sharan
695 posts
Chatgpt? 😜
Sagarika Ghose@sagarikaghose
‘Brave.’ In an age of noise and fear, a beautiful and moving poem penned by @MamataOfficial a leader who has exemplified courage and integrity through her long years of public service. Be brave. Smile through the storms. Hold your ground with dignity. The cowards will have no place in history, the strong will endure forever. Written today, May 12th.
English
@thekaipullai But it’s not as if Northies need a work visa to access those jobs in the south. India is one unit
English
South India is more industrialized, people have more jobs, people are a lot more entrepreneurial and have enough avenues to make a living. Unlike many places in North where the only job you have is a govt job
Pratham khanna@Portfolio_Bull
South India is called “more educated” than North India. Then why more IAS officers come from North India ? According to data, IAS Officers by state: UP → 571 MP → 391 Maharashtra → 359 Tamil Nadu → 343 Bihar → 303 Karnataka → 273 Rajasthan → 268 Kerala → 173 But when you see per 1 crore population: Tamil Nadu → 42 Kerala → 42 Telangana → 40 Andhra Pradesh → 40 Bihar → 31 UP → 29 MP → 13 Conclusion: North India has huge population, so total numbers look bigger.
English
@omarali50 And leftist portals like The Wire published articles on how toilets are being forcibly imposed on tribal villagers for whom open defecation is a way of life and part of their generational culture 😀 science.thewire.in/health/open-de…
English
BJP did get some things right..
WarMonitor@WarMonitorINTL
Number of People Without Access to Electricity by Country (1990-2025)
English
@omarali50 @Xtreme015 @sabizak There’s this anecdote about Zia visiting his alma mater St. Stephen’s college, Delhi in 1981. He met his history teacher and told him he had rightly given him a bad grade in constitutional history coz constitution was his weak point timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/down-mem…
English
The army generally did not like him.. power is power. They had lost it, he had gained it. They got it back.
There are always conspiracy theories about US role as well (some are probably true, I am not sure about this one.. if some CIA genius did want Bhutto removed then they underestimated Zia, but ofc BOTH were paknationalist.. interestingly I dont think Zia had the same visceral hatred, he was a shrewd guy, well grounded, pakistani nationalist, but more Islamist, so his ideology at least had some deep roots, also he did not have Bhutto's exaggerated opinion of himself and it is my impression (based on very scant anecdotes admittedly, but this was my dad's impression too) that in day to day interactions with common people he was OK; not a hate filled or arrogant man; ofc politically and ideologically at the opposite pole to me, but not a "great man" able to think so highly of himself and so lowly of other people)
English
Imagine the level of intellect that puts ZA Bhutto and Ghalib in the same category. And in the first column instead of Zia that should have been the Pakistani Constitution or the Objectives Resolution.
This whole chart is crazy, really. Ayub Khan, the military dictator, who is probably there for passing the ‘progressive’ Muslim Family Laws Ordinance (put a mild restriction on polygamy {you need the permission of the first wife to marry a second time}), which didn’t even come close to Turkey’s separation of state and religion from 30 years prior under which polygamy was prohibited.
And certainly nothing close to the Hindu Code Bills passed in India that modernised Hinduism by allowing divorce, giving daughters equal inheritance, providing a secular form of law to Hindus that allowed them to marry outside the faith, and this is all on top of the 1950 constitution that had abolished caste hierarchy.
Imagine this guy being some kind of top Pakistani academic with this kind of superficial understanding of what constitutes a progressive Muslim in the subcontinent.
Zubair Faisal Abbasi@zubairabbasi
Those who want to use an intellectual lens to understand the diversity of traditionalist, modern, and liberal thought in South Asian Muslim societies, a good genealogy is given by Akbar S. Ahmed. These categories are not etched on stone, but give a basis for broad generalisation about streams of thought processes #JinnahKaPakistan Vs. #TalibanKaPakistan
English
@omarali50 @BasuAshis @NobelPrize @Rajyasree That menu promotes vegetarianism which can be life threatening. Vegetarian people with heart disease will not accept a pig’s heart as transplant and will choose to die instead 😀
English
@BasuAshis @NobelPrize @Rajyasree I get that liberals hate the current regime, but why is the menu for dinner being compared to the Nobel prize? these are not comparable things :)
English
Two posts today reflect on India’s glorious history and its disgraceful present.
