Tamil Islam Is Not a North Indian Story

X.T.M · January 27, 2026 · 2 comments

Sbarr sent a simple reel: a female Tamil Muslim politiciann in Ranipet, near Vellore, waving an LTTE flag during an election campaign. What followed was not simple at all. The reaction treated the image as an ideological provocation rather than a local political act. Why is a Muslim woman waving a Tamil separatist symbol? What does this say about loyalty, religion, or the nation?

Islam in South India did not arrive through conquest. It arrived through trade. Arab merchants settled along the Malabar and Coromandel coasts centuries before the Delhi Sultanate existed. They married locally, learned the language, adopted food, dress, and social habits, and became Tamil, Malayali, or Konkani Muslims. Religion changed. Civilisation did not.

This is why South Indian Islam does not behave like a foreign layer imposed on a hostile society. It is woven into the local fabric. Tamil Muslims are Tamil first in language, culture, and political instinct. Their solidarities are shaped by region before theology. This is not syncretism as rebellion. It is indigeneity as habit.

Tamil identity in Tamil Nadu routinely transcends religion. I was reminded of this years ago in Chennai, asking my dentist, who was Christian,about her name. Like many South Indian Christians, it was a mix of Hindu and Christian forms. I asked whether they were also Tamil. She looked at me as if the question made no sense. Of course she was Tamil, “very Tamil.”

That response explains more than a thousand editorials.

In Tamil Nadu, religion is real but it is not totalising. Tamilness is older, deeper, and more organising. This applies to Hindus, Christians, and Muslims alike. Political expression follows that logic. A Tamil Muslim expressing Tamil nationalist sentiment is not a contradiction. It is normal.

This is what happens when South India is constantly interpreted through North Indian assumptions. Islam is assumed to be oppositional. Symbols are assumed to be exclusive. Politics is assumed to be communal by default. None of this holds in the Tamil world.

Tamil lands occupy a distinct face of Indian civilisation. Fully part of India, yet unmistakably their own. Deeply Indian, yet not reducible to Gangetic history or North Indian templates. This is not fragmentation. It is civilisational strength.

India has always had multiple faces. The Tamil one is maritime, linguistic, ancient, and self-assured. It absorbed religions without surrendering itself to them. That is why its Muslims do not behave like guests. They behave like natives.

The reel was never the problem. The inability to see India’s southernmost face was.

Report on Op-Sindoor

GauravL · January 27, 2026 · 41 comments

Link to the entire report.

Nevertheless, sufficient elements appear to indicate that, by the morning of 10 May 2025, the Indian Air Force had succeeded in achieving air superiority over a significant portion of Pakistan’s airspace. This in turn enabled it to continue long-range strikes against enemy infrastructure at will, at least for as long as it retained sufficient stocks of munitions such as BrahMos or SCALP-EG. At the same time, the Pakistan Air Force had lost the ability to repeat the operations it had conducted so successfully on 7 May 2025, owing to the loss of its forward air-surveillance radars and the threat posed by S-400 systems to its AWACS standoff weapons delivery platforms, while its own strikes conducted between 7 and
10 May 2025 had been largely thwarted by Indian defences.

Meanwhile, Islamabad demonstrated its manifest superiority in strategic communication, which notably benefitted from support within Chinese, and to some extent Western, information spheres. The destruction of one or more Rafales, for example, effectively masked the defeat of the adversary air force, which had reportedly suffered at least equivalent losses but had also proven incapable of defending its most important air bases or of delivering comparable, documented strikes against its adversary.

Operation Sindoor marked a significant evolution in Indian counter-terrorism doctrine, which now equates a terrorist attack to an act of war warranting a decisive response. It also eliminates the distinction between terrorist groups and their state sponsors, with the latter automatically becoming legitimate targets in the event of a renewed attack. Finally, it reaffirms New Delhi’s resolve, in such a case, not to be deterred by Islamabad’s nuclear arsenal. The potential for escalation on the Indian subcontinent therefore remains higher than ever, while developments since 1999 have constantly illustrated the stability/instability paradox

TL;DR take:
IAF won in air and the land after sustaining initial losses whereas PAF won in the media (which is not as trivial as it sounds).

 

Borderline Bloodpressure

X.T.M · January 26, 2026 · 13 comments

I am forty-one. Five foot ten. Around ninety kilos. My blood pressure is borderline high. My resting heart rate is higher than it should be. A nosebleed and a sustained pulse over 100 were enough to tell me something was off.

Ordinarily, I do my health checks in India each January. Apart from high cholesterol, things usually come back fine. During the pandemic I was very fit. Even as recently as October, I was training regularly and moving well. This is not a story of collapse. It is a story of drift.

