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Narasingha Deva
Narasingha Deva
3 years ago

https://theprint.in/opinion/bangladesh-at-50-how-it-outpaced-india-on-many-counts-justified-break-away-from-pakistan/629544/

Bangladesh at 50 — how it outpaced India on many counts & justified break-away from Pakistan

principia
principia
3 years ago

TN Ninan is one of the best Indian commentators. I’ve followed him for over five years. His analysis of Bangladesh is no less stellar. I found this passage to be particularly important:

New tests now await Bangladesh. It risks losing major trade and tariff benefits that it has so far enjoyed because the country moved a couple of years ago from being classified as a least developed country, to developing country status. The first category enjoys duty-free and quota-free access to many rich-country markets, most importantly the European Union, which is now in the process of applying standard developing country yardsticks to Bangladesh.

This means new duties on Bangladesh’s exports into the EU but also limits on access to the generalised system of preferences (GSP). More than 60 per cent of Bangladesh’s exports go to the EU, and well over 80 per cent of the country’s exports comprise textiles and garments. This one-market, one-product specialisation has brought with it vulnerabilities that Dhaka has to address if it is to sustain growth, on which so much depends.

Bangladesh has done well, but it has not diversified its economy the way Vietnam has been able to. That remains its number one challenge going forward.

Rock
Rock
3 years ago

They benefited hugely by sending 20 million illegal immigrants to india.

Narasingha Deva
Narasingha Deva
3 years ago

https://www.bloombergquint.com/amp/business/handset-makers-ramp-up-amid-modis-make-in-india-push-credit-suisse

Handset Makers Ramp Up Amid Modi’s ‘Make In India’ Push: Credit Suisse

Ali Choudhury
Ali Choudhury
3 years ago

I joined a really nice Facebook group a few weeks back. It has Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and the odd Afghani sharing photos of beautiful natural sites and buildings within their countries, details from migrants of their pre-Partition ancestral homes and reminiscences of their parents and grandparents of good friends they left behind when they left. Lots of positivity and friendliness. Strict moderation policy in place so anyone looking to troll is swiftly given the boot.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/IndiaPakistanHeritageClub/?ref=share

Saurav
Saurav
3 years ago
Reply to  Ali Choudhury

Superb

Vikram
3 years ago
Reply to  Ali Choudhury

Better relations can be achieved after Pakistan has paid compensation for all the lives it has taken and damaged in India.

principia
principia
3 years ago
Ugra
Ugra
3 years ago

Priyanka Chopra Jonas made some remark in the mould of secularism – apparently with good intentions only – and Muslims are losing their shit on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/QAYS_B/status/1373031159790198788

She said, quoting verbatim, “My dad used to sing in a mosque…I was aware of Islam.”

Some of the M crowd commenting on this twitter timeline is young, like 19, and even they are expressing out loud the harami aspects of this statement. It is quite funny. PCJ should try harder to gain this crowd’s approval (maybe put her mother in a niqab). Nehru would approve.

Roy
Roy
3 years ago
Ali Choudhury
Ali Choudhury
3 years ago
Reply to  Roy
Ugra
Ugra
3 years ago
Reply to  Ali Choudhury

I was expecting a more violent response to his visit.

Yeah, BD cannot match Pakistani standards for societal violence! Whatta letdown 🙂 Rookie levels of radicalisation. Pump up those madrassa levels.

Prats
Prats
3 years ago
Reply to  Ugra

Why are these people protesting?

Saurav
Saurav
2 years ago
Reply to  Prats

Hindu hitler visit to Bangladesh

fragment_and_activities
fragment_and_activities
3 years ago

A Hindu MLA from Punjab from BJP was almost lynched by “farm protestors”.

https://twitter.com/PunYaab/status/1375780435578380296

Read the tweet – “it is being claimed that a nationalist party’s leader was stripped naked and beaten by Punjabi farmers”.

Narasingha Deva
Narasingha Deva
3 years ago

@fragment_and_activities
There have been protests and social boycott of sikh bjp leaders too (https://m.timesofindia.com/city/ludhiana/farmers-protest-against-bjp-leader-grewal-in-patiala/amp_articleshow/80222117.cms)
I don’t mean that religion played no part in it (especially because they wouldn’t want to accidentally remove someones turban while beating so maybe they wouldn’t have beaten him of he was turbaned sikh) but I think most people are exaggerating the religious conflict dimension of it.

Narasingha Deva
Narasingha Deva
3 years ago

@fragment_and_activities
There have been protests and social boycott of sikh bjp leaders too (https://m.timesofindia.com/city/ludhiana/farmers-protest-against-bjp-leader-grewal-in-patiala/amp_articleshow/80222117.cms)
Not saying religion played no part in this (mainly because they wouldn’t want to accidentally take off someones turban so maybe they wouldn’t have beaten him if he was a turbaned sikh) but I think many people are exaggerating the religious conflict angle in this

fragment_and_activities
fragment_and_activities
3 years ago

Why does anything Modi touches turns to shit?

He visited a couple of Hindu temples in Bangladesh; Hefazat-e-Islam protested, police fired, ~10 Hefazat people died and now they are burning government offices, Hindu temples, buses – you name it.

I have not seen such a “panauti” in my life.

