India – Brown Pundits

Hans Zimmer and the Polite Dismissal of the Ramayana

July 18, 2025July 18, 2025X.T.MBrown Pundits, Hinduism, India, Partition, Postcolonialism & the Global South, Religion, X.T.MBrown Pundits, civilizational memory, colonial hangover, cultural appropriation, cultural pride, East-West relations, Hans Zimmer, Hindu identity, Hindu rituals, Indian epics, Namit Malhotra, postcolonial India, Ramayana, sacred storytelling, Shravan Puja, soft power, spiritual continuity, Vedic tradition, Western condescension, Western microaggressions4 Comments

When producer Namit Malhotra began explaining the Ramayana to Hans Zimmer, the legendary composer cut him off:

“You don’t have to explain it to me. Something that has lasted thousands of years clearly has meaning. Let’s just do our best. It’s beyond us.”

Malhotra took this as reverence. In fact, it was erasure.

No serious Western artist would score The Ten Commandments or Schindler’s List without knowing the story. Imagine a composer saying, “Don’t explain the Illiad to me, it’s beyond me.” They’d be fired. But when it comes to Indian epics? The bar is subterranean. That’s not reverence.

That’s: I’m Western, I’m famous, I’m here for the cheque; not the history. The tragedy isn’t Zimmer’s line. It’s Malhotra’s awe. A Westerner shrugs off our most sacred text, and we call it wisdom. That’s not cultural pride. That’s civilizational confusion. It’s a pattern. Many elite Indians are fluent in the language of Islamic grievance; but tone-deaf to Western condescension.

Divide and rule still works:

Hindus thank the British for “freeing” them from Muslim rule
Muslims thank the British for “protecting” them from Hindu majoritarianism

Meanwhile, the West shrugs at our stories and we applaud.

Shravan Monday at the New England Temple

Continue reading Hans Zimmer and the Polite Dismissal of the Ramayana

Hindutva Music: Didi Maa Sadhvi Ritambhara As an Example of a Female Sadhu

July 17, 2025KabirHinduism, India, Politics, ReligionAntoinette Elizabeth DeNapoli, Bhajan, Didi Maa Sadhvi Ritambhara, Durga Vahini, Ethnomusicology, Hindutva music, RSS, sadhusLeave a comment

(This essay was originally submitted in 2018 as part of the coursework for my M.Mus in Ethnomusicology at SOAS, University of London . I was reminded of it recently when I came across Professor Brahma Prakash’s article on Scroll.in entitled “Why the toxic beats of ‘Disc Jockey Hindutva’ are so dangerous for India”

Unfortunately, the YouTube video analyzed in the piece no longer seems to be on the site. I hope the essay can still stand on its own merits. I will include a representative YouTube video of Didi Maa at the end of the essay.)

Bhajan is the major genre of devotional singing in Hinduism. It is a loosely structured song, usually performed in regional languages. It can be sung by an individual or by a congregation. Themes typically include ideas from scriptures, the teachings of saints and loving devotion to a deity.

Since I am from a South Asian background, I am familiar with bhajans. However, I have previously approached them through Hindustani classical music, in which the focus is on aesthetic beauty and using the bhajan’s lyrics to develop the raga. In a devotional context, in contrast, the words and the message of the bhajan can often be more important than the musical content.

In this essay, I will discuss Didi Maa Sadhvi Ritambhara’s performance of a Krishna bhajan “Aaj Gopal Raas Ras”, and compare her to the female sadhus studied by Antoinette Elizabeth DeNapoli in her monograph Real Sadhus Sing to God: Gender, Asceticism and Vernacular Religion in Rajasthan (Oxford University Press 2014) . One of the major contrasts is that Didi Maa is involved in Hindutva politics, which would seem to contradict the role of the sadhu as someone who has renounced worldly life. DeNapoli’s informants, on the other hand, are focused on singing to god as a way of serving humanity through seva. Continue reading Hindutva Music: Didi Maa Sadhvi Ritambhara As an Example of a Female Sadhu

Kabir Oral Traditions in the Indian Subcontinent

July 16, 2025KabirCulture, India, Pakistan, ReligionBhagat Kabir, Bhajan, Dalit, Ethnomusicology, Linda Hess, Qawwali, sufism, syncretism5 Comments

This essay was originally submitted as part of the coursework for my M.Mus in Ethnomusicology at SOAS, University of London

Bhagat Kabir (c. 1440-c. 1518) is considered one of the major poet-saints of the Bhakti movement—a social reform movement arising in North India around the fifteenth century. Characterized by an emphasis on the individual believer and a disregard for caste and gender taboos, the movement often rejected Vedic rituals and focused on the individual’s loving relationship with a personally defined god. This emphasis on love has clear parallels with Sufism, often seen as the mystical branch of Islam. It also later influenced Sikhism.

