146-415: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (( Urdu : آزاد جموں و کشمیر , romanized : Āzād Jammū̃ o Kaśmīr , lit. 'Independent Jammu and Kashmir'), abbreviated as AJK and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir ( / ˌ ɑː z æ d k æ ʃ ˈ m ɪər / AH -zad kash- MEER ), is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entity and constituting
292-642: A dialect continuum ranging from Persianised to Sanskritised vocabulary, but now they are more and more different in words due to politics. Old Urdu dictionaries also contain most of the Sanskrit words now present in Hindi. Mutual intelligibility decreases in literary and specialised contexts that rely on academic or technical vocabulary. In a longer conversation, differences in formal vocabulary and pronunciation of some Urdu phonemes are noticeable, though many native Hindi speakers also pronounce these phonemes. At
438-459: A committee headed by Mian Iftikharuddin to draft a "declaration of freedom". On October 4, an Azad Kashmir provisional government was declared in Lahore with Ghulam Nabi Gilkar as president under the assumed name "Mr. Anwar" and Sardar Ibrahim as the prime minister. Gilkar travelled to Srinagar and was arrested by the maharaja's government. Pakistani officials subsequently appointed Sardar Ibrahim as
584-406: A core vocabulary of native Sanskrit and Prakrit derived words and a significant number of Arabic and Persian loanwords, with a consensus of linguists considering them to be two standardised forms of the same language and consider the differences to be sociolinguistic ; a few classify them separately. The two languages are often considered to be a single language (Hindustani or Hindi-Urdu) on
730-506: A formal cease-fire line separating the Indian- and Pakistani-controlled parts of Kashmir came into effect. Following the 1949 cease-fire agreement with India, the government of Pakistan divided the northern and western parts of Kashmir that it controlled at the time of the cease-fire into the following two separately controlled political entities: In 1955, the Poonch uprising broke out. It
876-546: A heavy influence on both as a co-official language. According to Bruce (2021), Urdu has adapted English words since the eighteenth century. A movement towards the hyper-Persianisation of an Urdu emerged in Pakistan since its independence in 1947 which is "as artificial as" the hyper-Sanskritised Hindi that has emerged in India; hyper-Persianisation of Urdu was prompted in part by the increasing Sanskritisation of Hindi. However,
1022-518: A literary medium for Indian writers from the Bombay Presidency, Bengal, Orissa Province, and Tamil Nadu as well. As Urdu and Hindi became means of religious and social construction for Muslims and Hindus respectively, each register developed its own script. According to Islamic tradition, Arabic , the language of Muhammad and the Qur'an , holds spiritual significance and power. Because Urdu
1168-547: A major role in the economy of Azad Kashmir. One analyst estimated that the figure for Azad Kashmir was 25.1% in 2001. With regard to annual household income, people living in the higher areas are more dependent on remittances than are those living in the lower areas. In the latter part of 2006, billions of dollars for development were mooted by international aid agencies for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of earthquake-hit zones in Azad Kashmir, though much of that amount
1314-516: A move that has faced significant opposition from local political parties like the JKNC. The National Conference's current leadership, including Omar Abdullah , has reiterated their determination to pursue statehood and autonomy through legal and political channels. 2024 Jammu and Kashmir elections The 2024 Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly elections were scheduled to be held in three phases: September 18, September 25, and October 1, 2024. This
1460-595: A notable novel being Umrao Jaan Ada . According to the Navadirul Alfaz by Khan-i Arzu, the "Zaban-e Urdu-e Shahi" [language of the Imperial Camp] had attained special importance in the time of Alamgir ". By the end of the reign of Aurangzeb in the early 1700s, the common language around Delhi began to be referred to as Zaban-e-Urdu , a name derived from the Turkic word ordu (army) or orda and
1606-702: A phonological level, speakers of both languages are frequently aware of the Perso-Arabic or Sanskrit origins of their word choice, which affects the pronunciation of those words. Urdu speakers will often insert vowels to break up consonant clusters found in words of Sanskritic origin, but will pronounce them correctly in Arabic and Persian loanwords. As a result of religious nationalism since the partition of British India and continued communal tensions, native speakers of both Hindi and Urdu frequently assert that they are distinct languages. The grammar of Hindi and Urdu
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#17327914599291752-589: A policy continued by the Mughal Empire , which extended over most of northern South Asia from the 16th to 18th centuries and cemented Persian influence on Hindustani. Urdu was patronised by the Nawab of Awadh and in Lucknow , the language was refined, being not only spoken in the court, but by the common people in the city—both Hindus and Muslims; the city of Lucknow gave birth to Urdu prose literature, with
1898-507: A sectarian divide of "Urdu" for Muslims and "Hindi" for Hindus, a divide that was formalised with the partition of colonial India into the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan after independence (though there are Hindu poets who continue to write in Urdu, including Gopi Chand Narang and Gulzar ). Urdu had been used as a literary medium for British colonial Indian writers from
2044-610: A separate Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir in 1957. Sheikh Abdullah's son Farooq Abdullah (1981–2002, 2009–present) and grandson Omar Abdullah (2002–2009) have led the party after Sheikh Abdullah's death as the president. The party is a member of the People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration electoral alliance. In October 1932, Sheikh Abdullah founded the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference in collaboration with Mirwaiz Yusuf Shah and Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas . On 11 June 1939 it
2190-481: A significant role in the development of the Urdu register. Hindi became the distinct register spoken by those who sought to construct a Hindu identity in the face of colonial rule. As Hindi separated from Hindustani to create a distinct spiritual identity, Urdu was employed to create a definitive Islamic identity for the Muslim population in India. Urdu's use was not confined only to northern India – it had been used as
2336-614: A symbol of their religious identity. Hindus in northwestern India, under the Arya Samaj agitated against the sole use of the Perso-Arabic script and argued that the language should be written in the native Devanagari script, which triggered a backlash against the use of Hindi written in Devanagari by the Anjuman-e-Islamia of Lahore. Hindi in the Devanagari script and Urdu written in the Perso-Arabic script established
2482-419: A uniting language. Urdu was chosen as a symbol of unity for the new Dominion of Pakistan in 1947, because it had already served as a lingua franca among Muslims in north and northwest of British Indian Empire . Urdu is also seen as a repertory for the cultural and social heritage of Pakistan. While Urdu and Islam together played important roles in developing the national identity of Pakistan, disputes in
2628-465: A vehicle of poetry, (especially under the Bahmanids ), and is known as Dakhini , which contains loanwords from Telugu and Marathi . From the 13th century until the end of the 18th century; the language now known as Urdu was called Hindi , Hindavi , Hindustani , Dehlavi , Dihlawi , Lahori , and Lashkari . The Delhi Sultanate established Persian as its official language in India,
2774-464: A very significant number among the nearly 800 districts of India, there is a small Urdu-speaking minority at least. In Araria district , Bihar, there is a plurality of Urdu speakers and near-plurality in Hyderabad district, Telangana (43.35% Telugu speakers and 43.24% Urdu speakers). Some Indian Muslim schools ( Madrasa ) teach Urdu as a first language and have their own syllabi and exams. In fact,