Narasingha Deva
Narasingha Deva
3 years ago

“police fired, ~10 Hefazat people died”

Not a bad thing in and of itself ?

fragment_and_activities
fragment_and_activities
3 years ago

Dude, what the hell are you talking about?

See the repercussions – https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bangladesh-india-protest-idUSKBN2BK08L

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/bangladesh-violence-spreads-after-pm-modi-visit-attacks-on-hindu-temples-train-101616924882038.html

I think this time the Hindu population would completely migrate to India.

Narasingha Deva
Narasingha Deva
3 years ago

https://theprint.in/opinion/an-all-india-police-act-thats-what-we-need-to-curb-waze-like-cases-of-corruption/629299/

An all-India Police Act, that’s what we need to curb Waze-like cases of corruption

Roy
Roy
2 years ago

Graphic video shows moment of deadly Uber Eats carjacking by teen girls

South Asian rights groups silent.

As an Uber Eats driver lay dying on a Washington, DC, sidewalk, the two teen girls who allegedly stun-gunned and carjacked him easily climbed from the wreck — and even tried to run away, graphic new video shows.

The video also records some of the last words spoken by the driver, Mohammad Anwar, a father of three who immigrated from Pakistan — “This is my car!”

Anwar, 66, died when he was flung from the car onto a sidewalk after the girls, ages 15 and 13, stun-gunned him and drove off with him still clinging to the side of his Honda, authorities say.

https://nypost.com/2021/03/27/graphic-video-shows-deadly-uber-eats-carjacking-by-teen-girls/

thewarlock
thewarlock
2 years ago
Reply to  Roy

S Asian groups must stand up. Very wrong if they don’t. BLM sure as hell won’t and neither will leftists. The two perps need to be in prison forever. Sad to see a hardworking law abiding immigrant killed like this. Indian groups must speak up. It does not matter this man is Pakistani. He is a S Asian bruda. We must show solidarity.

Prats
Prats
2 years ago
Reply to  thewarlock

This is really sad, man.

My brother is moving to US for grad school in July. Should I be concerned because of this BLM and anti-Asian related violence?

Saurav
Saurav
2 years ago
Reply to  Prats

Dont fret too much. US is any day safer than conventional N-Indian city. Unless you are like upper class Indian who is the one dishing out “Do you know who my dad is ? “.

Grad school is also somewhat insulated from real world. By the time he moves to real world , he will be well attenuated where to speak up and where to not.

Vikram
2 years ago
Reply to  Prats

Murder rates in the US are about twice those in India. There really are two Americas, usually divided by a freeway. On one side, the murder rates are at West European/East Asian levels, on the other side more like Latin American levels. The population split between these two sides is approximate 70/30.

The situation is very different from India where there isnt such a stark geographical divide between rich and poor areas in urban regions.

fragment_and_activities
fragment_and_activities
2 years ago
Reply to  Vikram

> The situation is very different from India where there isnt such a stark geographical divide between rich and poor areas in urban regions.

I have always believed that having slums right beside wealthy buildings/houses is a good thing. It makes people aware of their privilege.

If the poor are away from the rich, the rich don’t care. In Indias case at least they have to be a little conservative about flaunting their wealth. We all know how much people were angry about the Ambani Atillia building.

Hector_St_Clare
Hector_St_Clare
2 years ago
Reply to  Vikram

Murder rates in the US have had a big spike over the last year- the estimated rates for 2020 (no public nationwide data have been released yet, so this is all inference) are about 17% higher than 2019 and about 33% higher than 2014.

girmit
girmit
2 years ago
Reply to  Prats

I don’t think its need to worry, but street smarts/rules of engagement are different in the US and its good to familiarize oneself. This applies to staring and such things in particular, and one must ignore woke homilies about race. It is not safe to linger in certain neighborhoods after dark. I say this as someone who ignored this advice when younger, but i knew what i was getting into.
Regarding homicide rates in India vs the US. My impression is that the gap is effectively wider than the data shows in that a crime blotter in india seems to have a lot of family members killing each other over property, wife and lover kill husband ect; whereas the US has more random trouble, people impulsively attacking one another for sport. The poor in india also usually don’t go after middle/upper class ppl, knowing the law will come down on them particularly hard. There is hardly an exception like this in the US.

Rock
Rock
2 years ago
Reply to  thewarlock

Indian groups should absolutely stay silent.

Sumit
Sumit
2 years ago
Reply to  Roy

The increase in crime rates driven by lax policing as a response to BLM will hurt minorities including black people.

Sad.

Prats
Prats
2 years ago

There was some discussion on female workforce participation, especially among the upper middle classes in the previous Open Thread.

Over the last week, due to Holi get togethers and calls I have had the opportunity to talk to some family acquaintances. In most cases, these are people of my parents age, who are looking for spouses of their kids (who are my contemporaries). The topic of marriage came up almost every time.

One thing I observed was that women who are mothers of sons have a very different view of gender roles than women who are mothers of daughters.

Some of them are really accomplished themselves. Doctors, executives, professors. But they expect their daughter-in-laws to pull their weight and not be the ‘revolutionary’ kind.

Has this been the experience of other folks here as well? Is there some study on this?

