India - Struggle for Independence

Hi everyone, after just getting back from enjoying our weekly Wednesday Indian food at a local place, what better topic to cover than India! India is a colony under British rule, that means that, unlike the dominions we have presented so far, they have more restrictions and limitations placed on them. These are things that you will want to shake off as a player - for example, unless you gain Dominion status you will not fully benefit from technology sharing.

Enlarge image After Provincial elections are done India is faced with two paths towards freedom (Historically both occurred simultaneously to a degree, but player must decide which one they want to play). On one hand they can continue to cooperate with the British and earn their freedom or status as dominion through service and the autonomy system (see last week’s diary). India at this time is a nation split between the Quit India movement & Gandhi calling for freedom, various Princely states supporting the British as they fear losing their power, and a large Muslim community that can sway to support independence and the creation of Pakistan. If you check the rightmost part of the tree there are also British investors getting fat off of India which may gain you some short term benefits in military and civilian investments, but which will also set back your struggle for independence. On the other side the player can decide to go the non-cooperative path “Swaraj”, or self governing. This in effect puts you in the shoes of Subhas Chandra Bose trying to rally support for Indian independence from other factions. You can both ask Comintern and Axis here for backing. It is also possible to proceed without backing, but it is very difficult. With backing (or not) you can then launch a civil war and fight for your independence and continue to build up your nation free from the clutches of the British imperialists. Note that there is no classic "fascist or communist" path here, the support you get will dictate the direction for your nation. Bose was in my opinion much more interested in practical things and achieving freedom rather than promoting ideology and would have gone with any side that supported him (he asked Soviets first historically, but was told 'no'). It doesn't mean that you can't peacefully go communist etc, but it would be done using regular mechanics. Military wise India is famous for having the largest volunteer army in history at the end of WWII. To model this you are limited to a strict volunteer army until you gain higher autonomy levels. But several focuses give you forces from Gurkhas, Sikhs etc. India gets several choices for making its army more distinctly Indian: setting up local officer training of Indians, mountain artillery and jungle training etc.

India also starts with the national spirit “risk of famine”. This is a serious internal issue that will be up to the player to solve. Famines have long been issues in the area, but war, corruption and the like will stress things to a breaking point. If you gain enough autonomy to gain control over local government, root out corruption and improve railways and infrastructure, you will be able to prevent the famine entirely, but it will put you into a bit of a race once you get dragged into World War II.

Subject Forces As I hinted at last week the new autonomy system allows you to recruit forces from your subjects.