Ashtigris Profile picture
Sep 18, 2020 8 tweets 2 min read Read on X
From your Brown Pundits reputation, @razibkhan , I expected lot more nuance but this is very disappointing.

You only made a passing reference to massive reverse discrimination against the UC. And you didn't mention the rapid social progress in India.
On top of denying how Brahmin privilege is systemically absent or has been reversed, you contributed to scapegoating of Brahmins who are a small minority that has been at the receiving end of populist politics in India for decades especially in the South which you focused on.
You focused too much on Rao and her personal circumstances and wealth. You only named Brahmin last names. From the article an unfamiliar reader would get the impression that endogamy and discrimination were exclusive to Brahmins. Isn't this patently untrue?
American society sees the colour of the skin more than anything else, so why wouldn't a Brahmin have the same experience as anyone else from India? With this same experience, why then is it strange for them to fight against discrimination? Btw, aren't there many white liberals?
You seem to be lamenting that UCs are among the leading voices amongst Indians. But you mentioned that some 25% of Indian immigrants are UCs; why then be surprised when there are many of these among leaders? And don't Brahmins have a long history of being reformers in India, too?
You portrayed Brahmins as the landowners, but do you see any evidence today of extraordinary inherited wealth among Brahmins compared to some other castes? Or is there evidence from the past that they were the wealth 1 percenters so to speak?
Given your Bangladeshi and Muslim heritage you should've been more careful than an Indian writing about this simply because you haven't experienced any of this firsthand and probably don't even have family that can speak to their fisrthand experiences.
The article would've been much better had you not focused on Brahmins so harshly and directly. Imagine writing about American Jews this way while mentioning their popular last names!

Very disappointing that you are adding fuel to the fire of #AntiBrahminism

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More from @ATigerhut

Oct 19, 2022
@PankajSaxena84 's review of #Kantara seems to be as epic as the movie itself

While the movie as a solid foundation, Saxena built an awe-inspiring tower on it with deep, original insights articulated expertly.

🙏🏽 to PS ji and to the movie team
It brings tears to my eyes that I'm struggling to process the review because of how far removed my POV is from that of my ancestors

I feel the heavy burden of colonization followed by a thoughtless, misguided system of 'education'
The freedom that we achieved in 1947 seems superficial and we seem to have used this to continue the cultural erasure started by the colonizers but now on own own terms 😑
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Oct 1, 2020
Sept 30 is #OrangeShirtDay in Canada. Many wear an orange shirt to work or school, to remember the 150k indigenous kids who were forcibly enrolled at English residential schools that separated them from their families and culture. Many were also abused. 😔
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What the Canadian indigenous kids suffered was at a whole different level but Indians' should also recognize their own post-colonial trauma, much of it self-inflicted 😔
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Aug 9, 2020
@Isabelwilkerson - in your @nypl interview from Aug 5 you spoke for several minutes about the Hindu caste system as one would expect given the book's title.

You said caste discrimination is sanctioned by religion. Isn't it more a corruption of Manu smriti?
@Isabelwilkerson @nypl When the interviewer asked about inspiration for social reform you made it sound like US has been Hindus' inspiration. But we had reformers before Europeans set foot in N America, eg Annamacharya in S India.
In the several minutes you spent on India, why didn't you think it was important to talk of drastic progress in just a few generations, and the reservations system that is affirmative action on steroids.
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Aug 2, 2020
#Suheldev review

My first #AmishTripathi book. And first time reading a book in this genre.

But I found the writing to be mediocre. The writing had too many anachronistic references like handlebar moustache, cancer, people calling themselves Indians, etc. Image
Grammatically too sometimes what should've been one sentence is split into two. Maybe this is a style of writing but I find it odd.
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#Modi 's presence at #RamMandir bhoomi pooja should be used also as an opportunity to celebrate the nation's respect for the rule of law. The sorry episode of December 6 and subsequent riots should be condemned unequivocally.
#Islamists #Leftists and other #Hinduphobes are already sharpening their pencils to smear and vilify Hindus and India. These bigots should be defanged by the PM through a clear condemnation of the disputed structure's demolition.
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Jul 24, 2020
Oh my god! Calling this article a powerful, insightful, well-researched, must-read is an understatement! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

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"Swatantrata (independence) is incomplete without Swarajya (self-rule), Swarajya is incomplete without Swabhimaan (self-respect)." 🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳
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