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Speculative Writings in a busy Quarter

It’s been a particularly busy quarter, so I haven’t been as active in my writing as I’d like. Life seems to shift its focus depending on where I am:

• In Asia, I’m immersed in “living”—self-growth, relatives, and experiencing the richness of the moment.

• In the UK, it’s about managing deliverables. HQ is there, as are the deep connections I’ve built over a lifetime. It’s also where our beloved doggos (the family is collectively nicknamed Munoos, a playful spin on Munaa) keep life very lively.

• In the US, life is starkly clinical—laptop-centric, disciplined, and productive. I work, work out, and worship. As Dr. V quips, “India is great for the soul, the UK great for life, and the US great for work.” Boston-Cambridge, oddly enough, is a nexus point for Liverpool fans (it is a very sports mad city), adding a quirky charm to an otherwise streamlined lifestyle, which is nice to have during term-time.

Despite the whirlwind, I finally managed to write two pieces I felt were “out there,” enough that I hesitated to post them directly to Brown Pundits. Instead, I shared them quietly through my newsletter, refraining from circulating them widely on the email distribution even. However, I think this community would appreciate the thought-provoking nature of these topics.

Here are the links if you’re curious:

1. JD Vance’s Selective Morality

My short reflections on the “Normalise Indian Hate” fiasco and its implications.

2. Founding Charter of the Golestan Union

If Pakistan ever had a Manifest Destiny. It is this, it is this.

Partition’s Impact on India’s Regional Quadrants

Partition profoundly reshaped the subcontinent’s socio-political and cultural framework. Undivided India can be thought of five main regional quadrants—Northwest (“Punjab”), North (-“United Provinces”), Northeast (“Bengal”), Central (“Bombay & Central”), and South (“Madras Province”).

The Indo-Gangetic: Fragmented Identities

Partition shattered Punjab’s cultural and linguistic cohesion, severing ties from Delhi to Peshawar. The Indo-Gangetic heartland also suffered, with mass migrations and communal violence stifling regional solidarity. Bengal’s Eastern periphery faced similar disruptions, where linguistic fragmentation replaced unity, limiting potential cross-regional influence (that’s why the 1905 Partition of Bengal was met with such outcry by the Bhadralok).

Bengal and the Northeast: Diluted Cultural Power

The partition of Bengal broke the economic synergy between Kolkata and Dhaka. Dhaka’s industrial vibrance, lost to East Pakistan, left Bengal diminished, while the Seven Sisters languished in isolation. Greater Bengal, once poised to rival the Hindi Belt, was splintered, its cultural and linguistic reach thwarted by communal, geographical & international barriers. Continue reading Partition’s Impact on India’s Regional Quadrants

14 Years of Brown Pundits: A Journey of Growth, Transformation, and Reflection

No photo description available.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 14 years since Brown Pundits was founded. I can still recall the exact moment it all began—during Twixmas’10, that quiet week between Christmas and New Year’s when the world seems to pause. Things were slow, but intellectually, it was a time of fervent excitement. I remember the many stimulating conversations on either GNXP or Razib’s Discovery site about South Asia. That’s where it all started.

I had just turned 26, and Razib was about to become a father. At the time, I couldn’t have known how much my life would change, nor could I have foreseen the transformations I’d undergo in the years ahead.

A week earlier (on my birthday), I met Dr. V at a work event, and in the blink of an eye (the following Cheti Chand, but that date was entirely a coincidence since we had agreed to meet at Holborn), over coffee, I mentioned that I’d marry her come what may, as my way of asking her out. At that point, I was deeply immersed in my British Pakistani Bahá’í identity, thriving in my single London bobo life.

Continue reading 14 Years of Brown Pundits: A Journey of Growth, Transformation, and Reflection

Capitalism’s New Skin: Navigating Identity in a Post-Racial, Hyper-Global World

Razib’s observation on the 2020 “BIPOC” era echoed my reflections on how capitalism now defines our hyper-globalized, multi-ethnic world. Growing up in the ’90s, when “coolness” mattered more than wealth, the shift to today’s influence-driven, materialistic culture feels profound. Social media and global digital spaces have accelerated this change, where capitalism acts as the only cohesive force in an era of fractured identities.

The transformation is multi-layered. Decolonization’s legacy, the Cold War’s end, technological advances, and globalization have created a world where multi-racial societies thrive, yet economic systems dominate. In the UK, immigration complicates old class hierarchies, and categories like “British Asian” are fragmented by religion, migration waves, and economic stratification. Social media amplifies these shifts by establishing Anglo-Western ideals as global standards of aspiration, blending diversity into an overarching capitalist framework.

