India, Aug. 22 -- In The Hindi Heartland, Ghazala Wahab expounds on an area that comprises various states of north India even as she questions the very idea of it: "[The] diversity of the Hindi heartland militates against the region being clubbed together as a single entity. What holds it together is an artificial political construct driven by opportunism, which has impacted not just our contemporary politics, but our concept of the nation itself."

She adds that Hindi, the language that gives the region its name, is its least unifying factor. While many states across North India ostensibly speak the language, their mother tongues are diverse and might be incomprehensible for other 'Hindi speakers'. For example, Garhwali would be as barel...