Call it what it is, HINDI. Urdu is such a farce; caz most notable Urdu writers are PUNJABIS. Urdu is Serbo-Croatian of Pakistan, and I hope you all remember what happened to Yugoslavia. Why not Bengali???? Urdu is only but imperialism. It suppressed other languages (totally different in structure) of Pakistan. Urdu is Sanskrit based, and yes an Indo European, so are the other languages. The reason it became our national language is only because of “highbrow” attitude of Urdu speaking (including Baba-e-Koum). If you have read Bulhay Shah, you will think of Iqbal’s poetry as a piece of crap (which it is). Get a life and learn Punjabi (or Bengali for that matter). Don't tell us Punjabis that we need to converse in Urdu to Pakhtoons and Balouchis and Sindhis to be understood.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by MehnazQ: *
Urdu is the language of poets, the language of** lovers**, the language of romance (excluding French, Italian, Spanish, etc
[/QUOTE]
I know of French kiss. Is there such a thing as an Urdu kiss?.
I wonder how would it be?. Do one of the participants have to eat raseela paan before attempting it?. Or do they have to sit on a gao takya? What are the ettiquetes to carry out a successful Urdu kiss?
Fungo...you gota be Ehle-Zaban to do that...
So in other words both kissers can not be ahl-e-zabaan? Else it would be a mess as only one can be under the tongue.
On the same note, would a kiss between same gender pool be considered a 'pushto kiss'?
yaar, you are so Bay-Sharam (or as they say in Punjabi, an arsehole).
You are right. I should resist. No wonder guppies call me desperate.
I think urdu is a sweet language. Farsi or English wouldve been better for the national language.
Who cares,, you dont need to know it, as long as u know ur mother tongue and english, urdu is not important.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Mr Xtreme: *
Urdu is great. Thanks to it I can carry out a rudimentary conversation with someone from Afghanistan. And it seems to be similar to the same language that people in India can understand as well so what's the problem?
[/QUOTE]
You hit it on the nail my friend. The real objection of all these contributors running down urdu (which is a beautiful language IMO) is that a lot of Indians speak and understand it. These people want Pakistan to be so far away from India that if it were posible to carve Pakistan and park it next to saudi Arabia, they would do it.
What an absolute joke
hiccy, I am glad you said that in Swahili because I sure didn't get it.
...
This should probably have been posted in Culture so moved there.
If you made the decision based on the 3rd page, it probably deserved the cafe.
Tazzamini mah luv, who cares if you object or otherwise?
Re: Why is Urdu the national language of Pakistan?
Actually the literacy levels of Pakistan are:
The literacy rate was 16 percent in 1951 and in 2003 it reached to 51.6
percent.
Source:
http://lists.isb.sdnpk.org/pipermail/ngo-list/2003-June/003120.html
PLease next time think before you leap! 
A couple of corrections Madhanee. Urdu is not Sanskrit based, it is Arabic based, hence the Arabic Script. Urdu is a beautiful amalgam of four of the, well, three of the most beautiful languages and one thrown in for poilitical reasons, meaning it is made up of Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Sanskrit. Sanskrit being the language thrown in for political reasons and actually contributes zilch to Urdu. The word Urdu itself is derived from Turkish which means ‘caravan’. It was the language developed for trade between the Arabs, Persians, Turks and Indians.
As usual this will turn out to be thought of as bashing from my side, but I will still write it as it is the truth. No disclaimers. Read on:
Of all the languages of the subcontinent, Sindhi is the most ancient and was the most culturally richest language of all. It is said that Sindhi was the language spoken by the Taxila and Harrapa civilizations but with slightly different phonetics and a completely different script.
With the advent of trade routes and traders from different parts of the world, Urdu was formed. Urdu contains the richest and to my knowledge, the widest range of variations after English.
Pushto is a also a very old language but the latest addition to the family of languages to the subcontinet was Balochi, a mixture of Pushto and Persian…
Here comes the hardest pill for you to swallow…In litereal circles, Punjabi is called the ‘Harami zaban’ (Again, no offense to anyone)…But it was called this for a reason, for of all the languages that were here or were later introduced, Punjabi was the only language with no script, hence the term…
Punjabi followed the tradition of some African languages where nothing is written down but is simply passed down from generation to generation through elders and storytellers and so on…It was after the advent of Urdu and its script that Punjabis in India adopted the Sanskrit/Hindi script and the Punjabis of Pakistan adopted the Urdu script…
Unforunately our very own Anwaar Qureshi has been banned, but truly :mash: he had a very strong and wonderful understanding of Urdu, with him gone it’s like Urdu is sort of gone from this forum…
And to bring Hindi on the same levels and par as Urdu…Chhee chhee chhee…That is such a gross misinterpretation, as we all know, no Hindian can say Lajawab, it would be more like Lazawab…
Where ‘J’ becomes ‘Z’ and ‘Z’ becomes ‘J’. like a Chinese speaking in English messing up the Rs and Ls…
Be proud and fortunate to be able to understand this wonderful language…
Sindhi is the oldest language of the subcontinent? That’s the first time I heard that. Sanskrit generally is considered to be the oldest language. The only somewhat serious contender may be Tamil. I have yet to come across a website from a university linguistics dept or another website which has Urdu in the Arabic language family. I’m not even sure if Arabic uni lingustic depts consider urdu a Semitic language.