Platforms like YouTube exemplify these dynamics. Channels such as T-Series and Sony TV reflect Global South audiences, but creators like MrBeast and PewDiePie dominate influence.

Continue reading Capitalism’s New Skin: Navigating Identity in a Post-Racial, Hyper-Global World

This is Trump’s America: An Unprecedented Electoral Sweep

Hot Off the Press: This isn’t a political endorsement; rather, it’s a reflection on an epoch-turning moment in history.

Tl;dr: This is Trump’s America or rather more prosaically Trump has triumphed.

300 Electoral Seats and winning the popular vote by a margin of 5mm | Control of the Senate, House, Supreme Court & Majority of State Governors.

Thatcherism – BREXIT- Now Trumpism. The Anglo-Americann Empire Strikes Back. Continue reading This is Trump’s America: An Unprecedented Electoral Sweep

Hydronyms don’t contradict Aryan migration: a European comparison

An increasingly popular argument amongst Out-of-India-Theory (OIT) advocates (Koenraad Elst for example) is that is that the Indo-Aryan etymologies of rivers in the Rig Veda disprove an Aryan migration into India. They claim that native river names would have survived post-migration.

Some of the proffered etymologies for Vedic rivers are rather flimsy, but no matter. There is a much more fundamental issue with this line of argument: the evidence shows that migrants often do not adopt indigenous river names. In fact, Indo-European migrants to Western Europe used names with clear Indo-European etymology for most major rivers.

If OIT advocates believe that Indo-Aryan etymologies for rivers in North India prove the Indo-European languages originated in India, then they must explain why nearly all the major rivers of Europe have such solid Indo-European etymologies:

Thames: Old English Temes, from PIE *tm̥Hes, cognate with Sanskrit támas

Loire: Gaulish *liga, from PIE *legʰ

Seine: Latin Sequana, from PIE *seykʷ, cognate with Sanskrit siñcáti

Rhine: Gaulish Rēnos, from PIE *h₃reyH, cognate with Sanskrit riṇā́ti

Po: Latin Padus, from PIE *bʰudʰmḗn, cognate with Sanskrit budhná

Elbe: Old German *albī, from PIE *h₂elbʰós, cognate with Sanskrit ṛbhú

Danube: Celtic *Dānowyos, from PIE *déh₂nu, cognate with Sanskrit dā́nu

Dnieper: Sarmatian *dānu *apara, from PIE *déh₂nu + *h₂epero, cognate with Sanskrit dā́nu + ápara

Dniester: Sarmatian *dānu *nazdya, from PIE *déh₂nu + *nésdyos, cognate with Sanskrit dā́nu + nédīyas

Don: Sarmatian *dānu, from PIE *déh₂nu, cognate with Sanskrit dā́nu

Vistula: Latin Vistula, from PIE *weys

“Fully Booked”: How Colorism Shapes Who Gets In

This article, as the raw draft, inspired my light-hearted newsletter piece titled 'Mastering the Art of Complaining: How to Secure What You Deserve in an Unequal World.'

Carolina Almeida, a philosopher, internationalist, and political scientist, shared that as children, they are raised with the understanding that the farther they are away from Blackness, the greater the person they are going to be.

She says, “So, identifying as a Black woman or as a Black man in Brazil is a great step, actually a great social and, also, emotional step to be achieved, because we are constantly being persuaded by everything around us that being Black is bad, it’s ugly, it’s not interesting.”

Geledés: How Afro-Brazilians are combatting racism.

Earlier tonight, Dr. V and I decided to go out spontaneously for dinner in Boston. At the first restaurant, the hostess, polite but prim, told us the wait would be about an hour. Fair enough, it was busy. At the second restaurant, something felt off. The hostess, looking somewhat wary, directed us to the bar, insisting there were no available tables—even though several were clearly open. We weren’t the customers they wanted. Rather than argue, we left.

At the third restaurant, we were seated immediately—no questions, no hesitation—by a cheerful, welcoming hostess. It was only later that I realized the difference. The hostesses at the first two restaurants had both been white, while the one who seated us without issue was Asian American. The contrast was undeniable, and the pattern became clear: access was subtly controlled based on how we were perceived. It reflected how colorism works—quietly but unmistakably shaping who is welcomed and who is turned away.

