Hindustani People's Republic

History:

What came before

Once known as the land of a ten thousand rivers, the political body known as Hindustan started out in the Karkatian-Kush river valley. Myriads of fresh rivers originating in the mountains and flowing towards the seas created an environment ripe for agriculture. Hindi civilization is the oldest recorded on the planet, with clay tablets documenting the formation of thousands of city-states dotting the banks of every major river in southern continent. It is suspected that the oldest religion, Hinduism, took root during this time as well. Warlords rose and fell, rivers provided bountiful riches and terrible floods, and life changed very little until the early middle ages developed.

Ali's era

Numerous warlords and hundreds of city-states, all competing and holding each other at their respective rivers, made political unification within the land of Hind impossible. This became more difficult once Islam entered. Under the leadership of Benjin Ali the Conqueror, he carved out the first unified state in the southwest corner of Hind. There, he and his ruling family exported his religion across the continent. This political rivalry between him and the other states led to sectarian rivalry between Hindus and Non-Muslims throughout the southern continent. The troubled histories of the people's of Hind remains a sore subject in contemporary politics. Ali cemented his rule in southern Hind for  hundreds of years, creating a thriving state that exported silk, spices, food stuffs, and fine metal crafts that were considered prized the world over. This intergenerational rivalry between Ali's holdings and the city states have created an ever-lasting contrast of wealth between the North and South. Despite several hundred years of economic prosperity, the constant warring between the city states and Ali's descendants prevented strong internal integration and thusly exacerbating the political disunity of Hind. This would haunt them. For all their short term success and riches, for all their vanity and palaces, their riches could not protect them from what was to come.

The Century of Anguish

When the first Anglican ship arrived on their shores, the land of Hind took this moment not as a sign to defensively unify, but to undermine each other. Trading companies, mercenaries, and merchants all found ample opportunity on their land. The Anglicans, in exchange for helping the warlods of Hind dislodge Ali's Sultanate, requested economic concessions from their temporary allies. Unable to see beyond the immediate, these warlords accepted. Combined, the Anglicans and the City States and their Warlords overthrew the Sultanate- the only unified body within all of Hind civilization that could have established a bulwark against outside influence. With their main threat out of the way, the Anglicans exploited the constant backstabbing and conflict between the city-states. One by one, more and more territory was accrued by the Anglicans until only a impotent polity of petty despots was all that stood between total annexation and Hind sovereignty. In 1775, the USM made the unopposed decision to annex what remained. From then on, as an official colony, Hindustan would remain subservient to foreign interests. Some hoped that they would bring riches, modernized infrastructure, and more connections to the outside world.

But what the USM did next made the exploitative companies under Anglican rule look like an aid mission. Under their rule, USM corporations were allowed to engage in coerced labor, plantation cropping, dangerous strip mining, and the extraction of rare metals and luxury goods for the sake of their profit. Trillions of dollars worth of capital was accumulated from this, but barely a percentage of this was reinvested into the common people of Hindustan. Agricultural policies that mandated food grown there be sold internationally resulted in a six mass famines over the next 80 years, directly leading to the deaths of an estimated 10 million Hindustanis. Harsh debt collection, massacre's of workers on strike, and wage slave like conditions took more untold amount of people. The scars from this still remain etched into the Earth to this day. During a conscript mutiny in 1812, the thousands of Hindustani soldiers of all ethnicities and religions fortified themselves ancient cities and palaces. USM artillery and naval support destroyed dozens of cultural and historic sites. This tragedy, in a way, united the Hindustani's in solidarity. For among what was destroyed by their artillery included a comb used by the Buddha, an ancient Sikh and Hindu temple, and a garb alleged to have been worn by one of the Prophet Muhammad's closest companion's, Abu Bakr.

Untold amounts of riches were taken from Hindustan. And although they had lost so much in terms of loved ones and resources, they gained a key piece of wisdom that would guide them in the coming years: In order to stand a chance in this world, they would have to stand as one.

