I just read a comment by Kabir about how 2014 changed Nehru’s India drastically ( I do not agree but that’s not for now). But this poses another question.
As XTM’s post pointed out/alluded Hindutva was inevitable and the natural outcome of Pakistan. But why did it take 67 years of Hindutva to assert itself.
In my mind the answer is pretty straightforward and two fold.
1. Gandhi’s murder at hands of a Hindutvavadi.
2. Sluggish economical growth of the socialist era (also called wrongly the Hindu rate of growth).
I would love to hear comments on the question posed above.
In light of Omar stepping down from active management of BP, i wanted to share this note. As I have immense respect and gratitude towards Omar I wouldn’t want the brand he and others have built up (and i have contributed a bit) over last decade and half to just go downhill. Despite the success of Substack and X (and video platforms) I feel the BP blog presents nice niche with its moderate reach and past history of extremely insightful authors and commentators – I feel BP is a community/blog worth maintaining into the coming years (and hopefully decades).
Given the recent fracas on the blog and in between its authors and commentators, I think we ought to indulge in some moderation – how much is the question that can only be addressed as we go ahead.
In light of this i hope to:
Write a bit more frequently on the blog.
Moderate comments (not every day) and weed out filthy content which crosses a certain red line. I generally tend to be pretty liberal with my tolerance for free speech so i hope i do not indulge in too much censoring. XTM can take his call – everyone sees moderation different and being the admin and founder – his authority on moderation (along with Razib) will be the final call. But i know even he is pretty liberal with respect to comments.
Where i think reasonable standards will apply viz commenting are BP authors. It lowers the Brand of Brown pundits if people who are authors on this platform indulge in trollish and racist behavior.All always authors can moderate their threads as they deep fit instead of indulging in shitposting with trollish comments. If someone wants to have a banter in comments I hope they remember this line. I am in no way an authority but i think what i have written here wrt different standards for authors makes sense.
As I have mentioned above I do have pretty liberal standards with speech. Giving a concrete example – I did not find the jibe “subhuman” or jibe as Elitist/Islamist/Brahmanical/Fascist (ideological) as crossing a Red-Line in general. Context is important and one off comment of such nature doesn’t alarm me (It might be a redline for someone else i do not disagree) – even if directed at me. After all isnt a Troll also a subhuman ? but we are fine to call people we disagree with as low IQ trolls all the time without getting offended. Having said this – different standards ought to apply to authors but i would leave it to XTM (though i would drop him a line)
I hope i am able to stay regularly active on this space as and when time permits. As XTM has said multiple times, moderating in a thankless mandate and i hope i can slightly reduce his burden going forward.
Anyone who is aware of the Hindutva project would have seen this picture (Commentators from outside India might not have seen this).
RSS and other Hindutvavadi organizations use this image or similar images for conveying the message of Akhand Bharat. As the extend of this image appear ludicrous, I would like to pose the question here – What would be the fair boundaries of “Akhand” Bharat from history?
What were the boundaries of Indian civilization? Where the Muslim kingdoms of medieval times part of this civilization? What qualifies a kingdom or area to be part of the Indian/Hindu civilization? or any other civilization for that matter.
@500 CE / 1000CE & 1500CE respectively?
Or to put it more correctively –
The post I am thinking of writing in the month of November will have a lot to do with this.
The issue i have with this thought is that due to its extravagant claim is that it can be refuted without much thought or effort like done here :
Modi has announced during his Independence Day speech that he would be going for sweeping reforms of GST by Diwali. The central piece of the reform would be reducing the number of rates from 4 to 2. A lot of people – both experts and non-experts – have been advocating a single/dual rate regime as a magic bullet for the GST mess.
But is it? Let me start by narrating a GST horror story. Some GST basics first: GST is a value-added tax. Assuming a product has 10% tax, Manufacturer A sells the product to wholesaler B for Rs. 1000 (pre-tax). B pays A Rs.1000 + Rs. 100. B then sells the goods to Retailer C for Rs. 1050 (pre-tax) and C pays B Rs. 1050+Rs. 105. Now since B has already paid Rs. 100 as tax to A, he is required to deposit only Rs.5 to the exchequer. The Rs.100 that he paid the manufacturer is termed as ‘Input Tax Credit’ or ITC.
There are some elaborate ways of defrauding the system of taxes involving ITC which is also facilitated by loopholes in the tax filing process – discussing that would require a 5000-word post, so I will desist. But for those interested, you can read up about bill trading. One of the ways in which the system combats this menace which potentially causes trillions in tax losses, is Rule 86-A, which empowers the taxman to block ITC of any businessman if he has “reasonable cause” to believe that the ITC was fraudulently availed.
