Urdu is one of the twenty-two national languages of India. It enjoys the status of an official language in only one province. It does not itself belong to any specific region, sect or tribe.  Before 1947, it was the language of the educated class of North India and commanded a distinct and superior cultural status. Jawaharlal Nehru claimed it to be his mother tongue. This secular and inclusive nature of the language gave it its peculiar strength and brought it closer to people from across the entire country. But along with all this, the language, over a period of time was confronted with some major challenges. Linguistic politics of the region gave rise to misconceptions regarding Urdu but nevertheless, it is the essentially democratic and all-embracing inherent character of this language that has preserved its identity.