Pakistan Does Not Need to Imitate India to Be Stable
Similarly the core Hindu-Dharmic civilizational nature of India, that is Bharat, is for Indians to decide. Outsiders demanding secularism often mistake their own preferences for universal law.
Pakistan – Falling Behind in the Indian Subcontinent
So the UN HDI numbers for 2023 were out last year.
https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/human-development-index
Global Data Lab is an organization that uses this data (amongst other data) to create “sub-national” HDI.
https://globaldatalab.org/
One thing you can see from the map is that the only border which is so distinct is the India-Pakistan one. If one does not know they will not be able to make the borders of India-Nepal, India-Bangladesh, India-Bhutan or Pakistan-Afghanistan.
Thing is not only does Pakistan have the lowest HDI in the Indian subcontinent (only one in UN’s “low” HDI below 0.55. Everyone else is above 0.6), it will also have the lowest per capita income in 5 years, going below Nepal.
In fact, the World Bank has removed Pakistan from “South Asia” and classifies them as part of MENAP because their growth data is so different from the rising economies of the subcontinent.
https://www.worldbank.org/ext/en/region/mena
https://www.worldbank.org/ext/en/region/sar
And not only are the other desi countries leaving Pakistan behind, many sub-saharan African countries are as well.
HDI of SSA countries vis a vis Pakistan
GDP pci of SSA countries vis a vis Pakistan
Bangladesh
Bangladesh swears in its first male prime minister in 35 years Tarique Rahman.
The morning after the monsoon: Bangladesh votes for a fresh start
Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Tarique Rahman, takes the oath as Prime Minister of Bangladesh 17 February. Screenshot BBC News report.
Intro
The electorate of this delta nation has given politicians another opportunity to build a democratic, peaceful and harmonious nation. The road ahead is challenging, but some tasks are achievable
Opinion
By Irfan Chowdhury / Sapan News
If democracy had a scent, in Bangladesh it would be the acrid smell of burning tires. For nearly four decades, elections in this delta nation have been martial events, marred by strikes, machetes, and the terrifying silence of the “hartal” (strike). Yet, as the sun rose over the river Buriganga on 13 February, the air was clear. The 13th Parliamentary Election, held the previous day, did not end in bloodshed. It ended in queuing.
For the first time since 2008, Bangladeshis cast ballots that were actually counted. And they delivered a verdict that is as decisive as it is retrograde.
As the final tallies from the election trickled into the Election Commission’s headquarters, the air of revolutionary fervour was replaced by the cold math of electoral reality. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party has returned from the political wilderness with a crushing two-thirds majority.
The numbers are startling. The Nationalist Party and its allies secured 212 out of 300 seats, an absolute majority that gives their leader, Tarique Rahman, the mandate to reshape the republic. For Rahman — the son of the late President Ziaur Rahman and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia who passed away recently — this is a personal and political vindication. Having led the party from a self-imposed exile in London for nearly two decades, he returns to the centre of power
Pakistan’s dramatic drop in fertility
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s average number of children per woman has dropped sharply from 3.61 in 2023 to 3.19 in 2024, reflecting shifting fertility patterns. By comparison, India’s rate declined more modestly from 2.14 to 2.12.
Why women in South Asia are aging faster than in Europe, US
Those are not marginal adjustments. That is acceleration. For decades, Pakistan was treated as a demographic outlier. India fell below replacement. Bangladesh stabilised. Iran collapsed to European levels. Turkey dropped. The Gulf states hollowed out. Pakistan remained “young.” That youth dividend now looks fragile.
Economic Pressures
The fertility transition is no longer creeping. It is sprinting. The familiar explanation is economic pressure. Urban housing costs more. Education lasts longer. Children are expensive. Women delay marriage. This is all true but incomplete. The deeper shift is cultural. Modernity changes how individuals see time.
Rural Norms
In agrarian societies, children are labour, security, and continuity. In urban societies, children are choice. Once children become a choice rather than a necessity, fertility becomes elastic. It bends downward.
Social Media Continue reading Pakistan’s dramatic drop in fertility
Open Thread
There is a fair bit I want to write on but I’m going to have to park it for a little bit.
On Editorial Authority and Trust
In an effort to maintain balance on BP, I upgraded BB to author and granted Kabir editorial privileges in recognition of his arguments for evenhandedness.
However, the overnight removal of comments and the rearranging of posts was unacceptable. I had granted Kabir discretion to remove personal abuse and, in borderline cases, to consult with me so that we could make balanced decisions together. That was the understanding.
