Hindi-Urdu controversy

The Hindi–Urdu controversy is an ongoing dispute—dating back to the 19th century—regarding the status of Hindi and Urdu as a single language, Hindustani (lit "of Hindustan"), or as two dialects of a single language, and the establishment of a single standard language in certain areas of north India. Although this debate was officially settled by a government order in 1950, declaring Hindi as the official language, some resistance remains. The present notion among some Muslims about this dispute is that Hindus abandoned the Urdu language, whereas some Hindus claim that Urdu was artificially created during Muslim rule.

Hindi is a literary register of the Hindustani language, derived from the Khariboli dialect of the Hindi languages. 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. Urdu, along with English, became the first official language of British India in 1850, which still favoured Muslims, even though many Hindus knew it as well. Urdu was being written, spoken and translated to and from English in all courts, schools, official documents, and government institutes. British were learning Urdu during that time to communicate with both Hindus and Muslims alike. Although the need to have a language for Hindus developed post 1850, the irrevocable birth of Hindi language took place in 1880. If a Hindu speaks Urdu, it becomes Hindi, and if a Muslim speaks Hindi, it becomes Urdu. Urdu is a name derived from the Turkic word ordu (army) or orda. When the Arabs/Persians who invaded the Indian subcontinent made camps, the language they spoke (Arabic/Persian), became known as the "language of the camp", or "Zaban-i-Ordu". Later when those invaders ruled the northern parts of South Asia (Mughal Empire), it became the language of the rulers.

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