2920-472: Is Gujari . It is spoken by several hundred thousand people among the traditionally nomadic Gujars , many of whom are nowadays settled. Not all ethnic Gujars speak Gujari, the proportion of those who have shifted to other languages is probably higher in southern Azad Kashmir. Gujari is most closely related to the Rajasthani languages (particularly Mewati ), although it also shares features with Punjabi. It
3066-430: Is Urdu , while English is used in higher domains . The majority of the population, however, are native speakers of other languages. The foremost among these is Pahari–Pothwari with its various dialects. There are also sizeable communities speaking Kashmiri (mostly in the north), Gujari (throughout the territory), and Dogri (in the south), as well as pockets of speakers of Kundal Shahi , Shina and Pashto . With
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#17327914599293212-548: Is a protected language in the constitution. It is also spoken as a minority language in Afghanistan and Bangladesh , with no official status. Urdu and Hindi share a common Sanskrit - and Prakrit -derived vocabulary base, phonology , syntax , and grammar, making them mutually intelligible during colloquial communication . While formal Urdu draws literary, political, and technical vocabulary from Persian , formal Hindi draws these aspects from Sanskrit; consequently,
3358-613: Is also used for several unrelated languages of the lower Himalayas. Going north, the speech forms gradually change into Hindko. Today, in the Muzaffarabad District the preferred local name for the language is Hindko , although it is still apparently more closely related to the core dialects of Pahari. Further north in the Neelam Valley the dialect, locally also known as Parmi , can more unambiguously be subsumed under Hindko. Another major language of Azad Kashmir
3504-547: Is an ongoing process of gradual shift to larger local languages, but at least in the Neelam Valley there still exist communities for whom Kashmiri is the sole mother tongue. There are speakers of Dogri in the southernmost district of Bhimber , where they are estimated to represent almost a third of the district's population. In the northernmost district of Neelam , there are small communities of speakers of several other languages. Shina , which like Kashmiri belongs to
3650-648: Is dispersed over large areas in northern Pakistan and India. Within Pakistan, the Gujari dialects of Azad Kashmir are more similar, in terms of shared basic vocabulary and mutual intelligibility, to the Gujar varieties of the neighbouring Hazara region than to the dialects spoken further to the northwest in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and north in Gilgit . There are scattered communities of Kashmiri speakers, notably in
3796-527: Is not officially recognised by the Government of Bangladesh . The Urdu spoken by Stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh is different from this dialect. Many bilingual or multi-lingual Urdu speakers, being familiar with both Urdu and English, display code-switching (referred to as " Urdish ") in certain localities and between certain social groups. On 14 August 2015, the Government of Pakistan launched
3942-488: Is one variety, is spoken much more widely, forming the third most commonly spoken language in the world, after Mandarin and English . The syntax (grammar), morphology , and the core vocabulary of Urdu and Hindi are essentially identical – thus linguists usually count them as one single language, while some contend that they are considered as two different languages for socio-political reasons. Owing to interaction with other languages, Urdu has become localised wherever it
4088-593: Is read and written as in other parts of India. A number of daily newspapers and several monthly magazines in Urdu are published in these states. Dhakaiya Urdu is a dialect native to the city of Old Dhaka in Bangladesh , dating back to the Mughal era . However, its popularity, even among native speakers, has been gradually declining since the Bengali Language Movement in the 20th century. It
4234-552: Is said to have arisen as the "language of the camp", or " Zaban-i-Ordu " means " Language of High camps " or natively " Lashkari Zaban " means " Language of Army " even though term Urdu held different meanings at that time. It is recorded that Aurangzeb spoke in Hindvi, which was most likely Persianized, as there are substantial evidence that Hindvi was written in the Persian script in this period. During this time period Urdu
4380-602: Is shared, though formal Urdu makes more use of the Persian "-e-" izafat grammatical construct (as in Hammam-e-Qadimi , or Nishan-e-Haider ) than does Hindi. The following table shows the number of Urdu speakers in some countries. Jammu %26 Kashmir National Conference The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference ( JKNC ) is a regional political party in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir union territory and Ladakh . Founded as
4526-729: Is spoken by large numbers of migrant South Asian workers in the major urban centres of the Persian Gulf countries. Urdu is also spoken by large numbers of immigrants and their children in the major urban centres of the United Kingdom , the United States, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, and Australia. Along with Arabic , Urdu is among the immigrant languages with the most speakers in Catalonia . Religious and social atmospheres in early nineteenth century India played
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4672-492: Is spoken, including in Pakistan. Urdu in Pakistan has undergone changes and has incorporated and borrowed many words from regional languages, thus allowing speakers of the language in Pakistan to distinguish themselves more easily and giving the language a decidedly Pakistani flavor. Similarly, the Urdu spoken in India can also be distinguished into many dialects such as the Standard Urdu of Lucknow and Delhi , as well as
4818-527: Is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan , where it is also an official language alongside English . In India , Urdu is an Eighth Schedule language , the status and cultural heritage of which are recognised by the Constitution of India ; and it also has an official status in several Indian states. In Nepal , Urdu is a registered regional dialect and in South Africa , it
4964-585: Is the constitutional head of state , while the Prime Minister , supported by a Council of Ministers , is the chief executive. The unicameral Azad Kashmir Legislative Assembly elects both the Prime Minister and President. The territory has its own Supreme Court and a High Court , while the Government of Pakistan 's Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan serves as a link between itself and Azad Jammu and Kashmir's government, although
5110-481: Is used in education , literature , office and court business, although in practice, English is used instead of Urdu in the higher echelons of government. Article 251(1) of the Pakistani Constitution mandates that Urdu be implemented as the sole language of government, though English continues to be the most widely used language at the higher echelons of Pakistani government. Urdu is also one of
5256-489: The 2014 general election , the NC contested the election in an alliance with Indian National Congress but did not win a single seat. Out of six seats in the state, PDP and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won three each. During the 2014 Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election , INC broke its alliance with JKNC. JKNC contested all the assembly seats but won only 15 seats, a decrease of 13 seats. PDP won 28 seats and became
5402-519: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir Council rather than by Pakistan's Central Board of Revenue. The Azad Jammu and Kashmir Council is a supreme body consisting of 14 members, 8 from the government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and 6 from the government of Pakistan. Its chairman/chief executive is the prime minister of Pakistan. Other members of the council are the president and the prime minister of Azad Kashmir (or an individual nominated by her/him) and 6 members of