In contrast to other Bhakti poets such as Surdas and Meerabai—whose works can be placed squarely within the Hindu fold, often addressed to particular gods such as Krishna—Kabir’s poetry cannot be so neatly demarcated. He questioned the rituals of both Islam and Hinduism and was devoted to a nirgun (formless) deity, often addressed as “Ram”. According to Professor Harbans Mukhia: “In place of Allah and Ishwar he conceptualized a single universal God; in place of denominational religions he conceptualized a universal religiosity” (Mukhia 2018). This distance from the orthodoxy of both traditions perhaps explains why Kabir is revered by Hindus and Muslims across the Indian subcontinent. Some of his poetry is even included in the Guru Granth Sahib, Sikhism’s holiest scripture. In an era in which South Asia has experienced increasing polarization along sectarian lines, it is instructive to more closely examine this unique figure who served as a bridge between communities.

In her article “Kabir’s Rough Rhetoric”, Professor Linda Hess notes that Kabir can be described as the most personal of the Bhakti poets. While Surdas and Meerabai primarily address God, Kabir mainly addresses the reader or listener. The phrase “Kahai Kabira suno bhai sadho” (Kabir says listen sadho) “signifies Kabir’s passion to engage, wake people up, to affect them” (Hess 1987: 147). His poetry is full of provocations, which often take the form of questions “designed to ruffle us up or draw us out” (149).

In this essay, I will discuss performative traditions of Kabir poetry in India and Pakistan, focusing on how it has been included in the folk music of both countries. Of particular interest are the ways in which Kabir poetry serves as a means of Dalit—formerly known as “untouchable”—caste assertion and how it can be combined with the poetry of Sufi saints. Continue reading Kabir Oral Traditions in the Indian Subcontinent

Pakistaniat & Urdu from Qasim to Quaid

July 16, 2025July 18, 2025X.T.MBahá’í, BRAHM, Brown Pundits, Culture, India, Iran, Islam & the Middle East, Language, Pakistan, Partition, Postcolonialism & the Global South, Politics, Religion, X.T.MArabic, Baha’i Faith, Civilizational Commentary, colonial legacy, Cultural Assimilation, Culture, Diaspora, Identity, Juhi Malik, Language, Mahajir, Pakistan, Pakistan Studies, Partition, Persian, Politics, postcolonialism, Punjabi, Religion, Sindhi, South Asia, Ta’arof, Urdu2 Comments

UP’s very long shadow:

As I board my flight back to the UK after a brief but productive trip, I find myself reflecting on a language that continues to haunt and inspire me: Urdu.

It is a tongue caught between paradoxes. The language of courtesans and qawwals, of sacred supplication and sly seduction. It carries within it the scent of jasmine and blood, of Delhi’s dusk and Lahore’s lingering grief.

The Beloved Guardian of the Baha’i Faith once noted that while most Baha’i texts should be translated from English, Urdu alone is trusted for direct translation from Persian and Arabic. That proximity, that spiritual siblinghood with Persian, the language of kings, and Arabic, the language of God, renders Urdu magical.

Sanskrit, of course, is the language of gods, but Urdu, its stepdaughter of sorts, captures the longing of poet to partisan.

There’s a reason the Bahá’í prayer I share below is so piercing in Urdu. So here, before I cross back into another timezone, I offer this prayer—without commentary, without translation. Just Urdu, as it was meant to be heard.

And I wonder: perhaps this is what Pakistan truly is—a project in transcending the local. Not rooted in soil, but in sentiment. A place where Punjabis, Pathans, and Muhajirs are asked to shed skin and commune in Urdu. Where Pakistaniyat, for all its fractures, has succeeded in producing a common idiom: of piety, pride, and pain. Continue reading Pakistaniat & Urdu from Qasim to Quaid

The Construction of Femininity in Indian Vocal Music

July 15, 2025KabirCulture, IndiaAnti-Nautch Movement, Asha Bhosle, courtesans, femininity, gender, Hindustani Classical Music, Lata Mangeshkar, playback singing5 Comments

This essay was originally submitted as part of the coursework for my M.Mus in Ethnomusicology at SOAS, University of London

Musical genres and styles are often linked to gender roles. Different vocal qualities are associated with societal ideas about appropriate masculinity and femininity and then reflected in music. In recent decades, much ethnomusicological scholarship has focused on the gendered and constructed nature of the human voice.

