Hindi Belt

The Hindi Belt, also known as the Hindi Heartland, the Hindi-speaking states, and sometimes more broadly referred to as the Hindi–Urdu Belt or Hindustani Belt, and colloquially as the Cow Belt, is a linguistic region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and westernIndia where various Northern, Central, Eastern and WesternIndo-Aryan languages are spoken, which in a broader sense is termed as Hindi languages, with Modern Standard Hindi (a Sanskritised version, based on Khari Boli) serving as the lingua franca of the region. This belt includes all the Indian states whose official language is Modern Standard Hindi.

The term "Hindi Belt" is sometimes also used to refer to the nine Indian states whose official language is Modern Standard Hindi, namely Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, as well as to the union territory of Chandigarh and the National Capital Territory of Delhi.