Open Thread, 11/14/2020 – Brown Pundits

I don’t know anything about Diwali, but Happy Holdidays! (I found out that it was Diwali this weekend from Twitter and the comments here).

A new podcast on the election results with Josiah Neeley and Richard Hanania. We get kind of spicey by the end, as I make fun of Richard making fun of Peter Turchin, and make a huge prediction about Hunter Biden’s future.

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somehornyguy
somehornyguy
3 years ago
Reply to  Razib Khan

Young brown women are getting thottier. You didn’t know this, Chad Razib?

Diaspora Indian
Diaspora Indian
3 years ago
Reply to  Razib Khan

Razib Khan says:

***
so i found this via twitter https://www.instagram.com/reel/CHX_edWhLaK/ (brown women twerking)

i notice that my *cousin* (20 year old brit banla girl) “liked” it on insta. wtf
***

Thotiness aside, they do have a point, Bollywood is extremely sexualised these days. Government really needs to do something about this. They also need to crack down on Western social media, I think India should create it’s own “Great Firewall” personally.

principia
principia
3 years ago

Thotiness aside, they do have a point, Bollywood is extremely sexualised these days. Government really needs to do something about this. They also need to crack down on Western social media, I think India should create it’s own “Great Firewall” personally.

GoI cannot ‘crack down’ on social media because India has been forced into the arms of the US due to China’s geopolitical blunders. And the US controls social media.

You’re not wrong on principle, though. I just think it is impossible. It is even harder for you in the diaspora. I always tell people. Sure, come to the West, but any fantasies of maintaining the same cultural mores as back home, especially with 2nd and 3rd gen kids, is a pipe dream. But many people don’t grasp this, nor even foresee it until it hits them in their faces.

Milan Todorovic
Milan Todorovic
3 years ago

Can someone say what is the meaning of the words – Afghanistan and Pashtun?

Milan Todorovic
Milan Todorovic
3 years ago

Anyone? Is there some Aftopghan guy or they do not consider themselves brown?

Leena K.
Leena K.
3 years ago

i submitted an elaborate answer that was not posted .

Milan Todorovic
Milan Todorovic
3 years ago
Reply to  Leena K.

I look forward to reading your comment Leena as soon as Khanishka takes some break from the recounting of Texan votes. I am glad that we have a girly contributor unless I again made a mistake as I already did with Rose (aka Violet). I also noticed that other boys also try to behave and VV takes special care which hat he chooses when he comments.

Ugra
Ugra
3 years ago

Wish everyone at BP a happy and prosperous Deepavali!!

Brown
Brown
3 years ago

the following is the south indian practice:
today is naraka chaturdashi, the day when krishna slayed the demon narakasura and liberated 16,000 maidens held captive. tomorrow is amavasya, traditionally the day of goddess lakshmi’s puja. this is also start of the accounting year in many business, so much so that the bombay stock exchange also has a small trading session.
the third day is bali padyami. this is when bali chakravarthy, the demon king, who was eventually pushed into patala loka by vishnu in vamana avatara comes back to earth for a day to see his subjects. the lamps are to welcome him.

now, north india: amavasya is the day when srirama comes back from vanavasa to ayodhya. we were not familiar with his version till we started meeting north indians!!

Sumit
Sumit
3 years ago
Reply to  Brown

this is also start of the accounting year in many business,

some people that run businesses in my family do ‘chopda pujan’ (lit. ‘books worship’), basically ceremonially closing the books for the year.

the next day is ‘bestu varas’ i.e. Gujarati New Year.

so its the start of the regular calendar year for Gujaratis and i think marwaris as well

Insight Lover
Insight Lover
3 years ago

Please do another podcast for The Insight—I BEG you!

Milan Todorovic
Milan Todorovic
3 years ago

I was right when I predicted that Serbs will be guilty whatever is the result of the US presidential elections. On Twitter yesterday, Trump accused the “Dominion” counting system of fraud. This software was created in Serbia.

Diaspora Indian
Diaspora Indian
3 years ago

Milan Todorovich says

***
I was right when I predicted that Serbs will be guilty whatever is the result of the US presidential elections. On Twitter yesterday, Trump accused the “Dominion” counting system of fraud. This software was created in Serbia.
***

Trump is grasping at straws, I think it has become pretty apparent he will be on his way out now, the reality is he lost because he didn’t give enough to his base (White working class folk). In fact his vote share increased amongst POCs and decreased amongst White men.

That being said, paper ballots are the way to go, there is always a danger of electronic voting machines being compromised.

Milan Todorovic
Milan Todorovic
3 years ago

That is definitely not the case. What white working class men could expect from senile Biden? Trump got more votes than last time plus some of his votes were probably transferred to Biden. Pls have a look my comment bellow. I was (half)joking with a Serbian guilt, the fact is that the Dominion software was written in Serbia and also, there are a sufficient number of Serbs to swing in these 5-6 swinging states.

thewarlock
thewarlock
3 years ago

Happy Diwali (the correct spelling)! 😉

And brown ladies be getting all kinds of nasty. In the words of esteemed Kazakh diplomat: “Very Nice!!!”

Men my age shall reap what has be sown by the vehicles of assimilation and the inadvertent reverse psychology of toxic aunty culture

Saurav
Saurav
3 years ago

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-11-14/handing-our-entire-letters-page-over-trump-voters

Opinion: We turned over our letters page to Trump readers for a day. Here’s what they wrote

Narasingha Deva
Narasingha Deva
3 years ago

https://swarajyamag.com/amp/story/insta%2Fchennai-based-csir-serc-develops-indigenous-emergency-retrieval-system-for-power-transmission-lines

Chennai-Based CSIR-SERC Develops Indigenous Emergency Retrieval System For Power Transmission Lines

thewarlock
thewarlock
3 years ago

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/nov/12/western-travel-influencers-social-media-pakistan-politics

AMAZING PR by Pak Propaganda machine. NW haleems have really outdone themselves. Smart work

Bhimrao
Bhimrao
3 years ago
Reply to  thewarlock

My monthly dose of NW-phobia:

‘Narrative-building’, ‘Nazariya’, ‘overseas Pakistani’, ‘Iqbal Genius’, ‘Masla’, ‘Fauj’, ‘Gau Rashtra’, ‘Saazish’, ‘Muudi’, ‘Quuuaid-ai-AAzam’, ‘Dho-qoumi-nazariya’, ‘salaalaaaah-hoe-waale-wasallam’,’qibla-durust’

Spend time on sub reddit of Pakistan and it becomes amply clear that if we think of India as a polio patient, Pakistan most certainly is a case of genetic disorder. They just can’t think logically, everything is a conspiracy.

Recently attended house party with a bunch of (Hindi with a fake as fuck angrezi accent) Pakistanis. One of two things holds:
1) I am a biased(which I kind of am).
2) Pakistanis can’t help themselves and talk about religion. They just can’t keep mum for one hour and try not to talk about secularism, Muudi and Adityanath. It is like me talking to Americans on Police brutality, Americans be like ‘BC kaun desh se aaya hai be? shakal dekhi hai G***u?’

Also got swindled at JFK by absolutely asshole Pakistani taxi driver. In this regard all Indians are brothers. Wherever we go, we take our shamelessness, pestering and cheating with us.

S Qureishi
S Qureishi
3 years ago
Reply to  Bhimrao

Man that’s lot of catharsis

Bhimrao
Bhimrao
3 years ago
Reply to  S Qureishi

LoL! LoL! LoL! So clever! Chaati mein dard uth gaya meri toh.

Saurav
Saurav
3 years ago
Reply to  Bhimrao

“ It is like me talking to Americans on Police brutality “

So no “defund the police” for Indians? Sad.

Bhimrao
Bhimrao
3 years ago
Reply to  Saurav

Americans don’t have a clue what real police brutality means, just like they have no clue what socialism entails.

Saurav
Saurav
3 years ago
Reply to  Bhimrao

“just like they have no clue what socialism entails.”

Funny that every Bong i meet also says the same thing.

Bhimrao
Bhimrao
3 years ago
Reply to  Bhimrao

Anti-Indian lord Nazir ‘resigns'(ahem) after being recommended for removal from house of lords.

“Karein woh kaam aisa jag mein apna naam ho jaaye…”

Mard-e-momin ki mardangi…

“Lord Ahmed breached the Code of Conduct by failing to act on his personal honour in the discharge of his parliamentary activities by agreeing to use his position as a member of the House to help a member of the public but then; sexually assaulting the complainant, lying to the complainant about his intentions to help her with a complaint to the Metropolitan Police”

https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/267008638/lord-nazir-ahmed-resigns-from-uk-house-of-lords

btw this guy and his brothers are pedos too, just like the rest of taxi drivers from Mirpur.

