I just want to briefly offer some thoughts since it’s now been a year since I have been active in this latest iteration of BP.
Over the past year on this forum, I have seen many members of the “Saffroniate” who seem to have no agenda except to disparage Pakistan. BB is chief among them but there are others who share essentially the same views but hide behind a tone of neutrality that allows them to claim the moral high ground. BB is the most open about his views. No other member of the “Saffroniate” has threatened to “infiltrate” Pakistan and make a Pakistani Muslim say “Bharat Mata ki Jai” at gunpoint. Such an egregious comment had obvious consequences–as it should have. While others have not crossed this line, it doesn’t mean that their anti-Pakistan attitude and Islamophobia is not obvious. The word “taqqiya” has been used in reference to me. Using this word for a Muslim is Islamophobic and completely unforgivable. I find it deeply ironic that those who are the first to complain about Hinduphobia have no problem resorting to obvious Islamophobic tropes.
While Indians have legitimate grievances with Pakistanis (as Pakistanis do with Indians), the way to generate a productive dialogue is not to use triggering language like “apartheid”, “kleptocracy” etc. This only causes the other side to double down on their own position and for people to talk past each other.
I also want to address the passive aggressive complaints that I have banned certain people from my threads. It is a settled principle on BP that authors have the right to manage their threads the way they like. This is a principle that has been hard fought for. I have made my red lines clear. I will not tolerate anti-Pakistan commentary or people taking a hostile and combative tone with me. If you can express your POV in a civilized manner while staying within these guidelines, then I will allow your comment to stand–no matter how much I may disagree with it. If not, it will be summarily deleted.
What’s ironic is that some of those who complain the most about this actually have author status and are able to create their own threads on whatever topic they wish. That they don’t use this status is their choice and not a reflection on me. It’s of course much easier to complain than it is to actually write your own posts. To his credit, BB actually uses his author status to make his own arguments. When he returns from his “vanvaas”, I hope he will contribute posts about Indian movies and TV shows. This would add to the varied mix of topics on this forum.
Lastly, I want to welcome the members of the “Cresenciate”. I hope, with time, one of them will graduate from commenter to author. It is important to have more Pakistani representation on this forum. This doesn’t mean that I always agree with them but it is good that all the work of countering the “Saffroniate” doesn’t fall on me.
It would be remiss of me not to mention those Indians who are not really part of the “Saffroniate” such as Gaurav and girmit who always contribute thoughtful points–though again I may vehemently disagree at times.
P.S. I was speaking with a new friend of mine from Hyderabad Deccan recently. He noted that the toxic obsession with Pakistan is a North Indian thing and that South Indians really don’t care all that much. This intuitively makes sense since of course the worst Partition atrocities occurred in Punjab and Bengal.
the Author List as it stands
Sorry, I don’t understand this comment.
apologies we had posted a picture of the current Authors.
Right now; it is the original 4 (RNJ, urself, BB & Sbarrkum) + Q
Gaurav is editor, we are keeping the Author List tight (to Actives).
if anybody does want to write they are welcome to trial it out but we do need some minimum level of activity
I don’t think it’s wise to extend an olive branch to a repeat offender with a track record of disruptive behavior. There are plenty of readers and commenters who could eventually replace his low brow media gossip.
This isn’t true. A lot of Pakistanis make this erroneous assumption that there’s less anti-Pakistani hate and obsessions in the south but what from I’ve seen, it’s as much if not more than their northern countrymen.
Hyderabadi Muslims are obviously an exception given their history and identity – they’ve always been very pro-Pakistan. There’s even a western vlogger that was surprised to see local Muslims there cheer for the Pakistani cricket team over India.
I am willing to forgive BB–If not forgive at least move past the past– provided he doesn’t repeat his old behavior.
Ideally, he should have been banned for life after that post sexualizing Pakistani women but since that’s not in my power, one has to deal with it.
BB posting reviews of TV shows, music and media is benign. We don’t have to read them if we’re not interested. What I will protest is him making posts just to sneer at Pakistan.
As I said in the post, I actually find BB less annoying than some of the others here simply because he is open about his views and doesn’t hide behind passive aggression. Passive aggression is one of the things I hate most in the world.
On your other point: I will clarify that the guy I was speaking to is Hindu. His point was that all this angst about the creation of Pakistan etc is mostly North Indian angst. We can see that even on this forum. The most strident anti-Pakistan comments come from RNJ (who is from Maharastra or Gujarat or something) and BB. The South Indian commenters (like girmit) are much more chill.
Girmit probably is a very high signal commentator. He doesn’t do polemic.
Calvin is of course a neutral in the sense he doesn’t belong to either religious tradition.
This is a great post btw; Authorial Autonomy is everything at BP and it is a right you essentially established at very great cost.
Pakistan women, like all other women and men, are allowed to be sexualised surely?
He could have rephrased his post (it was clunky) but eroticism in a Pakistani and Muslim context is interesting as a topic.
Agree about girmit and Calvin.
I will disagree on BB’s post. For a Hindu (or any other non-Muslim) man to sexualize Muslim women crosses red lines.
You are well aware that the honor of a community’s women is a very serious issue for South Asians.
As we had discussed at the time, a similar post by a Muslim man sexualizing Hindu women would not have been allowed to stand on this forum for more than thirty seconds.