This paper argues that the early Congress drew opposition from the Muslim elite due to its contradictory imagination of Indian nationhood and demand for representative bodies. The Congress not only imagined the Indian nation in civic terms but also viewed it as a federation of internally sovereign religious groups. So, one could refuse to be counted into it as a member of a religious unit. The Muslim elite did the same since they felt that representative bodies in an Indian context will be majoritarian. This fear perhaps derived from the reality of cultural contestations breaking out in the urban spaces as the democratic principle was introduced into municipal administration. In response, the Congress variously tried to reassure its Muslim opposition.