Diaspora Indian
Diaspora Indian
3 years ago
Reply to  thewarlock

thewarlock says:

***
AMAZING PR by Pak Propaganda machine. NW haleems have really outdone themselves. Smart work
***
From the article in The Guardian:

“Alex Reynolds, who has Filipino heritage, also noticed the gora complex on her travels. “The first time I went to Pakistan, I had a white boyfriend,” she told me. “Then, people were giving us rides, and food, and gifts and things. When I started travelling alone, that stopped.”

You have to LOL, we desis really are that beholden to our white massas that we literally give away free stuff to them while we haggle fiercely with countrymen. There has been a huge surge in grift operations by the goras in relation to blogging/vlogging about the countries of the Indian subcontinent, but mostly focused on India and Pakistan.

Will we ever break free of this mentality?

Sumit
Sumit
3 years ago

Not limited to Pakistanis tbh

There is something called a ‘begpacker’, where white tourists can beg their way through poor countries in asia, relying on local hospitality…

https://medium.com/@MajSB/begpackers-seen-by-a-third-worldist-585d408db401

Prats
Prats
3 years ago

This is not limited to Pakistan.

Last year my friend brought along his white presenting (but half-Korean) American girlfriend to India. I was showing them around Delhi.

We went to the Jama Masjid and outside while we were putting our shoes back on, random guys starting coming over to get their pictures taken with her. She was being goo natured and letting them do so.

I had to shoo them away.

This is a pretty weird trend where lower middle class guys who’ve just got on social media want to post photos with firangs.

Brown
Brown
3 years ago

stereo typing kannadigas:
the latest ‘the week that wasn’t’ by cyrus broacha has a clip about a bangalore scientist. kunal playing that role is dressed and speaks like a tamilian. this team always cannot have a stereo typed kannadiga.
i feel that this is a genuine problem, considering the non monochromatic nature of the kannada population.

Prats
Prats
3 years ago
Reply to  Brown

“i feel that this is a genuine problem, considering the non monochromatic nature of the kannada population.”

I think this is a problem because of general north Indian ignorance of south India.
No person really knows or cares how a Kannadiga is different from a Tamil.

The reverse is true as well. No south Indian is bothered about the difference between UP and Bihar.

Jay
Jay
3 years ago
Reply to  Prats

WHAT??? UP and Bihar bhayyas are different?

Bhumiputra
Bhumiputra
3 years ago
Reply to  Brown

Till recently, the Lingayat and vokkaliga farmers were content with their farms. This left Bangalore free to tambrahms, normal Tamils, nth gen telugus, mallus. Not sure how things will change in next 5-10 years. A lot will depend upon the nature of relationship between the native farmer groups. Till early naughts, there was a feeling of neglect in north KA, but last 10 years or so there is change. More youngsters from villages are working in Bangalore or even in west plus GoK is also investing more in infrastructure development especially around roads and irrigation.

Milan Todorovic
Milan Todorovic
3 years ago

PE: “US intel is very much aware of well-documented instances of election fraud. Among them: NSA software that infiltrates any network, as previously detailed by Edward Snowden, and capable of altering vote counts; the Hammer supercomputer and its Scorecard app that hacks computers at the transfer points of state election computer systems and outside third party election data vaults; the Dominion software system, known to have serious security issues since 2000, but still used in 30 states, including every swing state; those by now famous vertical jumps to Biden in both Michigan and Wisconsin at 4am on November 4 (AFP unconvincingly tried to debunk Wisconsin and didn’t even try with Michigan); multiple instances of Dead Men Do Vote.

The key actor is the Deep State, which decides what happens next. They have weighed the pros and cons of placing as candidate a senile, stage 2 dementia, neocon warmonger and possible extorsionist (along with son) as “leader of the free world”, campaigning from a basement, incapable of filling a parking lot in his rallies, and seconded by someone with so little support in the Dem primaries that she was the first to drop out.”

Curious
Curious
3 years ago

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/politics/kamala-harris-biden-clout/2020/11/14/9ddda48e-25df-11eb-8672-c281c7a2c96e_story.html%3foutputType=amp

It seems that her sister Maya Harris and Sri Lankan American Rohini Kosoglu might play a big role in Kamala chithi’s Veep staff.

IsThisReal
IsThisReal
3 years ago

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/54843694

Out of the 4,000 professional footballers in the UK, just 10 are British Asians.

Diaspora Indian
Diaspora Indian
3 years ago
Reply to  Razib Khan

Razib, why not use the Disqus software for the commenting feature on this blog? I am pretty sure it is free and it would scale well for the amount of comments this blog usually gets.

Narasingha Deva
Narasingha Deva
3 years ago

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/trends/features-2/interview-author-robert-elgood-a-world-authority-on-historic-indian-firearms-speaks-on-matchlocks-mughals-and-mehrangarh-6117221.html/amp

Interview | Author Robert Elgood, a world authority on historic Indian firearms, speaks on matchlocks, Mughals and Mehrangarh

Milan Todorovic
Milan Todorovic
3 years ago

Biden (1998)

– I suggested that we bomb Belgrade. I suggested that we send American pilots and blow up all the bridges on the Drina (MT – the river between Serbia and Bosnia).

Biden (1999)

It seems to me that the question is what is the definition of victory? We sat in this show before, the definition was (Serbian) troops outside Kosovo, the return of Albanians to Kosovo and NATO troops in Kosovo.

That is not a total victory.

It’s not the victory I want, it’s not the victory John McCain wants. I said that we should go to Belgrade and occupy that country in the Japanese-German style. And we need to have public trials (like in Nuremberg), in order to destroy the idea of presenting Serbs as victims.

Biden to Albanians (2002)

If I were your lawyer, I could put together an insurmountable case before any jury in the world, that you have every right and that your leaders have every right to seek revenge and let the dogs of war go. You have every right!

If I were your lawyer, I could prove to the jury that not only Albanians, but all Muslims in the region are victims, not accidental, but well-designed and long-planned versions of the “final solution” from the end of the 20th century. The final solution devised by one of the greatest maniacs I have met in my life (MT – S. Milosevic).

****************************************************************

>>>>>>>> What a sleepy, senile moron and a fbastard. He titled the poster on the TGHorse’s wall which inspires him before sending comments to BP:

http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19950911,00.html

Diaspora Indian
Diaspora Indian
3 years ago

America has traditionally always used radical Islamist groups to its favour. The list is endless. Possibly the most Islamophilic regime in history.

Ali Choudhury
Ali Choudhury
3 years ago

A prescient comment by William Dalrymple in his book City of Djinns written in 1993.

https://twitter.com/thusspakejsk/status/1328243487679021056?s=20

Prats
Prats
3 years ago
Reply to  Ali Choudhury

Is it really prescient?

Or does it just show that people keep making the same premonitions without learning?

S Qureishi
S Qureishi
3 years ago
Reply to  Ali Choudhury

That’s because they consider Sikhs as ”Dharmic” faith, not some ‘other’ to be expelled or contained. Some kind of a ”sword arm” of Hinduism .. This irks the Sikhs I have met who feel their identity is being encroached upon when Hindus don’t accept them as a separate religion. Muslims on the other hand are too different to be straight up assimilated in Hinduism (not that they haven’t tried), so these sentiments are expressed for them.

thewarlock
thewarlock
3 years ago
Reply to  S Qureishi

They should accept them as a separate religion. Even Jains of generations past, from what I have seen, used to get annoyed at this. But they are too small in number now and so heavily assimilated and intermarried to make a real fuss.
Hindutuva made an error with how they phrased things. They should have gone with Satana Dharma framework.
You also interact with much more Khalistani Sikhs in GTA than average global Sikh. Granted, most Sikhs do get irked, when Hindutuva types don’t accept them as a separate faith; but I am sure Khalistani types are extra irked.
Muslims are more of an “other.” They are of an abrahamic faith.

Honestly, most Hindus accept Sikhs as a separate religion. But weird shit like listing them under the Hindu Marriage Act is dumb. There should be no Hindu Marriage Act or place for Muslim personal law. There should have been a uniform civil code to begin with.

Hindus btw are shocked to learned Jainism is an “atheistic philosophy.” They kind of tend to know Buddha is not a conventional “God” in Buddhism but most seem to to think Mahavira is a God for Jains and the founder, when it reality that’s far from the truth from the Jain perspective.

