Pakistan, Sept. 5 -- Every republic has a grammar. Its nouns tell us who belongs, its verbs reveal what the state believes it may do, and its silences often say more than its slogans. In Delhi this week, two women journalists say that grammar was reduced to a surname.

Shaheen Khan and Nafisa Khan had gone to Saket to cover the inauguration of a hospital wing attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta. They say they were detained, taken to a police station and beaten after trying to ask questions. Their more incendiary allegation is that the assault worsened once officers discovered they were Muslim.

There is a peculiar cruelty in the allegation because "Khan" travelled across centuries before arriving...