Yesterday we went for lunch with some friends and rather randomly the husband engaged Vidhi on the merits/demerits of colonialism. I also had a commentator somehow bring up that I’m unfairly blaming the English for South Asia’s problems. My point being is that the new counter-narrative is that the English seem to have done us … Continue reading How have the English paid for imperialism/colonialism?
Across India, discussions about demographics are charged with questions of destiny and identity. In the Hindi belt, particularly in UP and Bihar, the focus often turns to birth rates between Hindus and Muslims, a dynamic sometimes referred to as a “cradle race.” This term reflects deeper concerns about societal balance, yet paradoxically, it also influences … Continue reading Demographic Destiny: Power and Identity in India
Carl Sagan famously said that you have to know the past to understand the present. As the inheritors of the Dhārmika civilization, to understand the present, we must go back to where it all began – Mūlasthāna, a place we are guilty of forgetting. An Old Fort of Dharma The origin of the great Bhāratīya … Continue reading Dharma in the Bhāratīya Frontier – Multan
Nowhere does antiquity animate politics and society like India. Some pan on for a golden age of yore that is more myth than matter. Others want to incinerate the past as they view it as an age of oppression and inherent ignorance. Still, some are completely ambivalent to it, viewing attachments to the era of … Continue reading The Dance of Indian Modernity and Tradition
In the comments below there’s a lot of discussion on colorism among brown subcontinentals as well as a fixation on particular facial features. Since I’m an American coconut I don’t really understand many of the nuances, though I’m curious from an anthropological perspective. Much of it obviously seems ludicrous for American browns. What’s the point … Continue reading So what’s wrong with being kaala?
What makes an Indian? Is it the passport? The genetics? The culture? The religion? The food? The fashion? All of the above? It’s a question that’s been hotly debated amongst the citizens of the Indian Republic since the bloody partition and independence of 1947. Praise of India’s diversity finds purchasing power both inside and … Continue reading The Dravidaryan Invasion Theory
I have been too busy (or wasting too much time on twitter) to write much, but I think we should promote some essays from other sites when they look interesting. Here is one I saw today: David Berlinski reviews Pankaj Mishra’s latest book of essays. You can read it in full on this link. (my … Continue reading David Berlinski Reviews Pankaj Mishra
Buddhism and Islam on the Silk Road has an extensive section on Afghanistan. The Bamiyan Buddhas reminds us what the texts make clear: up until 900 AD the highlands in an around modern Afghanistan were heavily Buddhist. The Turki Shahi kings of Kabul seem to have patronized Buddhism. In contrast, their successors, the Hindu Shahi … Continue reading Afghanistan was never “Hindu”
Every time I used to play a strategy video game, my mind was firstly on money. Creating an income stream as well as buildings and units to magnify that income stream was the primary priority of my gameplay. Only then could I exercise my will and wrath on the codes of computer programming that … Continue reading The Economic History of the American Empire
One of my earliest memories of my childhood is watching the Mahābhārat with my dad. After we dropped my mom off for her night shift at the factory, we would return home, and a black rectangle filled with film would catapult me into a confusingly wondrous world. From the magical arrows whizzing through battlefields to … Continue reading Why Hindu-Americans Don’t Stand Up For Hindus