I’ve written before about experiencing subtle discrimination in Boston. And while I’m usually one to complain when things are off, I didn’t make a fuss this time (I understand how these situations can escalate, and confronting the second hostess wouldn’t have ended well, she would have brooked no dissent over her dictactes). Plus, honestly, I can’t get too worked up about food in the U.S. These days, something just feels wrong about the ingredients, and the value-for-money equation is off, especially in New England’s food scene, which I’ve covered before.

This whole experience feels like a meditation on the evolving concept of whiteness—a category that has become increasingly easy to join. But while whiteness might be flexible, there remains a rigid, impenetrable spectrum of colorism within it, not unlike traditional caste systems.

Earlier, while I was trying to buy sunglasses, I noticed two Persian girls nearby, also browsing and chatting in Farsi. Even though they had likely only been in the U.S. for a few years, I could see they were already fitting into the “ethnic white” category. Despite sharing the same cultural heritage (I’m fluent in Farsi), it felt like we were on different sides of the ethno-cultural divide.

As the U.S. shifts from a binary racial nationstate to a more complex, multi-national Imperium—similar to South Asia or Latin America—these subtler forms of exclusion become more visible, yet harder to challenge.

Continue reading “Fully Booked”: How Colorism Shapes Who Gets In

Breaking Through the White Ceiling

Vimal Yoganathan, South Asian Representation, and Football’s Unspoken Racial Hierarchies

Vimal Yoganathan’s debut for Barnsley, highlighted by his two-goal performance, represents more than just a personal victory. His success shines a light on the severe underrepresentation of *South Asians* in English football, where they make up 7% of the UK population but only 0.3% of professional footballers.

There are two important nuances to consider regarding the South Asian population in football. Firstly, a significant portion of this population consists of adult immigrants, who typically do not enter professional sports due to their age upon arrival. Secondly, there has been some positive progress, with a 29% growth in the number of South Asian players in recent years, although this remains a small fraction relative to their overall representation in the UK.

For South Asian players, Yoganathan’s story is an outlier, illustrating the deeply embedded systemic and cultural barriers that continue to block progress in a sport dominated by white coaches and management.

Even with a close examination of Vimal’s story, there are notable parallels to a more subtle and complex issue unfolding in the Premier League, involving themes of racism, nationalism, and financial power. While these connections are striking, I prefer not to delve into speculative discussions on public platforms.

Continue reading Breaking Through the White Ceiling

Kanha Shanti Vanam

A Journey of Inner Transformation

Finally, there is a fourth garden, the Garden of the One.
A seeker went to that door and a voice asked, “Who is there?”
The seeker answered, “I am here, Beloved.”
The voice replied, “Then go away.”
The seeker went away, and continued his search and meditation for many years, until finally he returned and once again the voice met him with the same question as before.
This time, the seeker answered, “You are here.”
Then the seeker entered and there was no seeker and no sought, there was no lover or beloved, there was only the “One” forever and ever.

as an aside I found it rather bemusing to see the “Ghorbeh” (the Cat, which is a shorthand for the map of Iran) displayed on the screen

Continue reading Kanha Shanti Vanam

How Indra Nooyi’s successful leadership shatters patriarchal myths in Pakistan

One of the commentators on this blog responded to my comment advocating for 55% female representation and leadership on the Waqf board controversy with the following:

“When you want to destroy a company from the top, you put women in the C-suite. The same logic applies here, it’s a sinister ploy.”

Presumably (and hopefully), this is simply bad banter—my British sensibilities are primed towards the funny kind. However, given the complex issues around patriarchy in Pakistan, as Omar’s recent post on blasphemy suggests, it’s important to examine this claim and set the record straight.

Blasphemy Laws in Pakistan: A Legacy of Tragedy and Controversy

Rather than engaging in such cynical takes on women in leadership, let’s look at the tangible results produced by women who have ascended to leadership positions—specifically the career of Indra Nooyi, the former Indian (Tam-Bram from Chennai) CEO of PepsiCo, and how her achievements compare to those of her competitors.

Revenue Growth: Under Nooyi’s leadership, PepsiCo’s revenue grew by 80%, while Coca-Cola’s revenue fell by approximately 9% during the same period.
Stock Performance: PepsiCo’s stock price surged by 109% under Nooyi, far outpacing Coca-Cola’s 67% growth from 2006 to 2018.
Healthier Product Shift: Nooyi spearheaded PepsiCo’s pivot from sugary snacks to healthier options, increasing its “guilt-free” product revenue to 45%. Meanwhile, Coca-Cola struggled to make comparable gains in the health-conscious market.

Continue reading How Indra Nooyi’s successful leadership shatters patriarchal myths in Pakistan