<P> Sumit Sarkar notes that in the 18th and the bulk of the 19th century, "Urdu had been the language of polite culture over a big part of north India, for Hindus quite as much as Muslims". For the decade of 1881 - 90, Sarkar gives figures which showed that the circulation of Urdu newspapers was twice that of Hindi newspapers and there were 55% more Urdu books as Hindi books . He gives the example of the author Premchand who wrote mainly in Urdu till 1915, until he found it difficult to publish in the language . </P> <P> Professor Paul R. Brass notes in his book, Language, Religion and Politics in North India, </P> <P> The Hindi - Urdu controversy by its very bitterness demonstrates how little the objective similarities between language groups matter when people attach subjective significance to their languages . Willingness to communicate through the same language is quite a different thing from the mere ability to communicate . </P> <P> In 1837, the British East India company replaced Persian with local vernacular in various provinces as the official language of government offices and of the lower courts . However, in the northern regions of the Indian subcontinent, Urdu in Urdu script was chosen as the replacement for Persian, rather than Hindi in the Devanagari script . This was done despite the fact that the great majority of people in the northern plains of India were Hindu with an affinity for Hindi and for the Devanagri script . Why exactly this decision was taken is unclear . </P>

Why was urdu chosen as the national language of pakistan