S Qureishi
S Qureishi
2 years ago
Reply to  Prats

A son is supposed to take care of his parents in their old age in most South Asian cultures. Women know other women well, and know that the ”revolutionary” type of women will not accept traditional gender roles in a marriage, will not look after the husband’s parents in old age, and will try to separate the son from the parents to avoid that responsibility. This is why even accomplished old women would not want their sons marrying such career oriented types.

Vikram
2 years ago
Reply to  Prats

“Some of them are really accomplished themselves. Doctors, executives, professors.”

I think the point here might be these jobs were taken up for instrumental reasons of material acquisition and financial security. In my own observations, I have noticed that most Indians of my parents generations do not seem to like their professions and have a lot of cynicism/contempt for their fellow professionals.

The prospective daughter-in-law is seen in the same context of acquisition and security.

girmit
girmit
2 years ago
Reply to  Prats

Have always felt that the number and gender of children changes a family’s vibe. Can walk into a living room and tell the difference between a family with 3 daughters vs 3 sons. To your point, a friend’s mother is a successful lawyer in BLR, progressive and into the arts ect. She has two sons and her attitude to their prospective mates was one of suspicion and imputing motives.

froginthewell
froginthewell
2 years ago

I hope this tweet somehow finds its way to the Indian Twitter. This is the Iranian generation that grew up with Indian movies and on top of all the absolute Bollywood gem that was Sholay (1975), which is the film that these party goers are humorously reenacting. Made my day ?? https://t.co/9mKkR5WcYj— Kaveh Abbasian (@KavehAbbasian) March 28, 2021

Which reminds me to ask, how has the popularity of Bollywood (for cultural and non-political reasons) in various central Asian/MENA countries done over time? I suspect a decline but don’t really know. In relatively more recent times I have heard of the popularity of some Hindi serials in perhaps a different set of countries such as Ivory Coast.

If a decline has really happened, what would one attribute it to? The gradual replacement of the urduized-elite pretend-syncretism from 1850’s with Americanization of Indian uppity tastes? Can one say that in the 1970’s Indians wanted simple entertainment without any pretense of intellectualism or pseudo-aspirationalism or westernization-signalling in locales or food (I didn’t have a burger until much after I saw a burger being ordered in a college cafeteria in a Hindi movie), and that the central Asians etc. could relate to?

Ugra
Ugra
2 years ago
Reply to  froginthewell

@froginthewell

Once every month, I hire a 50 year old Indonesian woman to clean some of the harder to access places in my home. Once the job is over, she sits down for a cup of tea or some refreshments. On one of these occasions, a Tamil movie (tearjerker) from the 1960s was playing on the telly. She just sat down and watched the movie till the end. I think it’s the Indian cultural motifs (mother-son dynamics, inheritance flux on familial structure, navigating modernity) that appeal to a diverse audience.

Modern Indian entertainment products still have a huge pull on Asian and African audiences. The original Sanskritic high-culture (Ramayana, Mahabharata) has pulling power on many levels.

There is a segment of Bollywood that has successfully deracinated itself and seeks to pull Indians into a global monoculture where the villains are decided by Western mores (traditional roles, sexual signalling, demonisation of patriarchy etc). Preaching is a central pillar. Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Aamir Khan are leading this wave. Whether it will survive for long is another question.

froginthewell
froginthewell
2 years ago
Reply to  Ugra

@Ugra: Interesting. One doesn’t find much takers for Indian content in China though, except for Dangal. But I have heard anecdotal comments about Rajinikanth and Japan. Don’t know about Korea. I remember seeing some version of Hindi serial playing in a channel in Vietnam. So I have a hard time putting these together and figuring out which box to put this one into, what is the set of cultures that can relate to India?

Regarding the Abrahamic countries, can one say Indian serials tend to have popularity in Islamic countries, not in Christian countries (what about Israel)? Some connection with WEIRDness?

Your talk of an Indonesian woman reminded me of this tweet which was quite strange to me: https://twitter.com/porbotialora/status/1243867631263703042

Ugra
Ugra
2 years ago
Reply to  froginthewell

@froginthewell

Get ready to be surprised with some out-of-turn facts I picked up along the past few years –

1. Indonesian constitution is based on the principles of Pancasila.
2. The Indonesian national language is Bahasa. It is Austronesian, but they call it Bhasha!
3. The national airlines is called Garuda
4. Their currency is rupiah – the 20000 denomination note has Ganesha on it.
5. Their national motto is Bhinnaka Tungal Ika (Unity in Diversity). Ika is, yes, One.
6. Their national emblem is Garuda, the eagle
7. The motto of the Indonesian National Police is “Rastra Sewakotama” (Service for the Nation)
8. The leader of the Indonesian independence movement (their Gandhi) – Sukarno – was named after Karna
9. This is my favourite one – the most right wing Islamist party in Indonesia, PKS (Partai Kaedilan Sejahtera) – routinely idolises Bhima – as a symbol of anti-corruption.

Indian cultural exports from 1000 years ago – never, ever ceases to amaze me! Different breed of men.

froginthewell
froginthewell
2 years ago
Reply to  Ugra

Thanks Ugra. Very interesting indeed.

Prats
Prats
2 years ago
Reply to  froginthewell

It seems to me that the popularity of Bollywood has been decreasing in India as well. Covid plus all the mud slinging during farmer protests might have signalled the death knell.
(This is purely an anecdotal observation, though)

Now people have so much choice on YouTube, TikTok etc. Movie stars are not what they were. Only way Bollywood can survive is if it can make event movies to compete with MCU.

froginthewell
froginthewell
2 years ago
Reply to  Prats

@Prats This is anecdotally my perception as well, though I can’t claim to know what people in their 20’s think.