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=URD
URDU: a language of Pakistan
SIL code: URD
ISO 639-1: ur
ISO 639-2: urd
Population 10,719,000 mother tongue speakers in Pakistan (1993), 7.57% of the population. Population total all countries 60,290,000 or more. Including second language speakers: 104,000,000 (1999 WA).
Region Also spoken in Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Botswana, Fiji, Germany, Guyana, India, Malawi, Mauritius, Nepal, Norway, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Thailand, UAE, United Kingdom, Zambia.
Classification Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Central zone, Western Hindi, Hindustani.
Comments Intelligible with Hindi, but has formal vocabulary borrowed from Arabic and Persian. The second or third language of most Pakistanis for whom it is not the mother tongue. National language. Grammar. Arabic script in Nastaliq style with several extra characters used. Muslim. Bible 1843-1998.
Also spoken in:
India Language name URDU
Population 48,062,000 in India (1997 IMA).
Alternate names ISLAMI, UNDRI, URUDU
Dialects DAKHINI (DAKANI, DECCAN, DESIA, MIRGAN), PINJARI, REKHTA (REKHTI).
Comments Dakhini is freer of Persian and Arabic loans than Urdu. Rekhta is a form of Urdu used in poetry. National language. Arabic script for both Urdu and Dakhini. Muslim. Bible 1843-1998. See main entry under Pakistan.
Mauritius Language name URDU
Population 64,000 in Mauritius (1993 Johnstone).
Comments Often used in government and politics. Muslim. Bible 1843-1998. See main entry under Pakistan.
South Africa Language name URDU
Population 170,000 South Asian Muslims in South Africa (1987).
Comments Most speak English. Merchants, traders, industrial, professional (medicine, computers), clerical workers, craftsmen. Muslim. Bible 1843-1998. See main entry under Pakistan.
**Classification Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Central zone, Western Hindi, Hindustani. **
^^ You are correct Vivek, I meant to add the Sindhi is the oldest language after Sanskrit, but forgot to add that part...Thanks...
All languages are beautiful but Arabic is the best!
I agree but the transition to Arabic would be a gradual process but inevitable due to our ideological foundations. Urdu is to some extent a part ofour heritage just as Punjabi, Sindhi, Baluchi and Pashto are. These languages are very dear to us and there is nothing wrong in that. Arabic is even more dearer to us since that is what God sent his final revelation in and also our beloved Prophet :saw: spoke Arabic.
The important thing is what would facilitate a thorough and a greater understanding of Quran and HAdith…its Arabic. This reason is enough to mandate a change. In the long run there would be one united Muslim nation from Morocco to Indonesia and the language of that nation would be Arabic inshahaAllah.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Lajawab: *
A couple of corrections Madhanee. Urdu is not Sanskrit based, it is Arabic based, hence the Arabic Script. Urdu is a beautiful amalgam of four of the, well, three of the most beautiful languages and one thrown in for poilitical reasons, meaning it is made up of Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Sanskrit. Sanskrit being the language thrown in for political reasons and actually contributes zilch to Urdu. The word Urdu itself is derived from Turkish which means 'caravan'. It was the language developed for trade between the Arabs, Persians, Turks and Indians.
of Pakistan adopted the Urdu script...
[/QUOTE]
More virulence than truth in your post my friend. Urdu acquired its name from the phrase "Zaban-e-horde" language of hordes. The hordes in question were soldeirs in various mercenary armies in the north India at the time. Another thing, your knowledge of etymology of urdu words is suspect. Sanskrti contributed zilch to urdu. Then how do you explain unginat words like:
Khana, peena, sona, rona,mutna,bolna,marna,jeena and on and on.
These all words have their origins in Sanskrit.
In fact if you look beyond your obvious hatred of sanskrit (and probably India) you wil see that a large number of base words in Urdu are drawn from Sanskrit and emotive words from Arabic and Persian.
Given the fact that Urdu was born in India as a melange of different languages of various peoples in India, how could it not absorb words from Sanskrit.
Your post is pure nonsense.