Indo-Persian Culture - in Contemporary India and Pakistan

In Contemporary India and Pakistan

See also: Persian language in South Asia and Persian and Urdu

Indo-Persian culture has helped produce certain composite traditions within the subcontinent that survive to this day, of which the Urdu language and literature is notable. The legacy of Indo-Persinate culture moreover can also be seen in much of the Mughal architecture within Lahore, Delhi and Agra, latterly of which the Taj Mahal is world renowned. Indian classical music also owes much, including some ragas and instruments, to the Persian culture. In many ways, the absorption and assimilation of Persian or Persianate culture within India may be compared to the gradual (if sometimes problematic) absorption of English, British or Western culture generally of which the English language is perhaps the most notable and controversial within both India and Pakistan today. The influence of Persian language moreover may be seen in the considerable proportion of loan words absorbed into the vernaculars of the north and north-west of the subcontinent including Punjabi, Gujarati, Urdu, Hindi, Kashmiri and Pashto.