Urdu (/ˈʊərduː/;[10] اُردُو ALA-LC: Urdū [ˈʊrd̪uː] (
listen), or Modern Standard Urdu) is a Persianized, Arabized, and also a standardisedregister language of the Hindustani dialect.[11][12] It is the official national language and lingua franca of Pakistan.
It was considered to be one of the official languages of five states of India. These states include Hyderabad, Rampur, Bhopal, and Lucknow, and Kashmir. It is also one of the 22 official languages recognized in the Constitution of India. The Urdu presence in India dates back to the Islamic Mughal Empire, from which this language was born.
Apart from specialized vocabulary, it is mutually intelligible with Standard Hindi when having a simple conversation, another recognized register of Hindustani. The Urdu variant of Hindustani received recognition and patronage under British rule when the British replaced the local official languages with English and Hindustani written in nastaliq script, as the official language in north and northwestern India.[13][14][15]Religious, social, and political factors pushed for a distinction between Urdu and Hindi in India, leading to the Hindi–Urdu controversy.[16]
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