So That Others Could Live

In the entire history of Hindustan's colonization, from the Anglican Empire, to the USM, to the Federal Republic, hundreds of thousands of Sikhs infantrymen, Hindus Gurkhas, Buddhist logistical personnel, and Muslim sailors fought and gave their lives for the protection of a country that did not grand them equal opportunities nor citizenship. When they were asked to make the ultimate sacrifice again in 1853, they obliged. And they volunteered in numbers previously only theorized. For now, they were granted the chance to fight for something every Hindustani, regardless of caste or ethnic group, yearned dearly. They would fight for their freedom.

In exchange for subduing the revolt in Dixieland, Hindustan would be granted its independence. Over 70,000 men volunteered for the call to arms. Their first objective was to subdue a dixie controlled Island directly off the coast of Hindustan known for their especially harsh plantation owners. Hindustanis, still technically a part of the Federal Republic, stormed the island and enacted such cruelty on the Plantation owners, their families, and the rebels, that the surviving opposition on the island evacuated immediately. To this day, the Island remains a part of Hindustan. On the home front, tens of thousands of Hindustanis held the line with Federal forces. Bloody fighting raged for years, and their support was instrumental in preventing a total conquest of the North by dixie forces. In one particular instance, Gurkhas held ritualistic beheadings of over 100 captured Dixie officers after allegations that the same officer had sexually assaulted captured Hindu and Muslim field medics. For obvious reasons, relations between Hindustan and Dixie remain sour to this day. And although the Civil War would ultimately result in failures for the Federal forces, it was none the less a victory for Hindustan. The Federal Republic was left with no choice but to grant Hindustan their independence. And thus, on July 31st, 1857, the Republic of Hindustan declared its independence, ending 200 years of colonial rule. But what would come next?

The Velvet Revolution

From 1857 to 1905, a liberal ruled Federal Style government dominated Hindustani politics. Despite having more freedom than ever before, age old problems quickly resurfaced. The caste system, wealth inequality, rising prices of living, rural poverty, lack of job opportunities, and sectarian infighting remerged. This frustration manifested in many different ways. Far-right religious zealots duked it out in the street with police and with far-left Communists and Socialists. Dozens of parties, gangs, and independence movements all sprung up and threatened the integrity of the new Republic. Decades of corruption prevented meaningful change and lead to economic stagnation. But the Original Republic's downfall came from a place that few expected it to. When an Untouchable Caste woman, Mina Vyas, was beaten to death by her supervisors for failing to meet a work quota, millions of Hindustani workers took to the streets, palaces, government buildings, and landlord estates demanding change. This moment was quickly seized upon by the Libertarian Socialists, organizing a series of month long general strikes that ground the economy to a halt. The weak military, unable to and unwilling to deal with such massive-scale revolts, defected and joined the movement for an end to Liberal rule.

Thusly, on June 1st, 1905, the worlds largest bloodless revolution took place. Socialists, Anarchists, Social Democrats, and Communists, seized key government buildings in the country. Most of the Officer corps saw the writing on the wall, and rather than devolve into a civil war that their fathers had witnessed in the Federal Republic, helped the demonstrators peacefully remove the old government. Although some street-level fighting broke out afterward between them and conservative groups, no-mass scale warfare broke out. Snap elections were soon held to determine what path Hindustan would take.

And so, on July 31st, 1905, the Hindustani People's Republic was declared. They had achieved their Socialist state not through the power of guns, but through the power of the people.

Today

In the two decades following the Velvet Revolution, Hindustan is currently working to develop internally in order to assert itself to the outside world. Its relations have healed with the Federal Republic, it has friends in the North with the UKSR, and generally holds mutually favorable diplomatic relations with the Liberal Democracies of the world. But not all is perfect. Domestic development issues  are still a work in progress. A Fascist country waits on their border. Relations with Dixieland could still erupt into conflict if something went horribly wrong. And who is to say Reactionary forces won't return someday? But despite all of these issues, Hindustan is optimistic about the future. Its top leaders fundamentally believe that a better, more just world is possible. The times ahead will not be easy, but now they posess something that will fuel their ambition to create a paradise for the global proletariat...

Hope.