2018

All years and months

Judicial Jitters in Pakistan. A look back..

Omar Ali reposts Hamid Hussain’s 2007 essay for context on Pakistan’s judicial controversies. Hussain argues that when politics is militarised and the judiciary and army brass politicised, the system stays…

Omar Ali22 July 20181 comment
Dhadak

X.T.M calls the film Dhadak, an inter-caste romance, excellent and important, and lists observations: the sympathetic Christian characters, the BJP-like villain father, and the odd fact that inter-caste matches usually…

X.T.M21 July 20189 comments
Brown Missionaries and the Anglospheric Hegemony

Prompted by brown missionaries in Cambridge, X.T.M argues that religions grow tied to empire and race, and speculates that historians will call 1837 to 2016 an era of Anglospheric hegemony,…

X.T.M21 July 201827 comments
Shady Missionaries

A reader’s email, posted without comment, calls the Missionaries of Charity shady, citing a Ranchi baby-selling controversy, and asks for a post on how the Vatican operates in India.

X.T.M20 July 201823 comments
Pakistan – an innovation hub

After a visit from a Hungarian consultant who commutes into Pakistan, X.T.M relays his points: visas are hard for Westerners, Karachi hotels are poor, and global firms see an untapped,…

X.T.M19 July 20188 comments
Important WhatsApp Forward on the State of Pakistani politics

X.T.M says he stands with the Sharifs against the army, then reproduces a WhatsApp forward alleging a plan to install Imran Khan and his allies, with offensive remarks by PTI…

X.T.M18 July 201817 comments
Caste and the 1,000 Families

X.T.M says he is suspicious when white liberals ally against caste, since caste was strengthened under colonial rule, and tells anecdotes of Indian women academics who say caste was used…

X.T.M18 July 201870 comments
11year old girl gang-raped in Chennai-

X.T.M reacts to a report of an 11-year-old girl repeatedly gang-raped in a Chennai complex, arguing India should adopt summary public execution where evidence is on hand.

X.T.M18 July 201831 comments
Kailasha and Soma central to Arya culture?

The author tries to identify Mount Soma and Kailash in the Valmiki Ramayana as central to Arya culture, and reads mythic lineages, such as Ikshvaku’s and Illa’s, as possibly different…

AnAn18 July 20180 comments
Why am I an Untouchable

X.T.M recommends a HuffPost video of Sujatha Gidla speaking first-hand about being an Untouchable, noting that ‘Dalit’ is in some ways a euphemism and that he follows her usage.

X.T.M17 July 2018170 comments