Honestly, Hindus and Sikhs were pretty intertwined at some point. And intermarriage is more and more common, especially as Sikh population is falling proportionally in Punjab. Not long ago, first born son of Hindu family would become a Sikh. So believe or not, Hindutuva hardliners aren’t entirely wrong. But they aren’t being politically saavy, as usual

Saurav
Saurav
3 years ago
Reply to  thewarlock

Its alright. Things will revert to a equilibrium (if it already hasn’t)

girmit
girmit
3 years ago
Reply to  thewarlock

Perhaps because as you get closer to punjab, the identity politics is in higher relief, but non-metropolitan folks in other parts of india (i’m thinking of my own family), might just view sikhism as punjabi hinduism. I’ve even seen countless ppl with pics of themselves after having offered prayers at the golden temple, don’t think it occurs to them that they have crossed a religious boundary. I could give examples of subtle sectarian boundaries that exist within “mainline” hinduism that are equivalent or even more strong.

Saurav
Saurav
3 years ago
Reply to  thewarlock

‘i’m thinking of my own family), might just view sikhism as punjabi hinduism.”

I thought all Punjabis are sikhs only (some wear turban and some don’t) , till high school

S Qureishi
S Qureishi
3 years ago
Reply to  thewarlock

Well to us, Sikhism, Buddhism Jainism all seem like part of Hinduism. They are classified separate religions only because the adherents are conscious about it and assert their distinction with Hinduism.

thewarlock
thewarlock
3 years ago
Reply to  S Qureishi

I wonder how much Sikhism’s distinction stuff is based in Birdari racism against darker less caucasoid on average Hindus. I mean there are equally low AASI hindus like Khatris and even more steppe shifted Hindu Jats.But the majority of the subcontinent is more aasi less steppe types.

Saurav
Saurav
3 years ago
Reply to  S Qureishi

Growing up i thought all muslims ‘celebrate’ Moharram, and once i wished my Sunni friend ‘Happy Moharam’ , and he being a kid as well, said Shias do that, LOL

S Qureishi
S Qureishi
3 years ago
Reply to  S Qureishi

haha
Neither Sunnis nor Shias ‘celebrate’ Muharram, more like commemorate & mourn. Shias just take it to the next level with the food, the religious sermons, the dress codes, the communual feasts and the Azadari self flagellation. Sunnis just observe the 10th Muharram silently.

S Qureishi
S Qureishi
3 years ago
Reply to  S Qureishi

//I wonder how much Sikhism’s distinction stuff is based in Birdari racism against darker less caucasoid on average Hindus.//
I dont think everything here is racial. I think Sikhism’s distinct identity was established during the independent Khalsa empire. Usually state patronage to one sect over others tend to cement that sect’s distinct identity. Furthermore, the British deemed them ‘martial’ as a reward for loyalty during 1857, and started recruiting heavily from Punjab to counter Russia in the late 19th century. This elevated martial status + distinct identity would explain why they feel racist towards other ethnic groups not deemed ”martial”

Prats
Prats
3 years ago
Reply to  thewarlock

“Honestly, Hindus and Sikhs were pretty intertwined at some point.”

This is largely true of urban Sikhs. But a large chunk of those who migrate to Canada come from rural areas. Their attitudes are different and since they form the majority and hence decide the ‘norms’ in the west, the outlook of western Sikhs is different.

The diaspora is a separate community in itself and unlike mainline Hinduism, the distribution of population is less skewed between homeland and the west. Also, the distribution of economic might is even less skewed. The overall GDP of Canadian Sikhs is almost comparable to overall GDP of Indian Sikhs.

(Back of envelope calc – GDP/capita of Canada * Sikh pop vs GDP/capita of Punjab * Sikh pop )

Some of the most vocally pro-Hindutva type of friends I have are Sikh. So in my experience, there’s definitely a massive difference between the two groups.

At some point there would be a schism between Indian and western camps IMO.

thewarlock
thewarlock
3 years ago
Reply to  Prats

Honestly this seems to go along the Khatri Jat fault line of urban vs. rural Sikh types.

Once again, this supports that Khalistan was and mostly is a Jat Sikh ethnonationalist movement.

Khatris, whether Hindu or Sikh, tend to interact amongst themselves a lot.

Haryanvi Hindu Jats and Punjabi Sikh Jats know they are related by lineage but don’t have the same type of closeness. It shows how rural culture in the Jat world creates the religious fragmentation that is less prevalent in the Khatri one.

IndiaEternal
IndiaEternal
3 years ago
Reply to  Prats

I think the maths is wrong by a considerable margin.

Sikhs in Canada tend to be pretty blue collar so the per capita income will be lower than the Canadian per capita income (which will be lower than the white one).

Also 25% of Indian Sikhs live outside Punjab, especially in Delhi and Chandigarh (where the incomes will tend to skew higher – I assume most rich businessmen etc will be in these two cities).

So judging by that the economic power of Indian Sikhs is considerably higher than Canadians (on a nominal basis). If you add in PPP factors and cultural power etc it’s no competition.

Ugra
Ugra
3 years ago

For those who are interested, there is a fascinating multi-year (even decadal) hydrogeomorphic debate going on between two international camps of scientists.

The fluvial equivalent of AIT vs OIT!!

The question is whether “the famed Saraswati was glacier fed or monsoon fed”. The technicalities of the answer has multi-faceted implications for the Indus Civilization.

Liviu Giosan is a Romanian American marine geologist who published in 2012 that the rivers in the Harappan heartland were monsoon fed starting from the lower hills of the Siwalik 5000 yBP and enabled the growth of the IVC. There was no perennial river during the Mature Harappan Phase. The study uses satellite topography, OSL and radiometry. The monsoon fed rivers were extinguished eventually by aridification.

https://www.pnas.org/content/109/26/E1688

Khadg Singh Valdiya is a Indian geologist who was awarded the Padma Shri in 2007 for his contributions to geology and environmental science. He is of the view that the Saraswati was a very major glacial river with the girth at some places 8 kms wide (this is a supermassive river!). He is also of the view that the Saraswati changed course due to tectonic activities in the Harappan heartland. He has published several papers – a summary of which is below –

https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/104/01/0042.pdf

More and more research (Chatterjee,2019) are now pointing to KS Valdiya’s theory as being the more authentic as muscovites from Higher Himalayan regions are being found in Haryana and Rajasthan.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-53489-4

Since Vedic, Puranic and Itihasa sources have recorded the Saraswati at its peak and also at its end-of-life (Vinashana), this provides an exceptionally powerful terminus ante quem that is date-able with unerring accuracy. I am myself thrilled with the possibility that many more lost IVC cities could be found on the banks of the Saraswati.

Dheeraj
Dheeraj
3 years ago
Reply to  Ugra

“Khadg Singh Valdiya is a Indian geologist”

He passed away a few months back Ugra.

Ugra
Ugra
3 years ago
Reply to  Dheeraj

Yes, I just found out. Last month, it looks like.

Narasingha Deva
Narasingha Deva
3 years ago

https://theprint.in/opinion/arvind-kejriwal-governance-journey-from-one-gimmick-to-another/545429/

For Arvind Kejriwal, governance is a journey from one gimmick to another

Prats
Prats
3 years ago

Interesting interview with Congress leader Kapil Sibal. Pretty honest and forthright but he stops short of what all of us know he wants to say.

IMO what Congress needs is a Sulla (channelling my Razib here). What they have is a Caligula.

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/we-are-yet-to-hear-on-recent-polls-maybe-congress-leadership-thinks-it-should-be-business-as-usual-kapil-sibal-7052822/

“Organisationally, we know what is wrong. I think we have all the answers. The Congress party itself knows all the answers. But they are not willing to recognise those answers.”

Saurav
Saurav
3 years ago
Reply to  Prats

“MO what Congress needs is a Sulla (channelling my Razib here). What they have is a Caligula.”

They will get neither. They can win Kerala, though.

Saurav
Saurav
3 years ago

https://theprint.in/opinion/indian-liberals-no-strategy-to-counter-rss-hindutva-constitutionalism/545766/

“To counter the rising Hindutva politics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, Indian liberals and progressive activists frequently like to quote B.R. Ambedkar’s ‘constitutional morality’.

The CAA also extends the scope of this legal claim. By highlighting the persecution of Hindu minorities in Muslim-majority countries, this law seems to underline the old RSS argument: Hindu majority in India is insignificant because India is surrounded by Muslim-majority states.”