5548-575: The Bombay , Bengal , Orissa , and Hyderabad State as well. Before independence, Muslim League leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah advocated the use of Urdu, which he used as a symbol of national cohesion in Pakistan. After the Bengali language movement and the separation of former East Pakistan , Urdu was recognised as the sole national language of Pakistan in 1973, although English and regional languages were also granted official recognition. Following
5694-671: The Central Hindi Directorate was established earlier in 1960, and the promotion of Hindi is better funded and more advanced, while the status of Urdu has been undermined by the promotion of Hindi. Private Indian organisations such as the Anjuman-e-Tariqqi Urdu, Deeni Talimi Council and Urdu Mushafiz Dasta promote the use and preservation of Urdu, with the Anjuman successfully launching a campaign that reintroduced Urdu as an official language of Bihar in
5840-687: The Dakhni ( Deccan ) of South India. Because of Urdu's similarity to Hindi , speakers of the two languages can easily understand one another if both sides refrain from using literary vocabulary. Although Urdu is widely spoken and understood throughout all of Pakistan, only 9% of Pakistan's population spoke Urdu according to the 2023 Pakistani census . Most of the nearly three million Afghan refugees of different ethnic origins (such as Pashtun , Tajik , Uzbek , Hazarvi , and Turkmen ) who stayed in Pakistan for over twenty-five years have also become fluent in Urdu. Muhajirs since 1947 have historically formed
5986-527: The Devanagari and Latin script ( Roman Urdu ) to allow its survival, or whether this will only hasten its demise and that the language can only be preserved if expressed in the Perso-Arabic script. For Pakistan, Willoughby & Aftab (2020) argued that Urdu originally had the image of a refined elite language of the Enlightenment, progress and emancipation, which contributed to the success of
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6132-527: The Ilm Pakistan movement, with a uniform curriculum in Urdish. Ahsan Iqbal , Federal Minister of Pakistan, said "Now the government is working on a new curriculum to provide a new medium to the students which will be the combination of both Urdu and English and will name it Urdish." Standard Urdu is often compared with Standard Hindi . Both Urdu and Hindi, which are considered standard registers of
6278-585: The Jhelum and Leepa rivers are common, due to high rainfall and melting snow. Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) is nominally a self-governing state, but ever since the 1949 ceasefire between Indian and Pakistani forces, Pakistan has exercised control over the state without incorporating it into Pakistan. Azad Kashmir has its own elected president , prime minister , legislative assembly , high court (with Azam Khan as its present chief justice), and official flag . Azad Kashmir's budget and tax affairs, are dealt with by
6424-617: The Kashmir Valley in 2009. During this period, the JKNC has experienced increasing controversies over the Accession of Kashmir to India. Protests against the government in 2010 when approximately 100 protesters (one as young as 11) were killed as the result of live ammunition being fired by state paramilitary forces. A torture scandal was exposed by the WikiLeaks , revelations which were subsequently aired on Channel 4 . In
6570-610: The Khariboli dialect of the Delhi region). Dakhni (also known as Dakani, Deccani, Desia, Mirgan) is spoken in Deccan region of southern India . It is distinct by its mixture of vocabulary from Marathi and Konkani , as well as some vocabulary from Arabic, Persian and Chagatai that are not found in the standard dialect of Urdu. Dakhini is widely spoken in all parts of Maharashtra , Telangana , Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka . Urdu
6716-593: The Line of Control (LoC) , which serves as the de facto border between the Indian- and Pakistani-controlled parts of Kashmir. Geographically, it covers a total area of 13,297 km (5,134 sq mi) and has a total population of 4,045,366 as per the 2017 national census . The territory has a parliamentary form of government modelled after the British Westminster system , with the city of Muzaffarabad serving as its capital . The President of AJK
6862-596: The Muslim League 's struggle for a separate homeland (Pakistan), and that the Muslim Conference was the sole representative organisation of the Muslims of Kashmir. However, the following year, the party passed an "Azad Kashmir resolution" demanding that the maharaja institute a constituent assembly elected on an extended franchise. According to scholar Chitralekha Zutshi , the organisation's declared goal
7008-444: The Neelam Valley , where they form the second-largest language group after speakers of Hindko. There have been calls for the teaching of Kashmiri (particularly in order to counter India's claim of promoting the culture of Kashmir), but the limited attempts at introducing the language at the secondary school level have not been successful, and it is Urdu, rather than Kashmiri, that Kashmiri Muslims have seen as their identity symbol. There
7154-482: The Punjabi elite of Pakistan, have adopted Urdu as a mother tongue and identify with both an Urdu speaker as well as Punjabi identity. Urdu was chosen as a symbol of unity for the new state of Pakistan in 1947, because it had already served as a lingua franca among Muslims in north and northwest British India . It is written, spoken and used in all provinces/territories of Pakistan , and together with English as
7300-399: The de jure legal status and de facto political status of Urdu, how much Urdu is used as language of instruction and chosen by students in higher education, and how the maintenance and development of Urdu is financially and institutionally supported by governments and NGOs. In India, although Urdu is not and never was used exclusively by Muslims (and Hindi never exclusively by Hindus),
7446-685: The old Muslim Conference . The revived Muslim Conference supported the accession of the princely state to Pakistan and led the movement for Azad Kashmir . Since 1947, the National Conference was in power in Jammu and Kashmir in one form or another till 2002, and again between 2009 and 2015. It implemented land reforms in the state, ensured the state's autonomy under the Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, and formulated
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#17327914599297592-547: The 18th century and two similar standard forms came into existence in Delhi and Lucknow . Since the partition of India in 1947, a third standard has arisen in the Pakistani city of Karachi . Deccani , an older form used in southern India , became a court language of the Deccan sultanates by the 16th century. Urdu has a few recognised dialects, including Dakhni , Dhakaiya , Rekhta , and Modern Vernacular Urdu (based on
7738-483: The 1950s (particularly those in East Pakistan , where Bengali was the dominant language), challenged the idea of Urdu as a national symbol and its practicality as the lingua franca . The significance of Urdu as a national symbol was downplayed by these disputes when English and Bengali were also accepted as official languages in the former East Pakistan (now Bangladesh ). Urdu is the sole national, and one of
7884-479: The 1960s, the Urdu lobby and eventually the Urdu language in Pakistan has been associated with religious Islamism and political national conservatism (and eventually the lower and lower-middle classes, alongside regional languages such as Punjabi, Sindhi, and Balochi), while English has been associated with the internationally oriented secular and progressive left (and eventually the upper and upper-middle classes). Despite governmental attempts at Urduisation of Pakistan,
8030-605: The 1960s, with the construction of the Mangla Dam in Mirpur District , the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Government began to receive royalties from the Pakistani government for the electricity that the dam provided to Pakistan. During the mid-2000s, a multibillion-dollar reconstruction began in the aftermath of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake . In addition to agriculture, textiles, and arts and crafts, remittances have played
