In case you aren’t subscribed, Akshar interviewed an Afghan official on the latest BP podcast. Our cadence has dropped off lately, but I’m assuming we’ll speed up again at some point soon.
On Kushal Mehra’s show talking about Dragon Man.
Open Thread – 07/10/2021 – Brown Pundits
Browncast: An Ex-Muslim Bangladeshi convert to Buddhism speaks
Another BP Podcast is up. You can listen on Libsyn, Apple, Spotify, and Stitcher (and a variety of other platforms). Probably the easiest way to keep up the podcast since we don’t have a regular schedule is to subscribe to one of the links above.
Today, I talk to “Alex,” a Bangladesh freethinker who reverted to Buddhism from Islam. He’s someone who rubbed shoulders with a lot of activists in Dhaka in the mid-2010’s, while also being a 4chan troll.
We discuss the economic and social situation in Bangladesh, but also the oppression of tribal people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
I’m on Urban Chatterati again!
Open Thread – 07/03/2021 – Brown Pundits
Happy birthday soon America.
A lot of the comments on the Pew India survey are quite dumb. Some not so dumb. The problem with stupid and emotional responses is that it makes it more difficult to address real issues of bias.
Indians: A Brief History of a Civilization looks good. Lots of reviews how it is Leftist.
Pew Survey on India (religion, etc.)
The Pew Survey on India is long. Here are my main impressions/surprises:
– The strong emphasis on Hindi in the Gangetic plain is pretty striking (“Central”)
– The stuff about mass conversions to Christianity in South India seems overdone. I understand people can/will lie on Census due to reservations, but this seems less plausible for a pollster. That being said, a disproportionate number of conversions are in the South
– South India is less religious, less nationalistic, etc. This seems to apply across religions (that is, Muslims in the South are less focused on religion just like Hindus in the South are)
– Opposition to “inter-caste” marriage is very strong. And, it is strong among non-Hindu groups too
– All Indians seem rather nationalistic
The ancient Indo-Iranians
Here’s a podcast on the Indo-Iranians from Patrick Wyman.
Indian American survey (outmarriage rate)
The sex-ratio skews male outmarriage for immigrants but balances out for native-born Indian Americans. The 30% rate is pretty low from what I expected. Also, surprised that 40% of spouses of Indian Americans were Indians born in India, but I wonder what percentage of these are 1.5 generation (born abroad, raised in the USA).
Open Thread – 06/26/2021
Eastern Y Chromosomes in the Indian subcontinent
Looking at the Y chromosomes in the Indian subcontinent, it seems that haplogroups C (found in lots of Patels) and F are the only ones with “eastern” affinity that deeply rooted in the subcontinent. Thoughts? H is found in a lot of Adivasi, but seems more related to West Eurasian populations.
This is on my mind because the Uralic populations show the strong male-based spread of eastern Y chromosomes. Finns are 60% eastern on the Y and less than 1% on the mtDNA.