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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 3, 2023

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I have observed that most Hindu Indian diaspora folks are non-practicing and do not have any serious engagement with their cultural traditions or philosophy. At best they may dress up for Diwali and often not even that. A good chunk of Urban India also belongs to this category.

I am also pretty much the same, the modern deracinated Indian, so I am not trying to throw shade or anything. Given this cultural upbringing, I do not think Sunak, Patel or Braverman's policy positions have any religious basis.

It is possible that this is just coincidence, but you're not wrong in saying that Indians (but not progressive Indian diaspora) are more likely to be critical when Pakistan is involved. India already gets a horrible rap in the media especially on gender issues and more recently on Caste and Nationalism. Indians are extremely wary of facing further backlash due to the depredations of the Pakistanis being conflated with Indians since they're all "South Asian". For example, I saw a post on reddit speaking about the British Grooming gang issue as a problem the "South Asian" community needs to face. Many Indians do not see Pakistanis as their community, especially if they are Hindu.

The animus between the average Indian and Pakistani is as real as the animus between Ukraine and Russia. Shared blood or similarities in culture only makes the wound deeper rather than "superficial" as many Westerners and progressive diaspora like to claim.

The Indian commentariat also feels there is an increasing tendency of Progressive media to lump negative coverage of Pakistani mainland or diaspora with South Asia. This is perceived by Indians as an insincere attempt to wash away the ills of Pakistan as South Asian since any positive coverage is happily proclaimed as Pakistani


| Origin   | +ve coverage | -ve coverage |

| Pakistan | Pakistani    | South Asian  |

| India    | South Asian  | Indian       |

Forgive the horrible formatting but, I can't seem to get the markdown tables right.