8176-718: The 1970s. In the former Jammu and Kashmir state , section 145 of the Kashmir Constitution stated: "The official language of the State shall be Urdu but the English language shall unless the Legislature by law otherwise provides, continue to be used for all the official purposes of the State for which it was being used immediately before the commencement of the Constitution." Urdu became a literary language in
8322-690: The 1979 Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and subsequent arrival of millions of Afghan refugees who have lived in Pakistan for many decades, many Afghans, including those who moved back to Afghanistan, have also become fluent in Hindi-Urdu, an occurrence aided by exposure to the Indian media, chiefly Hindi-Urdu Bollywood films and songs. There have been attempts to purge Urdu of native Prakrit and Sanskrit words, and Hindi of Persian loanwords – new vocabulary draws primarily from Persian and Arabic for Urdu and from Sanskrit for Hindi. English has exerted
8468-512: The AJK Legislative Assembly. Azad Kashmir Day is celebrated in Azad Jammu and Kashmir on October 24, which is the day that the Azad Jammu and Kashmir government was created in 1947. Pakistan has celebrated Kashmir Solidarity Day on February 5 of each year since 1990 as a day of protest against India 's de facto sovereignty over its State of Jammu and Kashmir . That day is a national holiday in Pakistan. Pakistan observes
8614-415: The AJK government, increased the powers of the elected assembly, granted Azad Kashmir greater financial and administrative powers and sought to make the federal territory more autonomous. The word "Act" was also deleted from the Constitution. At one time under Pakistani control, Kashmir's Shaksgam tract , a small region along the northeastern border of Gilgit–Baltistan, was provisionally ceded by Pakistan to
8760-431: The All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference by Sheikh Abdullah and Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas in 1932 in the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir , the organisation renamed itself to National Conference in 1939 in order to represent all the people of the state. It supported the accession of the princely state to India in 1947. Prior to that, in 1941, a group led by Ghulam Abbas broke off from the National Conference and revived
8906-436: The Capital was relocated to Delhi and named Shahjahanabad and the Bazar of the town was named Urdu e Muallah. In the Akbar era the word Rekhta was used to describe Urdu for the first time. It was originally a Persian word that meant "to create a mixture". Amir Khusrau was the first person to use the same word for Poetry. Before the standardisation of Urdu into colonial administration, British officers often referred to
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#17327914599299052-469: The Christian community has been struggling to get residential status and property rights in AJK. There is no official data on the total number of Bahais in AJK. Only six Bahai families are known to be living in Muzaffarabad with others living in rural areas. The followers of the Ahmadi faith are estimated to be somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000, and most of them live in Kotli, Mirpur, Bhimber, and Muzaffarabad. Christopher Snedden writes that most of
9198-465: The Delhi region of India the native language was Khariboli , whose earliest form is known as Old Hindi (or Hindavi). It belongs to the Western Hindi group of the Central Indo-Aryan languages. The contact of Hindu and Muslim cultures during the period of Islamic conquests in the Indian subcontinent (12th to 16th centuries) led to the development of Hindustani as a product of a composite Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb . In cities such as Delhi,
9344-426: The English liked to use the name "Moors" for Urdu: I have a deep knowledge [ je possède à fond ] of the common tongue of India, called Moors by the English, and Ourdouzebain by the natives of the land. Several works of Sufi writers like Ashraf Jahangir Semnani used similar names for the Urdu language. Shah Abdul Qadir Raipuri was the first person who translated The Quran into Urdu. During Shahjahan's time,
9490-517: The Frontier Districts province (current day Gilgit-Baltistan ) had wanted to join Pakistan . In Spring 1947, an uprising against the maharaja broke out in Poonch , an area bordering the Rawalpindi division of West Punjab . The maharaja's administration is said to have started levying punitive taxes on the peasantry which provoked a local revolt and the administration resorted to brutal suppression. The area's population, swelled by recently demobilised soldiers following World War II , rebelled against
9636-425: The Government of India in return for military aid. Indian troops were immediately airlifted into Srinagar. Pakistan intervened subsequently. Fighting ensued between the Indian and Pakistani armies, with the two areas of control more or less stabilised around what is now known as the " Line of Control ". India later approached the United Nations, asking it to resolve the dispute, and resolutions were passed in favour of
9782-434: The Government of Pakistan and foreign aid , reconstruction of infrastructure is underway. Azad Kashmir's economy largely depends on agriculture, services, tourism, and remittances sent by members of the British Mirpuri community. Nearly 87% of Azad Kashmiri households own farm property, and the region has the highest rate of school enrollment in Pakistan and a literacy rate of approximately 74%. Azad Kashmir (Free Kashmir)
9928-420: The Heathens, or from the Persians, or other Nations. In 1715, a complete literary Diwan in Rekhta was written by Nawab Sadruddin Khan . An Urdu-Persian dictionary was written by Khan-i Arzu in 1751 in the reign of Ahmad Shah Bahadur . The name Urdu was first introduced by the poet Ghulam Hamadani Mushafi around 1780. As a literary language, Urdu took shape in courtly, elite settings. While Urdu retained
10074-405: The Indian government do not actively support the preservation of Urdu in professional and official spaces. Because the Pakistani government proclaimed Urdu the national language at Partition, the Indian state and some religious nationalists began in part to regard Urdu as a 'foreign' language, to be viewed with suspicion. Urdu advocates in India disagree whether it should be allowed to write Urdu in
10220-409: The Kashmir Accession Day as Black Day on October 27 of each year since 1947 as a day of protest against the accession of Jammu and Kashmir State to India and its military presence in the Indian-controlled parts of Jammu and Kashmir. Brad Adams , the Asia director at the U.S.-based NGO Human Rights Watch said in 2006: "Although 'azad' means 'free,' the residents of Azad Kashmir are anything but;
10366-401: The MKA was sidelined. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto , then Prime-Minister of Pakistan, with some local support imposed the ' Azad Jammu and Kashmir Interim Constitution Act, 1974 ’ (Interim till the Kashmir dispute was resolved with India). It allowed AJK a directly elected AJK Legislative Assembly , and a smaller indirectly elected Azad Jammu and Kashmir Council in Islamabad. This arrangement reduced
10512-417: The Pakistani authorities govern the Azad Kashmir government with tight controls on basic freedoms." Scholar Christopher Snedden has observed that despite tight controls, the people of Azad Kashmir have generally accepted whatever Pakistan has done to them, which in any case has varied little from how most Pakistanis have been treated (by Pakistan). According to Christopher Snedden , one of the reasons for this
10658-592: The People's Republic of China in 1963 which helped in resolving China-Pakistan boundary dispute and now the forms part of China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. In 1972, the then current border between the Indian and Pakistani controlled parts of Kashmir was designated as the " Line of Control ". This line has remained unchanged since the 1972 Simla Agreement , which bound the two countries "to settle their differences by peaceful means through bilateral negotiations". Some political experts claim that, in view of that pact,
