In a significant judgment, the Supreme Court of India has ruled that Hindi and Urdu are fundamentally the same language, rejecting the long-standing perception that associates Hindi with Hindus and Urdu with Muslims.
The court described such a view as a "pitiable digression from reality", reports The Hindu.
Delivering the verdict, a bench comprising Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Vinod Chandran said that language is a medium of communication, not an embodiment of religious identity.
The judgment was issued in response to a petition challenging the use of Urdu on a signboard of the Municipal Council in Patur, Akola, Maharashtra. The signage, written in both Marathi and Urdu, was contested by a former council member who argued that Marathi is the state’s official language and the use of Urdu was therefore inappropriate.
Rejecting this argument, the court emphasised that Urdu is not a foreign language but one that was born, evolved, and refined within India. “When we criticise Urdu, we are in a way also criticising Hindi,” the court observed.
Highlighting the linguistic overlap, the court noted that while Urdu is generally written in the Nastaliq script and Hindi in Devanagari, scripts do not define a language. “What makes languages distinct is their syntax, their grammar, and their phonology. Urdu and Hindi share broad similarities across all these aspects,” the judgment stated.
Justice Dhulia further elaborated that the divergence between the two languages was artificially deepened over time. “A fusion of Hindi and Urdu was obstructed by linguistic purists on both sides, leading to Hindi becoming increasingly Sanskritised and Urdu more Persianised. This divide was further exploited by colonial powers, creating a false perception of Hindi as the language of Hindus and Urdu of Muslims.”
The bench pointed out that everyday spoken Hindi in India incorporates a wide range of Urdu vocabulary. In a striking example, the court noted, “The word ‘Hindi’ itself is derived from the Persian word ‘Hindavi’.”
“Language is not religion. It does not represent religion. Language belongs to a community, to a region, to people—not to a religion. It is a marker of culture and a reflection of civilizational progress,” the judgment read. It praised Urdu as a “fine specimen of Ganga-Jamuni tahzeeb,” referring to the syncretic cultural heritage of northern and central India.
The court also highlighted that Urdu has been officially recognized by several Indian states and Union Territories, including Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Delhi, and Jammu & Kashmir, under Article 345 of the Constitution.
Emphasising India’s vast linguistic diversity, the court cited the 2011 Census, which documented 270 mother tongues with over 10,000 speakers each. “The true number of mother tongues likely runs into the thousands. We must respect and celebrate this diversity,” the court concluded.