X.T.M
X.T.M is a writer, editor, and investor working between Cambridge and the Persian Gulf. He is a co-founder of Brown Pundits, Senior Partner at BRAHM Collection, a platform for Indian handmade art and heritage, and Principal at Raef Capital.
He writes longform essays on civilisation and power, with a focus on the Persianate and South Asian worlds, and has shaped Brown Pundits since its early years. His work explores the intersection of history, identity, and state formation, particularly the unresolved cultural consequences of Partition.
His interests include Bahá’í philosophy, Iranian and Mughal history, and the long arc of civilisational continuity across Eurasia.
He writes under the X.T.M byline and can be found on X at @XerxestheMagian.
Most popular · Most recent
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Pāṇini, the “Glitch,” and a Note From an Old Cambridge Friend
X.T.M introduces Rishi Rajpopat’s new book Pāṇini’s Perfect Rule, which argues that the supposed rule-conflict flaw in Pāṇini’s grammar never existed because the system already resolves it. He is arranging…
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The Weight of Memory: A Sri Lankan Reminder
Sbarrkum recounts what Sri Lanka’s civil war cost his own family and neighbours, including killed cousins, arrests and mobs. He asks that the conflict not be invoked lightly or abstractly…
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What are the Genetics and archaeogenetics of the Indian Muslims?
Links a Reddit thread asking about the genetics and archaeogenetics of Indian Muslims, with a one-line remark that it would be interesting if true.
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Why Cambridge University needs a central Asian Kitchen
Describing two BAME initiatives at Cambridge, the author argues the university should convert an old building into an Asian mess with proper chefs, and favours a conversational, ‘sugar in the…
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Rahul Gandhi Resignation
Quotes Rahul Gandhi’s resignation tweet on serving the Congress Party, sarcastically calling it a powerful letter, and adds that the author feels uncharitable towards India and England after the World…
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BP Episode 50: South Asian Subnationalism with Prof. Majeed
A BrownCast episode with Professor Majeed on linguistic sub-nationalism and Grierson’s Linguistic Survey, covering how regional language identity grew alongside communalism before independence, why India’s languages stay healthy, and how…
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Live Blogging – the Economics of Religion in India
Live notes on Dr Sri Iyer’s talk about her book on the economics of religion in India, defining religion, surveying affiliation and median ages across faiths, and citing findings that…
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Why has Imran Khan aged so badly-
Wondering why Imran Khan looks so much older than a Gulf ruler he once posed with, the author blames earlier drinking and a late return to religion, then reflects on…
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Great job to India
Responding to a Guardian report on training Indian school heads, the author argues leadership drives national and organisational success, citing Prussia and France, while warning the piece may be a…
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Turan’s Centrality to the World..
https://www.facebook.com/shahmirahsanullah/videos/323169345109741/
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Energy Vampire or Street Fighter
Shares a video of the yoga teacher Guru Dandapani, whom the poster realises resembles Street Fighter’s Dhalsim, then pastes Wikipedia material on how the character is received and criticised as…
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Dioglossia in Sinhala
Picking up from sbarrakum’s comment on Sinhalese. First page of Beowulf in Old English
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Word
X.T.M, admitting to Mughal fondness, jokes that Pakistani friends in a London literary group chose a trendy Persian restaurant over an Indo-Pak one, reading it as a Persianate leaning in…
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Is White Privilege really “sui generis?”
X.T.M argues that white privilege is real, for example in white casting for Isle of Dogs, and contrasts the angry minority approach with the model minority approach taken by Asians,…
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If the House of Islam were a family
X.T.M offers a satirical family portrait of the Islamic world, casting Arabs as an ailing patriarch, Iran as a bitter bride, Turks as a general and Pakistan as an insecure…
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Brown for Life
X.T.M says Nikki Haley cannot express an opinion without being reminded she is ‘Nimrata’, adding it may be even more offensive if the account concerned is not itself desi.
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Happy Christmas to one & all
What is everyone doing for Christmas??
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Titaness of Brown Blogosphere, Ruchira Paul, is no more
Ruchira Paul, founder of Accidental Blogger and one of the most gracious voices of the old Brown blogosphere, is no more. We knew each other for nearly two decades, over…
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June Readership Numbers
X.T.M reports June 2026 traffic of just under 54,000 visits, down about twelve per cent: mostly phone and direct readers, a third from search, 0.4 per cent from AI answer…
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High-Intensity Precedent
The site runs on attention, and when we get busy it slows. So a principle and three rules: original posts that stand on their own, reposts gathered into single running…
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Clearing the Augean Stables
X.T.M says he removed a few disruptive authors for personal abuse and asks commenters to stick to facts rather than inflammation.