Narasingha Deva
Narasingha Deva
2 years ago

https://theprint.in/environment/african-experts-to-come-calling-as-india-prepares-ground-for-cheetah-reintroduction/630252/?amp

African experts to come calling as India prepares ground for cheetah reintroduction

Vikram
2 years ago

I think in general the popularity of movies has declined/stagnated across the world, with the advance of video games. The value, depth and immersion you get out of a $ 20 God of War/Last of Us is worth 4 or 5 blockbuster movies IMO.

In the US, a sort of split seems to be emerging, with movies and TV shows targeting the female audience (who now have high spending power) and adult males primarily spending time and money on games.

Narasingha Deva
Narasingha Deva
2 years ago
Saurav
Saurav
2 years ago

Cynically hoping BJP loses Assam , Bengal and Tamil Nadu. Far too much resources being spent with negligible ROIs.

thewarlock
thewarlock
2 years ago
Reply to  Saurav

Bengal and Assam BJP will win. TN no.

Saurav
Saurav
2 years ago
Reply to  principia

Less-Hindu region

Rock
Rock
2 years ago
Reply to  Saurav

Why did the greater hindu region of up gave 10 out of 80 seats in 2004 and led to Vajpayee’s loss?

Saurav
Saurav
2 years ago

https://moderndiplomacy-eu.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/moderndiplomacy.eu/2021/03/29/a-bengalese-response-to-modis-type-of-nationalism/amp

“These results will practically provide responses to the question of how they see India – as a Hindu state, or a state for all its groups, or a state for all its citizens; then, to the question of how they see themselves – as Indians, or Hindus (or Muslims), or Bengalese; then, to the question of how they see the future of Bengal – as a part of India or a sovereign, independent state, or, perhaps, as united with East Bengal (Bangladesh); also, to the question of whether they see West and East Bengal (Bangladesh)as a single historical unit or as two separate units; finally, to the question of whether they see immigrants coming from East Bengal (Bangladesh) as foreigners to whom the borders should be closed, or as brethren to whom the borders should be open, or simply as an economic problem, so that their influx must be strictly controlled.”

Less-Hindu people.

fragment_and_activities
fragment_and_activities
2 years ago
Reply to  Saurav

> If this growth takes place in a scope that will strengthen the idea of Bengal’s sovereignty, it will be possible to witness a phenomenon that may be termed nationalism-in-the-making, which rarely occurs in practical-political life.

Let them just think about it. What will ensue will put Abraham Lincoln to shame. Bengali “Bhodrolok” under estimate the viciousness of the Indian state.

Rock
Rock
2 years ago
Reply to  Saurav

You still haven’t answered my question?why are Hindus of lesser hindu region more likely to vote for bjp?

Narasingha Deva
Narasingha Deva
2 years ago
Reply to  Saurav

“Bengalese” lol

Saurav
Saurav
2 years ago

https://twitter.com/HarrisRichard77/status/1376634920173506563

I’m willing to debate Pakistani wannabe liberals in 4 languages, let alone Urdu…

Challenge to Omar Bhai perhaps 😛

Saurav
Saurav
2 years ago

https://twitter.com/asc89/status/1376717656162672648

Amey Bhau had enough of the ‘South Asian’ shit 😛

Narasingha Deva
Narasingha Deva
2 years ago

https://www.daijiworld.com/news/newsDisplay?newsID=818022

‘US ban on Xinjiang cotton cranks-up India’s yarn exports’

Saurav
Saurav
2 years ago

@Rock

“Why did the greater hindu region of up gave 10 out of 80 seats in 2004 and led to Vajpayee’s loss?”

Why was it incumbent on UP Hindus to vote for Vajpayee and save the BJP? We atleast gave Vajpyaee 10 seats, what was the count of the lesser-Hindu regions again?

Wasn;t it time for supposedly Hindu region of South and East to also have their numbers count. Why should we always be the one to carry the Hindutva project and other Hindus resting on our hard work, while they want every damn thing under the sun from the BJP. And BTW we gave BJP 40-50 odd seats through out the 90s , something which other lesser Hindu regions will take generations to come close.

For example, If CAA is so important for Bengalis, y were they squatting all these 70 years? And y do they need a party like BJP who they havent vote for like ever to implement it?

“?why are Hindus of lesser hindu region more likely to vote for bjp?”

I guess u must be living under a Rock, since when did lesser Hindu regions vote for BJP? Kerala, Bengal or Tamil Nadu?

Rock
Rock
2 years ago
Reply to  Saurav

Bengali Hindus did vote for a higher percentage in 2019 elections than up and bihar.do some calculations.

