The 100th Brownpundits Browncast


The 100th Browncast! Razib and Mukunda talk to Pushpita Prasad and Sudha Jagannathan of the Coalition of the Hindus of North America to talk about where we stand on the “caste question” in the US today. There are lots of different opinions here between the four guests, and platform of Dalits and Bahujan.

Also submitted for your approval, (1) Who is behind the caste legislations in North America? A peek into their track record – YouTube. The UCSD Ethnic Studies link about hiring only Dalits and Muslims: Commentaries (ucsd.edu)

Obituary: Brigadier Malik Mohammed Aslam, 1938-2023

Brigadier Malik Mohammed Aslam was born in August 1938 in the village of Choi in the Salt Range (Northern Punjab). He passed away after a long and eventful life on June 30 2023. I wanted to write a few words for a couple of different reasons: one, he was my father’s closest friend and one of the most extraordinary human beings I have ever met; but second (and perhaps more important for the historical record) he played an important role in the defense of Lahore in 1965 and yet this role is not recorded anywhere. I wanted to correct that oversight.

Brigadier Aslam attended Military school Sarai Alamgir and passed out from PMA with the 17th long course with the Norman Medal and other honors. He was commissioned in the artillery and was serving in Lahore in 1965 as a young captain. In August 1965 Pakistan had sent armed raiders into Kashmir (operation Gibraltar) to spark an uprising there. That operation failed miserably and instead the Indian army captured Haji Pir pass and threatened Neelam valley and Muzaffarabad, so the Pakistan army invaded Chamb (operation Grand Slam) to relieve pressure and perhaps get a breakthrough from that direction. While all this was going on in Kashmir, the high command in Pakistan remained confident that India will not expand the war to any other theater (this moronic confidence came about because Bhutto and friends had sold the Gibraltar idea to Ayub (who was a bit of a coward) with the assurance that India will never dare to extend the war to the “regular border” and it will remain confined to Kashmir). Indian PM Shastri was thought to be a weakling and Indian performance in Rann of Katch had been unimpressive, so the army high command bought this dumb idea. But on the night of 5-6th September the Indian army launched an attack on Lahore and the Pakistani army was caught off guard. The local GOC had started moving some troops forward, but most of the troops were still in Lahore cantonment when the Indians attacked. Captain Aslam, commanding a field battery, was woken up by the sound of gunfire. He tried to call his superiors to find out what was going on but nobody in corps HQ in Lahore had any orders for him and he was told to wait till they got in touch with superior officers. On his own initiative and without wasting any further time, Captain Aslam opened fire with all guns and was the first and only artillery battery to do so. This fact can be confirmed with other participants in that night’s events. He kept firing for the next 17 days and two of his barrels melted in the process. Several small and large decisions that night helped to save Lahore, but this was definitely one of them. (though to be fair if the Indian army had been better led, they could have taken Lahore that morning; that they failed is also due to the incompetence and cowardice of their commanding officer, general Niranjan Prasad (whom Harbaksh Singh wanted court martialed for cowardice). Continue reading Obituary: Brigadier Malik Mohammed Aslam, 1938-2023

Ertugrul is badass


I watched a few episodes of Ertugrul and it’s pretty good. I would prefer less of a Marvel-comics style character…Ertugrul and his alps basically are just killing machines who never get injured while taking down dozens of Christian knights. But it is good for what it intends to be, a dramatic rendering of the origins of the Ottoman mythology.

What’s the Indian equivalent? I assume a Shijavi TV series, but is there something with good production values?

Vivek Ramaswamy and Hinduism

Vivek Ramaswamy Leans Into His Hindu Faith to Court Christian Voters:

Swami Vivekananda, who represented Hinduism at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago in 1893, took pains to depict his faith as monotheistic, in contrast to the stereotypes of its followers as “heathen” polytheists. Although the faith has many deities, they are generally subordinate to one ultimate “reality.” Many Hindus and scholars say its theology is too complex to be described as either wholly monotheistic or wholly polytheistic.

“The polytheism hurdle is the first thing that has to be addressed” for many American Christian audiences, Mr. Altman said. He sees Mr. Ramaswamy’s pitch against “wokeism” as a way to counter stereotypes associating Hinduism with hippies, yoga and vegetarianism.

Book Review: Grand Delusion; the Rise and Fall of American Ambition in the Middle East

From Dr Hamid Hussain

Book Review

Steven Simon.  Grand Delusion: The Rise and Fall of American Ambition in the Middle East (New York: Penguin Press), 2023.

“Grand Delusion” by Steven Simon provides a timely analysis of the dynamics that shaped American foreign policy in the post-Cold War era in the Middle East.

The major theme of “Grand Delusion” revolves around the notion that American policymakers suffered from a persistent delusion that military force alone can bring about sustainable change and security in the complex web of Middle Eastern conflicts.

In the last five decades, American involvement in the region revolved around many areas considered vital for American national security interests.  In the early phase, containment of Soviet Union was major area of concern.  The U.S. sought to prevent the spread of communism and Soviet influence in the region, leading to increased military and economic aid to countries perceived as strategically important allies, such as Turkey and Iran. Continue reading Book Review: Grand Delusion; the Rise and Fall of American Ambition in the Middle East

Podcast: A “Frank” conversation about modern Indian politics

Another Browncast is up. You can listen on Libsyn, Apple, Spotify, and Stitcher (and a variety of other platforms). Probably the easiest way to keep up the podcast since we don’t have a regular schedule is to subscribe to one of the links above!

In this episode Akshar and I talk to “Frank”, an Indian financial professional with an interest in Indian history and politics. We discuss everything from Nehruvian India to Modinomics, Hindutva and whether a boom is coming…

Frank tweets on twitter as @frankisalegend1 

People of lower castes have bad personalities

Making the Elite: Top Jobs, Disparities, and Solutions:

How do socioeconomically unequal screening practices impact access to elite firms and what policies might reduce inequality? Using personnel data from elite U.S. and European multinational corporations recruiting from an elite Indian college, I show that caste disparities in hiring do not arise in many job search stages, including: applications, application reading, written aptitude tests, large group debates that assess socio-emotional skills, and job choices. Rather, disparities arise in the final round, comprising non-technical personal interviews that screen on family background, neighborhood, and “cultural fit.” These characteristics are plausibly weakly correlated with productivity (at the interview round) but strongly correlated with caste. Employer willingness to pay for an advantaged caste is as large as that for a full standard deviation increase in college GPA. A hiring subsidy that eliminates the caste penalty would be more cost-effective in diversifying elite hiring than equalizing the caste distribution of pre-college test scores or enforcing hiring quotas.

No big surprise.

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