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A flying peacock
Furqan Ali describes seeing a peacock fly in a village near Peshawar and shares the poem it inspired.
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Open Thread; Trans in the Muslim World
Open thread of 26 July 2025 on trans people in the Muslim world; the opening post lists four Indian news stories, including a fake-embassy loan fraud, a GST notice to…
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Brown Pundits: Broad Church or Narrow Canon?
X.T.M answers Kabir’s charge of ‘soft Hindutva’ bias at Brown Pundits, arguing the forum’s bias is civilisational engagement rather than Hindutva, that Hindu introspection drives much of its energy, and…
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What Kind of Space Is Brown Pundits
X.T.M relays the authors’ discussion about what kind of space Brown Pundits should be, calling it a bridge across nations and faiths, with some feeling one ideological current dominates and…
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and What Is a Civilizational State?
X.T.M argues that moderation exists to keep open discussion open, then defines a civilisational state as a nation that sees itself as the continuation of an ancient cultural memory. On…
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Partition Never Ended: We Just Stopped Talking About It
X.T.M argues that the India–Pakistan conflict is also civilisational: each side knows little of the other, with Bollywood and state narratives supplying caricatures, while real conversations across the border turn…
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Addendum: On Labels, Nations and Misunderstandings
X.T.M adds that Indians and Pakistanis misread each other’s vocabulary and media, with India seeing itself as civilisational and Pakistan as ideological, and argues that curiosity rather than suspicion would…
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Open Thread
Open thread: X.T.M is busy, will keep it sticky, and invites readers to talk about anything.
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Bharat Needs No Validation
X.T.M takes a commenter’s remark that the Ramayana did not resonate as a cue to argue that Bharat is civilisational, that Pakistan is an ‘Urdufied Punjab’ still colonised in mind,…
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Ramayan in Karachi ?
Nachiketa shares news that a Pakistani theatre group has staged Ram and Sita, under the line ‘It’s our Ramayana too’, and asks readers for their views.
The Indian Subcontinent Argues with Itself
Sunday, 8 November 2026Since December 2010 · 4,170 posts · 93,923 comments
