Before 1947 Urdu was the language of the entire educated class, Hindu, Muslim, or Sikh, in large parts of urban India.
http://justicekatju.blogspot.com/…/what-is-urdu-speech…
Later, agents of our British rulers, who were pursuing the divide and rule policy, e.g. Bhartendu Harishchandra, falsely propagated that Urdu was the language of Muslims, while Hindi was the language of Hindus. They also propagated that Urdu was a foreign language, which was false
https://m.facebook.com/…/is-urdu-a…/678050480358012
In fact the language of the common man in large parts of urban India was Hindustani or khadiboli, not Hindi ( in rural India there were dialects like avadhi, bhojpuri, maghai, maithili, mewari, marwari, etc ). Hindi was an artificially created language, created by agents of the British, who wanted to divide and rule.
Let us take an illustration of the difference between Hindustani and Hindi. In Hindustani we say ” Udhar dekhiye ”. In Hindi we say ” Udhar avalokan keejiye ”. The common man would never use the word ‘avalokan’.
Persian and Arabic words which had come into common usage in Hindustani were hatefully removed by Hindi bigots, and replaced by Sanskrit words which were not in common use ( e.g. ‘zila’ was changed to ‘janpad’ ), and which were sometimes difficult to understand. In government notifications ( which were often produced in Courts in UP, where I was a Judge ) words were used which were often difficult to understand.
When I was a Judge of Allahabad High Court, a lawyer who always argued in Hindi, presented a petition before me titled ” Pratibhu Avedan Pata ‘. I asked the lawyer what this meant ? He said it meant a bail application.
I told the lawyer he should have used the word ‘bail’ or ‘zamaanat’ which everybody understands, instead of ‘pratibhu’ which nobody understands.
It is a misconception that a language becomes weaker if it borrows words from a foreign language. In fact it becomes stronger. Thus, English became stronger by borrowing words from French, German, Arabic, Hindustani, etc. Similarly, Hindustani became stronger by borrowing from Persian, Arabic, English, etc.
I once went on a rickshaw, and when I paid the fare, the rickshaw driver said ” Wajib hai ” ( It is appropriate ). Here he used a pure Persian word, though he was illiterate.
This policy of branding Urdu as a foreign language, and a language of Muslims alone, resulted in great injustice to an exquisite language, and almost genocide of Urdu.
https://www.newageislam.com/…/injustice-urdu…/d/480
Some people say Urdu is dead. I disagree. The language which has produced the best poetry in modern India, the immortal poetry of Mir, Ghalib, Firaq, Faiz, Sahir, Majrooh, etc, the poetry which expresses the voice of the heart with the power and sophistication which no other poetry in the world does, can never die out as long as people have hearts.
Urdu will live as long as the Indian nation lives
