This book is the first of its kind on the socio-political history of Urdu. It analyses the historiography of the language-narratives about its names, linguistic ancestry, place of birth-and relates it to the politics of identity-construction among the Hindus and Muslims of India during the last two centuries. More importantly, a historical account of the use of Urdu in social domains such as employment, education, printing and publishing, radio, films, and television etc. has been provided for the first time. These accounts are related to the expression of Hindu and Muslim identity-politics...