My baseline habits are solid. I do not drink. I do not smoke. I eat cleanly and avoid excess sugar and carbohydrates. I carry weight well, but weight is still weight. At forty-one, the body compensates more slowly. Margins narrow.

Borderline Is a Signal

Continue reading Borderline Bloodpressure

Review: The Ghazal Eros: Lyric Queerness in History by Shad Naved

Kabir · January 26, 2026 · No comments

From my SubStack:

The Ghazal–a love lyric in Arabic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish and Urdu– has historically been defined as “talking with or about women”. For example, in his Persian dictionary compiled in eighteenth century Hindustan, Tek Chand Bahar defines the genre as follows: “Talk about women, or talking about making love with them or a poem that is said in praise of women”. However, as Shad Naved– a professor of literature and translation at Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University, Delhi– argues in his book The Ghazal Eros: Lyric Queerness in History (Tulika Books 2025), “the central role the ghazal played in the development of literature in Persian and Urdu during these six centuries is as a love lyric, in which men speak almost never about women but about other men and youthful boys–with the exception of Arabic, in which a strong current of love poetry about women written by male poets played an important role in the development of the ghazal” (Naved 9). Naved goes on to ask the crucial question: Why do the dictionaries lie?

For the purposes of this review, I will restrict my discussion to chapter one of Naved’s book–entitled “Sexual Orientation as Style”. It is this chapter which lays out the basis of Naved’s argument. Part Two of the book consists of three chapters that provide specific examples of lyric queerness in the Urdu ghazal. For example, chapter 2 focuses on the poet Mir Taqi Mir (1723-1810)–specifically on his poems dealing with “boy-love”. These detailed examples are outside the scope of my review. Continue reading Review: The Ghazal Eros: Lyric Queerness in History by Shad Naved

Is Hinduism Pagan ?

Ace of Spades · January 23, 2026 · 11 comments

 

This post was inspired by an earlier post of X.T.M where he mentioned that this question generates a lot of traffic for BP.

If we consider the literal definition of Paganism, the question becomes quite simple. Historically, the term “Paganism” was not used to describe religious beliefs prior to the 20th century. It first emerged in the context of Early Christianity, serving as a pejorative for the folk religions still practiced in the rural regions of the Roman Empire. By this definition, it’s clear that Hinduism does not fit the label of Pagan.

However, in contemporary usage, many Neo-pagans view Paganism as a neutral descriptive term, applicable to all cultures that are philosophically incompatible with the three Abrahamic faiths. The question whether Hinduism can be considered Pagan in this broader sense is not so simple since most Hindus assert belief in a singular God or multiple manifestations of one God (30 percent and 60 percent, according to PEW surveys).

To start answering this question, we need to pinpoint the philosophical foundation of Hinduism. Thankfully, this isn’t too complicated, as several Vedic verses touch on this theme (e.g. Brihadaranyaka 4.4.18 and 4.4.22), all leading to the same conclusion. These verses indicate that the essence of all spiritual paths in ancient India revolves around Adhyatma (the doctrine of enlightened self). The central concept of Adhyatma is Atman—an ancient, observer consciousness believed to be deeply embedded within each of us. The ultimate aim is to attain Moksha, i.e. to awaken and realize this concealed enlightened self. Now, if we were to bring the God of Abraham and Atman together on a talk show, asking them to explain their doctrines to the audience, it might go like this:

God : I am the all powerful God. 
Atman : I am your peaceful inner self.

God : I am the true creator of everything that you perceive.
Atman : I am the true experiencer of all that you perceive.

God : Submit to me unconditionally and obey all my commands.
Atman : Become one with me and be liberated.

God : If you are loyal to me I will take to heaven after you die.
Atman : Whenever you see yourself as me, the Earth looks like heaven.

God : Initiate force against others if they oppose your faith.
Atman : Mix with others if they oppose initiation of force.

Even in these highly simplified versions one can clearly see that the Atman doctrine is Pagan if we apply the more inclusive definition of Paganism. It can also be viewed as a branch of Pantheism. In Adhyatma the analogue of impersonal supreme God is Brahman, the entire universe seen from an enlightened perspective. Since experiencing Brahman is same as experiencing one’s Atman, many experience oriented spiritual traditions use them as interchangeable terms. So when Hindus talk about one God, the are referring to the impersonal God, not the God of Abraham.

F*ck Your Algorithm, My People Are Still Colonised

X.T.M · January 22, 2026 · No comments

I was not browsing an archive or reading a colonial memoir. I was looking at an AI summary produced by Google’s Gemini system. What stopped me cold was not the history. It was the voice.

