Persian has had a long and distinguished presence in South Asia. From its first introduction to this region in the 1500s down to the coming of the British colonists, it flowered and flourished. Both as a lingua franca and as the vehicle for aesthetic expression during the Mughal rule (1526-1707) and later in the court of the Sikh rulers of the Punjab (1799-1849), it found fertile ground. With the arrival of the British in the Sub-continent, the rich and varied heritage nurtured over centuries was abandoned. Despite some rare exceptions-like Mirza Asadullah Ghalib (1797-1869) and Allama...