IOT Developmental Thread

Background

After the First Cataclysm, India was gradually reunited as the Imperial Republic of India, and later the United States of India, under Kashmiri leadership. Over many years, the USI through persuasion and coercion expanded its control over most of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and Iran, and parts of Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

In time, popular discontent, heightened international tension and revolutionary fervor contributed to the Communist Revolution that established the Soviet Union (often referred to as the Second Soviet Union or the USSR-in-India to distinguish it from the 20th century Soviet Union). However, the Revolution soon turned sour. The new regime proved repressive and incompetent, and many world governments turned against it and vowed its destruction. The conflict between the Soviet Union and the capitalist powers eventually led to the world war that ushered in the Second Cataclysm.

The Soviet Government fell in the early days of the Second Cataclysm, and the country broke apart. More than two decades after the fall of the Soviet experiment, the successor states of the USI and USSR have travelled down very different paths.


Republic of Kashmir

Kashmir, defying its own history, managed to remain cohesive through the difficult years during and after the Cataclysm. As the Soviet Union fell, the former Soviet leader Iskandar Mirza declared an independent Kashmiri state and declared neutrality in all conflicts. Under his leadership, Kashmir managed a democratic transition and was an oasis of relative safety and stability as the rest of the world descended into chaos.

Kashmir survived the Cataclysm as a Blue Zone. Nevertheless, in the immediate aftermath of the Cataclysm, it was overwhelmed by the problems of poverty, strained and decaying infrastructure, ethnic and religious conflicts and the influx of millions of refugees from all over India and the world, many of whom were kaetifs. As the conflict between kaetifs and humans and between different religions and ethnicities intensified, the political climate became deadly. The great political survivor, Iskandar Mirza, was gunned down by his own bodyguards after he passed a law protecting kaetifs.

The decade that followed saw political turmoil in the country, with violent demonstrations, riots, assassinations, and coup d’etats. Though analysts generally agreed that recent years have seen an improvement, political assassinations still happen almost on a daily basis. Crime, organized or otherwise, is rampant, extremism is on the rise, and it is estimated that despite recent alleviation efforts half the population still lives in poverty. Two charismatic liberal young leaders, Jamal Nadim and Rasul Iqbal, are currently President and Prime Minister, respectively, but they have many enemies.

Republic of Simla

Formed out of the former Indian state of Himachal Pradesh and named after its capital, Simla is a relatively stable country with a responsible government. Its stability and neutrality has made it a center of trade in northern India and Pakistan. It also sells hydroelectricity to its neighbors. It has strong ties to Kashmir, but although there were talks in the past of a union, continuing political instability in Kashmir means it has not been realized.

Hindustan

Hindustan is officially described as a Confederation, but in reality it consists of, more or less, independent city-states paying purely nominal allegiance to an “Emperor” who lives in Delhi. He was elected as Emperor twenty years ago at a Conference in Agra of delegates from all over India, in an attempt to maintain some sort of Indian unity, but he saw his authority rapidly diminished in the chaos of the Cataclysm and now he is powerless even in his own city.

The competing city-states sometimes coexist peacefully, but more often they quarreled and open warfare is not uncommon. The recently-ended conflict between a Muslim-ruled Agra and a loose alliance of Rajput states is just the latest, though it is by far the bloodiest, claiming over three million lives.

Most of the people live in abject conditions of the Yellow Zone, worse than even in the worst slums of Kashmir. Even those with enough money to pay for fortified compounds, imported food and luxury goods live in constant fear of warfare and other dangers. Hindustan is particularly hard-hit by the waves of refugees from the Red Zones to its east. Some of the sprawling “refugee camps” contain hundreds of thousands of people. There’s considerable conflict between the newcomers and the locals, and the increased population is taking its toll on the already strained resources of the land.