In this essay, I will discuss the construction of femininity in Indian vocal music, both classical and popular. I will particularly focus on Lata Mangeshkar (1929-2022), one of India’s most popular playback singers who for decades held a virtual monopoly as the voice of the film heroine. Mangeshkar’s voice was associated with qualities such as innocence, purity and self-sacrifice, seen as those of the ideal Indian woman.

Representative image of tawaifs—the hereditary courtesan class of North India

Prior to the second half of the nineteenth century, the only Indian women who sang in public were those of the hereditary courtesan class. As a response to British colonialism, there was a concerted effort to cleanse music of its associations with “debauchery” and to create a space for “respectable” middle-class women to perform. This led to stylistic changes in several genres. For example, thumri—a genre of song and dance traditionally associated with courtesans—was de-eroticized and re-interpreted in a spiritual frame. Since dance in particular was associated with immorality, it was separated from music. Whereas the courtesan would accompany her singing with gestures, “respectable” female performers restricted themselves to singing. Continue reading The Construction of Femininity in Indian Vocal Music

Visibility, Voice, and the Indian Muslim Dilemma

July 13, 2025July 18, 2025X.T.MCivilisation, India, Iran, Islam & the Middle East, X.T.MBBC, Civilizations & Identity, Diaspora, Indian Muslims, media representation, migration, minority voice, plane crash, postcolonial India, visibility politics6 Comments

In the aftermath of the extremely tragic plane crash in Ahmedabad (the photo features the late Ali family, may they rest in the Highest Heaven), one tiny detail stood out; not the cause of the disaster (still contested), but who was being heard. Many of the victims’ families interviewed by the BBC were of Muslim origin (it was also during the Eid Holiday break). And while that may seem incidental, it reveals a subtle, recurring pattern in India’s public discourse.

Three threads emerge:

Continue reading Visibility, Voice, and the Indian Muslim Dilemma

Was Partition Good for Muslims?

July 12, 2025July 18, 2025X.T.MCulture, Geopolitics, India, Pakistan, Partition, Postcolonialism & the Global South, Politics, X.T.MBangladesh, History & Memory, India, Muslim identity, Pakistan, Partition, political Islam, postcolonial trauma, South Asia, Urdu198 Comments

Kabir:I will remind you of the Sachar Committee Report which stated that the condition of Indian Muslims was worse than that of Dalits. This was a report commissioned by the Congress government not by Pakistanis. India has never had a Muslim Prime Minister. I would be willing to bet that this is not going to happen in my lifetime. The Muslim League succeeded in getting the Muslim majority provinces a country of our own. This is a huge achievement.

Partition was sold as deliverance. In hindsight, it may have been the most sophisticated act of self-disinheritance in modern Muslim history. A century ago, Muslims on the subcontinent were a political force — deeply embedded, numerically significant, and intellectually diverse. Today, they are divided, disenfranchised, and disoriented. Three nations. No unity. No power. No clear path forward. Let’s take stock:

1. Divided into Three

Pakistan. Bangladesh. India. Three fractured expressions of one civilizational legacy — none of which fully represents or protects the totality of South Asia’s Muslims.

2. No Electorate Leverage

In India, Muslims lost their negotiating bloc overnight. From being a decisive vote in undivided India, they became a permanent minority — politically cautious, rhetorically silenced, and often viewed with suspicion. In Pakistan, Muslim identity became so hegemonic it erased internal plurality. In Bangladesh, it became suspect altogether.

3. Psychological Cleft

Two-thirds of Muslims had to unlearn India. Partition forced them to disown their history. The other third had to choose between being Muslim or becoming more Indian. This psychic wound — of being here, but not quite belonging — has never healed.

4. Urdu: From Bridge to Burden

Urdu, once the cultural glue of the Muslim elite, is now:

Enforced in Pakistan (to the resentment of Sindhis, Baloch, and Pashtuns)
Marginalized in India
Extinct in Bangladesh

A shared language was replaced by suspicion and statecraft.

5. Islam as a Spent Force

Partition Islam was meant to be political. It became performative. There is no robust Muslim political expression in the subcontinent today — only tokenism, sectarianism, or silence. It resembles post-revolution Iran: Islam was not discredited by the West, but by what its stewards did in its name. Partition didn’t solve the “Muslim Question.” It just made it unspeakable — in three different politicised idioms.

Review: Lineage of Loss: Counternarratives of North Indian Music by Max Katz

July 12, 2025KabirBook Reviews, Culture, History, IndiaBhatkhande, Communalism, Ethnomusicology, Hindustani Classical Music, Lineage of Loss, Max Katz2 Comments

This review was published in South Asia Research Vo1. 41 (3), 2021

Max Katz, Lineage of Loss: Counternarratives of North Indian Music (Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2017), xii + 201 pp.

