All posts
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Pakistan’s Civilisational Orphanhood
An argument that Pakistan’s elite is fiercely nationalist on paper but has no civilisation to call its own, living instead in English and Western ideas.
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Baluchistan
This is a near zero likelihood of happening but never say never.
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Two Hours in Delhi, and the Myth of Sudden Alignment
X.T.M disputes a popular claim that MBZ’s two-hour Delhi stopover shows India has replaced Pakistan as the Gulf’s partner. He argues deals are prepared in advance, a short visit signals…
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Iran and Pakistan Are Not the Same Kind of State
X.T.M argues that Iran cannot be analysed like Pakistan because it is a civilisation-state some three thousand years old. He says authority there rests on inherited ideas, from monarchy to…
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Why is the Pakistani consumer so poor?
Bombay Badshah notes that India’s GDP is about 11 times Pakistan’s, yet its cricket revenue, league rights and forex reserves are many times larger. He suggests Pakistan’s oversized military distorts…
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Listening to Iran
X.T.M reports what he heard from people in Iran: severe economic strain, worst in provincial towns, with no wide appetite for monarchy. He argues that China cannot absorb partners’ failures…
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Tamil Islam Is Not a North Indian Story
X.T.M argues that a Tamil Muslim politician waving an LTTE flag is unremarkable, because Islam reached South India through trade and Tamilness outweighs religion. He says North Indian assumptions wrongly…
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Report on Op-Sindoor
Nachiketa posts an extract from a report on Operation Sindoor concluding that India achieved air superiority by 10 May 2025, while Pakistan won the information contest. His own summary is…
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Borderline Bloodpressure
X.T.M describes borderline high blood pressure and a raised resting heart rate at 41, a nosebleed and his usual January check-up in India. He argues that health must become a…
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Why It Is Still Acceptable to Insult India
A chance encounter in Cambridge exposes how casually India remains a socially acceptable target of disdain in Western conversation—revealing the link between microaggression, diasporic self-erasure, and the discomfort provoked by…
