Urdu and Related Topics

Hindustani language

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Ancestors of the language were known as: Hindui, Hindavi, Zabān-e Hind, Zabān-e Hindustan , Hindustan ki boli , Rekhta, and Hindi.

The phrase Zabān-e Urdu-ye Mualla in Nastaʿlīq

Lashkari Zabān title in the Perso-Arabic script

Hindustani, in its standardised registers, is one of the official languages of both India (Hindi) and Pakistan (Urdu).

Hindustani is a pluricentric language, best characterised as a continuum between two standardised registers: Modern Standard Hindi and Modern Standard Urdu.

Hindi

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Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India.

Distribution of L1 speakers of the Hindi family of languages (as defined by the Government of India; includes Rajasthani, Western Pahari, Eastern Hindi, among others) in India.

Apart from the script and formal vocabulary, standard Hindi is mutually intelligible with standard Urdu, another recognised register of Hindustani as both share a common colloquial base.

Pakistan

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Country in South Asia.

Indus Priest King Statue from Mohenjo-Daro.

Standing Buddha from Gandhara, Greco-Buddhist art, 1st–2nd century AD.

Clock Tower, Faisalabad, built by the British government in the 19th century

Queen Elizabeth II was the last monarch of independent Pakistan, before it became a republic in 1956.

Signing of the Tashkent Declaration to end hostilities with India in 1965 in Tashkent, USSR, by President Ayub alongside Bhutto (centre) and Aziz Ahmed (left)

President George W. Bush meets with President Musharraf in Islamabad during his 2006 visit to Pakistan.

The Friday Prayers at the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore

A satellite image showing the topography of Pakistan

Köppen climate classification of Pakistan

President of Pakistan Ayub Khan with US President John F. Kennedy in 1961

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan at the 2019 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit

Pakistan Prime Minister Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai signing the Treaty of Friendship Between China and Pakistan. Pakistan is host to China's largest embassy.

The areas shown in green are the Pakistani-controlled areas.

Hunza Valley in the Gilgit-Baltistan region is part of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.

Pakistan Air Force's JF-17 Thunder flying in front of the 26660 ft Nanga Parbat

Statue of a bull outside the Pakistan Stock Exchange, Islamabad, Pakistan

Surface mining in Sindh. Pakistan has been termed the 'Saudi Arabia of Coal' by Forbes.

Television assembly factory in Lahore. Pakistan's industrial sector accounts for about 20.3% of the GDP, and is dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises.

Rising skyline of Karachi with several under construction skyscrapers.

Lake Saiful Muluk, located at the northern end of the Kaghan Valley, near the town of Naran in the Saiful Muluk National Park.

Badshahi Mosque was commissioned by the Mughals in 1671. It is listed as a World Heritage Site.

Tarbela Dam, the largest earth filled dam in the world, was constructed in 1968.

Pakistan produced 1,135 megawatts of renewable energy for the month of October 2016. Pakistan expects to produce 3,000 megawatts of renewable energy by the beginning of 2019.

The motorway passes through the Salt Range mountains

Port of Karachi is one of South Asia's largest and busiest deep-water seaports, handling about 60% of the nation's cargo (25 million tons per annum)

Track of Islamabad-Rawalpindi Metrobus with adjoining station

Central Library of University of Sargodha

Malala Yousafzai at the Women of the World festival in 2014.

Pakistan hosts the second largest refugee population globally after Turkey. An Afghan refugee girl near Tarbela Dam

Faisal Mosque, built in 1986 by Turkish architect Vedat Dalokay on behalf of King Faisal bin Abdul-Aziz of Saudi Arabia

Havana at Shri Hinglaj Mata temple shakti peetha, the largest Hindu pilgrimage centre in Pakistan. The annual Hinglaj Yathra is attended by more than 250,000 people.

Truck art is a distinctive feature of Pakistani culture.

People in traditional clothing in Neelum District

Muhammad Iqbal, Pakistan's national poet who conceived the idea of Pakistan

The Tomb of Shah Rukn-e-Alam is part of Pakistan's Sufi heritage.

Minar-e-Pakistan is a national monument marking Pakistan's independence movement.

Located on the bank of Arabian Sea in Karachi, Port Grand is one of the largest food streets of Asia.

Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore is the 3rd largest cricket stadium in Pakistan with a seating capacity of 27,000 spectators.