Narasingha Deva
Narasingha Deva
2 years ago

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.deccanchronicle.com/amp/nation/in-other-news/290321/kakinada-port-exported-rice-to-25-african-countries-china-vietnam-de.html

India ‘feeds’ world amid COVID-19

Kakinada port in Andhra Pradesh is playing the lead role in exporting rice to nearly 25 African countries and also China and Vietnam

Narasingha Deva
Narasingha Deva
2 years ago

https://amp.scroll.in/article/990583/a-booming-population-of-feral-dogs-is-threatening-the-biodiversity-in-the-himalayas

A booming population of feral dogs is threatening the biodiversity in the Himalayas

Numinous
Numinous
2 years ago

https://www.vox.com/first-person/22352426/meat-vegan-marriage-vegetarian-plant-based-diet

Is it the case that vegetarians in the West (or at least in the States) are predominantly women? Going off into pop cultural psychology, does this make desi vegetarian men seem effeminate, thereby diminishing their dating prospects? On a separate note, do the woke have strong opinions on vegetarianism?

girmit
girmit
2 years ago
Reply to  Numinous

think the western woke have a vegetarian agenda. One prong of it is the environmental sustainability angle and the other is the repeated emphasis on plant based diet being linked to better health outcomes. Can already see the mental gears churning wherein they’d like to classify red meat as low priority junk, remove subsidies for it and perhaps open it to “sin tax”. Indian leftists are inverted in this regard of course, the whole significance of dietary chastity here has a different valence.

thewarlock
thewarlock
2 years ago
Reply to  Numinous

I am a lifetime vegetarian. I grew up in the West. Growing up, there was an effeminate streotype. It is less than before and most common among people in areas where hunting and fishing is big, typically more rural areas. If anything, it is viewed as gender neutral now,among my colleagues, and also viewed as more selfless and positively austere. It was either neutral or helpful in the dating game. It made me come off as more compassionate and environmentally conscious, whether I communicated my rationale for it or not. People also are just generally surprised I am vegetarian, given my degree of muscle for my frame and strength levels. Even that is becoming less of a shocker, with more atheltes going vegan and vegetarian and doing just as well, as long as protein is kept adequate.

Sumit
Sumit
2 years ago
Reply to  thewarlock

I really think the vegetarian / plant based = weak thing doesn’t really exist anymore.

So many vegetarian athletes and fighters.

To be honest it is one of the reasons I started eating meat. And then eventually gave it up after realizing.

My gf eats meat but thinks its “amazing” that I am vegetarian.

Vikram
2 years ago
Reply to  Numinous

Very few of the Indian males here are vegetarian as far as I know. This includes people from castes traditionally seen as vegetarian, the only exception might be Jains. Apart from a RSS leaning Kannadiga Brahmin, not a single South Indian Brahmin I know is vegetarian.

Regarding dating, there was some kind of switch that flipped in the late 2000s or early 2010s I think. I genuinely cant think of a single Indian guy a few years younger than me who has an Indian wife or girlfriend. The other halfs are invariably white and in some cases Latin/Hispanic. Maybe internet/youtube has something to do with this ?

Vegetarianism and dating in general are more serious problems for Indian women here I think.

thewarlock
thewarlock
2 years ago
Reply to  Vikram

Statistically Indian Americans are the among the most endogamous. This is changing. But a far cry from most are with Latina and White women, in terms of even recent marriage stats. And yes, most American Jains remain vegetarian. Vegatarianism in Jain households is taught more in a moral framework of non violence rather than a ritualistic purity framework. The latter is more prevalent in Hindu teachings, despite the prior also being there. But I truly think the philosophical reasons that go into ethics for vegetarianism make it so Jain American households stay vegetarian in the 2nd generation. Also, many Indian men and women date around and then end up in LTRs with other Indians.

There is also a resurgence of vegetarianism among Indian American men in my broad friend-family group at least. Some viewed eating meat as a form of rebelling early on. Then they have reverted back to vegetarianism as part of general White American liberal woke culture of viewing as ethically and environmentally better, the prior narrative actually not being that different from Jainism’s.

Side note, my cousin is in the leadership of PETA India. He is a hardcore vegan and big promoter of it in India. He has a surprising number of upper class takers in the increasingly healthy Hyderbadi populace.

I recently also saw the Netflix movie, Paggliat. The movie has a vegetarian Muslim female character, interesting to see.

girmit
girmit
2 years ago
Reply to  thewarlock

I know some younger folks in bangalore who are getting into veganism via the western culture. Among them malayali catholics and one muslim.

Prats
Prats
2 years ago
Reply to  girmit

“I know some younger folks in bangalore who are getting into veganism via the western culture. Among them malayali catholics and one muslim.”

Hehe. I have observed this as well. There’s a bit of a what goes around, comes around energy to it.

One of my flatmate in Bangalore was a baniya from Delhi who had worked in the oil and gas industry and had lived in Europe and Middle East. When I met him, he was a hardcore meat eater. Over the next couple of years, he turned into a complete vegan. I attribute it partly to a Netflix documentary that he saw that scared the shit out of him with respect to cancer and partly to his girlfriend, who was a progressive musician vegetarian types.
(His fear of cancer didn’t stop him from smoking and stoning, though.)

We sometimes used to have arguments when his tofu and my paneer got accidentally mixed up in the same gravy. Then we’d pick the two coagulates apart by poking them. I hate tofu.

Vikram
2 years ago
Reply to  thewarlock

Indo-Americans/South-Asians and Indians moving to the US as students/workers in their 20s are two completely different populations. I have hardly seen any intersection between these two groups. I believe Numinous was inquiring about migrants, but I might be wrong.