Narasingha Deva
Narasingha Deva
3 years ago
Saurav
Saurav
3 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ6OkUFMdqc&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=IslamabadPolicyResearchInstitute

IPRI Webinar on “Indian Subversive Tactics in Pakistan: Myth of Ahimsa Exposed”

The first speaker is an expat, having lived in India for many years. She was expelled around 2014. A upgrade over Cynthia Ritchie and their likes if u ask me.

Bhimrao
Bhimrao
3 years ago
Reply to  Saurav

How come people are so committed about these things, she is not even an ‘analyst’ like our very own Abhijeet Iyer-Mitra or Gaurav Arya nor a failed academician? Also, who even watches these streams?

https://twitter.com/carin__fischer?lang=en

This chica is the daughter Shireen Mazari deserved.

Milan Todorovic
Milan Todorovic
3 years ago

RE: Egypt: A necropolis with hundreds of sarcophagi and 40 gilded statues was discovered

IT IS 30 KM SOUTH OF CAIRO, AND IT WAS BUILT DURING THE RULE OF PTHOLOMEY

EGYPTIAN archaeologists have discovered hundreds of ancient sarcophagi and about forty gilded statues in the huge necropolis of Saqqara. Mummies have been preserved in some sarcophagi. That necropolis was part of Memphis, the capital of the Old Empire, and it is 7 kilometres long and one and a half wide. The sarcophagi found belong to the reign of the Ptolemaic dynasty, which ruled Egypt for about 300 years – from the 4th to the 1st century BC.

Tolomej Lagić was the Serbian duke of Alexander the Great who took over Egypt after his death. The last member of his dynasty was Cleopatra.

IsThisReal
IsThisReal
3 years ago

https://twitter.com/D_Roopa_IPS/status/1328828676247408640

An IPS officer from Karnataka got into an argument with TrueIndology (@TIinExile) over the history of crackers in India. After a series of tweets, she threatens him with a “Ur time’s up” and his account gets suspended. And apparently she asked for his personal details too.

Peak gundagardi, or can I call it fascism? : )

Brown
Brown
3 years ago
Reply to  IsThisReal

she had had run ins with many of her colleagues, seniors in the past. bit head strong.

Bhimrao
Bhimrao
3 years ago

What to do about small museums/exhibits in India?

More than a decade ago I had visited the government museum in Kota, Rajasthan. The museum was chock full of historical statues, crafts and artworks of Hadoti region. In addition to this Kota also has the Garh palace museum which is the Royal-palace turned to a museum stuffed with hundreds and hundreds of tiger, cheetah and lion skins, hunting trophies, palkis, cars, thrones, copper plates, and what not. Both were bad but the government museum really stood out in being mismanaged. I was walked through the Museum by a clerk who would open lights of each hall we went to and closed the lights for the last one, he was pacing our walk and the ‘tour’ lasted barely 5 minutes. There were statues on the floor, in the verandah, on the lawn, everywhere, none were properly on display. It was more of a storehouse than a museum. I was the first guy to visit them in months and there were more than 5 employees that I saw chilling there.

One way I could think of improving this situation is to promote visiting museums as part of school curriculum. I am very suspicious of the government(who are just a bunch of power hungry morons) intervening other than in things like health, law and order. This means I am against legislating or forcing pupils to do anything. But India has this trove of (actually cool) historical artifacts that is not being enjoyed by children and I would love to know what can be done about it.

Major museums I have been to in India:
1) Rabindra Bhawan
2) Jaipur(all of them)
3) Delhi (crafts, NGMA,… many of them)
4) UP state museum
5) Indian Museum Kolkata
6) Sarnath Museum
7) Agra Museum

Ones in Delhi and Jaipur are decent, everyone else sucks. A few years ago the people at Indian museum in Kolkata(that cobwebbed dusty wretch) destroyed Ashoka lion capital. The whole country is a mess what to say about its museums. The museum employees(like railway or municipal or Air India) have no passion for doing their job well. I know there are no fixes for poor attitude but lets discuss how to use our non-touristy heritage better for education.

Saurav
Saurav
3 years ago

https://twitter.com/ejazhaider/status/1329150964587257859?s=21

“ time for reckoning: we just had a Macron moment in the shape of TLP in Pk. if the world is going to embrace Macron’s Jacobin fundamentalism & reject TLP’s BS, then the world needs to rethink its fundamentalist categories. Macron and TLP are the two extreme ends of the same BS. “

Pakistani liberals

Bhimrao
Bhimrao
3 years ago
Reply to  Saurav

🙂 A Muslim mind can justify anything.

Goron ka ek din gajab kaatenge mulle. Aaj ke visa-line-wale/refugee kal ke Ejaz Haider banenge.

Bhimrao
Bhimrao
3 years ago
Reply to  Bhimrao

Why do you call him liberal btw?

Janamejaya
Janamejaya
3 years ago
Reply to  Bhimrao

Indian liberals call Ejaz Haider liberal.

Janamejaya
Janamejaya
3 years ago

People like the German, Carin Fisher and and American Peter Freidrich are unemployed losers who in the age of social media seem to have found a way to make a living by bashing Hindus and India.

Pakistan sponsors Fisher and Muslim orgs in US sponsor Freidrich. Somehow they think their advocacy will get greater reach if it were a white person making them.

I don’t expect any good to come out of making such shady characters your attack dogs even though they might find some legitimacy in the leftist media for a while.

Saurav
Saurav
3 years ago
Reply to  Janamejaya

https://twitter.com/carin__fischer/status/1329510188618051584

“I really hate Indians. I so hate liars.

Why are all these fake Pak “terrorists” always traveling with a plethora of intravenous medicines? Also wondering if India is keeping fake dead bodies on ice somewhere to plant them with the planted weapons/ explosives.

#FakeEncounter”

Milan Todorovic
Milan Todorovic
3 years ago

(1/3) Another big day at BP and another great, globally significant discovery.

Who was Alexander the Great?

To be modest, we will be among the first in the world who will explain who Alexander the Great was. In a couple occasions here, some readers were jumping on any hint that Alexander was not a Greek. It is not strange; it took so many years of dressage that rarely anyone questions this axiom. Maybe it was harsh that I named this topic DUMBAS but the fact is that even very smart and knowledgeable guys express such gullibility when ‘ancient’ stuff is mentioned. We will see that not any new information is needed to rightly answer this question, it is necessary only to use a common sense. However, we will also present some additional information. This explanation is planned for a 10-ish pages article to be published probably in this place. There is a plan for a longer version of 50 pages for different audience but, right now and here, it will be enough to present facts on one page.

Smart readers could ask (mainstream historians) hundreds of questions, some of them are:
– If Greek Demosthenes in his Philippics many times called Phillip a ‘barbarian’ and specifically said: ‘And who is this Philip? Not only he is not a Greek, but he has nothing in common with the Greeks. He is a barbarian!’ So, how could Alexander be a Greek?
– If official Athens pompously celebrated his death, how could be Alexander a Greek?
– If Greeks did not have their state until 1829 AC (when was created as a banana republic by English and Austrians together with their instant ‘ancient’ history) how they could control Macedonia which army conquered the world?
– How could small city-polises without armies, fertile land and horses could rule Macedonia and call it a Greek state?
– How could Greeks have the Olympian mythology for almost 1000 years after the Trojan battle if Mt Olympus belonged to Macedonia and the ethnic border (with whom?) was on the south from Mt O.?
– Why Makedonia did not have a Greek name than a Serbian name (mak=poppy, Makedonia=poppy valley)?
– Why Greeks fought against Alexander in Persian army where consisted one half of this army (20 out of 40K were Greeks, 18 K were killed in a battle while 2000 finished in Macedonian mines)? Alexander had army of 35 K from central Serbia while Macedonian troops he left to protect his kingdom. He also had a few Greek non-fighters in his army, but they were sons of rich Athenians and actually hostages in case that Greeks rebel while he is in Asia.
– Why the name Alexander did not exist before among Greeks nor had any meaning; it was actually a Serbian name – LESANDER with a Greeks’ only addition – ‘A’.
– Etc, etc, etc…

The answers on previous questions are straightforward and serious writings avoid saying that he was a Greek, but no one tried to say who actually he was.

