Urdu: Pakistan’s Official Language and Widely Spoken Across India

Spoken mainly in Pakistan and India by more than 170 million people as a first or second language, Urdu is the official language of Pakistan. It is also officially acknowledged in the Indian Constitution. In general, Urdu is spoken by Muslims in India, with Urdu schools teaching their own curriculum, and several thousand daily newspapers printed in Urdu.

According to the U.N. Silk Roads Programme, Urdu-speaking communities are thriving across the world, from Afghanistan to Zambia, including the UK, the US, Australia, Canada, and Norway, as well as the Persian Gulf countries.

Selected as a symbol of unity for the new nation of Pakistan, when British colonial rule ended with Partition in 1947, Urdu had long been used as a lingua franca among Muslims in North and Northwest India, it is today spoken and taught throughout Pakistan (in parallel to English) with many provincial communities also communicating a wide variety of native languages.

Modern Standard Urdu or Lashkari (لشکری)

Sharing the same Indo-Aryan base as Hindi, there are few significant differences between these two languages at an informal (spoken) level. They are thus mutually understandable, with similar grammar and phonology. However, they are usually treated as independent languages, for educational, political, and cultural reasons.