The name Pakistan literally means "land of the pure" or "land of purity", in Urdu and Persian.

Delhi

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Ancient built environment.

The walls of the 16th-century Purana Qila built on a mound whose topography is thought to match the literary description of the citadel Indraprastha in the Sanskrit-epic Mahabharata, though excavations in the vicinity have yielded no evidence of construction.

At 72.5 m, the Qutb Minar, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Delhi, was completed during the reign of Sultan Illtutmish in the 13th century; although its style has some similarities with the Jarkurgan minaret, it is more closely related to the Ghaznavid and Ghurid minarets of Central Asia

Red Fort, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was the main residence of the Mughal emperors for nearly 200 years.

Six stamps issued by the Government of British India to mark the inauguration of New Delhi in February 1931

Khan Market in New Delhi, now a high-end shopping district, was established in 1951 to help refugees of the Partition of India, especially those from the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). It honours Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan, Chief Minister of NWFP during the Partition.

Aerial view of Delhi in April 2016 with river Yamuna in top-right.

A dense toxic smog in New Delhi blocks out the sun. In November 2017, Delhi's chief minister described the city as a "gas chamber".

Urban sustainability analysis of the greater urban area of the city using the 'Circles of Sustainability method of the UN Global Compact Cities Programme.

Connaught Place in New Delhi is an important economic hub of the National Capital Region.

The Khari Baoli market in Old Delhi is one of the oldest and busiest in the city.

Indira Gandhi International Airport's new terminal in Delhi. It is the busiest airport in South Asia. Shown here is the immigration counter in Terminal 3.

The Delhi Transport Corporation operates three types of compressed natural gas buses, the world's largest fleet. The red- and green-roofed buses seen in the picture have low floors whereas the orange buses have standard height. The elevated Delhi metro is seen above in Azadpur.

The cycle rickshaw and the auto rickshaw are commonly used in Delhi for travelling short distances.

A platform of the New Delhi railway station shows a passenger train and freight which awaits pick up or transportation to other destinations. The pedestrian bridge overhead connects the platforms.

Traditional pottery on display in Dilli Haat

The Pragati Maidan in Delhi hosts the World Book Fair biennially

More than a quarter of the immigrants in Delhi are from Bihar and neighboring states. Chhath, a festival of rural Bihar is now popular in Delhi.

On Basant Panchmi eve, qawwali singers wearing yellow headbands gather at the dargah of Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya to sing verses from Amir Khusrau.

The kitchen of Karim's, Old Delhi, a historic restaurant located near Jama Masjid.
Established in 1913, the restaurant has been described as "arguably the city's most famous culinary destination".

Pitampura TV Tower broadcasts programming to Delhi

Indian athletes marching into the National Stadium during the opening ceremony of the 1951 Asian Games.

The 2010 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony in Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

alt=The Birla temple in Delhi with its towers.|Birla Mandir, Delhi, a Hindu temple, was inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi in 1933

The Jama Masjid was built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan between 1650 and 1656

The prayer hall of Sikh Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib in Chandni Chowk, Old Delhi which dates to 1783

The Khariboli dialect of Delhi was part of a linguistic development that gave rise to the literature of the Urdu language and then of Modern Standard Hindi.

Uttar Pradesh

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State in northern India.

Uttar Pradesh is the largest subdivion by population in the world. The red area has a smaller population than Uttar Pradesh.

Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha), the lower house of the bicameral legislature.

Sown saplings of rice in a paddy; located in the rich fertile Indo-Gangetic Plain, agriculture is the largest employment generator in the state.

IT premise in Noida, which is known for infrastructure and services, as well as high-end housing complexes.

Indian field hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand

JRHU is the world's first school for the handicapped

Central Drug Research Institute, an autonomous multidisciplinary research institute

The battle of Kurukshetra, folio from the Mahabharata

Devotees inside Krishna temple during Lathmaar Holi

Uttar Pradeshi thali with naan, sultani dal, raita, and shahi paneer

Paan (betel leaves) being served with silver foil

Anandabodhi tree in Jetavana Monastery, Sravasti

A hybrid nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) showing nectar spur, found mainly in Hardoi district

The threatened Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) is a large fish-eating crocodilian found in the Ganges River

Hindi is the most widely spoken language and is also the official language of the state, along with Urdu.

