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Republic of India
Indiamap
India
Country
Continent: Asia
Capital: New Delhi
National Language: Hindi · English
Government: Federal parliamentary

constitutional republic

Status in OTL: Active

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 on Earth. India is a parliamentary democratic republic consisting of 28 states and seven union territories.

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 18th century and colonized by the United Kingdom from the mid-19th 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 independent nation of Bangladesh.

600px-British Raj Red Ensign

Red Ensign of British India, which is relevant to most Harry Turtledove timelines.

Literary Comment[]

In the bulk of Harry Turtledove's works, the Point of Divergence occurs during the period of the British Raj, which included what is now the Republic of India, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and the People's Republic of Bangladesh, among other states. 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, the centuries-old British rule in India. This provided him with an example of a power which succeeded 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.

India in Atlantis[]

France controlled a large part of India until it was defeated by Britain in a global war the mid 18th century. Britain annexed all but a small remnant of French India.[1]

Indians were treated brutally at the hands of the British to curb the native urge for independence, an argument pro-slavery white Atlanteans would later use to advocate harsh treatment for rebelling slaves.

India in The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump[]

India was one of the more powerful nations in the world, and the birthplace of Powers including the Garuda Bird. The Confederated Provinces' Central Intelligence had determined that the most dangerous potential enemies of the Confederation were, in descending order, Persia, Aztecia, Ukraine, and India.

India in Crosstime Traffic[]

The Indic languages were the primary means of communication in one of the alternates where the Crosstime Traffic company maintained a secret presence. Jeremy Solters knew people who learned certain Indic languages, which were dead in the home timeline, via implants in order to travel to that timeline.[2]

India in Curious Notions[]

In an alternate designated "3477" by Crosstime Traffic, India was a restive part of the world. German colonial troops resorted to machine gunning to put down a rebellion in the late 21st century. Paul Gomes, a denizen of the home timeline, was chilled by an article in the San Francisco Chronicle which assured the readers that "only three white men" had been injured, and none of them seriously.[3]

Literary Comment[]

It is not specified whether India has become an outright German colony, or remains a nominal 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" in the late 21st century, as it was equipped with nuclear weapons.[4]

India in Gunpowder Empire[]

In the alternate known as Agrippan Rome, India was divided between two rival gunpowder empires.[5]

India in In High Places[]

Eight centuries after the Great Black Deaths killed 80% of the population of Europe, India was a critical trading hub for various European and Asian powers.[6]

India in "The Daimon"[]

When Alkibiades gathered the grand alliance of Hellenes and set out to conquer Persia, his vision leaped even further and he anticipated (privately) that his future rule would extend all the way to India.[7]

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 itself, 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 A Different Flesh[]

A number of Indians immigrated to what became the Federated Commonwealths of America in the 18th century to handle hairy elephants, as English people had no native pachyderms from which to draw experience.[8]

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 the Second World War. India was administrated by the Colonial Ministry. As of 2010, India was the site of most of the Reich's tea plantations.[9]

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, where they were taught German culture.[10]

India in "The Last Article"[]

India was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1947, after a period of fierce guerrilla 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 Marshal Walther Model. While the techniques may have worked well against the British, the Germans responded with violence. Despite Jawaharlal Nehru's urging that Gandhi change tactics, Gandhi could not comprehend the horrific violence the Nazis were willing to employ, and refused. He was finally arrested and summarily executed at Model's order.

India in "Last Flight of the Swan of the East"[]

The United Kingdom's neutrality during the Great War extended to India. For example, when the German leviathan seized an American freighter in October, 1914, they released the freighter as it was carrying cotton to India.[11]

India in The Man With the Iron Heart[]

India began a move towards independence from British rule after World War II, and it appeared only war would keep it part of the Empire. However, British resources were also being used to help hold down Germany where the German Freedom Front was staging its own insurgency, and the UK had no desire to fight a war half a world away when Germany was so close.[12]

India in Southern Victory[]

India was the jewel in the crown of the British Empire during the 19th and 20th centuries. 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 Britain's former ally Japan turned against them, and conquered Malaya. 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 Through Darkest Europe[]

The Indian subcontinent was divided into a number of nations. Most Indian people were Muslim.

