Challenges to Urdu in the post 1857 period and the Role of Ulema in the promotion of Urdu

Abstract

This article aims at analyzing the political and social aspects, causes and effects of promotion of Urdu in the post 1857 scenario when the decline of the Muslim rule from India and the dawn of British rule accelerated the pace of communal and lingual strife which ultimately politicized the cause of Urdu driving it to many controversies. These controversies along the politicization of the communal as well as the lingual hostilities and animosities soon triggered religious partition of the communities laying the foundations of the Pakistan movement in the later stages. This article will discuss the political, social and lingual issues pertaining to Urdu in the wake of the fiasco of the mutiny of 1857.