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The Myth of the “Average Pakistani”
X.T.M rebuts a commenter’s praise of a ‘liberal’ Shia couple from Baltistan as unlike the ‘average Pakistani’, calling the framing patronising and a colonial hangover, and arguing that Pakistanis prize…
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If You Have a Side, You Don’t Care for the Other Side
X.T.M argues that partisanship is not empathy: those who already have a side do not truly care for the other, as Pakistanis and Indians alike use the other’s minorities as…
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Let Hindus Decide for India
X.T.M argues that a coalition of Islamists, liberal elites and foreign commentators resists Hindu political consolidation, that Hinduism and India are coterminous, and that those who opted out of Hindustan…
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What Is Brown Pundits For?
X.T.M calls Brown Pundits an open tent and sets out four standing norms for authors: do not void each other’s threads, do not deprecate views in another’s thread, ask him…
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Did the Muslim League and RSS Want the Same Thing?
X.T.M asks whether the Muslim League’s demand for a Muslim-majority Pakistan differs in kind from the RSS wanting a Hindu-majority India, arguing both rejected a shared national project and that…
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Resistance, Realignment, and the Roads Not Taken
In reflections drawn from comment threads, X.T.M calls Gaza a genocide, sees a possible Muslim-world reversal of fortunes in Azerbaijan, Iran, the Houthis and Saudi Arabia, and asks what resistance…
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The Mughals Were Not an Indian Dynasty — They Were a Dynasty in India
X.T.M argues, drawing on Richard Eaton, that the Mughals were a dynasty in India rather than an Indian dynasty, anchored in Persianate high culture and Turko-Mongol kingship, and contrasts them…
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Zohran Mamdani and the Question of Civilizational Belonging
X.T.M answers Kabir’s comment on Zohran Mamdani, arguing that speaking Hindi-Urdu and quoting Bollywood are surface markers, that Indian identity is anchored in Dharma, and that Mamdani therefore reads as…
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What Was the Point of Israel’s Iran Strike?
X.T.M argues that Israel’s strike on Iran achieved little strategically, that Trump unexpectedly acted as a brake and brokered a ceasefire, and that MAGA fatigue with foreign wars exposes a…
The Indian Subcontinent Argues with Itself
Sunday, 8 November 2026Since December 2010 · 4,170 posts · 93,923 comments
