What began as a spirited disagreement veered into something darker. It turns out that bombay_badshah, a voice I initially assumed to be new, may not be who he claims to be (I had a hunch but so did Kabir, that BB was HS reincarnated). The posting style, the fixations, the timing; all too familiar. My suspicion is that BB may be a derivative or proxy of HS, previously banned. If true, this was not a genuine disagreement; it was entrapment, bait-and-switch.

In that light, I owe Kabir an apology. He was provoked in bad faith by someone who may be operating behind a mask. And that matters, because here on Brown Pundits, identity isn’t incidental; it shapes perspective, and we respect that. We excavate worldviews, not just opinions.

While I cannot definitively prove that BB is HS, the circumstantial evidence is strong. I will allow BB to remain but if the commentary returns obsessively to Kabir or Pakistan, I will intervene. Everyone is welcome to engage on substance. But this space will not be hijacked.

The original post remains below the jump, unedited but its context has now changed.

There’s been some controversy in the comments section of my last post. I inadvertently referenced the ancestral identity of a commentator — bombay_badshah — in a way that may have crossed a line. I want to clarify a few things and offer my thoughts.

I’m never in the habit of violating privacy or exposing identities without reason. But in this case, it felt salient. On Brown Pundits, we do not operate like Twitter. Our project is to excavate, not echo. To expose priors, not pretend neutrality. To go deep.

We cannot meaningfully discuss Partition, India, or Pakistan without engaging the full context and that includes personal histories, community legacies, and ancestral perspectives. In the Indian Subcontinent, these are not trivial details. They are central to our civilizational narratives.

Most Pakistani Muslims, I would argue, would rather their children suffer materially than abandon the Faith. This isn’t meant as a critique; it’s a worldview rooted in centuries of martyrdom and meaning. It is a stance I profoundly respect (martyrdom is an unending victory; Charlie K. & Irina Z. are now martyrs), even as I have a different take on what to be a martyr about.

As a Bahá’í, my religious framework allows high individual discretion, and I enthusiastically accept the Hindu pantheon in its entirely. I acknowledge this is idiosyncratic but I would also happily die for my Faith. But that’s the point: we all bring something to the table.

A friend once told me that at Punjabi Muslim weddings, there’s often a curtain separating men and women; only lifted once the Nikkah is complete. That moment of unveiling; mysterious, structured, symbolic, has stayed with me. It’s a powerful metaphor for what is required in our discourse: not voyeurism, but sincerity. Not exposure for its own sake, but illumination.

I’m not ordinarily known—online or off—for being ziddi, except when it concerns the marrow of my being. I was on the verge of deleting all my comments, questions, and posts re bb. But then I realised that would dishonour what Brown Pundits stands for: a search for Truth, no matter how muddy.

The troll above lives in Frisco, TX. If I spent $1 I could look up their name and identity. I have 35,000 Twitter followers, and blogs and newsletters that get tens of thousands of pageviews a day. I could make this person “famous” very quickly!

I (probably) won’t do this, but the lesson I want to put out there: be careful who you troll with appropriate “opsec.” Most of the time you people are beneath notice, but I am becoming aware I will have to “make examples” at some point soon to dissuade some of the more nasty behavior that crops up on the internet.

You don’t hide behind anonymity as much as you think. I “own” what I do say on the internet. Many of you lack courage so behave in a nasty manner under “pseudos.” But the day is something when monsters will get hungry, and even anchovies will appetizing.