Shahabuddin's Letter to CM of Delhi, 26 May, 1999 As a person whose mother tongue is Urdu, I thank you for the decision of your Government to declare Urdu as an additional Official Language in Delhi. I am certain that this decision would be appreciated and welcomed not only by those like me whose mother tongue is Urdu but all  lovers of Urdu language and literature who regard Urdu as a symbol of our composite culture.

On Declaration of Hindi as Official Language by Constituent Assembly

Shahabuddin's Letter to The Urdu Duniya/ Hamari Zaban, 4 June, 1999

In his article on "Baba Rajendra Prasad and Zaban ka Masala" in Hamari Zaban, Prof. Shakilur Rahman has stated that Hindi in the Dev Nagari script was declared as the official language of India by the casting vote of Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the then President of the Constituent Assembly. This is not a fact. There was no voting in the Constituent Assembly on the subject. The chair announced a consensus on the subject on the floor of the Assembly towards the end of its proceedings. The consensus was based on behind-the-scene negotiations and decision by the Congress Group.

Secondly, he has attributed to the Partition the rejection of Mahatma Gandhi's desire to have Hindustani in Hindi and Urdu scripts as the official language. If despite Partition, India could be declared a secular and not a Hindu state, surely Gandhiji's wish could also have been fulfilled. I think the reason lies in the longstanding rivalry between Hindi and Urdu for official status since the second half of the nineteenth century, particularly in UP, which influenced the thinking of even the Gandhian and secular leaders of our Freedom Movement. Of course, shell-shocked as they were by the Partition, the Urdu-speaking leaders kept mum and did not press the case of Urdu or Hindustani.