ABC
ABC
2 years ago
Reply to  Vikram

Do you know if Afro Latinas like Indians? Thanks.

thewarlock
thewarlock
2 years ago
Reply to  ABC

Stop worrying about who is in or not into someone because of race. People who disqualify others, in the dating game, solely because of race are just not worth dating in the first place. Just be confident, fashionable, fit, and respectful. Do the best you can do making yourself desirable and putting yourself out there in the dating world. What you get is what you get.

And yes, I know Indian men who date black and latina women. I know one guyanese guy of Indian origin dating an Afro-latina woman. But these men and women didn’t date each other with some racial paradigm in mind. Is there possibly some subconscious bias in the dating world? Sure. But it isn’t the main factor. Just make yourself as attractive as you can be and put yourself out there. That’s how you will maximize success.

girmit
girmit
2 years ago
Reply to  ABC

To take Dominican women as an example, yes, they do. They may even claim to have Indian ancestors, and however improbable that is, or if you think they are confusing Taino with Tamil, just don’t correct them.

Hector_St_Clare
Hector_St_Clare
2 years ago
Reply to  ABC

“Do you know if Afro Latinas like Indians? Thanks.”

As far as African-American and Latina women, in my experience yes. I haven’t ever interacted with enough “Afro-Latina” women specifically (if you mean, e.g., Dominicans, Cubans etc. with African descent) to say.

But, America is a big country, you can probably find people with whatever tastes you’re looking for.

thewarlock
thewarlock
2 years ago

https://www.opindia.com/2021/03/bjp-worker-wife-raped-by-tmc-nandigram-reports-what-we-know/

Absolutely repulsive. If guilty, they need to be castrated.

thewarlock
thewarlock
2 years ago

https://www.google.com/amp/s/slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/03/biden-modi-india-democracy.amp

WOW. Fuck the leftists at Slate, equating totalitarian dictatorship in China with democratic leadership in India. Suddenly, when leftists are not in power, they call democratically elected leaders authoritarian, often using their globalist allies at international indices agencies to add additional validation.

thewarlock
thewarlock
2 years ago

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/03/30/modi-india-farmers-protests-agriculture-reforms-rich-versus-poor/

Yup. Finally straight truth from a Western pub.

“Despite what activists and Western celebrities supporting the protests would have us believe, most of those who’ve been protesting the new laws since September aren’t drawn from the ranks of marginalized subsistence farmers driven by debt and despair to the edge of suicide. They represent instead the politically powerful (and heavily subsidized) remnants of India’s traditional landlord caste. These farmers fear that the laws will help large agribusinesses undermine the current state-directed system for buying farm produce and ultimately lead to the dismantling of the price support system on which they depend. They are demanding that the government repeal the reforms and guarantee the future of price supports.”

It has been estimated that Jats own roughly three-fourths or four-fifths of all agricultural land in Haryana and eastern Punjab, respectively. Nearly all medium- and large-scale farmers in both states are reputed to belong to the Jat community. The farm protesters’ claim to have mobilized 200,000 tractors for their Republic Day rally on Jan. 26 confirms the prevalence of relatively large-scale farmers among the protesters, given that few Indian farmers own enough land to practice mechanized agriculture. Even today, the typical Indian farmer is still 10 times more likely to own a bullock than a tractor.

READ MORE

Activists of the United Hindu Front hold pictures of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and Barbadian singer Rihanna in New Delhi on Feb. 4.
Why Rihanna and Greta Thunberg Are Taking on India’s Modi
Farmers shout as they block a highway during a protest at the Singhu border near New Delhi on Dec. 18.
Why India’s Farmers Won’t Stop
Farm incomes in Punjab and Haryana are the highest in India, with the average farmer in these states earning more than twice the national average and nearly three times as much as their neighbors in nearby Uttar Pradesh. They also garner the lion’s share of government support. More than 90 percent of their cropland is covered by heavily subsidized irrigation. And the government buys almost the entire output of Punjab and Haryana farmers at minimum support prices that are set far above market levels. The results are huge and growing official stockpiles of wheat and rice, much of which ends up being given away to the country’s poor—or simply rotting in place.

The Jat farmers of Punjab and Haryana have long lobbied India’s government to maintain an agricultural system that is both economically wasteful and environmentally destructive. And why shouldn’t they? India is a democracy, and in a democracy, the squeaky wheel gets the grease—and the subsidies. The fact that India’s richest farmers are vocally demonstrating for policies that secure their livelihoods should come as no surprise. And the fact that they have convinced international celebrities and activists like Rihanna, Greta Thunberg, and Meena Harris to take up their cause is perhaps a bit odd but nonetheless impressive.

Saurav
Saurav
2 years ago

https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1376924493902270467

“During my 2nd campaign, I visited a temple where the priest asked me my ‘gotra’. I told him – Maa Maati Manush. This reminds me of my visit to Tripura’s Tripureshwari temple where priest had asked me my ‘gotra’ & I had told him too ‘Maa Mati Manush’, actually I’m Shandilya: WB CM”

☝️ Every Bhadralok after few drinks 😛

Ugra
Ugra
2 years ago

Sumerian and Sanskrit – musically – the find of 2020!!

Shail Vyas is a Homi Bhabha Fellow who has been engaged in archaeo-musicological research of wind and drum instruments excavated at the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) sites. During this endeavour, he stumbled upon extensive similarities between Sumerian instruments excavated at Syria, Babylon and the IVC artifacts.