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Why Indian English Loves Long Sentences
X.T.M argues that Indian English favours long, ornate sentences as an echo of Persian’s former prestige role, and that it borrows surface complexity without the deep roots of Persian, Arabic…
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Visibility, Voice, and the Indian Muslim Dilemma
X.T.M reads the prominence of Muslim families in BBC coverage of the Ahmedabad plane crash as showing three things: selective visibility, Indian Muslim emigration, and a surprising willingness to speak…
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From Yohani to Nora: How Bollywood Mughalizes Everything
Using Royals and the Manike Mage Hithe remix, X.T.M argues that Bollywood ‘Mughalizes’ regional inputs, so India kept the composite culture without religion while Pakistan kept the religion but lost…
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🌇 Dispatch from Dubai: The City-State That Arrived
Reflecting on a work trip, Zachary L. Zavidé argues that Dubai has become a city in command, a clean, optimised, culturally rooted prototype city-state, and suggests such cities will attract…
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A Postcard from Princeton
A postcard from a visit to Princeton, admiring its curated elegance while arguing that the town is a gated community whose wealth underwrites academics’ ideals. The author also says anti-Asian…
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Indra – the dragon slayer
The author describes a Python script built to search the Vedic corpus for verses on Vritra, then shares a Claude-generated summary of the Rigvedic myth. It presents Indra as slayer…
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India at a Crossroads: Superpower or Spectator?
Argues that the unipolar moment is over and five great powers now compete, each with its own grand strategy, so India must decide whether to shape this order or watch.…
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Yalta vs. Helsinki – Sir Alex Younger and the New Global Intelligence Order
Summarises a video by former MI6 chief Sir Alex Younger, who argues that the world is contested between a Yalta model of great-power spheres of influence and a Helsinki model…
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The Hidden Migrations of Bahá’ís in Northern Iran: Ayyám-i-Há Reflections
Starting from a conversation with a Bahá’í friend born in Gonbad-e-Qabus, X.T.M traces how Bahá’í families from Sangesar in Semnan Province migrated north, a story of adaptation and survival under…
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The Tebbit test is racist
The author argues that the Tebbit test of whom British Asians support at cricket is coded racism, since a Welshman cheering Wales raises no eyebrows, and says Asians were never…
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It’s not always Racism
A list of ten reflections arguing that racism is too quickly blamed for everything, that elites may select on class and ability, and that ‘model’ minorities in the West are…
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My letter to the Cambridge Union
The author reproduces his letter of complaint to the Cambridge Union after being turned away from a Pakistan Society event for not being a student, describing it as humiliating, as…
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Iranian Ghee
Prompted by a video on food in Kermanshah, the author argues that copious ghee explains why its cooking is so delicious, and that signature Iranian dishes are variants of Iraqi-Syrian…
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Better in Wales than India
Calls it absurd to demand the return of Mughal artefacts when India and Pakistan both disrespect that period, saying the colonial encounter can be discussed once Pakistanis speak decent Dari…
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Do they even pretend to care about BAME anymore?
The author complains that British adverts cast black and Asian actors in blue-collar roles, blames oblivious well-meaning white creatives, and says he asks for racial sensitivity rather than positive discrimination,…
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The Kalash of Iran
Prompted by a family story of Zoroastrians becoming Baha’is, the author argues that the Baha’i Faith has reduced Iran’s Zoroastrian and Jewish minorities, while its converts keep Persian identity, and…
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This Zach is an ass
The author objects to a tweet by Zach Goldberg that portrays his Indian girlfriend as confused by diversity training and wanting only Bollywood films, arguing that it plays on Orientalist…
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Remembering the Birangonas; the female Freedom Fighters/Victims
A short post sharing a tweet and Facebook post remembering the Birangonas, women honoured as freedom fighters or victims of the 1971 war.
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Does Britain need a Trump to handle Brexit
Writing as a self-declared Tory, the author argues that Theresa May should channel Donald Trump and tell the EU to get lost, since Britain has only to gain from Brexit,…
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Bhutan
X.T.M objects to Western condescension about India and China, and to the glossing over of Bhutan’s displacement of Nepali migrants. He urges reciprocal visa rules for Western nationals and argues…
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Ghar whapisi
X.T.M jokes that a booking made under his wife’s family name Lalchand sounded better than his own, and that he is thinking of softening his ‘Muslimness’ ahead of a possible…
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Cake & Rape
X.T.M, after Pakistanis accused him of selective posting about the Kathua and Unnao rapes, argues that India’s justice system is shambolic, that violence against women is the region’s pressing issue,…
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Black Panther
X.T.M praises the film Black Panther and asks why Black people get better PR than brown people, wondering if being a model minority is boring.
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Basmati Blues
https://twitter.com/i/moments/930527539482759168
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Sikhism & Iran’s Symbol
Links an article on Iran’s Sikhs, prompted by a similar Iranian symbol that proved coincidental, and comments on India–Iran closeness and Pakistan’s one-sided relationship with Iran.
