Review: The secular nationalism of Urdu by Kavita Saraswathi Datla

Without a doubt Datla’s book is a tremendous historiographical effort toward setting the record straight on the Muslim contribution to India’s secular future, writes A Fazlur Rehman in The Hindu.

The possibility of Urdu being a secular language that could unite India’s diverse communities may come as a surprise to many because of the mistaken belief that it is a “Muslim language.” But an attempt to forge a “common secular future” for Indian citizens through Urdu was indeed made in the 19th century in the princely state of Hyderabad.