Persian language in the Indian subcontinent

Before British colonisation, the Persian language was the lingua franca of the Indian subcontinent and a widely used official language in the northern India.^[a] The language was brought into South Asia by various Turkics and Afghans and was preserved and patronized by local Indian dynasties from the 11th century, such as Ghaznavids, Sayyid dynasty, Tughlaq dynasty, Khilji dynasty, Mughal dynasty, Gujarat sultanate, and Bengal sultanate. Initially it was used by Muslim dynasties of India but later started being used by non-Muslim empires too. For example, the Sikh Empire, Persian held official status in the court and the administration within these empires. It largely replaced Sanskrit as the language of politics, literature, education, and social status in the subcontinent.^[3]

The spread of Persian closely followed the political and religious growth of Islam in the Indian subcontinent. However Persian historically played the role of an overarching, often non-sectarian language connecting the diverse people of the region. It also helped construct a Persian identity, incorporating the Indian subcontinent into the transnational world of Greater Iran, or Ajam.^[4] Persian's historical role and functions in the subcontinent have caused the language to be compared to English in the modern-day region.^[5]

Persian began to decline with the gradual deterioration of the Mughal Empire. Urdu and English replaced Persian as British authority grew in the Indian subcontinent. Persian lost its official status in the East India Company in 1837, and fell out of currency in the subsequent British Raj.

Persian's linguistic legacy in the region is apparent through its impact on the Indo-Aryan languages. It played a formative role in the emergence of Hindustani, and had a relatively strong influence on Punjabi, Sindhi, Bengali, Gujarati, and Kashmiri. Other languages like Marathi, Rajasthani, and Odia also have a considerable amount of loan words from Persian.

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