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Typo expert*

[Blank @LiberteEquality]

@krishashok Wait, are we really saying that it is for moral reasons that people in India don't eat "non-veg"

[Blank @LiberteEquality]

@RishiSunak @thetimes I guess that's the kind of astute analysis that propels one to the upper echelons of political power

[Blank @LiberteEquality]

It seems to me that society did not become hierarchical during imperialism, but was already so and hence adapted easily into the imperial age...

[Nirupama Menon Rao 🇮🇳 @NMenonRao]

I was reflecting on the contrasts with China that the sorry, shabby Loomer episode illustrates.

The contrast I refer to is not about openness versus control. It is about attitudes toward hierarchy and self-respect in public life.

What Kissinger noticed in 1971 about India was was a tendency toward obsequiousness when confronted with Western power or proximity to it. That instinct has deep historical roots. The word “khushamd” in Persian and Urdu literally means flattery offered to please someone in authority. In everyday usage it shades into something darker: ingratiation, calculated praise, the art of pleasing those above you in the hierarchy. British administrators in colonial India became fascinated by the term because they believed it captured a social habit they encountered repeatedly in courtrooms, durbars, and bureaucratic dealings.

For two centuries the subcontinent lived under imperial structures in which advancement often depended on pleasing those above you in the hierarchy. The habits of speech that develop in such systems do not disappear overnight.

In a rigid hierarchy where power flows sharply from the top, people learn quickly that bluntness is risky. Survival and advancement depend on reading the moods of authority. Language becomes lubricated with praise because praise reduces friction. Over time this produces a political culture where deference becomes a technique.

China travelled through a very different historical arc.For most of its long imperial history China regarded itself as the civilisational centre. Foreign envoys were received within a carefully staged hierarchy in which the emperor’s court defined the terms of interaction. Visitors were expected to show deference to China, not the other way around. Even when China weakened in the nineteenth century, that cultural memory did not vanish. It remained embedded in the political reflexes of the state.

This difference becomes visible when modern outsiders arrive carrying the aura of Western political celebrity. In India the reception often slips, almost unconsciously, into a familiar pattern: excessive politeness, warm praise, eager listening, and visible admiration. Panels become stages of affirmation rather than interrogation. The visitor is not merely hosted; they are subtly elevated.
China almost never allows this dynamic to emerge.

Chinese officials may be courteous but the tone is controlled and emotionally neutral. Praise is sparse. Questions are disciplined. The visitor’s importance is carefully calibrated so that it never exceeds the authority of the host institution or the state itself. Even globally powerful figures encounter this restraint.

One can see it in how Chinese leaders treat Western visitors. They rarely flatter. They do not perform admiration. They project calm authority and expect the guest to adjust to that frame.
In other words, status flows inward toward the state, not outward toward the visitor.

In India the flow often reverses. The visitor’s celebrity radiates outward, shaping the atmosphere of the encounter. A social media provocateur can suddenly appear larger than the forum that invited them.

This is what gives the Loomer episode its uncomfortable undertone. The issue is not free speech or the right to host controversial figures. Democracies must live with those realities.

The issue is the tone of reception.
When a platform meant for national conversation begins to resemble a stage on which outsiders are indulged and admired, the imbalance becomes visible. It is the same imbalance that Kissinger detected decades ago when he described Indians as masters of flattery.

China’s instinct would have been the opposite. A confident civilisation listens, questions, and reminds the guest that they soeak on someone else’s stage.

#IndiaTodayConclave
#Khushamdi
#PoliticalCulture
#IndiaUSRelations
#CivilisationalConfidence
#SoftPower
#IndiaChina

[Blank @LiberteEquality]

@SADAN_Canada @cjangam Congratulations professor 💙

[Gary Pike 🇺🇦🇮🇳 @PikeWala]

100 years ago, #AldousHuxley wittily rebuked Brahmans (Sanskrit scholars) disgusting habit of appropriating all scientific invention as Vedic by writing pseudo-historical literature
"They knew everything that we know but were unfortunately too modest to state the fact baldly
1/2

[Anoop Kumar @Anoopkheri]

Witnessed something truly amazing! :)

On 3rd Oct, local community came together to celebrate Nalanda alumnus Rahul's journey frm Ratangarh (Churu, Rajasthan) to the UK, sharing joy and happiness of the son of municipal sanitation worker parents leaving to UK for his higher edu.