10804-445: The absorption of vocabulary from various regional Pakistani languages, while some Urdu vocabularies has also been assimilated by Pakistan's regional languages. Some who are from a non-Urdu background now can read and write only Urdu. With such a large number of people(s) speaking Urdu, the language has acquired a peculiar Pakistani flavor further distinguishing it from the Urdu spoken by native speakers, resulting in more diversity within
10950-407: The ancient language Old Hindi began to acquire many Persian loanwords and continued to be called "Hindi" and later, also "Hindustani". An early literary tradition of Hindavi was founded by Amir Khusrau in the late 13th century. After the conquest of the Deccan , and a subsequent immigration of noble Muslim families into the south, a form of the language flourished in medieval India as
11096-543: The arrest of Anwar in Srinagar. On October 24, a second provisional government of Azad Kashmir was established at Palandri under the leadership of Sardar Ibrahim Khan . On October 21, several thousand Pashtun tribesmen from North-West Frontier Province poured into Jammu and Kashmir to help with the rebellion against the maharaja's rule. They were led by experienced military leaders and were equipped with modern arms. The maharaja's crumbling forces were unable to withstand
11242-612: The autonomous territory is not represented in the Parliament of Pakistan . Northern Azad Kashmir lies in a region that experiences strong vibrations of the earth as a result of the Indian plate underthrusting the Eurasian plate . A major earthquake in 2005 killed at least 100,000 people and left another three million people displaced, causing widespread devastation to the region's infrastructure and economy. Since then, with help from
11388-552: The broad Dardic group, is present in two distinct varieties spoken altogether in three villages. Pashto , of the Iranian subgroup and the majority language in the neighbouring province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is spoken in two villages, both situated on the Line of Control. The endangered Kundal Shahi is native to the eponymous village and it is the only language not found outside Azad Kashmir. As of 2021, GDP of Azad Jammu and Kashmir
11534-599: The court language of various Indo-Islamic empires . Religious, social, and political factors arose during the European colonial period that advocated a distinction between Urdu and Hindi, leading to the Hindi–Urdu controversy . According to 2022 estimates by Ethnologue and The World Factbook , produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Urdu is the 10th-most widely spoken language in
11680-479: The culture of Jammu . Mirpur , Kotli , and Bhimber are all old towns of the Jammu region. Azad Jammu and Kashmir has an almost entirely Muslim population. According to data maintained by Christian community organizations, there are around 4,500 Christian residents in the region. Bhimber is home to most of them, followed by Mirpur and Muzaffarabad. A few dozen families also live in Kotli, Poonch, and Bagh. However,
11826-415: The early 21st century an increasing percentage of Indian Muslims began switching to Hindi due to socio-economic factors, such as Urdu being abandoned as the language of instruction in much of India, and having limited employment opportunities compared to Hindi, English and regional languages. The number of Urdu speakers in India fell 1.5% between 2001 and 2011 (then 5.08 million Urdu speakers), especially in
11972-451: The elections, on 30 December 2008 the JKNC formed an alliance with the INC which had won 17 seats. Omar Abdullah became the chief minister of this coalition government on 5 January 2009. JKNC and INC contested 2009 general election in alliance. INC won all the two seats of Jammu region but lost Ladakh seat to NC rebel who contested as an independent candidate. NC won all the three seats of
12118-414: The exalted camp . Earlier it was known as Hindvi, Hindi and Hindustani . Urdu, like Hindi , is a form of Hindustani language . Some linguists have suggested that the earliest forms of Urdu evolved from the medieval (6th to 13th century) Apabhraṃśa register of the preceding Shauraseni language , a Middle Indo-Aryan language that is also the ancestor of other modern Indo-Aryan languages. In
12264-533: The exception of Pashto and English, those languages belong to the Indo-Aryan language family. The dialects of the Pahari-Pothwari language complex cover most of the territory of Azad Kashmir. Those are also spoken across the Line of Control in the neighbouring areas of Indian Jammu and Kashmir and are closely related both to Punjabi to the south and Hindko to the northwest. The language variety in
12410-529: The grammar and core Indo-Aryan vocabulary of the local Indian dialect Khariboli, it adopted the Nastaleeq writing system – which was developed as a style of Persian calligraphy. Throughout the history of the language, Urdu has been referred to by several other names: Hindi, Hindavi, Rekhta, Urdu-e-Muallah, Dakhini , Moors and Dehlavi . In 1773, the Swiss French soldier Antoine Polier notes that
12556-405: The holding of a plebiscite with regard to Kashmir's future. However, no such plebiscite has ever been held on either side, since there was a precondition that required the withdrawal of the Pakistani army along with the non-state elements and the subsequent partial withdrawal of the Indian army from the parts of Kashmir under their respective control – a withdrawal that never took place. In 1949,
12702-480: The independence movement. But after the 1947 Partition , when it was chosen as the national language of Pakistan to unite all inhabitants with one linguistic identity, it faced serious competition primarily from Bengali (spoken by 56% of the total population, mostly in East Pakistan until that attained independence in 1971 as Bangladesh ), and after 1971 from English. Both pro-independence elites that formed
12848-543: The interim constitution does not give them a choice, the people of Azad Kashmir have not considered any option other than joining Pakistan. Except in a legal sense, Azad Kashmir has been fully integrated into Pakistan. Azad Kashmir is home to a vibrant civil society. One of the organizations active in the territory and inside Pakistan is YFK-International Kashmir Lobby Group , an NGO that seeks better India-Pakistan relations through conflict resolution in Kashmir. According to
12994-554: The language as " Moors " or "Moorish jargon". John Gilchrist was the first in British India to begin a systematic study on Urdu and began to use the term "Hindustani" what the majority of Europeans called "Moors", authoring the book The Strangers's East Indian Guide to the Hindoostanee or Grand Popular Language of India (improperly Called Moors) . Urdu was then promoted in colonial India by British policies to counter
13140-458: The language in the Perso-Arabic script in courts and government offices, though Hindus continued to employ the Devanagari script in certain literary and religious contexts. Through the late 19th century, people did not view Urdu and Hindi as being two distinct languages, though in urban areas, the standardised Hindustani language was increasingly being referred to as Urdu and written in the Perso-Arabic script. Urdu and English replaced Persian as
13286-575: The language of Bollywood films tend to contain a large number of Persian and Arabic words and thus considered to be "Urdu" in a sense, especially in songs. India has more than 3,000 Urdu publications, including 405 daily Urdu newspapers. Newspapers such as Neshat News Urdu , Sahara Urdu , Daily Salar , Hindustan Express , Daily Pasban , Siasat Daily , The Munsif Daily and Inqilab are published and distributed in Bangalore, Malegaon, Mysore, Hyderabad, and Mumbai . Outside South Asia, it
13432-883: The language. In India, Urdu is spoken in places where there are large Muslim minorities or cities that were bases for Muslim empires in the past. These include parts of Uttar Pradesh , Madhya Pradesh , Bihar , Telangana , Andhra Pradesh , Maharashtra ( Marathwada and Konkanis), Karnataka and cities such as Hyderabad , Lucknow , Delhi , Malerkotla , Bareilly , Meerut , Saharanpur , Muzaffarnagar , Roorkee , Deoband , Moradabad , Azamgarh , Bijnor , Najibabad , Rampur , Aligarh , Allahabad , Gorakhpur , Agra , Firozabad , Kanpur , Badaun , Bhopal , Hyderabad , Aurangabad , Bangalore , Kolkata , Mysore , Patna , Darbhanga , Gaya , Madhubani , Samastipur , Siwan , Saharsa , Supaul , Muzaffarpur , Nalanda , Munger , Bhagalpur , Araria , Gulbarga , Parbhani , Nanded , Malegaon , Bidar , Ajmer , and Ahmedabad . In