Islam was described as an “obstacle to civilisation.” French colonialism was reframed as a “civilising mission.” Muslim societies appeared as a “pervasive influence” to be managed. Colonial domination was softened into administration. Dispossession was translated into balance. This is not neutral language. It is the vocabulary of empire.

“French colonial rule in West Africa encountered and managed large Muslim populations, initially viewing Islam with suspicion as an obstacle to civilization but later adapting policies as Muslim subjects proved loyal, though often facing discriminatory practices like denial of citizenship or repression of movements, leading to complex relationships, resistance, and the emergence of distinct Islamic spheres within the colonies. France, becoming a significant “Muslim power,” struggled with balancing its civilizing mission against Islam’s pervasive influence in regions like French West Africa (AOF) and Algeria, impacting local society and sparking ongoing debates about identity and governance.”

Islam is fundamental to West Africa

Continue reading F*ck Your Algorithm, My People Are Still Colonised

Pakistan, the deciding hinge between the West & CRINK

X.T.M · January 22, 2026 · 9 comments

Pakistan does not announce itself as a great power. That is precisely why it works.

Prussia, built on Position, not Pretension

In a world that is reorganising around blocs, chokepoints, and undersea cables, Pakistan has emerged as one of the most dextrous middle powers on the planet. Not because it dominates geography, but because it understands it. Not because it leads alliances, but because it survives them. Most states are trapped by their alignments. Pakistan is not. It sits at the hinge of the Eurasian landmass: between the Gulf and Central Asia, between China and the Muslim world, between the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East. This position is dangerous for weak states. For competent ones, it is leverage. Pakistan has learned how to convert constraint into flexibility.

Dexterity & Diplomacy as Strategy Continue reading Pakistan, the deciding hinge between the West & CRINK

Lord Zoroaster’s Fire Still Burns

X.T.M · January 21, 2026 · 13 comments

In the 1920s, Soviet Azerbaijan produced a remarkable satirical magazine called Molla Nasreddin. It mocked clerics, superstition, empire, and authority with a sharpness that would soon be extinguished by Stalinist conformity. One cartoon from that period shows two figures standing side by side: Lord Zoroaster in red, radiant and amused; Prophet Muhammad in green, solemn and slightly defensive. Below them, a crowd leaps over a fire.

Lord Zoroaster turns and says: “You claimed to bring them a new religion, but they still jump over my fire.”

The joke is simple. The implication is not. It is a jab at how ancient Persian customs; Nowruz, fire-jumping, seasonal rites, survived Islamic conversion not as relics, but as living practice. Islam arrived. The civilisation did not leave. The fire stayed lit.

Iran Is Not a Regime Problem Continue reading Lord Zoroaster’s Fire Still Burns

Could Donald Trump Divide the Western World in His Quest for Greenland? (Open Thread)

Kabir · January 21, 2026 · 17 comments

With Europe and America increasingly locked in an acrimonious struggle over the future of Greenland, we examine the fate of the western world. Could it end up divided and at odds with each other? Could NATO collapse? And if that happens, will Russia and China be the only countries to gain? And what sort of international order will we then have to grapple with? Join me live at 4.30 p.m. (11.00 a.m. in the UK/Ireland) on Tuesday the 20th of January to hear Bill Emmott, the former Editor-in-Chief of The Economist and Chairman of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, address these questions.

A Pakistani Wedding That Refused Not to Be Indian

X.T.M · January 20, 2026 · 40 comments

There is a tweet circulating of Nawaz Sharif’s grandson’s wedding. It is meant to be ordinary; the bride wore Indian designers, Sabyasachi and Tarun Tahiliani. Instead, it is revealing, the extent of Indic soft power. The colours are unmistakably Indian: red, gold, marigold. The symmetry is ritualistic rather than theological. The staging is ceremonial, not Quranic. The aesthetics are not Arab, Persian, or Turkic. They are Hindu-Indian; not in belief, but in form.

This is not a criticism. It is an observation. For seventy-five years, Pakistan has insisted that it is not India. That it broke away not only as a state but as a civilisation. That Islam did not merely replace Hinduism but erased it. Yet when Pakistan’s most powerful family marries its children, what appears is not a purified Islamic aesthetic but a recognisably Indic one.

Civilisation does not obey ideology.

Islam in Jambudvīpa did not enter an empty space. It arrived in a world already shaped by colour,  hierarchy, procession, music, and spectacle. It adapted to that world. It did not abolish ceremony; it repurposed it. Nikah replaced vivah, but the social grammar remained. Weddings stayed long, public, ornate, and familial. They did not become austere. They became Muslim in name and Indian in structure.

Continue reading A Pakistani Wedding That Refused Not to Be Indian

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