From the @NobelPrize celebrating the 165th anniversary of the birth of Rabindranath Tagore awarded the Nobel Prize as the first non-European, to the menu card for the visiting President of Vietnam
English
@omarali50 What he’s saying is that India existing as one nation state itself is Hindu Zionism, that it should break up along ethnic lines
English
This is the latest fun term in Pakistan.. "Hindu Zionists" (it does not mean they support zionism, though ofc many of them do, it means Hindus wanting a Hindu dominated state (without moving to some new homeland) is "Hindu Zionism". I kid you not :)
Yasser Latif Hamdani@theRealYLH
The whole idea of India (which is even today in population bigger and more diverse than the continent of Africa) as one country is based on Hindu Zionism no matter what lipstick secular Indians want to put on it. How? Ask any Indian secular or not and they will inevitably come down to the argument that Bharat Varsha was mentioned in the Vedas.
English
One of the most intriguing questions of 21st century Indian politics: Would Narendra Modi have become prime minister if Pramod Mahajan’s brother hadn’t murdered him in 2006?
Vinay Sahasrabuddhe@Vinay1011
Tributes to Late Shri Pramod Mahajan, who breathed his last exactly 20 years before on this day; after remarkably leading Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini @rmponweb as its Chairman for 17 long years. Sharing a 2006 pic at the Knowledge Excellence Centre of Prabodhini, at Uttan, Bhainder!
English
@nvedwan @omarali50 They say they don’t believe in two nation theory and that Hindus, Muslims should co-exist but somehow still want Kashmir for Pakistan 😀
English
@omarali50 He is in the same mold as Salman Taseer, another secular Pakistani, who had absolute contempt for India, especially Hindus.
English
YLH likes to see himself as a liberal Pakistani ;)
Yasser Latif Hamdani@theRealYLH
“Amoral irrational society” says the speaker about India. I would have added caste ridden priest ridden society to it as well.
English
Just to be clear, this does not indicate any new respect for hindu tradition.. Initially the valorizarion of buddhism will be accompanied by more intense hinduphobia, because buddhism is currently anti-hindu coded in Desi academia (and mostly East Asian coded for casual observers) but later as India Rises and is able to show more of the world that Buddhism is just another Hindu tradition, albeit currently optimized for export, THEN we will start to shift.. Takes time 😁
English
Go for it.. (one step at a time 😜)
Yasser Latif Hamdani@theRealYLH
Given the immense significance the Gandhara civilisation holds for Pakistan and national and cultural heritage, we must officially celebrate Buddha Purnima. It is true that the total number of Buddhists in Pakistan is only a few thousand but that does not take away from the immense importance this faith has for Pakistan’s pre Islamic history.
English
@omarali50 Being a superior race makes everything easier 😀
Nilanjan Das@NilanjanDasAITC
“BENGALIS are a SUPERIOR RACE!” - @MahuaMoitra
English
Bengali lelis admire the Indian nationalists of yore... That it is the distant past makes it easier 😜
Sarayu Pani@sarayupani
The speed with which the Hindutva propaganda machine has moved Bengali culture from being the intellectual core of Indian nationalism to a periphery to be “civilised” should make every non-Hindi speaking state worry.
English
@ChandhokHursh @omarali50 @randomvichar @Sudarshan_Mlth @mehdirhasan Iranians are racist towards Arabs but Sayyeds enjoy special privileges in Iran
English
@omarali50 @randomvichar @Sudarshan_Mlth @mehdirhasan IMHO Iranians are even racist towards Euros & Arabs 😁 what chance do desis have!
English
Iranian immigrants opposed country cap removal bills every time. Not just that, they ran a viscous, rascist campaign on social media targeting Indians and worked with Durbin to make fun of those demanding that change.
Neda S@NedaSa_
Welcome to the club, my Indian and Chinese friends! Iranians professionals and scholars have been stuck in an indefinite #USCISpause since December—losing jobs, health coverage, and legal stability…. What’s happening to one group today can happen to others tomorrow. it’s part of a larger effort to shut down legal immigration!! We need unity now more than ever.
