Kashmir is not Palestine.

X.T.M · March 13, 2026 · 24 comments

It seems apparently that Kashmir is Palestine. That India is Israel. That Kashmiri Muslims are Palestinians.

Why the Return of Kashmiri Pandits Is Still a Distant Dream - The New York Times
Displaced from their Vatan

First The Pandits were actually displaced. 100,000-200,000 people (estimates vary) fled the Valley in 1990 under explicit death threats, targeted assassinations, mosque loudspeakers announcing their departure was required. This is the closest thing to actual ethnic cleansing the Valley has seen in living memory, and it was directed at Hindus, by militants operating with Pakistani ISI support.

We are not arguing that everything is fine in the Valley. It is not that Delhi’s approach to Kashmir has been faultless, or that the revocation of Article 370 was without consequence for Kashmiri identity. Nor can it be denied that there is genuine anguish among Kashmiri Muslims.

Kashmiri Muslim Women Pray Relic Displayed Editorial Stock Photo - Stock Image | Shutterstock Editorial
Kashmiri Muslim Women Pray

However the analogy to Palestine is not merely imprecise, for instance the Abdullah family chose India over Pakistan, whereas no Palestinian chose Israel. However this argument is increasingly offensive.

The Gaza Test

Start with the simplest possible question: what is actually happening to the Palestinians?

Gaza before

Continue reading Kashmir is not Palestine.

A Deleted Tweet Just Moved the Oil Price 17%. Welcome to the New World.

X.T.M · March 11, 2026 · 56 comments

The Graph Nobody Is Talking About

Oil Prices

BP Admin Note

September 2025 – Brown Pundits
Punditji

Before the oil, a brief note on Brown Pundits itself. Over recent months we have tried to move the comment threads toward a simple goal: remove noise while preserving disagreement. This is not a place for ideological conformity. It is a place where arguments should challenge substance rather than inflame style.

The density of comments has fallen slightly but the quality of disagreement has improved.

What the threads also reveal is a persistent misunderstanding about the relationship between civilisation and crisis. The caricature, that certain societies simply “fail to modernise“, misses the deeper negotiation underway.

Every tradition older than industrial modernity faces the same question: how to carry inherited principles into a world not built around them. That is not a uniquely Muslim or Persian problem. It is the defining problem of our age.

With that said, to the oil!

Oil Tanker Routes at Kimberly Clifton blog
SoH > SoM

The Only Number That Matters

Continue reading A Deleted Tweet Just Moved the Oil Price 17%. Welcome to the New World.

They Blinded the Attackers in 72 Hours. No One Is Saying It.

X.T.M · March 9, 2026 · 55 comments

hat tip: Richard Medhurst — full satellite analysis here

Blinded?

The Thing In Front of Your Nose

The uncomfortable truth about this war is not what Iran destroyed. It is what the destruction revealed was always already hollow.

Alaric - World History Encyclopedia
Alaric the Conqueror of Rome

Empires do not collapse when they are defeated. They collapse when the gap between their self-image and their actual condition becomes impossible to maintain. The Roman legions did not disappear because the Visigoths were militarily superior in any comprehensive sense. They disappeared because the infrastructure of belief that sustained them; the idea that Rome was invincible, that the civilisational order it represented was permanent, had been quietly rotting for generations before the walls were breached. What Alaric provided in 410 AD was not a military verdict. It was a legibility event. He made visible what had already become true.

I’ll note here: I fully support removing Khamenei, Nasrallah, Hamas; the architects of civilian suffering. Not at the cost of the innocent. That distinction matters and I won’t pretend otherwise.

Medhurst has spent the last several days making the invisible visible; overlaying satellite photography on base after base across the Gulf, turning classified embarrassment into public record.

What Actually Happened

Iran strikes AN/FPS-132 early warning radar in Qatar | TURDEF
The billion dollar radar, one of 6 in the world

Continue reading They Blinded the Attackers in 72 Hours. No One Is Saying It.

India Won the World Cup. Now the Hard Part.

X.T.M · March 9, 2026 · 15 comments

Another version of this article has now appeared at BRAHM.

India won the T20WC yesterday becoming the first team to

Win it thrice | Win it at home | Win it back to back |

Won 3 ICC trophies back to back to back. I always knew this day was coming.

The Golden Age is not arriving. It has arrived.