Hard deletion of comments and unilateral alteration of posts and drafts were in no way part of that agreement.
Readers and contributors should know that I am committed to pushing BP forward while also maintaining fairness. I am aware of my own biases and have tried to build space for others accordingly. But editorial authority cannot operate without trust and agreed boundaries.
In light of this breach, I have temporarily removed Kabir’s editorial and authorship rights. BB retains authorship status.
We will reset and move forward from there.
The internal email, I have just sent to the Authors & co.
Mid-February 2026 Update – Editorial Reset Continue reading On Editorial Authority and Trust
Not All Our Ancestors Were “Just Hindu”
Pakistanis never Hindu | Islam destroyed everything? |Pakistanis were Hindu
Aslan Pahari’s videos are linked to the top where he essentially argues that the Indus region, before Islam, was a seamless Hindu civilisational block. It makes for neat storytelling. It is also historically careless.
Sun Temple of Multan
The subcontinent before the 8th century was not a flat religious plain. It was layered, regional, and politically fragmented. Yes, there was a broad Brahmanical tradition stretching across north India. Yes, temples like the great Sun temple at Multan testify to the strength of that religious order in what is now South Punjab. But to move from that to “all ancestors were Hindu” is to mistake dominance for uniformity.
Sindh
Take Sindh. When Muhammad bin Qasim entered the region in the early 8th century, he did not conquer a purely Brahmanical kingdom. The ruling Brahmin elite he defeated, had previously overthrown a Buddhist polity, and the religious landscape of Sindh included Buddhists, various Hindu sects, and local traditions. The frontier between Indic religions was not rigid. It was porous, competitive, and regionally specific.
It goes without saying that Buddhists emerged from a broader Brahmanical milieu, but I am referring specifically to the religious landscape immediately preceding the arrival of Islam.
Punjab Continue reading Not All Our Ancestors Were “Just Hindu”
The Importance of Grace
Kabir has resigned. I truly hope he reconsiders. But his impending departure forces a larger point. Online forums need grace. Not agreement. Not deference. Grace.
I have noticed that some of the Saffroniate express themselves bluntly. I saw this years ago in Cambridge as well. They are not always fluent in the soft, coded language of the liberal consensus. They do not always wrap their arguments in silk. That does not mean they should be silenced. Allowing people to articulate their emotions — without crudity, but without stylistic policing — expands the conversation. A forum that only rewards one rhetorical style becomes sterile. At the same time, no single voice defines BP. Not Kabir. Not BB. Not RNJ. Not myself. The site is larger than any one temperament.
What makes BP valuable is that it attempts something rare: a space where Desis can argue without collapsing into communal silos. That is fragile. It requires reflection from all sides. Grace does not mean surrender. It means refusing to reduce opponents to caricature. It means recognising that patriotism, even when misplaced in our view, is not insanity. It means remembering that tone can wound as easily as content. If BP is to survive as a broad church, it will not do so through factional victory. It will do so through a culture where disagreement does not require humiliation. That is harder than winning an argument.
India Has Sacred Land. Pakistan Has Sacred Purpose. The Comment Section Needs Neither.
Everyone; please do not violate our rules egregiously. If moderation collapses, I will stop doing it. And if that happens, the comment boards will descend into noise very quickly. That helps no one.
The comments are growing again after a lull, which is a good sign. But it also puts real strain on time. I would rather focus on writing and commissioning strong posts than constantly firefighting threads. If you value the quality of this space, help maintain it.
If anyone would like to volunteer as a balanced and fair moderator, step forward. Not a partisan enforcer. Not a factional referee. Someone steady. I have given BB authorship privileges because Kabir, while diligent, is beginning to police too aggressively, and BB, when restrained, can bring levity without venom. That balance matters.
On a separate note, a thought. Bharat, that is, India in her most sublime and civilizational sense, possesses something like sacred geography. Rivers, mountains, pilgrimage circuits. The land itself carries immense metaphysical weight as both the home and centre of Dharma.
Pakistan, by contrast, was founded less on geography than on mission. It has an animating purpose, often framed as unifying or protecting the Ummah, but that is not the same thing as sacred land. One is spatial and civilizational; the other is ideological and directional. They are not equivalents, and confusion between them produces bad arguments.
Keep the debates sharp. Keep them serious. But keep them civil. If moderation fails, everyone loses.