Historians believe the 1867 controversy was the turning point for Sir Syed. Before this, he believed in Hindu-Muslim unity, but the linguistic attack convinced him that the two communities could not live together as one nation.

Sir Anthony MacDonald was the Lieutenant Governor. His circular issued in April 1900 allowed for applications to be submitted in Hindi and for Hindi to be used in court summons, effectively ending Urdu's monopoly.

The preservation of Urdu became a key objective for the All-India Muslim League. The League viewed the linguistic issue as proof that Muslims needed their own political safeguards to protect their culture.

Rekhta, meaning 'mixed' or 'scattered', was one of the early names for the Urdu language, specifically used in the context of its poetry which mixed Persian and local Indian linguistic elements.

Devanagri is the phonetic script used for writing Hindi, Sanskrit, and Marathi. Its adoption as an official script alongside Hindi was a central demand of the anti-Urdu movement.

Banaras (Varanasi) was the epicenter of the 1867 movement. It was a center of Hindu scholarship and the place where the demand for Hindi first took a concrete political shape.

Hindu leaders preferred Devanagri because it was the traditional script used for Sanskrit and religious texts. They viewed the Persian script used for Urdu as a remnant of foreign Muslim rule.

In 1832, the British replaced Persian with local vernaculars for administrative and judicial purposes. In northern India, Urdu became the official language of the lower courts and police, significantly boosting its status.

Sir Syed correctly predicted that the linguistic conflict was not just about words but about the survival of two distinct cultures. He famously told a British official that Hindus and Muslims would never be able to join in any work with sincerity again.

For many years, the Anjuman was headquartered in Aurangabad before moving to Delhi and finally to Karachi after the partition of India.