Persian language

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Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages.

An Old Persian inscription written in Old Persian cuneiform in Persepolis, Iran

Middle Persian text written in Inscriptional Pahlavi on the Paikuli inscription from between 293 and 297. Slemani Museum, Iraqi Kurdistan.

Kalilah va Dimna, an influential work in Persian literature

Persian poem, Agra Fort, India, 18th century

Persian poem, Takht-e Shah Jahan, Agra Fort, India

A variant of the Iranian standard ISIRI 9147 keyboard layout for Persian

The vowel phonemes of modern Tehran Persian

Example showing Nastaʿlīq's (Persian) proportion rules

Ali-Akbar Dehkhoda's personal handwriting, a typical cursive Persian script

The word "Persian" in the Book Pahlavi script

Words borrowed from Persian are still quite commonly used in certain Indo-Aryan languages, especially Hindi-Urdu (also historically known as Hindustani), Punjabi, Kashmiri and Sindhi.

The first session of the Indian National Congress in 1885. The Congress was the first modern nationalist movement in the British Empire.

Indian independence movement

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Series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British rule in India.

Lala Lajpat Rai of Punjab, Bal Gangadhar Tilak of Bombay, and Bipin Chandra Pal of Bengal, the triumvirate were popularly known as Lal Bal Pal, changed the political discourse of the Indian independence movement.

Cover of a 1909 issue of the Tamil magazine Vijaya showing "Mother India" (Bharat Mata) with her diverse progeny and the rallying cry "Vande Mataram".

Ghadar di Gunj, was Ghadar Party literature produced in the early stages of the movement. A compilation of nationalist literature, it was banned in India in 1913.

1912 assassination attempt on Lord Hardinge.

The 1915 Singapore Mutiny memorial tablet at the entrance of the Victoria Memorial Hall, Singapore.

The public executions of convicted sepoy mutineers of the 1915 Singapore Mutiny at Outram Road, Singapore.

Bagha Jatin after the final battle, Balasore, 1915.

Mahendra Pratap (centre), President of the Provisional Government of India, at the head of the Mission with the German and Turkish delegates in Kabul, 1915. Seated to his right is Werner Otto von Hentig.

Gandhi and Abdul Ghaffar Khan at a pro-independence rally in Peshawar, 1938

India House founded by Shyamji Krishna Varma to promote nationalist views among Indian students in Britain. A number of blue plaques commemorate the stay of its various Indian revolutionaries including: Madan Lal Dhingra, V. V. S. Aiyar, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Senapati Bapat, M. P. T. Acharya, Anant Laxman Kanhere and Chempakaraman Pillai.

Procession in Bangalore during the Quit India Movement.

HMIS Hindustan at Bombay Harbour after the war, was occupied by mutineers during the Royal Indian Navy Mutiny.

Rare photograph of Hindustan Times Newspaper when India got its Independence from the British.

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru became the first Prime Minister of India in 1947

Robert Clive with Mir Jafar after the Battle of Plassey. Mir Jafar's betrayal towards the Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah of Bengal in Plassey made the battle one of the main factors of British supremacy in the sub-continent.

The Last Effort and Fall of Tipu Sultan by Henry Singleton, c. 1800. After the defeat of Tipu Sultan of Mysore, most of South India was now either under the company's direct rule, or under its indirect political control.

Pazhassi Raja, fought the British in a series of continuous struggles for 13 years during the Cotiote War.

Velu Nachiyar, was one of the earliest Indian queens to fight against the British colonial power in India.

Statue of Bakshi Jagabandhu, the leader of Paika Rebellion

$Dadabhai Naoroji, was one of the founding members of the Indian National Congress.<ref name="INC_BritishRaj">{{citation|last=Nanda|first=B. R.|author-link=Bal Ram Nanda|title=Gokhale: The Indian Moderates and the British Raj|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pI19BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA58|series=Legacy Series|year=2015|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-7049-3|page=58|orig-year=1977}}</ref>$

Surendranath Banerjee, founded the Indian National Association and founding members of the Indian National Congress.

Gopal Krishna Gokhale, was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress and the founder of the Servants of India Society.

Khudiram Bose was one of the youngest Indian revolutionaries tried and executed by the British.

Prafulla Chaki was associated with the Jugantar. He carried out assassinations against British colonial officials in an attempt to secure Indian independence.

