Urdu in the United Kingdom
[16] One of the earliest Urdu periodicals in the UK was established in London during the 1880-90s, and was known as the Ainah-e-Angrezi Saudagri (آئینۂ انگریزی سوداگری) – Mirror of British Merchandise and, undoubtedly, it revolved mainly around trade relations with the Raj.
[18]: 18–19 In 1920, a newspaper by the name of ہند – Hind (which was later rebranded to United India) was established by some Indian students, which supposedly held on until 1930.
[8][18]: 21–22 The wave of migrants during the 1950s from South Asian countries like India and Pakistan, following World War II, introduced the modern era of Urdu periodicals in Britain.
Weekly newspapers such as نوائے وقت – Nawa-e-Waqt (The Voice of the Time) published 'overseas editions' that were sent over to Britain, however, due to issues in logistics, it was unable to satisfy demand and eventually collapsed.
The Mashriq, which published stories from the Pothohar Plateau from London, was embraced by the immigrants at the time, as a source of unity for a various reasons.
[18] The Mashriq remained as the sole Urdu newspaper in Britain during this period until the launch of the weekly 'Asia' from Birmingham, setup by a Pakistani journalist from Azad Kashmir.
The first non-Pakistani Urdu paper was published by an Indian Punjabi in August 1965, and was known as ملاپ – Milap (Reunion).
Other weeklies like اخبارِ وطن – Akhbar-e-Watan (News of the Homeland) were brought out in London, in 1969 by the veteran journalist Inayat Ullah, who also launched The Mashriq, followed by جنگ – the Daily Jang (The War) in 1971.
[21] The Daily Al-Fazl, run by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, which started in Qadian, India, launched its weekly international service in 1994.
[23][24][25] In 2024, the Easter Sunday service at the Canterbury Cathedral, which was broadcast by the BBC included a segment in which the Lord's Prayer was led in Urdu, along with subtitles in English.
[citation needed] London and Bradford are considered two major Urdu centres, among cities like Islamabad, Karachi and Hyderabad.