In the early-to-mid 20th century AD, India was torn by a series of wars. A man named Faruq al-Ghaznavi came to power over most of the subcontinent, and began a systematic massacre of Tamil people, not limiting the killings to those who happened to be enemy combatants. An international coalition joined to overthrow Faruq's regime, and he was executed for crimes against mankind.

By the 21st century, India was a relatively peaceful region. The Sultanate of Delhi was one of the world's great industrial nations.

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 Red Indian nations in the NAU, such as The Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, and the Cherokee Nation in the southeastern part of the Union.[13]

Ethiopia in Africa was a British possession subject to British India rather than directly to London or to British East Africa.[14]

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.[15]

Unit 113, a bacteriological lab located in Burma, was able to release cholera baccilli and rodents infected with bubonic plague into Yunnan, which helped disrupt the rebels.[16] Unit 113's commandant, Major Hataba, flushed with success, proposed a similar attack on India proper.[17] 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.[18]

After the end of the war in Europe, "Bobbity" Cranborne and Ronald Cartland met with Alistair Walsh in London and told him that Britain would have to let go of India. Walsh found the idea shocking, and it made him feel that losing India meant that the sun would at last go down on the British Empire. Cranborne told him that it was inevitable, given that the war had weakened Britain and strengthened nationalism in the Asian colonies; in India, both the Hindus under Gandhi and Nehru and the Muslims under Muhammad Ali Jinnah wanted the British to go. The British were convinced that Hindus and Muslims would likely attack each other once independence was achieved.[19]

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, overrunning all but the western most-half. 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. Mohandas Gandhi organized a non-violent resistance campaign in India against the Race throughout 1942.[20] In 1944, after the British defeat in the Middle East, the Race ultimately defeated the British Forces in the Western portion and drove them out, claiming India as one of its Tosevite colonies. The claim was recognised by Britain and other major Tosevite not-empires under the Peace of Cairo.[21]

In the years after the war, Indians frequently revolted against the Race's rule.[22] The unrest rose in frequency beginning in 1964, when new crops and animals introduced by Lizard colonists caused famine throughout northern India.[23] The ecological damage was something Fleetlord Atvar found to be unavoidable, and didn't know of an answer. One solution was relocating the locals from the affected areas, but this created new problems as some of the locals would refuse to move. In addition, moving them to a currently inhabited area would only provoke more civil strife, and might deny them having food, since there would not be an excessive supply. 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.[24] During the Chinese uprising of that year, the Race hired mercenaries to aid them in their fight. Reports from the front lines indicated that these men were from ether South America or India. Whomever they were, the Chinese could not persuade them to abandon their fight against them.

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.[25]

References[]

  1. Opening Atlantis, p. 427.
  2. Gunpowder Empire, p. 9.
  3. Curious Notions, pg. 43, tpb.
  4. The Disunited States of America, pg. 142, tpb.
  5. Gunpowder Empire, pg. 68, mmp.
  6. In High Places, pg. 33, mmp.
  7. See e.g.: Atlantis and Other Places, pg. 214, HC.
  8. "The Iron Elephant," generally.
  9. In the Presence of Mine Enemies, pg. 5, hc.
  10. Ibid. pg. 35.
  11. Leviathans: Armored Skies, pg. 339, loc. 4906, ebook.
  12. The Man With the Iron Heart, pg. 321, HC.
  13. The Two Georges, pg. 55MPB.
  14. Ibid., frontispiece map.
  15. Coup d'Etat, pg. 333.
  16. Ibid., pgs. 333-334.
  17. Ibid., pg. 334.
  18. Ibid., pg. 335.
  19. Last Orders, pg. 380-381.
  20. Upsetting the Balance, pg. 389.
  21. See the Colonization map.
  22. Second Contact, e.g., pg. 318, 434.
  23. Down to Earth, pg. 490.
  24. Ibid., pg. 224.
  25. Homeward Bound, pg. 298.
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