#indpol

i need people to start caring about trans rights all around the world, not just american. the lok sabha (parliament of india) just passed the transgender amendment bill of 2026 according to which they're removing a person's right to self determination of gender unless they're examined & approved by a medical board. it's hard enough for people here to get a gender defining surgery because of poverty and being shunned by society as is, & now they're taking away their right to exist. the medical boards are bigoted as fuck. despite protests all around the country they passed it. it is so fucking bleak out here.

re. the portuguese and race in india specifically, i think this paper provides a very good high level summary of the history of racialisation (often along caste lines), religion, interracial marriage, class and assimilation (forced and otherwise) in goa - and the ways in which those social processes eventually produced a highly casteist goan elite who sought to assimilate into portugal even more (and were eventually granted pathways to do so, especially post-independence). colonialism rarely plays out as neatly as we imagine it does and very rarely without some level of local complicity or involvement. its good to know this history usually because inevitably, the people who communicate the history of colonialism on popular and large platforms are very often people from families who, well, very much did benefit from colonialism and its spoils in one form or the other & who therefore have a massive blind spot, if not outright vested interest in silence.

being an indian old enough to remember how attitudes were pre-modi era is so scary. my first best friend was a muslim which would not happen if i were to go to school today because of the widespread propaganda against minorities. casteism and caste based violence is rampant in all parts of the country, be it rural or urban. meanwhile, politicians are claiming it is a foreign concept. hindutva is a disease, and i hope every person who voted for modi, or supports whatever is happening in this country in the name of religion rots