Postby Rémy LeBeau » 2008-12-29, 23:01
Muslims are a minority in South Asia, in the past they were a minority who were the elite, but still, a minority. Even if every single Muslim in South Asia could speak Persian and did so on an every day basis (which was never the case), that still wouldn't be enough people speaking it to sensibly call it a "lingua franca" of South Asia. Yes, those who could afford education could speak and understand Persian, but especially after the coming of the British, it wasn't spoken as a primary language of communication, and even though it was studied among Muslims, it wasn't studied for the purpose of actually being spoken, much as is the case with Arabic in Iran, French in England or Russian in East Germany.
A good example of this is Muhammed Iqbal; despite most of his works being written in Persian, he would speak in Urdu, and when he wanted to target the Muslim masses of India, he actually switched from Persian to writing in Urdu.