Urdu is perhaps the most commonly spoken language in the Indian sub-continent. Though Hindi continues to maintain the status of national language in our country, fact is that it was replaced by Urdu a long time ago as our day to day language. Quite often I get asked by people if I can speak in Urdu but what they do not realize is that 70% of the words they themselves speak in their daily lives come from Urdu, irrespective of the religion they belong to. Urdu is no longer the language of “shayars” and poets but transitioned itself as a common man’s language decades ago, primarily because of its ease as a spoken language which in my opinion was the very reason why Urdu came into existence.
India had always been a land of diversity and in this very diversity are the roots of Urdu. Origin of Urdu can be traced back to the mid of 10th and beginning of 11th century and there are two theories related to how Urdu formed as a language. The word “Urdu” is derived from Turkish word “Ordu” which means an Army Camp and around this word is the most established theory relating the origination, evolution and development of Urdu. Another theory related to the origin of Urdu is that it was formed out of “Brij Bhasha” a dialect of Western Hindi and it would be unfair to call it a camp language. What both these theories have in common is that Urdu formed out of several languages spoken by people of different origins and religions. Over a period of centuries, for the sake of convenience, words that were spoken and understood by majority of people but belonged to different languages were taken and put together to form a language that was spoken and understood by all.
Indian sub-continent remained under Muslim rule for over 600 years since 1206 when Qutbu l-Din Aibak formed the Delhi Sultanate. Even prior to that, Northern India was under a wave of raids from armies from Central Asia and Persia since year 900, when Mahmud of Ghazni raided and plundered kingdoms in north India, from east of the Indus river to west of Yamuna river 17 times. Notable poet Mir Amman was the first who originated the theory of how Urdu formed. As per him, Muslim armies during these raids and later on under Delhi Sultanate comprised of soldiers of different origins, religions and speaking different languages. Yet they were all under the same king and living in the same army camps. Necessity of a common language that was spoken and understood by all was gravely felt and hence from conglomeration of many different languages manly Arabic, Persian, Pashtu, Turkish, Hindi and some local dialects of India, a new language gradually took shape. In the early days, this hybrid language was called “Hindvi” or “Dehlvi” referring to the Delhi Sultanate and it was written in Devnagri Script. Over the next few centuries, this common language spread out of the army camps and came into use by common people. By the time it reached southern India, especially Hyderabad, the name was changed from “Dehlvi” to “Deccani”. Vocabulary was earlier formed from words of languages from Northern India and other Asian countries but upon reaching Southern Indian, this vocabulary further expanded and the name changed from “Deccani” to “Rekhta” or “Rekhti”. This forerunner of modern Urdu language continued its existence throughout the Mughal era after it was declared as the official language of the court. It was around this time that Urdu replaced Persian as a bridge language.
This theory however is disputed by many scholars like Hafiz Mahmood Sherani and Shams-ur-Rahman Farooqi. As per them, Urdu formed out of several Indian dialects like Brij Bhasha, Mewati, Khari Boli and Haryani, way before Mughal era. Later on when people from other Asian countries like Persia, Arab and Afghanistan started to move into Indian Sub-continent, words from these languages were taken as well and the vocabulary further expanded.
Whatever theory we believe, whether Urdu was created by soldiers in army camps or common people, fact remains that Urdu is nothing more than words adapted from other languages. Words that were not spoken and understood not only by native speakers of a language but other people as well. Over a period of centuries, words kept adding, vocabulary increased and a new language took shape.
Literature always plays the most important part in standardization of any language. In the case of Urdu as well, it were the poets of Mughal era that over a period of centuries gave final shape to what is now called as Modern Urdu. What earlier was only a commonly spoken tongue was later documented as a different language altogether. Amir Khusro is accredited to be the first poet of Urdu language, which then was called as “Dehelvi” but traces of Urdu are found even in the works of Wali Deccani and Quli Qutab Shah. Other notable poets whose works contributed to Urdu and helped it take shape are Mir Taqi Mir, Mir Dard and Mirza Ghalib.
Words that we speak in our day to day lives can no longer be called Hindi. Which one of us remember calling man a “purush” or a woman as “Stree”? When was the last time we used the word “Jal” for water or “Bhojan” for food? Words that are of proper Hindi dialect have long faded and the language that we now speak is primarily Urdu.
