March 2026
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SS Rajamouli’s Varanasi – The next phase of the Indian wave?
Bombay Badshah argues that Asian economies follow a pattern in which pop culture goes mainstream at high HDI, and that India is still early. He sees Rajamouli’s Varanasi, after RRR’s…
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India’s Guest. America’s Kill.
X.T.M argues that the US submarine sinking of the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena, days after it left India’s MILAN fleet review as a guest, shows the cost of Modi’s diplomacy.…
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2026 Iran War and the Gulf
Sbarrkum argues that Gulf states do not attack Iran because they are vulnerable: they host US bases, their oil and gas infrastructure is exposed, and some face restive Shia populations.…
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Modi Puts India Firmly in the Israel-US Camp
X.T.M cites journalist Bharat Bhushan’s view in Deccan Herald that Modi’s support for Israel and silence on the US-Israeli strikes on Iran put India firmly in the US-Israeli camp and…
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On Whose Side Is God?
X.T.M argues that planners of the Iran war misread Shia Islam, which honours death with dignity. He says killing Khamenei hands the system a martyr, and that the Pahlavist, secular-liberal…
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Allama Iqbal’s Dream Fulfilled; West Pakistan Defends India Against the Barbarians..
Omar Ali proposes that Iqbal’s 1930 idea of a northwest Muslim state defending India from invaders has proved partly right, with Pakistan a buffer against the Middle East. He argues…
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Zahak versus Husayni
X.T.M reads Reza Pahlavi’s statement on Khamenei’s death through the Shahnameh’s Zahhak against the Husayni archetype. He weighs contested data on Iranian religiosity and asks who Iran is, with the…
