Brown PunditsA Deccani miniature of a dancing girl tying her hair, Golconda, about 1700

The Indian Subcontinent Argues with Itself

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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…

    X.T.M8 August 2026104 comments
  • Bangladesh-India Open Thread

    A reproduced news report, source not named, on Bangladesh’s anger at India for letting the ousted Sheikh Hasina address journalists in New Delhi; the post is titled an open thread…

    X.T.M8 August 202623 comments
  • Qawwali in Chennai

    X.T.M notes the launch of the Unruly Bodies Art Exhibition in Chennai, with Tamil, Sanskrit and Hindi heard, and a friend’s correction that the music was Carnatic rather than Hindustani.

    X.T.M7 August 20265 comments
  • 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…

  • Regency, Not Rupture in Pakistan (Open Thread)

    Open thread: X.T.M reads interior minister Mohsin Naqvi’s claim that Pakistan’s governance system has collapsed as a sign the army needs no coup, arguing that the Twenty-Seventh Amendment already makes…

    X.T.M6 August 2026113 comments
  • For Gandhiji

    Indosaurus, once unconvinced of Gandhi’s importance, defends him against attacks from the liberal left, which Indosaurus argues lack context, and links a longer Substack defence of his most contested behaviour…

  • Erm

    X.T.M3 August 2026201 comments
  • 30 seconds please

    k jayas’s open thread of four quick takes: a JNU professor’s 30-second TV interjections, a BJP spokesperson’s resignation, Modi’s Instagram presence and Rahul Gandhi’s street theatre, plus an admin note…

    k jayas1 August 202665 comments
  • Restore the Princes?

    Under one paramountcy, Swat built three colleges and over three hundred schools while the Nawabs of Dir kept education out. Same institution, same security, opposite outcomes. Whatever the case for…

    X.T.M1 August 202611 comments
  • What would Braj Pradesh look like?

    In 1961 ten mother tongues were grouped under Hindi. In 1971 the grouping widened to forty-eight, and Hindi’s share of India rose from 30 to 37 per cent in a…

    X.T.M31 July 202627 comments
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