counterfactual history
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The Iran That 1979 Erased: What If Khomeini Had Lost?
X.T.M runs a thought experiment on Iran had the 1979 revolution failed. Citing Central Bank of Iran figures on growth before and after, the post argues a constitutional transition could…
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Pakistan and the Act of Union
X.T.M argues the only useful analogy for Pakistan ‘rejoining’ India is the 1707 Act of Union, an elite exit driven by insolvency and security, not affection, and says Pakistan’s debt…
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A Mongol India, a pagan India?
Taking up a Twitter counterfactual, the author asks what might have followed had the Mongols destroyed the Delhi Sultanate, surveying how the Mongol khanates adopted Islam or Buddhism to speculate…
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Years of Rice and Lentils
Prompted by Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Years of Rice and Salt, the author poses a thought experiment: what if the Rajputs had halted Turco-Muslim expansion beyond Sindh and parts of…
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Iran as a modern Zoroastrian nation
A speculative satire imagining Iranians returning to Zoroastrianism after a counter-revolution: Isfahan’s square torn down, Persepolis rebuilt, Muslim heritage neglected, the Persian language purged of Arabic words, and the Muslim…
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Counter factual
X.T.M poses a counterfactual: would a typical Shudra peasant in UP be better off today without British rule, without Turkish incursion, or if Ashoka had replaced Hinduism with Buddhism, noting…