𝙃𝙄𝙎𝙏𝙊𝙍𝙄𝘾 🇮🇳🏆 India become the first team to defend their Men's #T20WorldCup crown 👑

Badshah’s structural point is right as far as it goes. A country of 1.4 billion people that loves one sport above all others was never going to stay second once the money came. The BCCI’s TV deal money, the IPL pipeline, the depth of the talent pool no. Bangladesh, Pakistan, the West Indies may genuinely no longer able to compete at the same level. Nothing can deny India, that is Bharat, waking up to her Destiny as a Global hegemon (InshAllah this prefaces greatness in others spheres of National Excellence).

But I want to push back gently on the linear framing. More wealth, more wealth, more wealth; therefore dominance. The model minority version of sport & geopolitics. It’s not wrong, but it’s incomplete.

War is what is in your belly

François Gérard (1770-1837), Warlike courage or the Gaulish Courage ...

My Urdu teacher told me something interesting: war isn’t just about your technology. It’s what you have inside your heart. Sports exists, in part, as simulated war. And what makes sport compelling, what makes it actually compelling, not just statistically interesting, is that once the conflict starts, you genuinely don’t know what will happen.

Who is David? Who is Goliath?

Continue reading India Won the World Cup. Now the Hard Part.

India wins the T20 World Cup – The Golden Age is here and it’s permanent

Bombay Badshah · March 9, 2026 · 15 comments

India won the T20WC yesterday becoming the first team to

  • Win it thrice
  • Win it at home
  • Win it back to back
  • Win 3 ICC trophies back to back to back

I always knew this day was coming.

India is a cricket mad country of 1.4 billion+. That means India should have dominated all of cricket. Issue was India was a dirt poor country with most of the population barely surviving.

After the economic reforms, as India kept getting richer bit by bit, the team also kept improving bit by bit.

So I always knew this inflection point would come eventually.

But it is still surreal to watch it live.

Countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, SL, WI etc are no longer able to compete against India.

SENA maybe can give competition for a decade due to being rich countries.

But in 10-15 year’s time India will basically be what USA is to basketball.

Belated Holi 2026 Thread

Kabir · March 8, 2026 · 6 comments

Since what seems like World War 3 broke out a week ago,  the fact that Holi was this past Wednesday (March 4) completely slipped my mind.  I’m surprised that no one else on BP mentioned it either.

I just want to briefly share this recording of Gauhar Jaan singing “Mere Huzraat ne Madeene mein manayi Holi” (My Prophet played Holi in Medina).  This is an example of the syncretic culture of Hindustani music.  A Muslim artist (born Armenian Christian) singing a composition that references the Prophet of God celebrating a Hindu festival.  This is the syncretic culture that has sadly been lost on both sides of the Radcliffe Line.

There is an excellent book on Gauhar Jaan titled My Name is Gauhar Jaan! (2010) by Vikram Sampath.

After the jump, there is another beautiful composition sung by Venkatesh Kumar. This is a thumri in Raga Mishra Kafi entitled “Aaj Khelo Shyam Sang Hori” (Let’s Play  Holi with Shayam (Krishna) today” Continue reading Belated Holi 2026 Thread

Open Thread –

X.T.M · March 7, 2026 · 50 comments

This war feels fairly choreographed; regime change unlikely but now everyone needs to save face.

Link 1: The Iranian regime account is using the Sun & the Lion Flag.

On “Civilization States” vs. Nation-States

Kabir · March 7, 2026 · 2 comments

This is a rebuttal to X.T.M’s recent post on  “civilization states” .  The longer essay can be read here 

In this context, Shashi Tharoor’s essay “Civilization States Are Profoundly Illiberal” is well-worth reading in full.  Tharoor is a centrist Indian and can be said to articulate the Congress Party’s position on this topic. 

Civilizational State vs. Nation-State

Google defines “Civilizational state” as one that “defines itself and its identity based on a unique and encompassing civilization, rather than solely on shared ethnicity, language or governance”. Google goes on to note that “ the differing worldviews and values associated with civilizational states could potentially lead to tensions and conflicts with other nations or blocs”. In India’s case, defining itself as a “civilizational state” certainly leads to tensions with Pakistan (and perhaps to a growing extent with Bangladesh).

I believe that this “civilizational state” conception is a belief of the Hindu Right. I agree with the Indian left that the Republic of India is a nation-state that was created on August 15, 1947–exactly at the same moment that Pakistan was created. British India was not a nation-state but a colony. Upon decolonization, parts of the colony went their own way. Continue reading On “Civilization States” vs. Nation-States

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