13578-450: The largest party in the assembly followed by BJP winning 25 seats. Omar Abdullah resigned as a chief minister on 24 December 2014. After the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019, which revoked Jammu and Kashmir's special status, the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) has been advocating for its restoration. In their 2024 election manifesto, the party pledged to fight for
13724-759: The leadership of the Muslim League in Pakistan and the Hindu-dominated Congress Party in India had been educated in English during the British colonial period, and continued to operate in English and send their children to English-medium schools as they continued dominate both countries' post-Partition politics. Although the Anglicized elite in Pakistan has made attempts at Urduisation of education with varying degrees of success, no successful attempts were ever made to Urduise politics,
13870-466: The legal system, the army, or the economy, all of which remained solidly Anglophone. Even the regime of general Zia-ul-Haq (1977–1988), who came from a middle-class Punjabi family and initially fervently supported a rapid and complete Urduisation of Pakistani society (earning him the honorary title of the 'Patron of Urdu' in 1981), failed to make significant achievements, and by 1987 had abandoned most of his efforts in favour of pro-English policies. Since
14016-594: The lower area of the Himalayas , including Jamgarh Peak (4,734 m or 15,531 ft). However, Sarwali Peak (6326 m) in Neelum Valley is the highest peak in the state. The region receives rainfall in both the winter and the summer. Muzaffarabad and Pattan are among the wettest areas of Pakistan. Throughout most of the region, the average rainfall exceeds 1400 mm, with the highest average rainfall occurring near Muzaffarabad (around 1800 mm). During
14162-590: The maharaja's forces and gained control of almost the entire district. Following this victory, the pro-Pakistan chieftains of the western districts of Muzaffarabad , Poonch and Mirpur proclaimed a provisional Azad Jammu and Kashmir government in Rawalpindi on October 3, 1947. Ghulam Nabi Gilkar, under the assumed name "Mr. Anwar," issued a proclamation in the name of the provisional government in Muzaffarabad . However, this government quickly fizzled out with
14308-404: The main languages of instruction, although the people from differing provinces may have different native languages. Urdu is taught as a compulsory subject up to higher secondary school in both English and Urdu medium school systems, which has produced millions of second-language Urdu speakers among people whose native language is one of the other languages of Pakistan – which in turn has led to
14454-604: The main sources of income. There are mineral and marble resources in Azad Kashmir close to Mirpur and Muzaffarabad . There are also graphite deposits at Mohriwali. There are also reservoirs of low-grade coal, chalk , bauxite , and zircon . Local household industries produce carved wooden objects, textiles, and dhurrie carpets. There is also an arts and crafts industry that produces such cultural goods as namdas, shawls, pashmina, pherans, Papier-mâché , basketry copper, rugs, wood carving, silk and woolen clothing, patto, carpets, namda gubba, and silverware. Agricultural goods produced in
14600-457: The majority population in the city of Karachi , however. Many newspapers are published in Urdu in Pakistan, including the Daily Jang , Nawa-i-Waqt , and Millat . No region in Pakistan uses Urdu as its mother tongue, though it is spoken as the first language of Muslim migrants (known as Muhajirs ) in Pakistan who left India after independence in 1947. Other communities, most notably
14746-403: The most Urdu-speaking states of Uttar Pradesh (c. 8% to 5%) and Bihar (c. 11.5% to 8.5%), even though the number of Muslims in these two states grew in the same period. Although Urdu is still very prominent in early 21st-century Indian pop culture, ranging from Bollywood to social media, knowledge of the Urdu script and the publication of books in Urdu have steadily declined, while policies of
14892-564: The most alive language and moving ahead with times" in India. This phenomenon pertains to the decrease in relative and absolute numbers of native Urdu speakers as opposed to speakers of other languages; declining (advanced) knowledge of Urdu's Perso-Arabic script, Urdu vocabulary and grammar; the role of translation and transliteration of literature from and into Urdu; the shifting cultural image of Urdu and socio-economic status associated with Urdu speakers (which negatively impacts especially their employment opportunities in both countries),
15038-441: The native residents of Azad Kashmir are not of Kashmiri ethnicity; rather, they could be called " Jammuites " due to their historical and cultural links with that region, which is coterminous with neighbouring Punjab and Hazara . Because their region was formerly a part of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir and is named after it, many Azad Kashmiris have adopted the "Kashmiri" identity, whereas in an ethnolinguistic context,
15184-461: The official languages in northern parts of India in 1837. In colonial Indian Islamic schools, Muslims were taught Persian and Arabic as the languages of Indo-Islamic civilisation ; the British, in order to promote literacy among Indian Muslims and attract them to attend government schools, started to teach Urdu written in the Perso-Arabic script in these governmental educational institutions and after this time, Urdu began to be seen by Indian Muslims as
15330-526: The officially recognised languages in India and also has the status of "additional official language" in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh , Uttar Pradesh , Bihar , Jharkhand , West Bengal , Telangana and the national capital territory Delhi . Also as one of the five official languages of Jammu and Kashmir . India established the governmental Bureau for the Promotion of Urdu in 1969, although
15476-438: The ongoing Hindi–Urdu controversy and modern cultural association of each language with the two religions has led to fewer Hindus using Urdu. In the 20th century, Indian Muslims gradually began to collectively embrace Urdu (for example, 'post-independence Muslim politics of Bihar saw a mobilisation around the Urdu language as tool of empowerment for minorities especially coming from weaker socio-economic backgrounds' ), but in
15622-656: The only solution to the issue is mutual negotiation between the two countries without involving a third party such as the United Nation. The 1974 Interim Constitution Act was passed by the 48-member Azad Jammu and Kashmir unicameral assembly. In April 1997, the Nawaz Sharif government refused to grant constitutional status to Azad Jammu and Kashmir stating that "'The grant of constitutional rights to these people will amount to unilateral annexation of these areas." The northern part of Azad Jammu and Kashmir encompasses
15768-538: The onslaught. The tribesmen captured the towns of Muzaffarabad and Baramulla , the latter of which is 32 kilometres (20 mi) northwest of the state capital Srinagar . On October 24, the Maharaja requested military assistance from India, which responded that it was unable to help him unless he acceded to India. Accordingly, on October 26, 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh signed an Instrument of Accession , handing over control of defence, external affairs, and communications to
15914-506: The party. Acting on the behest of the central government, the governor dismissed Farooq as chief minister and replaced him with Ghulam Mohammad Shah . His government was dismissed in March 1986 and presidential rule was imposed. In the contested state assembly elections of 1987, the JKNC formed an alliance with the INC, and was declared to have won a majority. Farooq Abdullah again became chief minister and on Abdullah's watch an insurgency against