English
@omarali50 Jihadist aapa complaining about “kind, peace loving Bollywood stars” not appreciating Mughals 😀
Mahwash Ajaz 🇵🇰@mahwashajaz_
@tomtomatoe Our entire reason to train jihadists & the years of fighting in the valley ceases to exist if this is how easy the exit is going to be. I don’t mind a solution ofc if it saves lives, even a single one, but have we just rolled over and played dead?
English
Pakistani intellectuals (and our guide and mentor, Audreyt Aapa) actually believe that any movie against the mughals is some sort of crime against humanity :)
Mahwash Ajaz 🇵🇰@mahwashajaz_
It is so incredibly sad to see otherwise kind, peace-loving Bollywood stars to headline this kinda bizarre revisionist film that once again seems more like a BJP propaganda campaign than ‘art’.
English
@TopLurk @sabizak @Amnabaano It can be a good thing but many Pakistanis claiming IVC are doing it in bad faith, as a reinforcement of two nation theory… what they mean is that only Pakistanis descend from IVC, not Indians
MD Umair Khan@MDUmairKh
You find one public toilet and declare it a "site". Major cities of IVC are in Pakistan. Just like all great civilisation it expanded to other regions including yours. That doesn't make it yours. Just like how Persian empire also expanded to neighbouring regions but its legacy belongs to Iran primarily. Technically, whole world was pagan before Abrahmic religions. Norway was also Pagan, that doesn't mean you Indians are also Vikings just because you follow modern Hinduism. Norway is a constitutional monarchy (a Christian state by identity), but Viking history still belongs to them. Your argument regarding religion and using it as a base to claim someone else's legacy is weak and beyond stupid. Last but not least, IVC's religious beliefs inspired modern Hinduism, not the other way around. So, it predates modern Indian Hinduism too.
English
@sabizak @Amnabaano Sabahat, Pakistan claiming IVC is a good thing precisely because it’s a national story separate from religion. This is something that should be welcome and not criticized.
English
Can the Muslim Egypt of today claim the unislamic Pharaonic history of their country or no?
Sabahat Zakariya@sabizak
Yes, IVC is Pakistan’s birth certificate because woh bhee Islam ke noor se munavvar thay. Perfect grift dhoondh liya hai inhon ne thuray huay Pakistaniyon ko khush karnay ka (read ullu banaanay ka)
English
@omarali50 Wasn’t Hyderabad also supposed to be part of Pakistan as per the original Muslim league plan? I read that Jinnah was more interested in Hyderabad than Kashmir. Bengal also is missing in that abbreviation 😀
English
people get antsy if someone says it was "insufficiently imagined" and then turn around and say "India is just a British imperial creation" ...
Hasnain Mirza@HasnainWizard
The word "t" in Pakistan stands for the Turkic land Tukharistan according to Ch. Rahmat Ali the one who named Pakistan... He also claimed Pakistan to be Turkic in an interview to Khalide Edib Edivar bcs many of its residents including himself being Gujar were from Hunnic stock.
English
@sabizak @omarali50 Something to do with ghazals not being compatible with the current Bollywood scene. That’s why Punjabi music is thriving in India
English
Stream of consciousness tweets attending a ghazal night in my town in New Jersey.
Not being ungrateful. Just the fact that I can attend a ghazal night in my suburban American town is a big deal.
The young singer is decent too, and I applaud her for going down a route that isn’t very popular these days.
But when it comes to ghazals, Indians whose whole repertoire consists of Jagjit Singh and Talat Aziz are only skimming the surface of ghazal singing in the subcontinent. Indian ghazal is such a limited phenomenon. Lack of insight into Pakistan, and the general antagonism towards the country, holds back Indian ghazal singers and enthusiasts from a vast trove in a genre they are already interested in but do not have the wherewithal to truly tap into.
English
@DrAyeshaRay @Gokul_Sahni She’s an Indian journalist 😀
Dr. Ayesha Ray@DrAyeshaRay
Indian journalists survive on connections, name-dropping and internal networks while boasting about spending only one measly semester at a Harvard or a Yale. Ask them to complete 7-8 years in an American PhD program and they will look at you confused, embarrassed, and shocked.
English
@Gokul_Sahni Seriously. Do they even realize how stupid they sound?
English
Pretty strange to be conflating movies with reality.
