Open Threads

The house threads, one for each major festival of the subcontinent. Talk about anything; no thread ever closes.

Most popular · Most commented · Most recent

1
Open Thread: Navarātri and Durgā Pūjā
11 Oct 2026 · opened by X.T.M · 180 comments
The Open Thread for Navarātri and Durgā Pūjā, with a note on fixing the site’s back end, and why Brown Pundits readers and commenters want such different things.
2
Open Thread: Gandhi Jayanti
2 Oct 2026 · opened by X.T.M · 97 comments
The Open Thread for Gandhi Jayanti, and a new rhythm: from now on a fresh Open Thread opens on each major festival of the subcontinent, 18 a year.
3
Open thread: Musk the sociopath?
24 Oct 2026 · opened by Agni · 97 comments
A gripping new documentary on Elon Musk was pulled from almost all movie theatres as the hype grew. So what's the deal? He allegedly stole Tesla from Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning who founded it on July 1,…
4
Open Thread – 08/11/2023 – Brown Pundits
11 Aug 2023 · opened by Razib Khan · 57 comments
Most of India is below replacement TFR.
5
Open Thread: What’s new?
24 Sep 2026 · opened by Agni · 80 comments
Open Thread, 24 September 2026. Agni opens with the Tata Sons and Tata Trusts dispute, the IIT Bombay student death and its politics, the US–Iran conflict and Indian energy, Trump and Xi, AI, and how Hindu Americans fare in a more xenophobic United States.
6
About Brahmin Privilege: Education, Brits and Chitpavans
17 Sep 2020 · opened by Nachiketa · 22 comments
Nachiketa argues that crude comparisons of Brahmin privilege with white slave-owning ignore the concrete, caste-correlated privileges of wealth, education, connections and urban background, and examines educational attainment as an inherited historic advantage, using Chitpavans under British rule.
7
The Changing Demographics of Undivided India (1900–2025)
25 Sep 2025 · opened by X.T.M · 18 comments
The author charts Muslims' share of undivided India's population, from about 20% in 1900 to roughly 33% in 2025. He credits higher fertility and partition migration, and argues falling fertility, driven by mobile phones, means convergence.
8
The Self-Hating Prophecy of Indian Elites
11 Dec 2020 · opened by The Emissary · 36 comments
The author argues that India's post-independence elites live out a self-hating prophecy, seeking Western approval while denouncing local traditions as primitive, in contrast with confident ancient elites, and that this preserves feudal and colonial power structures through law and economics.
9
Atlas of the 1971 War
14 May 2020 · opened by Omar Ali · 2 comments
Reproduces the text of John H. Gill's An Atlas of the 1971 India-Pakistan War, with its contents and preface, which calls the war the most important conflict between the two rivals and says its basic issues remain unresolved.
10
Tired closing comments on the “Aryan” debate
29 Jan 2022 · opened by Nachiketa · 44 comments
Before taking a break from the topic, Nachiketa summarises his position on the Aryan debate: he holds ancient genetics to be the strongest method and doubts that primary languages spread without mass movements of people, so he favours migration over the Out of India view.
11
Open Thread – Brown Pundits
23 May 2020 · opened by Razib Khan · 317 comments
Do your thing.
12
From OIT to AIT
14 Oct 2020 · opened by Nachiketa · 124 comments
The author traces his move from supporting the Out of India theory to the Aryan migration view, citing recent genetic evidence, and sets out his reasons after a long conversation with Kushal Mehra on archaeology and the Rigveda that did not fully convince him.
13
Open Thread: Zardari in (self-imposed exile). New Provinces to be made
5 Sep 2026 · opened by X.T.M · 161 comments
Open Thread. X.T.M opens with a rumour that Zardari is in self-imposed exile, with Bilawal’s reported marriage as cover, and notes that Pakistan is apparently to hold a referendum on new provinces regardless.
14
Oh to be a Gaud Saraswat Brahmin
22 Jan 2018 · opened by X.T.M · 21 comments
A Konkani Gaud Saraswat Brahmin writer notes, via Ajit Pai, what he sees as a compulsive urge among Indians to name-drop a high caste, and recalls the origin legends of his own community.
15
Open Thread – Brown Pundits – 7/11/2020
11 Jul 2020 · opened by Razib Khan · 479 comments
Open thread of 11 July 2020: the usual, with a request to reduce the vitriol and thanks for readers' links.
16
Open thread: Geopolitics and any other interesting news
16 Sep 2026 · opened by Agni · 154 comments