Professor Janaki Bakhle (2005) described a meeting between Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande (1860-1936) and Karamatullah Khan (1848-1933), a sarod player from Allahabad. During this meeting, which took place in 1908 or 1909, Khan argued that knowledge of Hindustani music did not come only from Sanskrit texts, but also from those in Arabic and Persian. To him, it did not matter if the ragas had come to India from Persia or Arabia or gone from India to those countries. Since Bhatkhande was obsessed with finding a Sanskrit origin for an Indian national music, he was deeply upset by these arguments. Bakhle (2005: 112) writes that Karamatullah Khan was voicing a prescient and progressive claim against national, ethnic and religious essentialism when it came to music, while Bhatkhande was looking for a ‘classical’ music ‘that existed in his time, not one that used to exist in ancient times’. For Bhatkhande, Khan was a member of the class of hereditary Muslim musicians who were responsible for what, in his view, was the degradation of ancient Hindu music.

Katz focuses on the Lucknow gharana, an hereditary musical lineage of sarod and sitar players, of whom Karamatullah Khan was a major representative. The son of Niamatullah Khan (d. 1903), a court musician of the last Nawab of Lucknow, Wajid Ali Shah, Karamatullah in turn served as ustad of his nephew, Sahkawat Husain Khan (1875-1955), one of the most renowned sarod players of the early twentieth century and a teacher at the Marris College in Lucknow, now Bhatkhande Music Institute Deemed University. Continue reading Review: Lineage of Loss: Counternarratives of North Indian Music by Max Katz

The Gratitude Trap: On Escaping Asia but Staying Captive

July 11, 2025July 13, 2025X.T.MCivilisation, Culture, India, Pakistan, Partition, Postcolonialism & the Global South, X.T.Marchitecture, Canada, Civilizations & Identity, Diaspora, Global South, gratitude, India, material culture, postcolonialism, South Asia, urban design3 Comments

In a recent video, a young Punjabi woman, likely Sikh, candidly shares her discomfort upon returning to India after living in Canada (this kind of echoes the Aussie influencer’s comments on chronic Indian inequality). The noise, the pollution, the density. Her frustration is raw, familiar, and deeply sincere.

But beneath her words lies something larger: the aesthetic asymmetry that defines the postcolonial condition. Wide roads, clean air, manicured parks; these are not just amenities. In the global South, they become symbols of escape, status, and salvation. And so, millions migrate. Or aspire to. Not just for jobs, but for dignity. For air that doesn’t burn. For order that doesn’t humiliate. For a feeling of being seen.

And when they do, when they arrive in Canada, the UK, Australia, something subtle happens: they become grateful. Not just for opportunity, but for escape. For the fact that the West “works.” That gratitude then curdles into deference.

They begin to believe that the world outside the West is meant to be chaotic, dirty, loud. That governance is a Western gift. That clean streets and quiet parks are civilizational rather than institutional. This is the gratitude trap; the soft power of asphalt, symmetry, and silence.

And it’s why postcolonial recovery is so difficult. Not because the global South lacks culture or potential, but because its own elites, shaped by extraction, not architecture, rarely build for elegance. Rarely build for pride. Rarely build for joy. What the West exported was not just railways or rule of law. It exported a built environment that still shames us. And until that is understood, until we take seriously the spatial dignity of our cities and the material form of our futures, the colonial spell will remain unbroken.

Why Pakistan Is a Colonial Project & India a Civilizational One

July 11, 2025July 13, 2025X.T.MAncient India, BRAHM, Brown Pundits, Civilisation, Geopolitics, Hinduism, History, India, Pakistan, Partition, Postcolonialism & the Global South, Politics, X.T.MBengali elites, British Empire, civilizational politics, civilizational unity, Civilizations & Identity, colonial legacy, India, Mandala Zone, Mughals, Pakistan, Partition, postcolonial critique, South Asia, trans-dharmic world32 Comments

Over the past few months, I’ve noticed a marked improvement in the quality of conversation on BP. A large part of this, I suspect, is due to eliminating trigger-response dynamics; as seen when I barred Q on a technicality. It created space: suddenly, the commentariat was thinking, not reacting. In that quiet, something became obvious.

Whenever Kabir invokes “neutral experts,” they always seem to be Western, usually venerably white, often from institutions directly involved in the colonial rape of India. And yet these same voices are elevated as if they were impartial or above it all. They aren’t. They are the architects, not the observers. This is the paradox at the heart of Pakistan. Continue reading Why Pakistan Is a Colonial Project & India a Civilizational One