16060-518: The position and prestige of English only grew stronger in the meantime. There are over 100 million native speakers of Urdu in India and Pakistan together: there were 50.8 million Urdu speakers in India (4.34% of the total population) as per the 2011 census; and approximately 16 million in Pakistan in 2006. There are several hundred thousand in the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, United States, and Bangladesh . However, Hindustani, of which Urdu
16206-573: The power of the MKA, however Snedden referred to it as a "diminution." Danish Khan in The Friday Times characterizes this development as providing "an avenue for citizens to draw attention from political elites towards immediate socio-economic and developmental concerns such as access to basic infrastructure and public goods," further stating "while public sector investments in infrastructure and social sectors have shown relative improvements over
16352-529: The preliminary results of the 2017 Census , is 4.045 million. The website of the AJK government reports the literacy rate to be 74%, with the enrolment rate in primary school being 98% and 90% for boys and girls respectively. The population of Azad Kashmir is almost entirely Muslim. The people of this region culturally differ from the Kashmiris living in the Kashmir Valley of Jammu and Kashmir and are closer to
16498-488: The president of the provisional government. At the time of the Partition of India in 1947, the British abandoned their suzerainty over the princely states , which were left with the options of joining India or Pakistan or remaining independent. Hari Singh , the maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, wanted his state to remain independent. Muslims in the western districts of the Jammu province (current day Azad Kashmir) and in
16644-484: The previous emphasis on Persian. In colonial India, "ordinary Muslims and Hindus alike spoke the same language in the United Provinces in the nineteenth century, namely Hindustani, whether called by that name or whether called Hindi, Urdu, or one of the regional dialects such as Braj or Awadhi ." Elites from Muslim communities, as well as a minority of Hindu elites, such as Munshis of Hindu origin, wrote
16790-669: The project report by the Asian Development Bank , the bank has set out development goals for Azad Kashmir in the areas of health, education, nutrition, and social development. The whole project is estimated to cost US$ 76 million. Germany , between 2006 and 2014, has also donated $ 38 million towards the AJK Health Infrastructure Programme. The state is administratively divided into three divisions which, in turn, are divided into ten districts . The population of Azad Kashmir, according to
16936-530: The region include mushrooms, honey, walnuts, apples, cherries, medicinal herbs and plants, resin, deodar, kail, chir, fir, maple, and ash timber. The migration to the UK was accelerated and by the completion of Mangla Dam in 1967 the process of ' chain migration ' became in full flow. Today, remittances from British Mirpuri community make a critical role in AJK's economy. In the mid-1950s various economic and social development processes were launched in Azad Kashmir. In
17082-533: The reins of power in the state. But in 2002 state assembly elections, the JKNC won only 28 seats, with the Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party (PDP) emerging in the Kashmir Valley as a contender for power. In the December 2008 state assembly elections, no single party was able to get the majority. The JKNC led by Farooq's son Omar Abdullah emerged as a single largest party, winning 28 seats. After
17228-537: The reinstatement of Article 370 and the region's statehood. They also proposed repealing post-2019 laws that they argue adversely impact the region's autonomy. Additionally, the JKNC aims to encourage dialogue between India and Pakistan to address the Kashmir issue The revocation of Article 370 was part of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) efforts to fully integrate Jammu and Kashmir into India,
17374-646: The same language, Hindustani (or Hindi-Urdu), share a core vocabulary and grammar . Apart from religious associations, the differences are largely restricted to the standard forms : Standard Urdu is conventionally written in the Nastaliq style of the Persian alphabet and relies heavily on Persian and Arabic as a source for technical and literary vocabulary, whereas Standard Hindi is conventionally written in Devanāgarī and draws on Sanskrit . However, both share
17520-537: The southern districts of Azad Kashmir is known by a variety of names – including Mirpuri , Pothwari and Pahari – and is closely related to the Pothwari proper spoken to the east in the Pothohar region of Punjab. The dialects of the central districts of Azad Kashmir are occasionally referred to in the literature as Chibhali or Punchi , but the speakers themselves usually call them Pahari , an ambiguous name that
17666-518: The state government and India began. Abdullah was dismissed again in 1990 by the union government and presidential rule was imposed in the state. In 1991, the state elections were cancelled due to a revolt by the people. In the Jammu and Kashmir state assembly elections in 1996, the JKNC led by Abdullah was awarded the election yet again winning 57 seats out of a total 87. Like its predecessors, this election has been deemed to be rigged and Abdullah stepped down in 2000. His son, Omar Abdullah then took up
17812-686: The state government. It was directed against the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir , Hari Singh . The slogan of the agitation was " Quit Kashmir ". In the elections held in September 1951, National Conference won all 75 seats of the Constituent assembly of Jammu and Kashmir . Sheikh Abdullah remained prime minister until his dismissal in August 1953 on the grounds of conspiracy against the state of India. Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad became prime minister of
17958-577: The state, and Sheikh Abdullah was arrested on 9 August 1953. In 1965, the National Conference merged with the Indian National Congress (INC) and became the Jammu and Kashmir branch of the Indian National Congress. Sheikh Abdullah was again arrested in 1965 until 1968 for conspiracy against the state. Sheikh Abdullah's splinter Plebiscite Front faction later appropriated the name of the original party when Abdullah
18104-583: The style of Urdu spoken on a day-to-day basis in Pakistan is akin to neutral Hindustani that serves as the lingua franca of the northern Indian subcontinent. Since at least 1977, some commentators such as journalist Khushwant Singh have characterised Urdu as a "dying language", though others, such as Indian poet and writer Gulzar (who is popular in both countries and both language communities, but writes only in Urdu (script) and has difficulties reading Devanagari, so he lets others 'transcribe' his work) have disagreed with this assessment and state that Urdu "is
18250-452: The summer and cold and chilly in the winter. Snowfall also occurs there in December and January. The region receives rainfall in both the winter and the summer. Muzaffarabad and Pattan are among the wettest areas of the state, but they don't receive snow. Throughout most of the region, the average rainfall exceeds 1400 mm, with the highest average rainfall occurring near Muzaffarabad (around 1800 mm). During summer, monsoon floods of
18396-478: The summer season, monsoon floods of the rivers Jhelum and Leepa are common due to extreme rains and snow melting. The southern parts of Azad Kashmir, including the Bhimber, Mirpur, and Kotli districts, have extremely hot weather in the summer and moderate cold weather in the winter. They receive rain mostly in monsoon weather. In the central and northern parts of the state, the weather remains moderately hot in
18542-570: The term "Kashmiri" would ordinarily refer to natives of the Kashmir Valley region. The population of Azad Kashmir has strong historical, cultural and linguistic affinities with the neighbouring populations of upper Punjab and Potohar region of Pakistan, whereas the Sudhans have the oral tradition of the Pashtuns . The main communities living in this region are: Languages by approximate number of speakers The official language of Azad Kashmir
