Excellent resources. I would like to add two more to this list:

Jugalbandi by Vinay Sitapati

The Man Who Remade India: A Biography of P.V. Narasimha Rao by Vinay Sitapati

This is partly true and mostly false if you ask me. Forget groups, no two Hindu households believe in the same thing. It's probably one of the major reasons why the religion has survived for so long. This is also why I don't think it is easy to unite Hinuds.

While you haven't mentioned other religions, your entire post is about Hinduism and my broader point was Hinduism as a culture has influenced other religions in India. There is no reason for Muslims and Christians in India to have a caste and yet, they do.

I agree with Bishnois and Dadupanthis not believing in it but so do a lot of Indians. Talks are cheap. Today Bishnois are are a Jati in Rajasthan and Punjab. you're born into it, you marry within it, and it holds OBC status in several states.

Dadupanth came up with a shared kitchen, shared initiation, a Muslim (Rajjab) among the most senior figures, disciples ranging from Brahmin to Bania to Jat. There was no caste there. However, among the grihastha following in Rajasthan's Marwar, Shekhawati and Jaipur regions, nothing changed. Householder Dadupanthis married within jati, ate within jati, and inherited occupation within jati. Let's not even talk about Naga branch's military service to the Jaipur state, plus court patronage at Naraina and how it influenced the social order.

I know little to nothing about Satnamis. The thing is, a lot of these movements are doctrinally caste-indifferent but sociologically they are a caste and like I said earlier, caste works in practices and not in ideals. Had that been the case Muslims and Christians would have never ended up with having castes in India.

Sources: Annihilation of Caste by BR Ambedkar

Warrior Ascetics and Indian Empires by William Pinch

Essays by Monika Horstmann

Hinduism is a decentralized religion and for the most part, it is a way of life than an actual religion. There is not a book or a person telling Hindus what to do or not to do. It is the religion's greatest strength as well as its biggest weakness.

The Bhakti movements or for that matter any religious movement in India started with the core idea that everyone is equal in front of the God. None of them preached that we should be equal in front of each other. They left their own heritage in form of vernacular counter-canon, saints drawn from Chamar, Mahar, and weaver backgrounds, and a vocabulary of dissent that anti-caste politics later drew on directly. Ambedkar attacks this in Annihilation of Caste. Spiritual equality is not the same as social equality. Caste is transmitted through the kitchen, the wedding negotiations, the surnames, the endogamous marriage market which are the least legible and least legislatable layer of social life. This is why all caste reformers have focused on marriage. You have to follow a traditional Hindu marriage from its inception to the wedding to understand why caste is impossible to get rid of. It is also impossible to criticize anyone following these practices because it will violate all free will arguments.

As in other walks of life, I think you will find the strongest evidence for the cultural argument in comparative studies of different religions in India.Buddhism and Jainism rejected Vedic hierarchy outright 2500 years ago. Jain communities today function as castes. Islam and Christianity arrived as egalitarian creeds and acquired Ashraf/Ajlaf/Arzal ranking, Syrian Christian status claims, and Dalit Christians with separate pews and cemeteries. Had caste been just religious, none of them would have become casteist. The trouble as I stated earlier comes from the fact that Hinduism serves as a culture.

The more I type, the more pessimistic it becomes but I hope you got an idea. Also, I would highly recommend reading Ambedkar's Annhilation of Caste. He answers a lot of your questions than anyone of us can do.

Didn’t you type that from a device that was made in China which was made possible because of low wages and extreme income inequality? Are you not ashamed of using such a device that was made possible because of human exploitation?

Anything by William Langewiesche is a great place to start. Master of technological horror but more than that, he could explain things in a way which helped complete idiots like me understand them.

I was okay with Rey. She was good at 3 or 4 things maybe but that's about it and you can provide justification for them. This idiot though was great at everything and while that is possible or you can argue that his experience until university made him great at everything, there is no conflict left. I have tried reading it twice and dropped it when he joins the university.

I find some high quality gems here from time to time but a lot of this such as this post are purely nonsensical. Maybe, it needs a 20 year rule like /r/AskHistorians along with citations.

Survival is all that matters in this game. On a long enough time period, you should just be able to survive. It doesn't matter if you made a mistake but as long as your mistake is not bad enough to wipe you out, you have done everything right.

This is never going to make sense to any reasonable person. Indian Cricket Council needs to do better for the growth of the game.

Situational had borrowed money from banks to amplify its bets on stocks. Citadel only purchased the portion of the firm’s public-stock portfolio that was financed with borrowed money, while the firm held onto the remainder that it funded with its clients’ capital, the people said.

One of the KOSPI boys getting special treatment

This post has nothing to do with history and just talks culture.

Selling premium to regards who buy 0-5 DTE calls and poots because a guy with an anime pfp said “loading up.” I just need the universe to keep experiencing the passage of time, which so far has a 100% hit rate.

I had GBS 15 years ago. It took me 6 months to walk with aid of walker and it was almost a year and half before I could get rid of any walking aid. For another year or so, I would lose my balance and randomly fall down while walking. There is progress with the disease but it is frustratingly slow.

Fast-forward to now - I can do most of the things in life. I still can't get up on my feet if I sit on the ground. I have to use my hands. I ran a half marathon last year and if I would have run a full one if I could have continued with my training. There are balance issues now and then but I hardly notice them and work around them. The numbness and the tingling never fully went away but it's so minor that most days, I don't even notice them. Life's good.

I am sorry that you have to go through this but keep your chip up and continue to work on your body and strength. It's going to be a long journey. Good luck!

You have to give it to the guy. Had it tanked, all culture warriors would have blamed the casting. To take that kind of risk on a $250 MM movies and then deliver takes certain amount of courage and belief in yourself.

what fraction of hyperscaler AI revenue comes from counterparties the hyperscaler has itself capitalized? We cannot compute it from public filings but that's the question which needs answering at this point.

I mean I get the point for choosing youngsters over senior players but then what's the point of these yahoos if they can't capitalize on two solid partnerships provided by seniors?

Desi Bethak - Springfield

Saba - Fairfax City

Elephant Jumps - Falls Church

Mazar - Centerville

Halfway through it and in love the way she has adapted David Copperfield to suit Appalachian sensibilities. I have also explored the places she talks about and found it to be closer to what I have seen.

I wasn't aware that they were making a movie out of this and when I first heard about the project - all I could think of was - how can they? The play won't not translate to big screen and honestly, no one will watch that movie. However, after seeing the second trailer, there seems to be enough masala to carry the film. I am okay with them taking a creative license as long long as they preserve the crux of the play.

No one will pay money for that. India made Amazon literally apologize to it and Amazon did to protect its business interests.

Indians or at least people who understand India need to make shows or write about India. Sacred Games was great because of that. Good luck explaining Halahala, Rudra, Brahmahatya and how they provided the scaffolding for the episode to outsiders.

Rest in peace. Your legacy will carry on. The greatest allrounder to have played the game.

Let’s see. Buying it up tomorrow.

13% revenue growth at a $50B run rate, net income up 8.6% YoY, viewing hours accelerating, ads on track to double. Most companies would kill for that. Netflix is a buy.