Milan Todorovic
Milan Todorovic
3 years ago

(2/3) And here we come to troubleshoot the official world history books. Here we present only couple unknown or less known facts:

1) Alexander’s dynasty was established in 814BC and lasted for more than 500 years. The progenitor originated in today’s central Serbia and had a title – KARAN – from which was created Alexander’s surname – Karanovic. All names of Alexander’s dynasty members are known and there is NO ONE Greek amongst them. They are:
The first appointed Karan left his son, Koilo, to rule in Vodena. Koilo was succeeded by his son Turim. Three of them all together ruled in Vodena for 120 years. Only the fourth Karan was named after his ancestors – Karanovic. It was Perdika, who took the title of the king – Perdika the First. After Perdika, it came his son – Argay, 665-636, then Philip the First, who came about 600 BC. After him came one Europe, Perdika’s brother. Perdika gave the name to his kingdom, instead of Media it became – Macedonia. In the Perdika’s period his kingdom was still called Media. After the king Europe we have the Alketa and Aminta.

After Aminta came Alexander the First, 498-454. He was the first to be considered as a significant ruler. The Media Empire at that time, Darius and Xerxes, granted him the right to rule tribes from Mt. Olympus to the Old Helm Mountain. His country crosses the Vardar river via Morava river to the Danube (present-day Serbia) and partly in the area of present-day Bulgaria. He had a role in the conflict between the Medians and the Greeks. The Media empire held all Asia Minor under their control, including Ionia, a coastal area inhabited by Greeks who revolted and were aided by European Greeks, especially the Athenians. Because of this, Media emperors went on Athens which whole population fled to the Peloponnese. Alexander the First participated, as a mediator. He mediated between the Media Emperors and the Greeks. Greeks were grateful him for their salvation. They gave him the title of ‘Philly-hellen’, a friend of Hellenes. With this, they said that Alexander I was not a Hellen but a ‘friend of Hellenes’ (btw, both, ‘Hellen’ and ‘Greek’ are Serbian words, too).

After Alexander I, we have the ruler Perdika II, then Ahelay, who ruled between 413-400. He established a new capital – Pela. Goddess of beauty and love for the old Serbs was – Pelagia – derived from the name Peloni or Pelazgi. Beautiful murals and art were the most beautiful which were seen in the ancient world. After Achelay we have Amin II, Alexander II, who ruled briefly, Perdika III and Philip II.

At that time Vardilo was Emperor of Illyria. He was from the Tara tribe from the Tara River (today’s Serbia) and ruled the whole Balkan including Macedonia.

The Macedonian rulers were vassals to the Emperor Vardil. Philip was waging the war against Vardil, won in this war and succeeded him. The problems with the Greeks persisted. Since arriving to the Balkan, they first lived together with the Serbs but, when their number increased, it appears a problem of the territory. Greeks did not have agricultural land and they had to seize the land from someone. This lack of land was called stenochoria. They could find new land only in Serbian territory. Their atavistic hatred, gossip, forgery never stopped. At the greatest historical point in their history, their ethnic north, west and east were only Serbs. The border was on the river Tempe, below Mt Olympus which was on Serbian territory.

Milan Todorovic
Milan Todorovic
3 years ago

(3/3) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

2) What were the names of ancient tribes in Macedonia?

– Runhini, Strumicani, Sagudati, Brsjaci, Dragovici, Smoljani, Velegesiti, Ipieri, Jelicani, Popoljani, Mijaci, Neropsi, Korali, Dolonci, Sinti, Edoni, Mardi, Bazanti, Boti, Vojnići, Velegostići, Bazjani, Velesići, Strmenići, Dulјebi.

There are ALL Serbian tribes and today many of them are Serbian surnames. None could find one Greek tribe in Macedonia!!!

3) 814 BC – This is a good point in time to see what the situation in this part of the world when the first member of Alexander’s dynasty was appointed:

– Greeks still didn’t get into history, they were still in ‘dark ages’ and did not have the name (officially, they entered the history after the falsified ‘Olympic games’ in 776BC, ha-ha-ha)
– Greeks didn’t have alphabet nor literacy
– There were no Bulgarians, no Albanians, no Hungarians, no Romanians, no Romans, no Croats, no Germans. On the north up to the Baltic, on the west up to the Adriatic lived only Serbian tribes. They also lived in Asia Minor. Only language spoken was Serbian.
– Aryans were already settled in South Asia
– Serbian tribes lived in today’s Russia as far as China and Japan
– It was about 350 years after the battle for Troy and 500 years before Alexander. Greeks did not know for Mt Olympus and the question is how could they had Mt Olympus mythology at the time of the Trojan battle? They, actually, didn’t have the mythology.
**********************

Post festum:

In 1904, according to the Turkish census, there were still 850,000 Orthodox Serbs in Macedonia. Greeks conducted census after the Balkan wars and in 1920 found 500,000 Serbs in Macedonia. Today, there are no Serbs at all in Macedonia. The Greeks took advantage of various historical events and seized the territory from Mt Olympus to the Djevdjelia.

The following map presents almost 832 Macedonian cities and villages which Serbian names were replaced by Greek names after the WWI. These names are also listed in the pdf link bellow.

https://www.google.rs/search?q=map+of+macedonian+villages+changed+to+greek&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=SHL-MGiE09gMHM%252CkB17-BdrwsU_SM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kQYtD6fGcstYk1TFwaGvm_7fs2vfw&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjzrtKhjYvtAhWiILcAHdZND6wQ9QF6BAgPEDg#imgrc=SHL-MGiE09gMHM

The list of Macedonian cities and villages which Serbian names were replaced by Greeks in 1920-ies.

http://macedonianhistory.ca/PDF/Macedonian%20village%20names.pdf

Milan Todorovic
Milan Todorovic
3 years ago

Hope that pundits are enjoying this sketchy overview. It is always a good feel to step aside from the dumb crowd. We will revisit some points and present new one, especially relevant to SA history. In meantime, to hear again few notes from Alexander’s homeland:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU2_WW8kxHg

thewarlock
thewarlock
3 years ago

https://www.opindia.com/2020/11/bihar-elections-muslims-ashrafs-pasmanda-upper-caste/

Good article on ashraf vs. non ashraf muslim political representation in India. Caste realities for Haleems

Prats
Prats
3 years ago
Reply to  thewarlock

Those of us who grew up in smaller cities of Bihar and UP have known of this Ashraf vs non-Ashraf divide for long. I am glad it’s finally becoming more popular.

As a kid, I knew which of Muslim friends were Ashraf before I learnt my own caste. You sometimes did see the Ashraf folks being pretty vocally condescending towards the others even if it was in a bit jocular manner.

Also, always found that Ashrafs were quite genteel while the more ‘kattar’ Muslims were always from among the Ajlaf castes.

The status of Ashrafs seems pretty similar to that of Indian-Americans in the ‘BIPoC’ coalition in the US.

This is a good interview:
https://www.firstpost.com/long-reads/for-indian-muslims-elections-bring-caste-divide-among-ashrafs-pasmandas-to-the-fore-6499661.html

S Qureishi
S Qureishi
3 years ago

I dont know how true these claims of caste divisions amongst Muslims of India are, I am sure they exist but not to the extent that people are claiming in this linked article. My ancestors are from Bihar, and we are one of the “Ashraf” castes. Yet no one in my family has ever mentioned this to me (my last name does not give it away). Infact no one in either side of my family and extended family has mentioned anything to me about caste, nor was this topic ever discussed. I have only heard my mother tell me about our “ancestry” when I specifically asked her once and she mentioned something that I later found out is one of the Ashraf castes. Higher Education is the norm in my extended family and many relatives who stayed back were landholders, so I doubt they are faking high caste.

I think reading the above article and the percentages mentioned, the difference between Ashraf and non Ashraf castes seem very exaggerated. I have met Hindus and Sikhs who despite living in Canada still can’t get their parents to accept out of caste marriage, yet my experience is completely opposite.. out of almost 4 dozen proposals, not even one asked for our “caste” let alone placed any value on it. So the Ashraf vs non Ashraf divide always seems like an exaggeration.

Prats
Prats
3 years ago
Reply to  S Qureishi

Muslim casteism is ‘softer’ than Hindu and Sikh ones but it certainly exists. And Ashrafs are certainly very cognizant of their status.

I do not know about Pakistan. The lack of consciousness could be because the Mohajirs were disproportionally upper/middle class and low population meant they coalesced into one group?

I’d like to hear more from people who are actually on the receiving end of this.

