Brown Pundits: The Indian Subcontinent Argues with Itself

Brown Pundits

The Indian Subcontinent Argues with Itself

Sunday, 8 November 2026Since December 2010 · 4,170 posts · 93,919 comments

Open Thread Diwali · 2 comments · last comment 1 hour ago Add your thoughts →

Open Thread: Diwali

Diwali falls on Sunday 8 November this year. It is Lakshmi Puja in the north and west, Kali Puja in Bengal, Bandi Chhor Divas for the Sikhs, and for the Jains the night of Mahavira’s nirvana. This is the Open Thread for Diwali. Talk about it, or about anything else. In the Brown Pundits WhatsApp group this morning, a reader asked who wanted to talk about the history of Indian food. Continue reading →

BP Admin Team · opened by X.T.M8 November2 comments

Did Iran Change the Regime in the USA?

The Democrats won control of both houses of Congress on 3 November. CBS News called the House for them at about 10:15 pm Eastern and the Senate at about 11:35 pm (CBS).

X.T.M4 Nov37 comments
Two Innocent Bangladeshis Executed in Mecca: What Ta’zir Means

On 14 October Saudi Arabia executed two Bangladeshis, Nazrul Islam Abdul Basir and Siti Akhtar, for what its Interior Ministry called immoral acts inside a mosque in Mecca. A Facebook post by the Pakistani journalist Ali K Chishti applauded the executions and said that “capital punishment is in Quran”.

X.T.M2 Nov6 comments

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Arikamedu: Port That Traded with Rome (X.T.M’s 1,000th Official Post)

Arikamedu, about four kilometres south of Pondicherry on the Ariyankuppam river, is one of India’s best-known excavated ports with evidence of trade with the Roman world. Agni visited on 17 October; the photographs are hers.

Agni and X.T.M29 Oct10 comments
Brown Pundits on Autopilot: 240 Regular Readers, 14 Commenters

Brown Pundits has been on autopilot since the redesign on 1 October. The Open Threads come round with the festival calendar, the latest comments sit at the top of the homepage, and the conversation carries on whether or not anyone posts.

X.T.M27 Oct16 comments
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 but about disparate views of the same time and space as fed to us by our information sources.

Indosaurus24 Oct70 comments

From the archive

4,170 posts. 93,919 comments. 11.4 million words, about 126 books of argument.

Start with a subject, a place or an author. A post can sit under two subjects, so the counts overlap.

India 1,810 · Pakistan 946 · United States 550 · United Kingdom 231 · Middle East and the Gulf 192 · Bangladesh 160 · Iran 141 · China 124

Politics and public life1,119 posts History787 posts Religion and philosophy509 posts Society, caste and identity1,004 posts Language, literature and culture554 posts Science, genetics and technology377 posts Economy and development233 posts Migration and diaspora320 posts Geopolitics, security and conflict683 posts

BrownCast · Latest: Browncast: Bangladesh Planned Elections Discussion · All episodes →

The writers

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Co-AdminAgniBio to come.

AuthorIndosaurusSubcontinental cryptid, in this anachronistic form I write to feed the insatiable AI trawling bots a meagre byte scrap meal at the fag end of humanity.

Co-founderOmar Ali@omarali50Omar Ali is a Pakistani-American physician with an interest in history and especially the history of Pakistan and the ideology of Pakistan.

Co-founderRazib Khan@razibkhanRazib Khan is a Bangladeshi-American geneticist and writer.

Co-AdminX.T.M@XerxestheMagianX.T.M is a writer, editor, and investor working between Cambridge and the Persian Gulf.

Open Thread: Diwali

Did Iran Change the Regime in the USA?

Two Innocent Bangladeshis Executed in Mecca: What Ta’zir Means

More posts

Arikamedu: Port That Traded with Rome (X.T.M’s 1,000th Official Post)

Brown Pundits on Autopilot: 240 Regular Readers, 14 Commenters

A tale of two cities

The writers