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The Peshawar Review
X.T.M lists the contents of the October issue of The Peshawar Review, including pieces by Anjum Altaf on September Eleven and Harbans Mukhia’s memoir of Dr K. M. Ashraf, and…
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Pakistan & India as Imperial Nation States
X.T.M reports a conference claim that India and Pakistan are post-imperial states smothering small nations, does not adopt that frame, and argues that ethnicity resurges in Pakistan because Islam has…
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Reading Dawn in Delhi.
X.T.M reports Beena Sarwar’s talk at Mela Nordic’s Stockholm Partition event, tracing the end of Aman ki Asha to Sapan, a volunteer network with a minimum common agenda that bans…
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The Importance of Grace
X.T.M, noting that Kabir has resigned, argues that online forums need grace rather than agreement or deference. He says blunt voices should not be silenced and that BP must remain…
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What Is Not India Is Pakistan
Taking one commenter’s line, ‘What is not India is Pakistan’, as a sharp description of how the Pakistani state has built its identity.
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Vedam
A link to a New England Review piece, ‘The Trials of Subu Vedam’. The poster notes that the foreword mentions Brahmins four times and recalls vegetarian Tamil-speaking families from his…
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What kind of nationalism is it to live in India and have an Arabic name?
X.T.M posts an extract from Kanhaiyalal Kapoor’s satirical story in Rakhshanda Jalil’s anthology of non-Muslim Urdu writers, in which a narrator renames and re-dresses himself to prove his Indianness, and…
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Is Brahmin a controversial word
X.T.M asks whether the word Brahmin is controversial and wonders why Hindus cannot reform caste while keeping its benefits, as an outsider who believes in equality.
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Reinforcing Caste Boundaries in Everyday Social Interactions
X.T.M cites a thesis on how upper-class Bania women help uphold caste boundaries in daily life, notes a statistic on Bania and Brahmin dominance of corporate boards, and contrasts Indian…
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Episode 57: Indian Politics Podcast
A Brown Pundits podcast episode with the usual panel on Indian politics, centred on Mahua Moitra, whom the poster calls Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reimagined as Lady Durga, while noting that panellists…
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Mahua Moitra- the Alexandria Ocasio Cortez
After discussing Mahua Moitra’s speech on the signs of fascism on a podcast, the author is convinced she is the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of Indian politics: attractive, media-friendly and eloquent.
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Why I stand with Ivanka Trump and Kim Kardashian
The author explains why he admires Ivanka Trump and Kim Kardashian as smart, successful women with global reach, argues women have long advanced through looks and family connection, and takes…
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When White Men rule the roost; there are no need for Rules.
Struck by an Oxbridge historian who rose without finishing his PhD, the author argues that rules were unneeded when academia was all white men, and describes feeling lectured by white…
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Pakistan is home to the most frenetic education reforms in the world
An extract from an Economist report on Punjab’s rapid school reforms, with private providers taking over thousands of primary schools, plus the poster’s hope that the provincial competence continues under…
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Failing to be British-
A brief comment on a comedy clip, recalling an earlier post on Aziz Ansari and Hasan Minhaj as two models of integration versus assimilation, and saying the author proudly fails…
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Enough with the dog-whistling
A short complaint about persistent racism, with the author saying white British commentators overlook the rising Asian model minority because the two great universities remain overwhelmingly white, as the Ivy…
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The idea of foreigness in the Indian Muslim narrative
Prompted by Laila Tyabji’s essays on her Bohra family, the author argues the most ‘pro-Indian’ Muslims are those most sure of their foreignness, as with Parsis, while convert classes stress…
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Green Gold in the Ummah-
X.T.M links a Facebook post, quipping that Arab powers have ‘black gold’ while Pakistan now contributes ‘green gold’.
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Sheryl Sandberg desi lookalike speaks out against Trump
X.T.M shares Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s speech condemning the child separation crisis at the US border as a human rights violation, and adds an aside on her resemblance to Sheryl Sandberg.
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Lust Stories
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Raazi
X.T.M asks whether anyone at BP has seen Raazi, and excerpts a Deccan Chronicle review of Meghna Gulzar’s espionage thriller, which the review says takes neither side and stresses patriotism…
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Is there anything intrinsically attractive about Western Civ
X.T.M, starting from a 17th-century Siamese court’s interest in French science, asks whether Western civilisation has intrinsic appeal, argues Huntington was proved right over Fukuyama’s end of history, and compares…
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Sunday Thoughts
X.T.M announces that Kabir is again an author and that he can add contributors, restates that BP is not a safe space but personal abuse is out, and comments on…
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Is this Islamophobic
X.T.M, annoyed by a Facebook status, argues that a Muslim and a Jew refusing to shake hands should be treated the same, and asks whether criticising only one is Islamophobic.
