elite theory
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Why India will not lose her soul to missionaries
X.T.M argues that India will not lose its Hindu soul to missionaries, because societies are shaped by elites, not headcount, and India’s elite is not converting. He starts from a…
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Are All Postcolonial Nations Brahmanical Constructs?
X.T.M asks whether postcolonial states are Brahmanical constructs, arguing that every successor elite preserves the borders it inherits. He draws on caste mobility, Sanskritisation and Radcliffe’s line, and notes the…
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The Lutyens Brahmin & the Indian Muslim
X.T.M borrows the Boston Brahmin to describe India’s apex elite, admitted by assimilation, presentation and marriage, and asks whether the new Hindu order’s explicit loyalty tests for Indian Muslims expose…
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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…
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Bollywood, Brahmins, Parsis & WASPs:
X.T.M argues that elites are reproduced by property, institutions and networks rather than blood, so intermarriage is usually a merger, not a threat, citing English aristocrats and American heiresses, Parsis,…
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Pakistan Is Not About to Break Apart
X.T.M argues predictions of Pakistan’s imminent break-up are confirmation bias, since Pashtuns are integrated into the state and economy and states collapse only when elites defect, borders become porous and…
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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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On Moderation, Minoritization, and the Elite
X.T.M reflects on over-curating the threads and says his interest has moved from the India–Pakistan binary to who makes meaning and who sits in the room, setting out nested elite…
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The Skyborne Castes
X.T.M uses a flight from Cairo as an extended metaphor for the world: seats allocated by race, region and power, with the Global South in economy, the West in business…
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The Self-Hating Prophecy of Indian Elites
The author argues that India’s post-independence elites live out a self-hating prophecy, seeking Western approval while denouncing local traditions as primitive, in contrast with confident ancient elites, and that this…
