Wizard of Oz

[Satish Verma @satoverma]

Contrary to Faruqi's pathetic attempt of rationalizing Jizya as a tax on wealthy non-Muslims, the rate of Jizya imposed hit the poor hardest who had to pay ~6% while the richest had to pay only 0.48% or less. Simultaneously, he was spending recklessly on Muslim religious grants.

[Bengali Hindu @SukritBanerjee]

Just read the interview, and give me a better example of communal gaslighting than this. Hindus are supposed to be at peace with a historiography which sees Aurangzeb's anti Hindu acts and policies from a 'nuanced' perspective, perceiving those as acts of 'pragmatic politics',

[Potatoman, oneday celebrator @batatalal]

Poor baby imposed a discriminatory hated tax because he just had to, you see.

[Sturgeon's Law @Sturgeons_Law]

@quiveringpudle Whatever Islam itself codified, Islamic states and institutions objectively oversaw one of the largest and longest-lasting slave trades in human history.

[Chairman @LRH_Superfan]

He's going to declare himself khalif in addition to being the head of the Church of England

[चेदिराड्रिपुपार्षदः 🟩⬜️⬛️ @Saatvata]

I apologize to Akhil Kumar Sahoo.
He is NOT the craziest Indian on this site.

[yoshimi battles video game addiction @nise_yoshimi]

the USSR as a single flimsy piece of tape preventing the end of the world is what really makes this metaphor shine

[Pranesh Prakash @pranesh]

So in Colombia, 30% believe there's a heaven one can go to in the afterlife, while also believing that there's no such thing as hell.

[Potatoman, oneday celebrator @batatalal]

DMK reaches GMU.

[Milo📕🔻 @RedGuard_Milo]

Imagine being a Somali fascist and your ultimate political goal is to be colonized by Italy again.

[चेदिराड्रिपुपार्षदः 🟩⬜️⬛️ @Saatvata]

Do you as a feminist agree with Karṇa's justification for disrobing Draupadī?

[Pranesh Prakash @pranesh]

@Sushubh I mentioned it in my article in The Hindu on Pegasus.

https://t.co/fRfCf4xFRN

[Pranesh Prakash @pranesh]

#Karnataka #CCTV

Absent a strictly enforced law for when CCTV (or Fastag, or Metro Card, phone location, etc.) data can be accessed, and by whom and for what purposes, etc, we get lawless #surveillance.

A cop could be tracking women he fancies and there would be no safeguards.

[चेदिराड्रिपुपार्षदः 🟩⬜️⬛️ @Saatvata]

On a related note, the DOAM and Taxila Institute in Pakistan do not have a sufficient workforce of epigraphists with required specialization, so they tend to rely on Western scholars from Leiden's Kern Institute, University of London's SOAS, Heidelberg University in Germany, etc. to do the relevant fieldwork and translate the inscriptions, etc. for them.
The last major Pakistani Indologist was Ahmad Hasan Dani.
He was a pre-partition graduate from Banaras Hindu University who was trained by R.C. Majumdar and his fluency in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Indian epigraphy enabled him to decipher the inscriptions in the famous Chilas Petroglyphs.
In contrast, the Archaeological Survey of India has a massive, dedicated Epigraphy Branch (headquartered in Mysore) with distinct sections for Sanskrit and Dravidian inscriptions.
Sri Lanka has scholars like Dr. Saddhamangala Karunaratne, Prof. Karunasena Hettiarachchi, etc. and even Bangladesh has scholars like AKM Shahnawaz of Jahangirnagar University and a dedicated team for copper plate inscriptions.
I can't recall a single major Pakistani epigrapher in the last decade.

[Larry Sanger @lsanger]

404media did me dirty, so I corrected them.

