I have a lot of beef with how India is portrayed in civ series. In general, I have a feeling that India is treated the worst by the modern Western popculture, even worse than Islamic world.
1) Gandhi has to go, I know it has been introduced to this series because in nineties it was about the only Indian human being known to the white man, but come on it really wouldn't hurt if white man's minds were enlightened by the existence of another Indian leader. Bonus point for that leader not being Mauryan one (Ashoka and Chandra were both Mauryan). Also, at this point the entire Gandhi nuke meme has overshadowed out his entire real personality, moral teachings and dignity, so maybe if fanbase was starved of him for many years that insulting meme would finally die.
2) India being ridiculously pacifist, to the point of being crippled in AI hands, has to go. I know it happened because of Gandhi (which is stupid anyway because Indian army existed and was powerful and agressive in his era), but it really wouldn't hurt white man's mind if he was enlightened by the country of Kshatriyas and gods of war to be militarily strong, like it was in history.
3) India constantly revolving about stereotypes of peaceful (lol), passive, spiritual, poor, overpopulated but God forbid being competent in economy, science, industry and military...has to go.
4) India having always the worst music and among weakest abilities in the game obviously has to go
There's also a separate and much more messy problem of 'India' being always just that one civilization in the sea of like forty, fifty others. India is a very strange case in this regard though. On one hand it doesn't have such straightforward history of China, with some sort of direct political and identity cycle; Indian subcontinent had a ton of separate countries and languages and 'histories' through its history. In another hand though, most of them were very close to each other in terms of religion, philosophy, Sanskrit, social organization, common origins, literary epics and classics, shared popular movements etc so it's not like it was Europe in terms of very divergent cultures and identities.
So in the end I am not sure if it would be a sensible idea to divide India into smaller entities, in fact Indians themselves could be offended by it, seeing how overhemingly the idea of unity has won in the region. However I think it would make some sense to instead introduce India and
separate civilizations for Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bengal, Mughals, Delhi Sultanate etc. Sikhs would work too, but their separarism is very problematic topic in Indian past. You could also separate several fairly unique empires from India, such as Maurya, Chola, Maratha, but it would look kind of weird if them and only them were separated.
So, what would you do?
I'd mostly like to see India (in whatever incarnation) being economic and intellectual power with decent military, with non - Gandhi and non - Mauryan leader, with good abilities and soundtrack
1) Gandhi has to go, I know it has been introduced to this series because in nineties it was about the only Indian human being known to the white man, but come on it really wouldn't hurt if white man's minds were enlightened by the existence of another Indian leader. Bonus point for that leader not being Mauryan one (Ashoka and Chandra were both Mauryan). Also, at this point the entire Gandhi nuke meme has overshadowed out his entire real personality, moral teachings and dignity, so maybe if fanbase was starved of him for many years that insulting meme would finally die.
2) India being ridiculously pacifist, to the point of being crippled in AI hands, has to go. I know it happened because of Gandhi (which is stupid anyway because Indian army existed and was powerful and agressive in his era), but it really wouldn't hurt white man's mind if he was enlightened by the country of Kshatriyas and gods of war to be militarily strong, like it was in history.
3) India constantly revolving about stereotypes of peaceful (lol), passive, spiritual, poor, overpopulated but God forbid being competent in economy, science, industry and military...has to go.
4) India having always the worst music and among weakest abilities in the game obviously has to go
There's also a separate and much more messy problem of 'India' being always just that one civilization in the sea of like forty, fifty others. India is a very strange case in this regard though. On one hand it doesn't have such straightforward history of China, with some sort of direct political and identity cycle; Indian subcontinent had a ton of separate countries and languages and 'histories' through its history. In another hand though, most of them were very close to each other in terms of religion, philosophy, Sanskrit, social organization, common origins, literary epics and classics, shared popular movements etc so it's not like it was Europe in terms of very divergent cultures and identities.
So in the end I am not sure if it would be a sensible idea to divide India into smaller entities, in fact Indians themselves could be offended by it, seeing how overhemingly the idea of unity has won in the region. However I think it would make some sense to instead introduce India and
separate civilizations for Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bengal, Mughals, Delhi Sultanate etc. Sikhs would work too, but their separarism is very problematic topic in Indian past. You could also separate several fairly unique empires from India, such as Maurya, Chola, Maratha, but it would look kind of weird if them and only them were separated.
So, what would you do?
I'd mostly like to see India (in whatever incarnation) being economic and intellectual power with decent military, with non - Gandhi and non - Mauryan leader, with good abilities and soundtrack
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