Open Thread on geopolitics and other news, 16 September 2026. It opens with gold prices, market trends and SIPs, whether AI will kill humanity within a decade, and an India–Pakistan naval collision in the Arabian Sea.
17
Open Thread – Brown Pundits
16 May 2020 · opened by Razib Khan · 207 comments
Please put comments here that won't fit elsewhere.
18
Why Hinduism is not inchoate paganism
11 Aug 2020 · opened by Razib Khan · 66 comments
Razib Khan rejects the view that Hindu identity is merely a reaction to Islam and the British, arguing from cross-cultural cases such as Rome, Iran and Japan that it is older, and that calling Hinduism 'pagan' or 'polytheist' can mislead.
19
Critical Caste Theory: A Dubious Discourse
4 Apr 2023 · opened by The Emissary · 32 comments
An essay arguing that 'Critical Caste Theory', borrowed from Critical Race Theory, seeks to break the BJP's caste coalition and attack 'Brahminism', which it sees as a term for Hinduism, and that caste is not race.
20
CJP and colour revolutions
22 May 2026 · opened by k jayas · 5 comments
Open thread opening on the CJP movement and colour revolutions: a commentator cites Rashid Kidwai's view that it may boomerang on the opposition, and asks whether a rootless generation will turn into votes.
21
Anglosphere Media’s India and Modi Problem Part 1: An Introduction
7 Jun 2024 · opened by nirmalya dutta · 5 comments
Guest writer Nonsensical Nemo argues that Anglosphere press coverage of India is marked by mendacity or ignorance, to the point that a reader would think India a genocidal hellhole. This first part, written before the 4 June 2024 results, introduces the case.
22
The India They Saw: When Socrates Met the Sindhu
23 Nov 2023 · opened by The Emissary · 1 comment
An essay on how the ancient Greeks saw India, from Herodotus to Megasthenes and Alexander's campaign, as a legendary but unified land, and on what fragments of Megasthenes' Indica and later writers such as Arrian preserve.
23
Browncast: Vishal Ganesan; The Hindu Case Against Hinduism?
3 Feb 2025 · opened by Omar Ali · 0 comments
Hosts Amey and Dr Omar Ali talk with lawyer Vishal Ganesan about his essay on Frontier Dharma and what being Hindu means in the diaspora. He argues that mainstream media and academic portrayals of Hindus are distorted by a lens from 18th and 19th-century missionary narratives.
24
Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas Shaheed and Flt Lt Mati ur Rahman Shaheed. Heroes.
20 Aug 2015 · opened by Brown Pundits Archive · 0 comments
The author tells the story of the 20 August 1971 T-33 crash that killed Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas and Flight Lieutenant Matiur Rahman, both later awarded their country's highest gallantry honours, noting that Bangladeshis know Matiur far less well than Pakistanis know Minhas.
25
Open Thread – 01/02/2021 – Brown Pundits
2 Jan 2021 · opened by Razib Khan · 256 comments
Open thread, 2 January 2021: the poster doubts how Niraj Rai's tweet that Bronze Age steppe migration was a myth is being read, restating his view that about 14 per cent of South Asian ancestry comes from the Central Asian steppe.
26
Open Thread – 01/23/2020
23 Jan 2021 · opened by Razib Khan · 196 comments
Open thread, 23 January 2021: the poster says his Stark Truth About the Aryans piece is doing well, and updates that part 2 is out.
27
South Asian Genetics Open Thread
4 Sep 2019 · opened by Razib Khan · 164 comments
South Asian genetics open thread, updated with the Rakhigarhi Harappan genome paper and the Formation of Human Populations in South and Central Asia paper, with the headline findings of each.
28
The Forty-Day War: Pakistan Saved the World?
5 Apr 2026 · opened by X.T.M · 112 comments
On Pakistan acting as the bridge between Tehran and Washington to end the Forty-Day War, and why the author thinks this should have been India's role.
29
Protecting Brahmin Izzat
30 Nov 2018 · opened by X.T.M · 30 comments
Reacting to two Twitter threads, the author objects to outsiders opining on caste, says conference hosts underrate what South Asian passport holders endure to get visas, and argues Brahmin izzat is worth protecting and caste must be resolved internally.
30
Open Thread: From Flattery to Fatigue — What the Iranian Diaspora Can’t Admit
16 Jul 2025 · opened by X.T.M · 29 comments
Open thread on the Iranian diaspora: X.T.M links his Ta'arof post to Sharghzadeh's 'Iranian Diaspora Fatigue' video, arguing the diaspora performs flattery toward whiteness, and asks whether it preserves Persian culture or only performs it for the algorithm.

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