#​Sumit

[mei-youmeworld]

Chowon

[metamatar]

there's a great section in beyond caste by sumit guha about how portuguese colonial officials navigated the caste system and its interaction with preexisting racial hierarchies

Albums depicting the typical physiognomy and dress of particular castes or descent groups were compiled in the Spanish Americas well into the eighteenth century. Eighteenth-century Spanish American legislation prohibited intermarriage between high and low-status groups, or what the Sanskrit law books would have called varṇa-saṁkara (mixing of the castes), though it none the less occurred. Thus the Portuguese, who introduced later coming Europeans to Indian society, were evolving a system of ethnic and social stratification by biological ancestry; it was for this reason that they immediately assumed that Indian jātis aimed exclusively at maintaining ‘purity of blood’. The early response was, however, not to attack caste but to reduce most features of it to a concern of civil society, external to the faith (adiaphora). Converts of different castes were thus permitted separate churches. Indeed, Nobili approvingly quoted a Brahman convert who responded to critics who declared that Nobili’s color was testimony to his being a despicable ‘prangui’.

"You reproach the saniassi [Nobili] with being a vile Prangui [Westerner] and cite his color as proof. … by that argument I prove that you are a [Dalit caste-name]. You are black, [Dalits] are black so you are therefore a [Dalit caste-name]. What! Can you not conceive that in another country where all men, brahmans and [Dalits] alike are white, there will be among the whites the same distinction of castes, the same distinction between nobles and commoners? Everyone applauded this reply, which was as substantive as it was spirited."

The logical conclusion of this was of course for Nobili to adopt the guise and habits of a south Indian Brahman in order to gain status and spread his faith. This step gave rise to the long-lasting ‘Malabar rites’ controversy that finally ended with the rejection of Nobili’s strategy. Such mimesis was a reaction to the many-stranded patterns of the Indian system that proved such an annoying obstacle to proselytization. Nobili and like-minded clerics hoped to replace one strand of the knot with submission to their church while leaving much else undisturbed.

[superheroes-or-whatever]

Spider-Man: Black Suit & Blood (2024) #1 art by Sumit Kumar

[theburialofstrawberries]

some nice news from this morning....

[birds-that-screm]

Scarlet Minivet (Pericrocotus speciosus)

© Sumit Majumdar

[wizone-dreams]

hina lightsum moodboard ☆

picture moodboard uploaded on my pinterest: dubudans

[kpop-girlsworld]

LIGHTSUM

[kep1er-kep1ianworld]

Nayoung

[izone-wizoneworld]

Hina

[mightymorphinlawsuit]

*slips comic rec onto your dash and runs away*

These Savage Shores by Ram V and Sumit Kumar is a vampire period piece that takes place in India, just when the East India Company arrives on the Malabar coast.

genuinely one of my favourite vampire stories, let me know if you choose to check it out :)

[mei-youmeworld]

Chowon

[nayru-wisdom]

Here's my new Hikomomo centered fic! ❤️ 🐣🍑

[superheroes-or-whatever]

The Vigil (2023) #1-6 covers by Sumit Kumar

[theburialofstrawberries]

my long form narrative essay on sumit nagal and the dysfunctions of indian tennis governance is out 🥰 happy new year!

[smashpages]

Iron Man #1 (Marvel, October 2024) variant cover by Sumit Kumar

[kpop-girlsworld]

Sumin