I sent this email to the CoFounders of the Blog (Omar | Razib) and tomorrow I will send through the Monthly Author Report.
Tag: India
Fire and the Saffroniate
We had a quiet Diwali dinner with some South Asian literati here in Cambridge, Mass. No fireworks, but some useful clarity especially about the need for a unified South Asian voice, and where Brown Pundits fits in.
Threads, Fire, and a New Warrior Class
Kabir remains catnip for the Commentariat or as I’ll now call them, the Saffroniate (Brahmins or Brahminised). They pretend otherwise, but the numbers don’t lie. The threads light up when he’s around and yes, I’m aware of the layered joke: threads mean something else too, especially to our youngest Pundits-in-training. Continue reading Fire and the Saffroniate
Was Kabir Right?
A week ago, I imposed an interdiction on Kabir ; a move I felt was necessary at the time, not because of his views, but because of the manner in which they were expressed. His tone, his dismissal of this platform, and his tendency to escalate rather than de-escalate all contributed to that decision. But now, I find myself wondering: was Kabir right about Brown Pundits?
Since his departure, the commentariat has gone unusually quiet. Threads that once sparked with disagreement, energy, and engagement have gone still. There is a strange calm but it feels like the calm of a museum, not a marketplace of ideas. And what’s become increasingly clear is that the “peace” has come at a cost. That cost is vibrancy. That cost is friction. That cost is participation. Kabir, for all his faults, drew fire, and fire draws people.
This raises a more fundamental question: am I overestimating the commentariat’s interest in the core mission of Brown Pundits? Were people here for civilizational dialogue, or were they here for the masala of Indo-Pak antagonism? It’s disheartening to admit, but the numbers speak for themselves. Kabir had been blocked years before (not by me), and when I released Loki from his cage, well on his return, so did the attention. Continue reading Was Kabir Right?
Pakistan’s Diplomatic Triumph (Trump?)
United States President Donald Trump especially thanked Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and “my favourite” Field Marshal Asim Munir on Monday for their efforts in achieving peace in Gaza, among many other world leaders.
Trump thanks PM Shehbaz and ‘my favourite’ Field Marshal Asim Munir for Gaza peace efforts
I might expand on this tomorrow, but it’s telling that Dr. Lalchand finds all this quite amusing—Pakistan back again with a begging bowl. I, on the other hand, see it as something closer to a post-Pahalgam pivot. Perhaps India is underestimating Pakistan’s deep instinct for adaptation, especially as the region continues to drift in unpredictable directions.
Brown Pundits and the Echo Chamber Problem
The Echo Chamber of the Commentariat
It has been on my mind that Brown Pundits, for all its liveliness, risks drifting into an echo chamber. The commentariat is our lifeblood: their activity sustains the blog far more than page views alone. And yet, the very strength of that community can also be its blind spot.
I do not want Kabir to end up being the Cassandra of BP, always warning of decline, and being proved right in the end. If we are not careful, we could slide into a right-wing echo chamber where challenging voices fade, and the capacity for deep interrogation, the core of what makes BP unique, is diminished.
Pahalgam and the Question of Narrative Continue reading Brown Pundits and the Echo Chamber Problem
Homebound with Ishaan Khatter
Last night Dr. Lalchand & I watched Homebound, India’s submission to the Oscars, at Apple Cinemas in Cambridge, Mass. This sad film follows a Dalit (Chandan Kumar) and a Muslim (Mohammed Shoaib Ali) struggling against the odds during the pandemic, their solidarity fictionalized as a fragile bridge across India’s deepest divides.
On the surface, it is a familiar story: the disenfranchised facing systemic barriers. But what struck me was how privilege itself performed disenfranchisement. Ishaan Khatter, brother to Shahid Kapoor, plays the marginalized Muslim. Janhvi Kapoor, descended from Bollywood royalty, embodies a Dalit woman. Vishal Jethwa, a bright-eyed Gujarati, portrays the Bhojpuri Dalit lead. This is not unique to India; Hollywood, too, casts elites as workers. Yet it raises the question: when poverty is performed rather than lived, is it “Dalit-washing”?
Poverty, Emotion, and Representation
Watching the film, I reflected on poverty’s emotional landscape. For elites, emotions can be expansive, indulgent, aestheticized into art. For the working poor, emotions are often constrained by survival — narrowed into necessity. Homebound tried to humanize its characters, but I wondered whether it romanticized what in practice is a relentless narrowing of possibility.
The West rewards this narrative. Parasite in Korea, Iranian cinema, Slumdog Millionaire — poverty & Global South tribulations as spectacle becomes “poverty porn.” The Guardian gave Homebound four stars. Great art often tilts melancholic, yes, but here the melancholia is curated for Western consumption.
Identity, Vectors, and Islamicate Selfhood
More unexpectedly, the film stirred something personal. I realized how much I have vacated my own Islamic identity. It was not traumatic. As a Bahá’í with Persian cultural roots, I found overlap — even comfort — in Hindu traditions. Dalits, in their rapid Hinduization, represent one vector of assimilation; Muslims and scheduled-caste Muslims, often in tension, another. Homebound imagines solidarity, but in life these vectors pull unequally. Continue reading Homebound with Ishaan Khatter
Indians assimilate a bit too well?
Fascinating for me how two very different Indian-Americans are battling it out. There seems to be far less Indian asabiyyah?
PPP – Post Pahalgam Pakistan..
The Changing Demographics of Undivided India (1900–2025)
South Asia’s demography is one of the great untold stories of the modern world. Too often we look at the subcontinent through today’s partitions — India, Pakistan, Bangladesh — but the real insight comes when we view the region as a single whole. Across 125 years, the balance of populations has shifted dramatically.
📊 1900: A Baseline
At the turn of the twentieth century, Muslims made up about 20% of undivided India’s population. The rest were overwhelmingly Hindu, with significant Sikh, Christian, Jain, and other minorities.
📊 1950: Partition and Realignment Continue reading The Changing Demographics of Undivided India (1900–2025)
Travelling – Open Thread
🔗 Links shared from the comments
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Indian rupee slides to all-time low on US visa hike & subdued foreign flows: Visa fee hikes and US tariffs are compounding pressures on the rupee, with concerns about equity flows into India’s IT sector.
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Why the Pakistan–Saudi Arabia defence pact is unsettling India: Riyadh’s commitment to treat aggression against Pakistan as aggression against itself is seen as a direct security challenge to India.
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Doug Macgregor thread on the Saudi–Pakistan Strategic Mutual Defense Pact: Macgregor outlines how Saudi–Pakistani defense ties, backed by China and linked to Iran, could reshape the balance of power in Asia.
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World Bank warns of Pakistan’s failing growth model: The World Bank says Pakistan’s growth model no longer supports poverty reduction, with income gains stalling and poverty at an eight-year high.
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Rail-based Agni Prime missile test-fired: India successfully tested a rail-mounted Agni Prime ICBM, underscoring advances in indigenous missile technology and delivery systems.
💬 Keep the links and thoughts coming — BP works best when the Commentariat bring their own sources into the mix.