Nirupama Subramanian@tallstories
Making peace is a bigger challenge than war, and needs a different kind of Durandhar, not the one you get in the fantasy productions of some Bollywood directors, I write for India Forum theindiaforum.in/politics/india… @ramreddy #indiapakistan
English
@omarali50 @gopimaliwal Peace guarantor fee $150 billion for Pak 😀
SyedShabbarZaidi@SShabbarZaidi
Next: Removing of sanctions on Iran; opening of Hormuz; Mossad out from GCC; Rebuilding of Iran with International assistance; Peace agreement between Iran & KSA:Pakistan Guarantor-fee $150 bn; Pakistan/Iran Gas pipeline by 2027. US bases closed 2036; Free Trade zone in Karachi
English
@gopimaliwal Yes, it is an impressive performance, but unfortunately the road to more serious economic development remains a very long one.. These are different games, the real prize is not this, though SS may leverage something here, progress in that domain is a harder slug
English
Imran khan should surrender and join the party .. Seriously, his goose is cooked for now :)
Omer Azhar@OmerAzhar96
The UN couldn't do it. NATO didn't try. China stayed quiet. Pakistan walked into the most dangerous standoff since the Cold War and said: we have a plan. The world is now waiting on the Islamabad Accord. No more questions about Pakistan's relevance. It's going to be blockbuster.
English
@daeroplate_v2 @omarali50 Tharoor 😀
Shashi Tharoor@ShashiTharoor
This is exactly one of the points i have repeatedly made for at least 25 years in favour of a "Presidential" system w/a genuine separation of powers among legislature, executive & judiciary. I am glad to see @JP_LOKSATTA making the same case. Our political system needs reform.
English
all the indian simps who dumped on the parliamentary model in favour of a 'presidential' system are finding out in 4k res what happens when the wrong guy gets too much exec power 😅
none of the 4 top democrats (2 ex potus, 1 ex secy of state) have raised their voice either
English
@dhume @okemohotel “They should be free to adopt it, or not, depending on their preference.” What if sombody living in Tamil Nadu doesn’t wanna adopt Tamil?
English
Let me ignore your apparent inability to argue without being insulting and explain what I actually believe.
For many Indians, neither Hindi nor English is their native tongue, but English is perceived as neutral because it is more or less equally alien for a Bengali, a Tamilian and a Bihari. Hindi, on the other hand, privileges the UP-wallah or the Bihari over the Tamilian, Bengali, Kannadiga and all other non-Hindi speakers.
This does not make me hostile to Hindi. I speak it and enjoy listening to people who speak it well. I also think learning Hindi is an asset for Indians in many walks of life—movies, politics and journalism come to mind. My objection is to efforts to impose Hindi on non-Hindi speakers. They should be free to adopt it, or not, depending on their preference.
English
This is a good argument for Indians to learn Hindi voluntarily. But it downplays several real issues with the Hindi-imposition project:
1. It artificially privileges one linguistic group in the subcontinent over others.
2. Hindi represents a region that is (currently) economically and intellectually backward, especially compared to the South.
3. It is not the language of transnational science or commerce, or the language that most Indian elites reach for by instinct and habit. (Watch a video of Mukesh Ambani talking to his kids.)
4. Some of the most enthusiastic votaries of Hindi are also actively hostile to English, which naturally creates disquiet among many educated Indians across the country.
Śrutaṃ me gopāya@shrutammegopaya
The opposite argument is this It is important for all Indians to have a common “Indian” language as lingua Franca English cannot be that language though it can serve as a secondary lingua franca Among all the Indian languages Hindi is best placed to serve as lingua franca for a variety of reasons 1. It is widely comprehended by a majority of indians (even without “imposition”) 2. It is the only prakrit that has transcended a regional identity thanks to its spread as hindavi through medieval empires serving as medium 3. It represents everything that sanskrit has to offer in terms of intellectual / technical vocabulary while being easier to learn than sanskrit with a far simpler grammar / fewer cases etc 4. It has had a lot of work put into it in 19th and 20th centuries and has proved adaptable and resilient in the face of modernity unlike some of the more ancient southern languages that have regressed and turned more conservative (like tamil) 5. It is a v elegant language that is least diglossic among all indian languages. Resembles english in that respect
English