindi, along with English, was recognised as the official language of India during the institution of the [[Indian constitution]] in 1950.<ref name="Ulrich Ammon, Marlis Hellinger"/>

== See also ==
* [[Urdu movement]]
* [[Hindi in Pakistan]]
* [[Linguistic purism]]
* [[History of Hindustani]]
* [[Persian and Urdu]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110614082442/http://www.saag.org/common/uploaded_files/paper675.html South Asia Analysis Group: Hindi-Urdu controversy]
*[http://www.dawn.com/2003/01/07/op.htm#5 A century of dedicated service: Anjuman Tarraqqi-i-Urdu], from [[Dawn (newspaper)|Dawn
Newspaper]]
* [http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/llog/King2001.pdf The poisonous potency of script: Hindi and Urdu] ''ROBERT D. KING''
{{Aligarh}}
{{Pakistan Movement}}
{{Hindi topics}}
{{Urdu topics}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hindi-Urdu controversy}}
[[Category:Pakistan Movement]]
[[Category:Hindustani language]]
[[Category:Hindi]]
[[Category:Urdu]]
[[Category:Politics of British India]]
[[Category:India–Pakistan relations]]
[[Category:Political controversies]]
[[Category:1867 in India]]
[[Category:Language conflict in India]]
[[Category:Linguistic controversies]]
[[Category:Muslim politics in India]]
[[Category:Urdu-language literary movements]]