On a hunch, he started to compare the words for musical instruments in Sumerian and Sanskrit. Over 70 words for describing instruments have very similar words in Sanskrit. In statistical terms, over 50% of Sumerian words for music/instruments have a common etymology in Sanskrit. He says it is highly unlikely that such an extensive parallelism for technical instruments could be coincidence.

One thing led to another and he started to compare other words from the Sumerian register to both Rgvedic and Early Sanskrit. More and more confluences began popping up – that are simply astounding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIabz0I2dhM

Whether you are AMT or OIT, you should watch this video. I have a theory on how outsiders figure out connections that specialists ignore. Linguists in this case have already proclaimed Sumerian to be a language isolate from the third millennium BC. Laurence Waddell, Gamkrelidze, Ivanov have all noticed IE relationships in Sumerian words.

Both RS Bisht and Vasant Shinde have added their comments to the work of Shail Vyas. This is quite an important work that adds heft to the growing AMT falsification body.

Bonus – the Sumerian word for bead is Hindum. The IVC was known high quality faience and steatite beads. These beads have been found at almost all archaeological sites in the Middle East.

Saurav
Saurav
2 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVQ0TgqoLds&ab_channel=ThePakistanExperience

2 Goras shoiwng their love for Pakistan. When will India have that?

Perhaps Trushcke VS Razib

Prats
Prats
2 years ago
Reply to  Saurav

“When will India have that?”

Lol. Why do you want us to be subjected to such atrocities.

“Perhaps Trushcke VS Razib”

Razib is a really smart guy. But the historian is versed in the dark arts of woke rhetoric. I fear she’ll end up chewing Razib out and you’ll see clips floating around the internet with titles like
“Female historian expertly shuts down mansplaining apologist for Hindutva”

Saurav
Saurav
2 years ago
Reply to  Prats

I am pretty sure Razib will have some ace up his sleeve. Also Truschkey i feel is not that great at woke-ness, i feel there are far superior brown and white women on twitter.

Vikram
2 years ago

“oil and gas industry meat eater” “progressive musician vegetarian types”

It is interesting how professional and personal/political choices tend to get mixed up.

On the other hand, one disadvantage of moving to the US as an Indian is that the probability of having a musician type in your circle is close to zero. Plenty of oil/gas/silicon/C++ industry types though.

Prats
Prats
2 years ago
Reply to  Vikram

I think the probability of such a thing 10 years ago would have been low in India as well. But dating apps have made mixing up much more common.

Maybe it’d be the same for younger migrants from India to US. Could also depend on location.

A friend moved from Bombay to New York and was pretty happy at the dating options that opened up. Then he moved to Seattle, where he says his dating life is inferior to Bombay since all he ever matches with are desi women working at Microsoft or Amazon.
He also feels that white/black women in Seattle do not swipe on Indian guys unlike in NY.

DaThang
DaThang
2 years ago

GNXP open thread is closed so I am posting this here.

https://loukeep.substack.com/p/vagaries

As a response to the article’s mention of a first Levant attempt at 100K years ago:

There might have been three attempts with Apidima at 210,000 years ago representing the earliest one. May or may not be linked to a 190,000 year old find from Israel, should push the date back from 100K to ~200K for the first attempt in the discrete attempt-based scenario.
I think that things were more complex then that, with homo sapiens ancestors moving around north Africa every now and then maybe leaving behind a few separated groups like the one from Apidima, the one from Caramel and the later 100K year old remains. IIRC Razib Khan and others have talked about a potential back and forth between Africa and southeast Asia route of moving hominins going on from long before the time of the earliest homo sapiens.

Narasingha Deva
Narasingha Deva
2 years ago

https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN2BN12J

Exclusive: A billion for every chip-maker who ‘makes in India,’ sources say

Narasingha Deva
Narasingha Deva
2 years ago

https://swarajyamag.com/amp/story/news-brief%2Fgovt-likely-to-consider-privatisation-of-idbi-bank-in-next-weeks-cabinet-meeting-report

Govt Likely To Consider Privatisation Of IDBI Bank In Next Week’s Cabinet Meeting: Report

Ugra
Ugra
2 years ago
Reply to  thewarlock

This one was interesting….the author is Muslim Afro Latina. I sympathised with her until the middle of the article when I realised she only wanted to marry Muslim Arabs. Special case of reverse racism!! Stupid enough to get published by Al-Jazeera.

principia
principia
2 years ago
Reply to  Ugra

I sympathised with her until the middle of the article when I realised she only wanted to marry Muslim Arabs

That’s not accurate. She mentions in her text that she was dating South Asians too but faced the same prejudices.

reverse racism

Doesn’t exist. There’s only racism. Don’t use terms like “reverse” but it implictly centers the debate around some forms of racism as more authentic/serious than others.

Ugra
Ugra
2 years ago
Reply to  principia

@principia

Lets be honest here. In the article it is clear that she only went on to potential South Asian males after being rejected by Arabs.

I think we got our lines crossed over reverse racism. It definitely exists – the other name for it is affirmative discrimination – and is widely practiced as policy in the US.