Khalid Anis Ansari would make for a good Browncast guest.
https://twitter.com/khalidaansari4

Also, as an aside –
Where in Bihar is your family from?
Are you in touch with your relatives who stayed back?

thewarlock
thewarlock
3 years ago
Reply to  Prats

Mohajirs look and behave to me like mostly bania brahmin converts. Those groups tended to get along fine. So I would imagine no one cares. And enough pass well enough among the phenotypes in Eastern Pak, from what I have seen, with of course the average being more aasi genetically than major land owning groups like Jats of Punjab but probably closer to non dalit lower castes like Tarkhans, just looking at the data. A minority of course do have some west asian non trivial input, like Bohras, or some from the Nizam class of Hyderbad, a group that still gets hoodwinked and prostitutes its women to arab sheikhs lol

Vikram
3 years ago
Reply to  thewarlock

Very few Brahmins and Banias converted to Islam actually. Most converts were from the pastoral castes in Punjab/Sindh, artisan groups in UP/Bihar and in East Bengal, the ‘converts’ dont seem to have had strong caste affiliations.

It would be interesting to see what the genetics of the Mohajirs are like, but a lot of them, especially the elite, look quite Iranian/Afghan to me. They are lighter skinned.

girmit
girmit
3 years ago
Reply to  Vikram

Vikram, Ive observed the same large variation of phenotype among mohajirs. Even in the deep south, in places like bangalore and chennai, many muslims are quite west asian looking, far more on occasion than a kashmiri or punjabi. I’ve just assumed that many are the descendants of courtiers, civil servants of the old regimes. One specific and more recent group are the iranian bureaucrats of the mysore maharaja like sir mirza ismail and others who were horse breeders.

Prats
Prats
3 years ago
Reply to  Vikram

IIRC Razib had posted data which showed that Syeds from Bihar had similar genetics to Bihari upper castes.

There’s a possibility that the Ashraf ‘look’ is a result of sexual selection.

I do agree that you often see the odd very West Asian looking Muslim from time to time in different parts of the country. But this doesn’t seem very uniform. If you stroll through traditionally Muslims localities like Chandni Chowk or Mehrauli, you can see members of the same family show vast variation in phenotype.

The case of Irfan Pathan and Yusuf Pathan would be a good example.

thewarlock
thewarlock
3 years ago
Reply to  Prats

Interestingly, even when famed islamoapologist punjabi ethanonationalist araingang posted about hindufication of Mughal blood lines he also specified “upper caste” admix and many Pakistanis online brag about “rajput” origins. Pakthings also parroted this.

https://medium.com/@ArainGang/hindu-nationalism-nazis-and-the-program-of-genocide-8c43343aa9a

Just lmfao strawman and hyperbole ftw. Someone just got a PhD from Arundhati Roy school of fallacies

S Qureishi
S Qureishi
3 years ago
Reply to  Prats

@Prats

Most ancestors are from Patna and near about, I never bothered to pinpoint exact location, but my maternal side is from Patna (I am not sure about ancestral villages). My paternal side has some relatives in Nepal so they may be from a bit north.

My grandparents before their death kept in touch with family in India. My wife’s grandmother regularly visits India, and one uncle mine too. My parents and their generation kept in touch with some of the relatives in India via facebook/whatsapp. But no one in my generation knows any Indian relatives, so it seems like it took two generations to lose contact with extended family in India.

Yes Muhajirs coalesced in one group, and do not practice endogamy that much. This was very apparent to me during the whole marriage process, because these things even if hidden come out when discussing marriage. So caste is not an issue, only education/job/looks are. The general exception to this are Syeds who tend not to marry non-Syeds. (although this is more common in Shias than Sunnis)

Prats
Prats
3 years ago
Reply to  S Qureishi

An example of pretty blatant casteism in Pakistan:

https://twitter.com/Ahmed65854117/status/1329472460815785984

Some low level vulgarian responding to Cyril Almeida:
“Bloody chura thinks exactly like a bloody chura, once a chura is always a chura”

If this was tweeted in India, the person could have been booked under the Atrocities on SC/ST Act.

“Most ancestors are from Patna and near about”

I might have played cricket with some of your distant cousins in that case 🙂

“so it seems like it took two generations to lose contact with extended family in India.”

Sounds reasonable. I live in India and I am barely in touch with my cousins. Don’t suppose my kids will know any of them.

S Qureishi
S Qureishi
3 years ago
Reply to  Prats

That twitter account is pure troll, see his other tweets.

Prats
Prats
3 years ago
Reply to  Prats

“That twitter account is pure troll, see his other tweets.”

I agree he’s a troll account. I was just pointing out that once people have a mask, casteism doesn’t seem too far away even in Pakistan.

Maybe stuff like this is not termed as casteism and is given some other name like classism or xenophobia or something.

In India, caste as an axis of oppression is salient because of a Hindu majority and because of the work done by caste activists over decades. That might not be the case in Pakistan.

Ironic thing is Cyril is not even a Chura. He is a Goan Catholic. But since he’s dark and is Christian, he’s being called one.

S Qureishi
S Qureishi
3 years ago
Reply to  Prats

Perhaps, but I don’t speak for Punjab’s social mileu as my exposure to Punjabi rural areas is very limited, and what I know is only from books/interaction with Punjabi workers and friends.

The Christians are an exception, since most of the garbage disposal, sewage cleaning work is handled by them, perhaps for centuries before they even accepted Christianity. So there is definitely a deep seated bias against them, although its a bit weird since Christian Convent Schools as such are high in demand among the local population.

Also, words like ‘bhangee’ and ‘chamar’ are slurs that are not unheard of. While they may have roots in caste, many people using them today probably don’t even know about it’s caste connotations because those have lost meaning.

I am not sure whether this troll really knew about the history of it’s slang, but these types of slangs are quite common, it doesn’t denote present of a hierarchical caste system. (There are exceptions ofc with christian converts in specific ancestral professions)

What other people call caste in Pakistan is more like a tribal system in all rural areas, where people support their own tribe over the other tribe or biradari, and in theory at least, it’s not hierarchical (although in practice this may be different in different areas)

thewarlock
thewarlock
3 years ago
Reply to  S Qureishi

Razib’s family makes a bigger deal about casteism. He has talked about it before. In NJ, I have had Pak friends who bring up they are upper caste converts even in 2nd gen and my Dad’s Pak friends from college and work have done it too (he went to school in nyc).
Also a lot of it comes down to a certain aasi threshold and skin color. If you pass that threshold, then it doesn’t matter. Tropical featured darkies are just hated because of many layers
And dalits are treated badly in Pak as well, even Christian converts are. Heck many were sold to China.

Middle castes like Banias don’t run into issues with upper like Brahmins. And OBCs frankly don’t kill their kin for marrying a brahmin or vice a versa. Yes you can probably find a case but it is rare. In the end, it is more dalit vs. non dalit and occassionally some inter obc political wars.

The darkest skin most aasi people are considered inferior racially and like “pollutants” to blood.

Anyway, castes are just functionally tribes. Pakistanis are so loyal to theirs that they marry their cousins more

S Qureishi
S Qureishi
3 years ago
Reply to  thewarlock

I did not even know about my ‘caste’ until I started researching so you can see how much emphasis me or anyone I know place on it.. but even I will make a big deal about ‘high caste ancestry’ to Indians as well now that I know that they care about it too much.

In social interaction, you tend to overplay your traits/features that you know the other side puts in high esteem. If you talk about caste to someone who is high caste and he knows about his high caste privilege, then he will most definitely advertise that advantage. Conversely, if one is from ”lower caste”, they will never say that to someone who they know cares about it. This is just normal social interaction.

To be frank, rigid Casteism is not an issue amongst Muslims, and if caste discrimination does happen, it is probably going to be in recent converts or in very rural areas that are liminally Muslim, and where such structures are inherited. In the diaspora, Caste dicussions are always brought up amongst my Hindu/Sikh friends, some of them are second generation immigrants. Amongst Pakistani Muslim diaspora, this is not the case at all. Infact in almost all uncle gatherings (first generation, Indian and Pakistani both), arguments are always, and I mean always, based on religion/Islam. So I don’t agree with these claims about caste system amongst Muslims.

Vikram
3 years ago
Reply to  S Qureishi

Regarding the attitudes of Indian diaspora in places like Canada and the UK, much of this diaspora consists of people from rural/non-metro areas of India. Your own experience is different since you went to the West via the metropolis of Karachi.

Caste divisions have markedly less valence in metro areas, and I see this in the Indian community in the US, especially those who have migrated in the last two decades. These people tend to be highly educated and disproportionately from metros, predominantly Brahmin-Bania background. Inter-caste and inter-region marriage is extremely normalized. Inter-religion marriage is also common, with Sikhs it’s normal, with Indian Christians, quite accepted. Actually a whole bunch of dudes are married to American women, and the increasing prevalence has been quite astonishing to see.

