Native speakers of Urdu are spread across South Asia. The vast majority of them are Muslims of the Hindi–Urdu Belt of northern India, followed by the Deccani people of the Deccan plateau in south-central India (who speak Deccani Urdu), and most of the Muhajir people of Pakistan and some stranded Pakistani communities in Bangladesh. The historical centres of Urdu speakers include Delhi and Lucknow. Another defunct variety of the language was historically spoken in Lahore for centuries before the name "Urdu" first began to appear. However, little is known about this defunct Lahori variety as it has not been spoken for centuries.
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👉 Urdu-speaking people in the context of Bengalis in Pakistan
Bengali Pakistanis, in the present day, refers to Pakistani citizens who are of ethnic Bengali background. They are predominantly the descendants of East Pakistani migrants in West Pakistan who stayed in Pakistan following Bangladeshi independence. They are predominantly bilingual speaking both Urdu and Bengali and are mainly settled in Karachi. Bengalis that arrived in Pakistan before 1971 have now assimilated with the Urdu-speaking people in Karachi.
Despite the historical fact that Bangladesh was formerly East Pakistan, the term 'Pakistani Bengali' is now no longer popularly used. However, a large population of nearly 3 million exists.
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Urdu-speaking people in the context of Khari Boli
Kauravi (Hindi: कौरवी, Urdu: کَوروی), also known as Khaṛībolī, is a dialect of Hindustani descended from Shauraseni Prakrit that is mainly spoken by local people in Western Uttar Pradesh, across Yamuna river (Jamna Paar) in Delhi, in Haryana, border areas of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, and in whole of Uttarakhand plains.
Modern Hindi and Urdu are two standard registers of Hindustani, descending from Old Hindi, originally called Hindavi and Delhavi which gained prestige when it was accepted along with Persian as a language of the courts. Before that, it was only a language the Persianate states (like Delhi Sultanate) spoke to their subjects in, and later as a sociolect of the same ruling classes.