Persian language for the first time paved the way for secular and mass education in India, said historian and scholar Ziauddin Ahmed Shakeeb.

According to him, until the British rule was enforced, education in India was restricted only to Brahmins.

“Aside from Muslims, no other Indian of a caste lower than Brahmins had access to literacy. In such a situation Persian offered itself as a language open to one and all,” he said while explaining why Persian and not an Indian language was used as an official language in India.

The former professor of Urdu and the history of Indo-Islamic art and culture at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, was delivering key-note address at an international seminar on Persian organized at Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) here Tuesday. More >>