India, Aug. 9 -- Sometimes, more interesting than actual history is what you could call "what if" history. It's often referred to as counterfactual story-telling. A delightful book I have just read situates itself somewhere between a what-if account and a realisation that it almost did happen. In fact, it seems the cast of characters involved - the dramatis personae, you could call them - wanted it to happen. But it did not.

I am referring to the little known fact that in the 1930s, after the Turkish government abolished the caliphate, serious efforts were made to pass it onto the family of the Nizam of Hyderabad. Had that happened the centuries old caliphate, that stretched back 1300 years, could have become an Indian institution.

This...