•“mostly meaning more right-leaning perspectives”: “Intellectual diversity” is simply pluralism by another name, a classical liberal ideal supported by both left and right until very recently. Support for WPID does not come from American conservatives alone. It also comes from Hindus, who find their positions on national issues poorly represented, and from traditional or so-called “confessional” Christians, who are sometimes liberals or progressives, like many Catholics. We do not restrict our membership to the union of a bunch of interest groups. We are (or, were) one interest group: those who care about intellectual diversity on Wikipedia.
•“Sanger invited his 91,000 followers on X to influence that discussion”: I did not invite anyone to influence the application or even support it. The tweet said “Lots opposed. Also lots in favor.” That is a neutral update, not a call to action.
•“try to start a right-wing/conservative pressure group”: WPID would not properly be called a “pressure group,” nor would it be specifically allied with conservatives. It is a strongly liberal value to support the full representation of unpopular views; this is not particularly conservative. The article quotes one hostile editor’s characterization as though it were established fact. It isn’t.
•“alleging they’re being funded by shadow money”:  it’s bizarre if I’m being accused of something wrong here. Wikipedia itself has wrung its hands about “paid editing” for years. It’s a bannable offense when I bemoan the same thing?
•“Larry tried to frame the community discussion as a pseudo-legalistic process, bringing a list of ‘charges’ and ‘counts’ from ‘prosecutors’”: Since there was no designated prosecutor who had indicted me, I had to reconstruct the charges against me myself. Since there was no one person making the case against me, but many self-selected “prosecutors,” I had to consider the words of everyone testifying. That is not “pseudo-legalistic,” it is what anyone must do when no one tells you what you are accused of. Due process is a very important right for any disciplinary process. Wake up, Wikipedians!
•“Sanger was banned at some point before that deadline”: I was banned before the required 72-hour discussion period had elapsed. This is a violation of their own procedural rules and supports exactly the point I have been making about due process.
•“He was then briefly unbanned, and then again indefinitely banned” : The fact that I was banned, unbanned, and banned again demonstrates the instability and arbitrariness of the process. This is not how a serious institution exercises authority over its members.
•“Wikipedia editors obviously reject that framing”: “Obviously” is the journalist editorializing in Wikipedia’s favor rather than reporting neutrally. In this case I think it’s obvious that both the Wikipedia editors and the journalist are wrong to countenance the results of chaotic “justice” by a faceless blob. 

@404mediaco

https://t.co/Pf9pcXo4DL

[चेदिराड्रिपुपार्षदः 🟩⬜️⬛️ @Saatvata]

It would be more accurate to say Tibetan script and *literature*, not language.
Despite considerable influence from India and Nepal, Classical Tibetan actually has fewer Sanskrit loans than Old Khmer, Old Javanese, Classical Malay, Thai, etc. due to the use of calques.
The Mahāvyutpatti enabled the Tibetans to calque Sanskrit philosophical terms and compounds using entirely Tibetan words.
Buddha was rendered as "saṅs-rgyas," Avalokiteśvara was rendered as "spyan-ras-gzigs," etc.

[batirus @gangescaliph]

This is like the muslim version of crusader and tradcath larping

[Sturgeon's Law @Sturgeons_Law]

It's not a "sect" of Hinduism. It's a new age cult called the Science of Identity Foundation led by a white guy who wasn't certified by any Hindu guru, rejects many Hindu beliefs & claims he communes directly with God. This is to Hinduism what the Moonies are to Christianity.

[Manoj Khan @prksh2411]

Apparently, some rules in traditional Sanskrit grammar happen not to be instanced in Sanskrit texts, but are in Pali texts!

[चेदिराड्रिपुपार्षदः 🟩⬜️⬛️ @Saatvata]

Examples of VEDIC names (attested in the Vedas):
• Nirṛti (mó ṣú ṇaḥ párāparā Nírṛtir durháṇā vadhīt)
• Jyeṣṭhā/Alakṣmī (Jyeṣṭhā́m Alakṣmī́ṃ nāśayāmy áham)
• Arāyī (Árāyi! kā́ṇe! víkaṭe! giríṃ gaccha, sadānve!)
• Grāhi (e.g. sá Grā́hyāḥ pāśān mā́ moci; Grā́hir jagrā́ha yádi vaitád enáṃ, tásyā Indrāgnī prá mumuktam enam)
• Apvā (e.g. amī́ṣāṃ cittáṃ pratilobháyantī gṛhāṇā́ṅgāny Apve! párehi)
• Dhruk (áhaṃ tvā́ṃ kṣetriyā́n Nírṛtyā jāmi-śaṃsā́d Druhó muñcāmi Váruṇasya pā́śāt)
• Kṛtyā (táṃ Kṛtye! 'bhinívartasva, mā́smā́n iccho anāgásaḥ)

Sample of HINDU names not attested in Vedic corpus:

Mandodarī
Citralekhā
Vasantasenā
Vāsavadattā
Cārumatī
Madhulikā
Nīlāñjanā
Mālavikā
Sāgarikā
Mālatī
Madanikā
Taralikā
Draupadī
Priyaṃvadā
Jyotsnikā
Pramadvarā
Kumudvatī
Satyavatī
Mṛṇālinī
Kanakalekhā

No one would name their daughter Nirṛti or Alakṣmī simply because they are attested as proper names in the Vedas. 😂