Interest in religion also seems mostly perfunctory, they are quite consumerist tbh.

Saurav
Saurav
3 years ago

Obama”s book is out. He mentions that in college, he tried to pick up girls by portraying himself as Marxist ( sort of ), which he wasn’t .

Glad that I am in esteemed company who tied that trick.

thewarlock
thewarlock
3 years ago
Reply to  Saurav

what do you think of the theory Obama is a secret habibi?

Ali Choudhury
Ali Choudhury
3 years ago
Reply to  thewarlock

It’s popular with the dumb as shit.

Saurav
Saurav
3 years ago

Perhaps a middle way, caste is more pronounced in Indian Muslims than Pakistani Muslims because caste itself is big factor in Indian Hindu majority. In Pakistan , caste is not a big factor because there are already indigenous grouping available to them, Biradri and different schools (Barelvi, Deobandi etc) , so caste becomes a lower tier

Prats
Prats
3 years ago
Reply to  Saurav

“caste is not a big factor because there are already indigenous grouping available to them, Biradri and different schools (Barelvi, Deobandi etc) , so caste becomes a lower tier”

Biradri relations would be viewed from the lens of caste in India. I think the reason that’s not the case in Pakistan could be a mix of:
1. No real ruling elite caste to drive home the point, unlike the Ashrafs in India who were part of the state machinery for centuries. Pak elites pre-partition were disproportionately Hindus and Sikhs. Basically Muslims in Pak lack an equivalent of Brahmins.
2. No large Hindu presence to keep it as a reminder (as you mention)
3. Lack of decades long history of activism.
4. Casteism is indeed softer in Pakistan
5. Some brushing under the carpet (“There’s no caste in Islam”)

Ali Choudhury
Ali Choudhury
3 years ago
Reply to  Prats

There are no laws or regulations on the books in Pakistan privileging one caste over another or affirmative action, quotas of any kind. So no one particularly cares about caste now apart from the Syeds. My own caste is Punjabi Arain and for my father and grandfather’s generation it was important that marriages be done with other Arain. That has faded a lot with urbanisation, now caste is much less salient.

Bhimrao
Bhimrao
3 years ago
Reply to  Razib Khan

“I guess the most conservative view is that human differences will persist and inequality will always be with us. also, the smart are smart and the beautiful are beautiful. it’s not fair, but it’s life.”

1) Is it ever possible for groups of not so smart people beat groups of smart people? Some ideas I could think are scale, proximity, better tuning of economic/psychological/social hyper-parameters.
2) Beautiful people eventually become rich, rich people have less babies. Also, the only real inflow is via inter-beautiful births but there are substantial outflows.

“the more fundamentalist forms of islam are clean and elegant and appealing to simple-minded people, including those who are smart but have no time for religion. e.g., the engineer salafi is a caricature. islam stripped down is portable and transferrable across the world. the least racist muslims i’ve ever met are the “most muslim” (most fundy). clear principles for an intelligible world. take the axioms and infer”

You are incorrect, same argument can be used for Right-wing Indians: engineers, simple-minded, least caste-ist and so on. This is a repeated blind spot in your (usually very impressive) style of arguments.

Some more questions:

1) Will the real advantages of democracy, free press, freedom of expression etc i.e. true feedback, checks and balances ever show up? What does (real) history (not historians) teach us about this? My view is that assholes will get by just fine. What befuddles me are the Chinese state owned enterprises doing so well.
2) How long before Bangladesh becomes China client?
3) Will Bangladeshi secularism outlive Haseena?
4) Seeking industrial applications or pursuing risky research?
5) List advantages that brown people(Indians) have.
6) Does it even matter who (Trump or Biden) rules a functioning country?

Ali Choudhury
Ali Choudhury
3 years ago
Reply to  Bhimrao

5) List advantages that brown people(Indians) have.

Family. White folk don’t make use of family connections or networks at all.

S Qureishi
S Qureishi
3 years ago

//You are incorrect, same argument can be used for Right-wing Indians: //

Right wing Indians have taken a leaf out of Islam’s book, in order to compete with Islam. (Ghar wapsi, denounce caste hierarchy, pan-Hinduism, military training etc).

Fundamentalist Islam is more portable, and in some ways, more modern (since it goes against traditional Islam in many places). In the subcontinent, as Muslims climb the education ladder, they also leave behind traditional forms of Sufi Islam for much more ‘fundamentalist’ and modern Deobandi & Salafi versions. (This concept is also explained in great detail by Shadi Hamid in his book Islamic Exceptionalism).

This is something people of other religions don’t understand, they think the more fundamental versions of Islam are antiquated, and modern Islam would be like modern Christianity.. when in truth, it’s quite the opposite for a host of reasons.

Bhimrao
Bhimrao
3 years ago
Reply to  S Qureishi

Islam is a fundamentally special religion in its creative interpretations of what is moral/right.

“Right wing Indians have taken a leaf out of Islam’s book, in order to compete with Islam. (Ghar wapsi, denounce caste hierarchy, pan-Hinduism, military training etc).”

Mostly to win elections, people are fickle. I have seen Mayawati’s million people rallies. Commentators and journalists being morons used to talk about dalit renaissance, then INC’s deep roots, then OBC(Yadav-Muslim alliance) historic power-grab from Baman-Thakurs, now it is Hindutva. They have no clue what they are talking about. They are acting their part, pretending to be public intellectuals, think of them like Neil D Tyson or Bill Nye, make-believe ‘scientists’ without any credentials, coming up with a clever line or two every once in a while to appear smart.

btw what is the equivalent of ghar wapasi i.e. reconversion in Islam? If you mean if (forced)conversion then show me the statistics that say the problem is even remotely of the same scale. RSS uncles doing lathi swinging is not military training, they are perfectly harmless.

Right wing Hindus :
1) Don’t do dawah.
2) Almost desperately want to assimilate abroad.
3) Don’t have an issue with Hindu girls marrying anyone other than Muslims.
4) Don’t dream of imposing their dress or legal code.

Islam is very different, maybe it will take a big war in the middle east before it gets domesticated. that or going Dubai.

what do you think about the questions:
” List advantages that brown people(Indians) have.”
“Is it ever possible for groups of not so smart people beat groups of smart people? Some ideas I could think are scale, proximity, better tuning of economic/psychological/social hyper-parameters.”

Saurav
Saurav
3 years ago
Reply to  S Qureishi

@S Qureishi Cant agree more.

S Qureishi
S Qureishi
3 years ago

Doing Dawah is not the way of Hinduism. Hinduism ”converts” by assimilating and absorbing ”foreigners” into its fold. So Ghar Wapsi basically means that Hindu right will be fine with Muslims if they leave the political aspect of Islam, shed their allegiance to ‘Ummah’ and just worship Allah like any other Hindu worshiping a Hindu deity. Although I suspect that even this may not be enough for them due to history and they would want a subjugated position for these ‘reconverts’.

They are also against marriage to Muslims because of demographic insecurity and the past history of Islamic rule in India. If partition would not have happened, India would probably be Muslim majority in the next 100-150 years given current trends, and even with partition, large parts of North Indian Hindustani districts will be Muslim majority in the next 100-150 years. Even if the numbers don’t add up, Hindu Nats certainly believe this theory, thus their antagonism against Muslims coming up with things like ‘love jihad’ etc. If you really break it down to basics, love Jihad is just men doing men things: i.e. going after women for sex, often of the other religion/country because they have the dominant bargaining position in that relationship when the female asks to provide commitment, they could either leave or ask for the other side to convert, or ask them to become their second wife or whatever. I don’t think there is any organized nefarious purpose in it on the part of those men, it’s just built into Islamic law.

Problem for Hindu Nats or Western secularists is that Islam has a very clear defined set of texts that are agreed upon by almost all Muslims – the Quran being the primary one. Politics and pan-Islamism is built into it that cannot be denied, and history has also played out in such a manner that politics and pan-islamism cannot just be thrown out of Islam. Even if some ruler may subdue these aspects of Islam for sometime, it will always resurface eventually because it’s deeply imbedded in Islamic texts that are considered sacrosanct. In the age of the internet, and a more globalized, more literate and more educated world, pan-Islamism and shariah is even more appealing to many because it’s even more accessible to the common person.