Ok, now on to the story. A few months back, a bunch of businessmen operating in the steel sector in my city – including one of my personal acquaintances – were slapped with notices under this rule, blocking ITC aggregating to Rs.60 million, for transactions related to the period 2021 to 2024. The stated reason – Supplier X from whom these people had purchased goods (and taken ITC credit) was declared to be “non-existent” and hence all those purchase transactions were fake. But here is the thing – the supplier was very much “existing” during the said period. There was concrete evidence of the same – power bills for the factory running into tens of millions, his GST filings, company annual returns, income tax returns and so on. The supplier had closed down his business in early 2025, not in small part due to the pain of GST terror and compliance burden. The panicked recipients of the notices went to meet the taxman, taking along the supplier and with all the aforementioned evidence. The taxman was unmoved. So next they moved to the court but the latter dismissed the petition asking them to exhaust the appeals process via the department first. Before filing an appeal, 20% of the blocked ITC needs to be deposited. The legal costs in this case would have added another couple of million Rupees. Having figured out that legal process was not worth the effort, the group sent a message to the taxman requesting a deal. Initial demand-Rs.12 million. After lots of hard bargaining, it was finally settled for Rs.8 million.. Continue reading GST reform – go big Modiji, let the bizmen breathe
Now that the blog has a lease of new life i thought why don’t I join the fray.
Funny that Asim Munir is having lunch with Donald Trump only a day after Trump was having X diarrhoea threatening Iran and its leadership.
What could potentially be the points of discussion one wonders. I have a few wild thoughts.
Trump is asking for Pakistani help against Iran. Either back-channel negotiations and/or direct intelligence. I am not sure of this one as this seems for a Pro-India cope which sort of makes sense of the ceasefire.
Pakistan wants to remain the only Nuclear Islamic nation and hence is willing to get into bed with Zionists in Trump towers while giving a middle finger to Ummah.
The felid marshal wants swip up some Tomahawks to counter Brahmos.
Trump in all his infinite wisdom is playing at 56D Chess against China via flirting with the felid Marshal and Dumping Modi after a brief fling (or maybe it never was a fling).
Trump wants to learn some catty dictatorship from the felid Marshal for the 3rd term.
Ironically Modi declined US invitation which seems to be related to either claimed US mediation into Op Sindoor or Israel Iran war.
Finally Sorry Amey and Poulasta but the podcast episode on OP Sindoor was terrible. Cant have a podcast where Omar’s wisdom is interrupted as frequently as that with all the rants and interruptions.
I hope to write a longish post from India POV about Op Sindoor and the future as soon as i get some brainspace.
The futility of war really comes through in the retelling of by SL Byrappa in the final act. A very brief summary of the final act with climax I had missed the first time around.
Bhima goes over to Hidimba forest, only to find out that some of his fellow Arya have burned up the forest like the Pandavas had done all those years ago in the Khandav-Van. Life comes a full cycle for him, like Takshak killing Parikshit in the original epic. We descendants of Vaidik Aryas must swallow a bitter pill as we look back with Bhimasen at the ways in which our forefathers brought forest land under cultivation.
Around the time of Mahavir and Gautam Buddha, a powerful ancient monarch named Bimbisar reigned on western side of Ganga.
On the east lay the ancient Vrjji Gana-Sanghas – Sakya Malla Licchavi Videha –
The lands to the east of Ganga had no Kings but were ruled by leaders of various Kshatriya clans in an assembly where every family had a voice.
As part of his strategy, Bimbasara married a princess of Videha and to her was born Ajatashatru – the one without any enemies.
When Ajashatru ascended to the throne of Magadha, he formed staging post on the western bank of Ganga and waged a terrible war against the Vrjji Republics lead by the Licchavis and won.
This staging post would be called Pataliputra and serve as the seat of the Magadhan Monarchs like Mahapadma Nanda, ChandraGupta Maurya and Ashok Maurya.
800 years later when Ancient Bharat lay fragmented and scattered after centuries of Yavana, Shaka and Kushana invasions, a Small King called Chandra entered a matrimonial alliance with the same Licchavis marrying Kumara Devi.
His fine golden coins carried images of both him and his queen.
His young son who called himself Licchavayah – to emphasise the backing of the prestigious Licchavis in the Gupta Game of thrones. This young man would go on the reshape Bharat with his sword and help usher in the Golden Age of Ancient India.
His name of Samudra-Gupta – which means Protected by the Sea because his sword had added the Southern coastal kingdoms into his Raja-Mandala.
But this Golden Era of Ancient India also meant the fight between the ideas of Gana-Sangha and Rajatantra was almost settled in the favor the Chakravatri in the ideal of a fearsome conquerer like the Licchavi Dauhitra – Samudragupta
Another Browncast is up. You can listen on Libsyn, Apple, Spotify (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!
In this episode, Omar and Mukunda talk to Hussein Ibish about the recent events in Syria and their impact on the Middle east. Interestingly, Hussein mentions India as a potential host for Iranian uranium if a new deal is to be made..
Our friends at scribebuddy.com have prepared a transcript. I am posting it below, unedited.
Dr. Ali: Good evening, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Brown Pundits broadcast. We have with us again 1 of our guests, Hossam Aibish. Mr. Aibish is a resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, and he is a regular columnist for The National in UAE. He writes for several other publications, has hundreds of speeches and videos, is a very well-known commentator on Middle Eastern issues. Continue reading Browncast: Hussein Ibish on Middle East
Another Browncast is up. You can listen on Libsyn, Apple, Spotify (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!
In this episode of Browncast, Gaurav and KJ talk to Indian Mango and Nitesh about the Landslide in the Maharashtra assembly elections 2024.