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BP in a sentence
X.T.M describes BP as civilised discussion of contentious ideas, recounts two Bahá’í acquaintances who shut down difficult questions about the Faith, and argues that believers should be agnostics, humble enough…
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Comment of the Day – the State of Sri Lanka
X.T.M promotes a comment from sbarrkum correcting views of Sri Lanka as part of greater India, arguing it has no upper-caste varnas, a polyglot history and strong social indicators, followed…
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Brown Pundits
X.T.M reflects on Brown Pundits turning seven, recalling the Sepia Mutiny days, how Razib’s idea started the blog and how its beginnings coincided with meeting his wife.
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Moody’s backs Modi, upgrades India’s sovereign rating for first time in 14 years
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The right amount of Love
Discussing a critique of Jinnah for casting out his daughter Dina Wadia, the author does not condone it but argues ideology can reasonably outweigh attachment, and adds a passage on…
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China’s Israel
Reposts a friend’s article from The News on China–Pakistan relations, opening with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s 1960 abstention on China’s UN membership as an early signal of Pakistan’s shift away from…
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The Obliquity of Oriental Culture
Inspired by the book Obliquity, the author reflects on his own indirect style, tracing the reserved, private-versus-public manners of Persian-influenced Bahá’í communities in the Gulf and South Asia, and contrasting…
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Honour and Acid: The Great Indus Split
X.T.M tests the claim that honour killing is Pakistan’s inheritance from Indus culture and acid attacks India’s. The data are messy and undercounted, but the line broadly holds. Both practices…
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Brown Pundits: Traffic Report, March 2026
March 2026 traffic was 43,417 visits, up 3.5 per cent, with Omar Ali’s Dhurandhar review the top page at 37 per cent of traffic. The site estimates a core of…
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Pray for Peace- Join in
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Evangelicals ban Behemoth from Bangalore
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Epstein in Peshawar: Not a Financier, Not Just a Predator
X.T.M reads a 2013 Jeffrey Epstein email from Peshawar as a field report on tribal and official contacts and polio funding. He argues it shows Epstein as an access broker…
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Two Hours in Delhi, and the Myth of Sudden Alignment
X.T.M disputes a popular claim that MBZ’s two-hour Delhi stopover shows India has replaced Pakistan as the Gulf’s partner. He argues deals are prepared in advance, a short visit signals…
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Pakistaniat & Urdu from Qasim to Quaid
X.T.M reflects on Urdu as a language between Persian and Arabic, shares a Bahá’í prayer in Urdu, and suggests Pakistan is a project rooted in sentiment rather than soil, in…
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The Gratitude Trap: On Escaping Asia but Staying Captive
X.T.M uses a returnee’s complaints about India to argue that migrants fall into a ‘gratitude trap’, mistaking Western clean streets and order for civilisational gifts, and that postcolonial recovery needs…
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Cheap Catharsis, Expensive History
Argues that televised confrontations with Empire’s legacy, such as the General Dyer descendant on Sathnam Sanghera’s documentary, offer cheap catharsis in place of structural change. The author says they manage…
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Twelve Days of Norouz
A personal reflection on Nowruz as a twelve-day ritual of recalibration, written by a part-Persian Bahá’í of distant Zoroastrian descent. The author describes cutting a cake at the equinox, calendars…
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Modi’s Sufi Gambit: Is Hindu India the True Heir to Urdu Culture?
Argues that Modi’s patronage of the Jahan-e-Khusrau festival may position Hindu-defined India as Urdu culture’s heir, modernising it as the Pahlavis did Persian. The author sees this as a strategic…
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Baloch, Aboriginal, and Beyond: Tracing Forgotten Lineages & Evolving Identities
Prompted by a family-history article by Sabah Rind, the author traces a Baloch-Aboriginal-Malay lineage as a product of Indian Ocean migration and trade. He argues ancestry is more layered than…
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Capitalism’s New Skin: Navigating Identity in a Post-Racial, Hyper-Global World
Picking up Razib’s remark on the 2020 BIPOC era, X.T.M argues that capitalism is now the only cohesive force in a fractured, hyper-globalised world, with social media, UK immigration and…
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Unraveling an Unequal Night in Boston
The author describes an uneven closing-time exchange at a Boston North End cafe and reads it as a sign of unspoken racial hierarchies, comparing it with the US restaurant trade…
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Daughters of Destiny
Recommends the four-part Netflix series Daughters of Destiny, about a school founded by an Indian-American millionaire for Dalit girls in India.
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White Privilege & Protesting
The author contrasts how a white male MP who grabbed a Greenpeace protester was defended while a black female MP was punished, and argues that white and coloured activists in…
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How the Baha’is lost out on Khushwant Singh-
Reacting to Khushwant Singh’s account of being refused a corner grave by Bahá’í management, the poster calls this a loss for the Faith in Asia and alleges a silent racism…
