October 2026
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Arikamedu: Port That Traded with Rome (X.T.M’s 1,000th Official Post)
Arikamedu, 4 km south of Pondicherry, traded with Rome 2,000 years ago. Today it is littered, its mangroves full of plastic. What should the site be for?
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Brown Pundits on Autopilot: 240 Regular Readers, 14 Commenters
Since the redesign, Brown Pundits runs on autopilot: 240 loyal readers and 14 regular commenters. The cost was my own writing. That changes now.
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A tale of two cities
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. In our age of internet echo chambers, this immortal line has new meaning, not of privilege and poverty…
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Open thread: Musk the sociopath?
A gripping new documentary on Elon Musk was pulled from almost all movie theatres as the hype grew. So what’s the deal?
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Who Made the Brahmins and the Goddess Vegetarian?
Devdutt Pattanaik places the first fully vegetarian texts in medieval Gujarat, under Jain and Muslim influence. Earlier Indian sources complicate that.
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Ambedkar’s Grammar of Anarchy and the Diaspora Letter
A diaspora letter quotes Ambedkar’s ‘grammar of anarchy’ against street protest. His 1949 speech and five decades of protests that became law complicate it.
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The Raj With a New Flag: Gandhi and the Inherited State
Gandhi built India’s nation; the Raj built its state. Pakistan’s Afghan strikes, Delhi’s protest ban and the RBI rate rise show that inherited state at work.
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Open Thread: Navarātri and Durgā Pūjā
The Open Thread for Navarātri and Durgā Pūjā, with a note on fixing the site’s back end, and why Brown Pundits readers and commenters want such different things.
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Open Thread: Gandhi Jayanti
The Open Thread for Gandhi Jayanti, and a new rhythm: from now on a fresh Open Thread opens on each major festival of the subcontinent, 18 a year.
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A new look for Brown Pundits
X.T.M reports that Brown Pundits has been backed up, cleared of eight unused plugins and redesigned. The homepage now loads in under two seconds, with live comments beside the newest…
