-
Takeaways from the golden age of Indian population genetics
Responding to an India Today report on Rakhigarhi DNA, the author sets out what genetics shows: South Asian ancestry as a mix of steppe, Iranian-farmer and AASI components, with the…
-
Review: General Shahid Aziz’s Memoir Yeh Khamoshi Kahan Tak
The reviewer reads the Urdu memoir of retired Lt Gen Shahid Aziz, once close to Musharraf, finding naive idealism and Islamism that make reports he joined the jihad plausible, and…
-
Why this kolaveri di on Indian genetics
Objects to a caption in an article on Indian genetics that treats high-caste Hindus as the prototypical Indians, calling the association in poor taste.
-
Genetics stories in India Today
Shares an extract from an India Today piece on 4,500-year-old DNA from Rakhigarhi, adding that many Hindu nationalists are unperturbed by such findings and that the paper’s publication is still…
-
The passing
Reading Pankaj Mishra’s New York Times op-ed on white nationalism, the author argues that even progressive whites show revealed preferences for living among other whites, citing Bill Clinton’s own town,…
-
Urdu as an intra-provincial link language
Picking up a reader’s point that Urdu binds ethnically diverse provinces, the author notes three Pakistani provinces have large linguistic minorities, discusses Pashtun expansion, the origin of the word vatan…
-
Sikh-American President?
Reacting to a video of a Sikh American politician, the author contrasts British and American South Asian experience: post-1965 Indian Americans arrived as individuals, British migration was more communal, and…
-
On the genetics of Bengal and Southeast Asia
Points to a post on the author’s other weblog and says he will write more on Southeast Asian genetics, arguing there is a significant Indian genetic impact in many areas…
-
Suno Punjab
Watching the Pakistani drama Suno Chanda, the author hears Punjabi at length for the first time and asks why it is treated as a rustic Urdu, then explores the Lahnda-Eastern…
-
whitening Jain Music
Starting from a catchy song by a French-Malagasy artist who looks white, the author argues crude racial categories are returning, that British period dramas leave little room for BAME actors,…
The Indian Subcontinent Argues with Itself
Sunday, 8 November 2026Since December 2010 · 4,170 posts · 93,923 comments