[srikakulamlo siima kondaki @kuffir]

~ The Bhima Koregaon monument has emerged as a symbol of the marginalized. For the student of history, Bhima Koregaon is a site that lets one be awed by the determination to memorialize in the face of subtle to brute resistance from the ruling classes.

[srikakulamlo siima kondaki @kuffir]

Several funny arguments clog the ‘national’ discourse whenever the issue of imposition of Hindi comes up; many of them founded more on some popular myths than facts. Consider the following myths:

[srikakulamlo siima kondaki @kuffir]

We need to discuss, who stole our lands?
The caste census says, in brahmin india – from east to west, north to south- there are nearly 6.86 crore landless households. of these, nearly 1.81 crore are SC households, and nearly 70 lakh are ST households.

[Education For deprived children @helpdeprived]

Hello, If you know any such child of poor,Dalit tribal society in Vidisha,Raisen,Dewas,Sehore of Madhyapradesh who want to study but unable to study due to any reason. So please DM us, We will try to provide them necessary educational material & guidance.

Pls RT For visibility🔁

[Blank @LiberteEquality]

I can't even...

[Happy Singh @HappySi79054951]

CULT OF POLITICAL HANUMAN & FIERCE POLITICAL BATTLE FOR MADHYA PRADESH

Pushing of "Bageshwar Dham Sarkar" an artificially propagated political project of BJP hits serious road block as rogue goonda brother of small time Brahmin priest in MP torments poor Jatav Dalit family.

[Blank @LiberteEquality]

An unequal "country" for sure. And unless this "country" can become self aware enough to understand what causes and drives this inequality, it might as well do away with the fiction of pretending to be one "country"

[Shalin Maria Lawrence @TheBluePen25]

Thread
Caste atrocity Tamilnadu .

Caste leader Muthuramalingam 's birthday banner was put just opposite Babasaheb's statue at Anthoniyarpuram ,a #Dalit colony in Thoothukudi in TN during his birth anniversary celebration. After few weeks the banner was torn . The

[The Dalit Voice @ambedkariteIND]

A very terrible accident happened in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, the temple's Pandit Rajesh Jain took a Dalit child hostage, then brutally beat him up. FIR has been registered under the SC ST Act against Pandit but till now he has not been arrested.
#Brahminism

[CharanTeja @CharanT16]

Ailamma is one of the many oppressed caste women who fought agnst the dominant caste brutes like Vsnr Ramchandra Reddys & doras during the #Nizam era in #Telangana. Isn't it ironic that the legacy of the oppressed is being appropriated by oppressors https://t.co/tmwW7C3CTT

[Blank @LiberteEquality]

https://t.co/tj33mI0KR1

#IndiaAt75

[Equality Labs @EqualityLabs]

In 2020 @Apple & @IBM added caste as a protected category after the @Cisco discrimination case.

More big tech companies need to recognize the importance of this & make training mandatory for management as US discrimination laws do not protect workers.

#CasteEquity

[Ambedkar International Center (AIC) @ambedkar_center]

"In ‘47, we heard freedom was fought for, hard-earned, won. Ours was still at a bargain, with a republic, whose zeal to be the ‘world’s largest, brightest, newest’ couldn’t conceal the chains of caste they never considered breaking."

Read @YashicaDutt's piece for @PENamerica.

[P. @eeleeaanoor]

Babasaheb gave us the wings to fly

[Blank @LiberteEquality]

https://t.co/5NRsqCHzR1