18688-618: The two languages' mutual intelligibility effectively decreases as the factor of formality increases. Urdu originated in the area of the Ganges-Yamuna Doab , though significant development occurred in the Deccan Plateau . In 1837, Urdu became an official language of the British East India Company , replacing Persian across northern India during Company rule ; Persian had until this point served as
18834-425: The two official languages of Pakistan (along with English). It is spoken and understood throughout the country, whereas the state-by-state languages (languages spoken throughout various regions) are the provincial languages , although only 7.57% of Pakistanis speak Urdu as their first language. Its official status has meant that Urdu is understood and spoken widely throughout Pakistan as a second or third language. It
18980-419: The western portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 . Azad Kashmir also shares borders with the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the south and west, respectively. On its eastern side, Azad Kashmir is separated from the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir (part of Indian-administered Kashmir ) by
19126-455: The world , with 230 million total speakers, including those who speak it as a second language . The name Urdu was first used by the poet Ghulam Hamadani Mushafi around 1780 for Hindustani language even though he himself also used Hindavi term in his poetry to define the language. Ordu means army in the Turkic languages . In late 18th century, it was known as Zaban-e-Urdu-e-Mualla زبانِ اُرْدُوئے مُعَلّٰی means language of
19272-511: The years, the overarching narrative in the political sphere, spanning across party lines, remains heavily focused on the Jammu & Kashmir conflict rather than indigenous socio-economic development." The Constitution provides Kashmir its own President , Prime-Minister , High Court , Supreme Court , Auditor General and Chief Election Commissioner as well. The 13th Amendment to the AJK Constitution, passed in Muzaffarabad empowered
19418-591: Was 76.60% in 2018. It remained at 79.80% in 2019. According to the 2020–2021 census, the literacy rate in Azad Kashmir was 91.34%. However, only 2.2% were graduates, compared to the average of 2.9% for Pakistan. Urdu language Urdu ( / ˈ ʊər d uː / ; اُردُو , pronounced [ʊɾduː] , ALA-LC : Urdū ) is a Persianised register of the Hindustani language , an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia . It
19564-528: Was allowed to return to power in February 1975 after striking a deal with the central government. In 1977, the National Conference he led won the state assembly elections, and Sheikh Abdullah became chief minister. His son Farooq Abdullah succeeded him as the chief minister on his death on 8 September 1982. In June 1983 elections, the JKNC, led by Farooq Abdullah, again won a comfortable majority. In July 1984, Farooq's brother-in-law Ghulam Mohammad Shah split
19710-418: Was also the main source of revenue for the governments whose primary purpose for centuries was to accumulate revenue. Agriculture is a major part of Azad Kashmir's economy. Low-lying areas that have high populations grow crops like barley , mangoes , millet , corn (maize), and wheat , and also raise cattle. In the elevated areas that are less populated and more spread out, forestry, corn, and livestock are
19856-402: Was drawn up in the 1970s, the only political parties that are allowed to exist are those that pay allegiance to Pakistan: "No person or political party in Azad Jammu and Kashmir shall be permitted... activities prejudicial or detrimental to the State's accession to Pakistan." The pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front has never been allowed to contest elections in Azad Kashmir. While
20002-519: Was estimated to be 10 billion pounds, giving per capita an income of £5604. Historically the economy of Azad Kashmir has been agricultural which meant that land was the main source or mean of production. This means that all food for immediate and long-term consumption was produced from the land. The produce included various crops, fruits, vegetables, etc. The land was also the source of other livelihood necessities such as wood, fuel, grazing for animals which then turned into dairy products. Because of this land
20148-556: Was intentioned as means of unification for Muslims in Northern India and later Pakistan, it adopted a modified Perso-Arabic script. Urdu continued its role in developing a Pakistani identity as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan was established with the intent to construct a homeland for the Muslims of Colonial India. Several languages and dialects spoken throughout the regions of Pakistan produced an imminent need for
20294-610: Was largely concentrated in areas of Rawalakot as well as the rest of Poonch Division . It ended in 1956. In 1970, Yahya Khan's military administration promulgated a 'rudimentary' constitution, 'The Azad Jammu and Kashmir Government Act, 1970' which provided AJK a presidential system, an elected legislative assembly and 'considerable' autonomy. Snedden refers to it as having "delivered the most autonomy ever enjoyed by this region – or by any region in J&;K." The central government only controlling foreign affairs, defence and currency, while
20440-555: Was referred to as "Moors", which simply meant Muslim, by European writers. John Ovington wrote in 1689: The language of the Moors is different from that of the ancient original inhabitants of India but is obliged to these Gentiles for its characters. For though the Moors dialect is peculiar to themselves, yet it is destitute of Letters to express it; and therefore, in all their Writings in their Mother Tongue, they borrow their letters from
20586-647: Was renamed as the All Jammu and Kashmir National Conference. This prompted a section of the leadership to break away and re-establish the Muslim Conference , with links to the All-India Muslim League . The National Conference was affiliated to the All India States Peoples Conference . Sheikh Abdullah was elected its president in 1947. In 1946, the National Conference launched an intensive agitation against
20732-578: Was subsequently lost in bureaucratic channels, leading to considerable delays in help getting to the neediest. Hundreds of people continued to live in tents long after the earthquake. A land-use plan for the city of Muzaffarabad was prepared by the Japan International Cooperation Agency . Tourist destinations in the area include the following: The literacy rate in Azad Kashmir was 62% in 2004, higher than in any other region of Pakistan. The literacy rate of Azad Kashmir
20878-472: Was that the people of Azad Kashmir had always wanted to be part of Pakistan. Consequently, having little to fear from a pro-Pakistan population devoid of options, Pakistan imposed its will through the Federal Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and failed to empower the people of Azad Kashmir, allowing genuine self-government for only a short period in the 1970s. According to the interim constitution that
21024-499: Was the first election since the revocation of the special status in 2019. The election decided 90 seats in the assembly. The results were announced on October 8, 2024. Key parties contesting include: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (NC), Indian National Congress (INC), and Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) After Jammu and Kashmir elections
21170-499: Was the title of a pamphlet issued by the Muslim Conference party at its 13th general session held in 1945 at Poonch . It is believed to have been a response to the National Conference 's Naya Kashmir (New Kashmir) programme. Sources state that it was no more than a compilation of various resolutions passed by the party. But its intent seems to have been to declare that the Muslims of Jammu and Kashmir were committed to
21316-504: Was to achieve responsible government under the aegis of the maharaja without association with either India or Pakistan. The following year, the party workers assembled at the house of Sardar Ibrahim on July 19, 1947, reversed the decision, demanding that the Maharaja accede to Pakistan. Soon afterward, Sardar Ibrahim escaped to Pakistan and led the Poonch rebellion from there, with the assistance of Pakistan's prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan and other officials. Liaquat Ali Khan appointed
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