Perhaps this is where she got that idea that people could be coerced into some “equal opportunity” game in the marriage market. Selecting a mate is definitely linked to evolutionary/hardwired cultural criteria in the brain. This game is discriminatory by design!! Thats why I called that article stupid.

Narasingha Deva
Narasingha Deva
2 years ago

https://theprint.in/india/governance/modi-govts-next-big-farm-push-rs-10900-cr-incentive-for-food-processing-boost-to-exports/631812/

Modi govt’s next big farm push: Rs 10,900 cr incentive for food processing, boost to exports

principia
principia
2 years ago

So I decided to borrow ‘India in the Persianate Age’ by Richard M. Eaton after a personal recommendation by razib. On the very first page the author thanks Audrey Truschke for her contributions and feedback, calls her an excellent scholar. The vast majority of thanked names are either Western or Islamic. I had to exert enormous energy not to throw away the book right there and right then.

I soldiered on. The author immediatedly starts his book by lamenting religious divides. He then spends an inordinate amount of time bashing into the reader the notion that the Islamic invaders shouldn’t be seen as moslems, but rather as ‘turkics’. When confronting the narrative that contemporary historians and histographers were often very explicit in their religious text (with a clear anti-Hindu animus), Eaten merely handwaves these concerns away by claiming that just because these historians saw the world in stark religious terms, doesn’t mean that the people on the ground did. Maybe. But the people on the ground didn’t set policy; elites did. Eaten never made a strong case why these chroniclers were outliers among their peers.

Suffice to say, I was not impressed with the book.

thewarlock
thewarlock
2 years ago

https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgqz58/yusuf-merchant-land-rehab-scandal-india?utm_source=reddit.com

Disgusting man, if allegations true. He should physically castrated and forced to live with an ostomy

thewarlock
thewarlock
2 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtDW2_tLkJE

Honest people. They really hate the idea of a Mandir. More opposition than I expected actually.

Vikram
2 years ago
Reply to  thewarlock

Someone was promoting a melodrama facebook page, should share this there.

Interesting to see how unpopular Imran Khan is. Makes sense how imperative it is for the Pakistani army to keep Nawaz out.

S Qureishi
S Qureishi
2 years ago
Reply to  Vikram

Indians and Pakistani liberals are still in their echo chambers claiming Imran Khan is ”deeply unpopular” and actually thinking that Nawaz Sharif has any chance of being PM again. In before IK wins the next elections, just as easily as he won the recent vote of confidence. I watch journalists like Najam Sethi and Raza Rumi for comedic relief these days talking about the imminent demise of this government.

thewarlock
thewarlock
2 years ago
Reply to  S Qureishi
Vikram
2 years ago
Reply to  S Qureishi

I was commenting on what I saw on the video of live, on the ground Pakistanis who definitely dont seem ‘liberal’ based on their opinion of Hindus and temples.

I had actually thought he was rather popular, was quite surprised to see the disapproval.

S Qureishi
S Qureishi
2 years ago
Reply to  Vikram

There is no real liberal conservative divide in Pakistan, not anymore. The liberals are a very tiny minority and pretty irrelevant now, while the extremists are also being pushed back. That video is shit, and presents one side of POV (but I am sure people spreading it know that).. just as this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJmrKrp540U&t=378s) spreads the other side.

Fact of the matter is, Islamist, Secular, Feudal they all joined forces against Imran Khan, who enjoys popular support still. His popularity cuts across different ethnic groups, and across the liberal/conservative divide. If elections were held today, he will be PM again.

Saurav
Saurav
2 years ago
Reply to  Vikram

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLxWUjNKw60&ab_channel=MuzamilHasan

Is CPEC Really The Next East India Company?

Aditya
Aditya
2 years ago

My complaint – South Asians should be banned from Wikipedia. You get idiocy like this on most Hindu/India related topics:
“God Ayalnatunulaivuchanru is Ishtadev of Gulti community in Telangana. Many worshiper know Mahavatar Takavaltolilnutpam is Avatar, predicted by most esteemed Lord Guguji”
Either that, or there should be a statement that comes up every time they comment or contribute online, in words as they would understand them:
“Learn write English, stop type nonsense”

Ugra
Ugra
2 years ago
Reply to  Aditya

@Aditya

There is nothing irrelevant about those posts. Some small towns are getting on to the information highway and are writing about themselves. Even with the left-bias of Wiki, it shows that it is democratic to those who want to write about their milieu.

Saurav
Saurav
2 years ago

https://thewire.in/communalism/narendra-modi-bangladesh-temple-pratapaditya-satkshira-matua-orakandi

“Such is the syncretic history of Bengal and its resistance to outside rule, celebrated in its history and folklore.

No amount of false Hindutva propaganda, attempts at appropriating its historical icons and characters, and tendentious visits to temples with an eye to influencing Hindu voters in West Bengal can falsify this history.

Rather, with his visit to the Jessoreshwari temple, Modi has possibly inadvertently revived the memory of a bygone era and icon of Bengal’s history whose life and struggle was totally antithetical to the divisive agenda he and his party espouses. It is time for the people of Bengal to recognise this, and defeat this divisive propaganda and politics.”

Less Hindu people

thewarlock
thewarlock
2 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8A8qmsas08&ab_channel=SingleTrackStudio

More music from the AASI man who has penetrated the traditional domain of Indian Steppe Land

Brown Pundits