I think the middle east wasn’t the centre of Islam for centuries until the oil boom, and will soon end being the centre of Islam once the oil decline is permanent. So wars in the middleeast will not impact Islam much over all.

//Is it ever possible for groups of not so smart people beat groups of smart people? Some ideas I could think are scale, proximity, better tuning of economic/psychological/social hyper-parameters.//

Does smart here mean high IQ? I think this happens all the time, there is no shortage of smart people doing the bidding for people less smarter than them and I don’t think this would be any different if the smart people were grouped together (they probably wouldn’t gel well in a group setting due to ego and perceived superiority but who knows). I think sometimes smart people have a very high opinion of their own skills which is undeserved – they may be good at one thing which they may interpret as a sign of competence across different fields. The environment determines who beats who, if the environment rewards those who are smart more so than those who are not so smart, then its likely that the smart group wins out, but more often than not, ‘fortune favors the brave’.. sometimes all that non-smart group needs is a set of allies gain through superior interpersonal skills, or the ability to gain strategic advantage taking risks proactively.

S Qureishi
S Qureishi
3 years ago
Reply to  S Qureishi

//” List advantages that brown people(Indians) have.”//

Family system is still largely intact which is a big advantage over other ethnicities, especially in the west. Already I see in Canada how the newer generations in every ethnic group is getting F*cked due to wage stagnation, rising property prices, inflation in key areas such as higher education etc. It’s hard to beat these things when you are 18 and your parents kick you out to live out their retiremnt spending away all yoru inheritance, which seems like the only way now for the newer generations to climb the class ladder.

Brown people tend to do well here because parents help the children and children are expected to help the parents, financially they are already ahead and I think it’s good for mental health to still keep in touch with family and extended family, unless they are really really toxic.

Bhimrao
Bhimrao
3 years ago
Reply to  S Qureishi

“seems like the only way now for the newer generations to climb the class ladder.”
This is pointless whining. Young people in the US get FAFSA, work-study via armed forces or through tons of companies, scholarships and what not. They have if better than almost everyone (other than maybe parts of Europe). I have known many of my own gora students ending up getting jobs paying >$80K some even >$120K straight out of college (22-23 yo). They get a good car, a big house, nice girl/guy, maybe a boat/machine-gun/whatever-they-fancy and chill out. I just don’t get how fast people want to climb the class ladder. Life is very good here.

S Qureishi
S Qureishi
3 years ago
Reply to  Bhimrao

I agree that it seems like entitled whining from our perspective, Americans, Canadians and Europeans have it better than most people. Problem is that they are on a declining trajectory. The millennial goras are not better off than their boomer parents in most aspects, whether it being successful at a job, making money or succeeding at marriage. Manufacturing jobs have evaporated and shipped off to Asia, so most younger people have to take out a loan of 100K on acquiring a university education just to be competitive, and even then if they chose the wrong degree they are even more f*cked. There is also cultural decline, consumerist culture , feminism and general thot-iness is slowly chipping away at the stability of the family unit and increasing divorces.
These are the arguments made, and for the goras, these ring true.’Brown’ diaspora is still insulated due to strict multi generational family structure, emphasis on higher quality education (STEM) and lesser divorces. Whether it’s gonna last or not, who knows

Bhimrao
Bhimrao
3 years ago
Reply to  S Qureishi

I was thinking about what could be some reasonably actionable policy interventions that could help India gain ground on China(smarter people) and eventually gora people(also smarter people)? Chinese have figured out market economics, have cracked entrepreneurship and industry, their people are docile, better educated and irreligious, their government seems to be efficient and meritocratic. We are not exactly brave or bold or united and the world clearly rewards whoever makes things cheaply. Some of these disadvantages can be cracked with sustained effort example: good primary education, better nutrition, low taxes, better roads/rails/ports. But think about the millions upon millions of well educated, well fed, well clothed, vehicle owning people who are just chilling out unemployed, doing nothing. To me it seems to be an issue of motivation and societal attitude (Indians everywhere coveting a job). What would be the 7-dimensional chess moves that you would have made?

The other much simpler way to think about it is, this is what it is, no polio patient will ever win olympic gold, keep taking medicine, do a lot of physio, just suck it up and move on, or finally what our guru ji (Bengali geneticist) insults me with ‘stop affecting’.

Milan Todorovic
Milan Todorovic
3 years ago

Vaccine for religious fundamentalism – Bill Gates presentation to CIA (2005, 4 min)

https://www.bitchute.com/video/Msu5mIJFSBCq/

Milan Todorovic
Milan Todorovic
3 years ago

ANother fake news…What Reuters says about US election results? All good?

Joey Merlino, the head of the criminal community of Philadelphia, the capital of that state, admitted that during the presidential elections in the United States, he ordered the falsification of 300 thousand ballots in favor of Joe Biden.

Merlino, nicknamed Skinny Joey, said that representatives of the headquarters of the Democratic Party’s candidate for the US presidency gave him blank ballots the night before the elections, that they rented two houses on the outskirts of Philadelphia where his associates filled out those ballots for Biden for three days.

Then the “papers” were put in boxes and taken to the city center for counting votes. That is how Biden received 300,000 votes. With the most direct help and assistance from the mafia.

Bhimrao
Bhimrao
3 years ago

I don’t know about that. But why should I care? Not our headache.

Let Americans indulge their silly-ness, it is not that they would listen to anything anyways.

Milan Todorovic
Milan Todorovic
3 years ago

More fakes….

The President of the House of Representatives of the US Congress, Nancy Pelosi, confidently stated on the eve of the election that Joe Biden will be inaugurated as the new US President on January 20, 2021, “whatever the final results of the election”. And on election day, November 3, someone from the New York Times tweeted and then, after a fierce negative reaction on social networks, deleted a message that literally read: “The role of declaring the winner of the US presidential election belongs to the news media.”

At the epicenter of the American election scandal is Lord Mark Mallock Brown, chairman of the board of the company that owns Smartmatik, whose software and voting machines were widely used during the last elections and, as Trump’s legal team claims, contributed to mass election theft. He also participated in setting up the Corason Aquino victory in the Philippines and has decades of political and business cooperation with George Soros.

The Executive President of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, has beautiful visions for humanity. According to him, the “fourth industrial revolution” that is underway, and about which Schwab wrote a book, will lead to the “merging of our physical, digital and biological identity.” Various authorities will be able to “invade the previously private space of our minds, reading our thoughts and influencing our behaviour.” Microchips will be embedded under our skin …

The Western (quasi) liberal establishment offers humanity rigged elections, media dictatorship, techno-giant censorship, transhumanism, and total surveillance. All this is impeccably packed and wrapped in a cloak of “signalling virtue”, “care for the planet”, “care for health”, “humanity”, etc.

In just three decades, things have turned 180 degrees. Totalitarianism now comes from the West. This do not see only those who do not want to see it.

Sumit
Sumit
3 years ago

Anyone have any ideas on vaccine role-out timeline for covid ?

My thoughts were it should be the highest risk people first (front line medical personal, older adults etc). And low risk people like myself last.

So based on that I think summertime 2021 till someone like me would get the vaccine in most developed countries.

Milan Todorovic
Milan Todorovic
3 years ago
Reply to  Sumit

Russians already have two registered vaccines and the third is coming. Hungary already got millions of these doses. The West is hiding all this and Soros is complaining to Hungarians why they imported Russian vaccine. It seems that Pfizer vaccine will be a logistical flop which requires -80 deg Celsius. Its director already sold his Pfizer shares. Sputnik vaccine will be produced in India, China and couple other countries. India can export this vaccine to third countries and make some money.

Milan Todorovic
Milan Todorovic
3 years ago

(PCR): RE – White Americans Are On the Road to Dispossession

Biden has appointed a radical slavery reparations advocate to his Treasury Department transition team. Mehrsa Baradaran, a UCLA professor, advocates reparations as the way to correct “white supremacy.” As I have reported, scholars have concluded that there are probably as many and perhaps more white descendants of slaves in the US than black descendants.

Baradaran misuses the word, “reparations.” Reparations are what a harmed person is paid by the person that harmed them. No living white person has ever owned a slave, and no living black American has ever been a slave. So what Baradaran is advocating is that white Americans be dispossessed so that black Americans can take their assets. In other words, she is advocating a racist act of theft. Her racism against white Americans has not kept her off of Biden’s Treasury transition team or from being a UCLA professor who brainwashes students. As the Democrats intend to open the floodgates of nonwhite immigration, every person of color who enters the US will benefit from the dispossession of white Americans.

Brown Pundits