Bhupendranath Datta was an Indian revolutionary who was privy to the Indo-German Conspiracy.

Aurobindo Ghose was one of the founding member of Jugantar, as well as being involved with nationalist politics in the Indian National Congress and the nascent revolutionary movement in Bengal with the Anushilan Samiti.

Barindra Kumar Ghosh, was one of the founding members of Jugantar and younger brother of Sri Aurobindo.

Jatindranath Mukherjee (Bagha Jatin) in 1910; was the principal leader of the Jugantar Party that was the central association of revolutionary Indian independence fighters in Bengal.

The trial room, Alipore Sessions Court, Calcutta, depiction from 1997.

Muraripukur garden house, in the Manicktolla suburbs of Calcutta. This served as the headquarters of Barindra Kumar Ghosh and his associates.

Hare Krishna Konar, was connected with Civil disobedience and Calcutta arms act case and was deported to Cellular Jail. There he founded Communist Consolidation.

A wing of the Cellular Jail, Port Blair; showing the central tower where many revolutionaries for Indian independence were held imprisoned.

Basanta Kumar Biswas threw a bomb at the Viceroy's Parade in what came to be known as the Delhi-Lahore Conspiracy.

Amarendranath Chatterjee was in charge of raising funds for the Jugantar movement, his activities largely covered revolutionary centres in Bihar, Odisha and the United Provinces.

Gandhi in 1918, at the time of the Kheda Satyagraha and Champaran Satyagraha.

(Sitting L to R) Rajendra Prasad and Anugrah Narayan Sinha during Mahatma Gandhi's 1917 Champaran Satyagraha.

The Martyrs' Well of Jallianwala Bagh massacre, at Jallianwala Bagh. 120 bodies were recovered from this well as per inscription on it.<ref>Jallianwala Bagh Massacre</ref>

Sidney Rowlatt, best remembered for his controversial presidency of the Rowlatt Committee, a sedition committee appointed in 1918 by the British Indian Government to evaluate the links between political terrorism in India, the actions indirectly led to the infamous Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919.

Chauri Chaura Shahid Samarak, which is a memorial to the Chauri Chaura incident, when a large group of protesters, participating in the Non-cooperation movement, clashed with police, who opened fire.

C. Rajagopalachari, was an Indian nationalist who participated in the agitations against the Rowlatt Act, joining the Non-cooperation movement, the Vaikom Satyagraha, and the Civil disobedience movement.

Vallabhbhai Patel was appointed as the 49th President of Indian National Congress, organising the party for elections in 1934 and 1937 while promoting the Quit India Movement.

The flag adopted, during the Purna Swaraj movement, in 1931 and used by Provisional Government during the subsequent years of Second World War.

Attacks by Hindu reformers against religious conversion, cow slaughter, and the preservation of Urdu in Arabic script deepened their concerns of minority status and denial of rights if the Congress alone were to represent the people of India.

South India

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South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the southern part of India encompassing the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry, comprising 19.31% of India's area (635,780 km2) and 20% of India's population.

Ancient Silk Road map. The Spice trade was mainly along the water routes (blue).

The Chola Empire during Rajendra Chola I, c. 1030

Map of South India (1953–1956) before the States Reorganisation Act of 1956

The peak of Anamudi (2695 m above sea level) is the highest point of elevation in South India

Birds view of Krishna river Back water at Srisailam dam

South India also has the largest elephant population.

Map showing highway distribution with population density

The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad

Aircraft parked at the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport

The growth of information technology hubs in the region have spurred economic growth. Pictured is Tidel Park in Chennai

At 168.91 m height, the Idukki Dam is one of the highest arch dams in Asia.

The weave of Calico sample from a shopping bag shown against a centimetre scale.

A traditional meal served on a banana leaf

A Thalassery cuisine which makes use of Malabar spices

The large gopuram is a hallmark of Dravidian architecture.

Some states and union territories also recognize a minority language, such as Urdu in Telangana, and French in Puducherry.

Bihar

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State in eastern India.

Kathak classical dance form, from Bhojpur region

Patna river port on national inland waterways-1 at Gai Ghat

Front view of administrative building of IIT Patna

The official languages are Hindi and Urdu, although other languages are common, including Maithili, Magahi, Bhojpuri and other Languages of Bihar.

Indo-Aryan languages