Politics and public life
Elections, parties, leaders, courts, law, ideologies and free speech.
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Tariq Ali on the Resistance..
Omar Ali reposts a mock press release he says he wrote over twenty years ago, forecasting an Islamic-socialist revolution in Pakistan, as a comment on a recent tweet by Tariq…
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How Pakistan Punjabified Lahnda and Urdufied Punjab
As Pakistan prepares to debate new provinces, X.T.M asks what Punjab is. He argues that colonial canals, Partition and the census folded Grierson’s Lahnda continuum into “Punjabi”, while the south…
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Open Thread: Zardari in (self-imposed exile). New Provinces to be made
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…
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Are All Postcolonial Nations Brahmanical Constructs?
X.T.M asks whether postcolonial states are Brahmanical constructs, arguing that every successor elite preserves the borders it inherits. He draws on caste mobility, Sanskritisation and Radcliffe’s line, and notes the…
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“Tamil” CMs
X.T.M, drawing on a News18 blog, notes that many Madras chief ministers were of Telugu descent, from Subbarayalu Reddiar onwards, and sees Tamil Nadu’s “distinct” identity as compatible with a…
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Thoughts That Shape Power
In a guest essay shared by Omar Ali, Varun argues that universities and think tanks train a country’s elite, and that lax standards and borrowed Western and Soviet theories, plus…
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80 achievement of the Modi government on the 80th Independence Day 2026
Calvin D’Souza, in his first post, lists what he calls 80 undeniable achievements of the Modi government for Independence Day 2026, from the national grid, trade deals and ports to…
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The Lutyens Brahmin & the Indian Muslim
X.T.M borrows the Boston Brahmin to describe India’s apex elite, admitted by assimilation, presentation and marriage, and asks whether the new Hindu order’s explicit loyalty tests for Indian Muslims expose…
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The Brahmin Civil War
Pattanaik gives us a priesthood in service — Baniya capital commanding, Brahmin ideology obeying. Look closer at the temple queue: the priesthood is in schism. Hindutva as an upper-caste revolt…
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Liberal college bastions are taking body blows
Indosaurus recounts the reported plagiarism affair around Cambridge professor Jason Arday, compares it with Claudine Gay’s ousting at Harvard, and asks whether Indians and Pakistanis back progressive causes abroad yet…
