India

The Republic of India (Hindi: भारत गणराज्य Bhārat Gaṇarājya) is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world.

Home to the Indus Valley Civilization and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Four major world religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism originated there, while Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam arrived in the first millennium CE and shaped the region's diverse culture.

Gradually annexed by the British East India Company from the early eighteenth century and colonised by the United Kingdom from the mid-nineteenth century, India became an independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by widespread nonviolent resistance. However, at the same time, Muslim-majority areas were partitioned to form a separate state of East and West Pakistan. In 1971 a civil war resulted in East Pakistan becoming the independant nation of Bangladesh.

India is a republic consisting of 28 states and seven union territories with a parliamentary system of democracy.

Literary Comment
In the bulk of Harry Turtledove's works, the POD is prior to the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan. For the purposes of this article, unless otherwise noted, "India" refers to the entire sub-continent.

India in After the Downfall
In looking for historical precedents to help him make sense of the strange world in which he found himself, Hasso Pemsel considered among others also the centuries-old British rule in India. This provided him with a example of a power which suceeded in an enterprise of imperial conquest and made it stick. Therefore, this example made Pemsel more inclined to throw his lot with the Lenelli and help their own war of conquest. Being taken out of Earth in April 1945, Pemsel had no way of knowing that the British would be forced to give up their rule over India a few years later.

India in Atlantis
France controlled part of India until it was defeated by Britain in the mid 18th century. The whole of India passed into British hands.

India in Curious Notions
India was a restive part of the world. Colonial troops resorted to machine gunning to put down a rebellion the late 21st century. Paul Gomes, a denizen of a different timeline, was chilled by an article in the San Franciso Chronicle which assured the readers that "only 3 white people" had been injured.

Literary Comment
It was not specified if India had become an outright German colony, or remained part of a British Empire totally subservient to the Kaiser's Germany.

India in The Disunited States of America
India was considered one of the world's great powers.

India in Gunpowder Empire
India was divided between two rival empires, both possessing gunpowder and cannons - evenly matched and able to hold their own in occasional wars with each other and with Persia to the west and China to the east. The two empires had some minor contacts with the Roman Empire further west.

India in In High Places
India was a critical trading hub in an alternate where the Great Black Deaths decimated 4/5 of the population of Europe.

India in Days of Infamy
When the Japanese entered the Second World War, India came under attack when the Japanese army invaded Burma. The Army of India was defeated and forced back into India it's self, while the Japanese Navy forced the Royal Navy all the way back to Africa.

When the Japanese conquest of the Pacific was complete, Ceylon was subjected to numerous air raids. Footage of these raids were shown at the movies in occupied Hawaii.

After the Battle of El Alamein, The British were able to retake the offensive in India, bombing Rangoon.

India in In the Presence of Mine Enemies
India was taken over by the Greater German Reich following Germany's defeat of Britain early in World War II. India, which had had a pro-Axis anti-British collaborationist government known as Free India, became a member state of the Germanic Empire and was administrated by the Colonial Ministry.

Indians were declared Aryans by the Institute for Racial Studies, avoiding the persecution suffered by other conquered races. Indians were invited to study at German universities.

As of 2010, India was the location of most of the Reich's tea plantations.

India in Southern Victory
India was the jewel in the crown of the British Empire during the 19th and 20th century. After the Great War, Britain's strength was greatly diminished, however their position in India was still strong.

In 1943, India came under threat when England's former ally Japan turned against them, and conquered the colonies of Malaya, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Many in the US believed if the Japanese did go after India, the British would be able to give them a difficult time in doing so.

Instead, Japan turned its attention to territory belonging to another former ally, Russian Siberia in 1945, leaving India be for the moment.

India in The Last Article
India was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1947, after a period of fierce guerilla fighting led by British hold-outs. (Britain itself had fallen in 1941.) Mohandas Gandhi continued to employ techniques of Satyagraha against the occupation forces led by Field Marshall Walther Model. While the techniques may have worked well against the British, the Germans responded with violence. Despite Jawaharlal Nehru's urging that Gandhi to change tactics, Gandhi could not comprehend the horrific violence the Nazis were willing to employ, and refused. He was finally arrested and summarily executed by Model.

India in The Two Georges
India was the British Empire's most important holding next to the North American Union.

India's Princely States, in which native Indian rulers enjoyed considerable autonomy and controlled large territories - though under a clear ultimate British control - served as a model for giving a similar status to some of the Native nations in the North American Union, such as The Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy.

Ethiopia in Africa was a British possesion subject to British India rather than directly to London.

India in The War That Came Early
India became crucial to the British efforts against Japan during the Pacific conflict that began in early 1941. Arms and supplies were shipped from India to the China province of Yunnan throughout the summer of 1941. While it was a relatively small amount, it was enough to supply anti-Japanese forces in the province.

Unit 113, a bacteriological lab located in Burma, was able to release cholera baccilli and rodents into Yunnan, which helped disrupt the rebels. Unit 113's comandant, Major Hataba, flushed with success, proposed a similar attack on India proper. However, that scheme was vetoed by the Japanese military, which realized that such an attack could have dire consequences if the British deduced what had happened.

India in Worldwar
India had been a British colony for some time at the outset of World War II. When the Race's Conquest Fleet landed in 1942, it invaded India. Indians were divided on the question of whether to oppose the Race's invasion or use it as an opportunity to expel the British, as oppressed people across the world were doing with other governments.

A news broadcast which Sam Yeager heard at that time refered to Mohandas Gandhi organizing a non-violent resistance campaign in India, but - due to imperfect communucations - it was not clear if this was against the British, against the Race, or both.

The Race ultimately drove the British out and claimed India as one of its Tosevite colonies. The claim was recognized by Britain and other major Tosevite not-empires under the Peace of Cairo.

During and after the war against the Conquest Fleet, Indians frequently revolted against the Race's rule. The unrest rose in frequency after 1962, when new crops and animals introduced by Lizard colonists caused famine throughout northern India. Indeed, India was one of the most restive Race colonies on all of Tosev 3. Nonetheless, Indians, whose religious traditions were diverse and complex, accepted the Race's cult of emperor-worship when Atvar introduced it to Tosev 3 in 1965.

The Indian flag hung in the Emperor's throne room in Preffilo along with the flags of other Tosevite empires and not-empires conquered by Atvar, the pre-Race empires of Rabotev 2 and Halless 1, and the ancient empires on Home which were absorbed by the Ssumaz dynasty.