Punjab

Islamic fundamentalists, in the form of the New Pakistani Taliban, finally managed to seize power in Punjab and set about aggressively installing a totalitarian Islamic caliphate, starting with genocide against anyone who is not Muslim or is seen to be insufficiently so, before the mullahs fell out and start killing each other instead. Eventually a mullah Yousef emerged victorious and today Punjab is an eerie, austere theocracy. The killings still take place but they now take the form of formal executions rather than death-squad shootings.

Sind

The dilapidated port city of Karachi, despite the roving teenage gangs and the slums and the filth in the streets, still retain some of its old cosmopolitan charm, and it is showing signs of increasing social and economic dynamism. It is the capital of the Islamic Republic of Sind, though the government’s writ does not extend far beyond Karachi. The rest of the country is essentially lawless.

Gujarat

The Maharaja of Gujarat came to power about ten years ago after killing everyone who opposes him in the former Indian state. He has actually proven to be quite a competent ruler, if a repressive one.

Nepal

A particularly extreme brand of communism has taken hold of Nepal. The country is closed off completely to the outside world and the situation there is unknown.

Khorasan

With its capital in Herat, Khorasan has one of the highest proportion of kaetif in what was the Soviet Union. Surprisingly, it is ruled by a fairly liberal government, and the kaetif has equal rights with humans (a few are in government). The Khorasani kaetif retained much of the old human culture including the Islamic religion, though Islamic extremists inside and outside the country brand them as “abominations”.

Sistan-Balochistan

Not so much a state as a loose confederation of tribes, humans and kaetifs alike. Both groups are deeply conservative; they generally segregate themselves from the other group.

Fars and Mada

Ruled by rival Shahs, both claiming to be the ruler of all Iran. Both look back to the ancient Persian Empire as their model. Recently the relationship between the two states has shifted from open confrontation to grudging mutual recognition.

Kurdistan and Azerbaijan

Two states formed out of the Kurdish and Azeri areas of former Iran, divided by language and culture. Old Soviet institutions are still maintained and the elderly Soviet-era leaders are still in power. As the “gateway to the East” and as Blue Zones, their economies are in good shape. They are socially liberal (Azerbaijan more so than Kurdistan) and kaetifs are generally well-treated.

Tajikistan

In Tajikistan, a nationalist regime was established with a unique ideology, combining elements of militarism, nationalism, Islamism, socialism and fascism, under the strongman Amir Mansur. After Mansur ran out of immediate rivals to persecute, the Tajikistani propaganda machine and death squads redirected their energy to viciously target kaetifs. Many are forced to leave the country to seek refuge in Khorasan or Kashmir.

Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan tried to reestablish itself as an independent state after the war but this effort soon collapsed and the country is now a collection of loosely-allied city-states and tribes, all subject to Tajik influence.

Pashtunistan

A tribal confederation of Pashtuns, ruled by tribal and Sharia law, highly militant and deeply conservative. They highly value their independence and will fiercely resist any foreign interference. Despite being officially co-religionists, the Pashtuns and New Pakistani Taliban came to view each other as heretics, and an attempt by the Punjabi Islamists to incorporate the area into their caliphate by force failed when their army was annihilated outside Peshawar.

Assam

Upon the dissolution of the USSR the leader of Assam declared his republic independent. Even more powerhungry than most, he immediately declared war on the Bengali Republic, recently devastated by nuclear strikes, and expanded his dominion to the Bay of Bengal. After conquering Bhutan and other neighbouring states Assam became the dominant power in eastern India. Despite this, it never managed to conquer Tripura, an enclave surrounded by Assamese territory, which put up an unexpectedly fierce resistance. The dictator has recently died, and it seems unlikely his successor, his inexperienced son, can hold his father’s domains together.

Marathi Republic

In the aftermath of the Soviet collapse Maharasthra became a Hindu Nationalist stronghold. Highly militant and fiercely opposed to the Hindustani Confederation, which they see as illegitimate, the Marathi Republic’s ultimate goal is to unify India, by diplomacy or by force, as a Hindu nationalist state.

Telangena, Mysore and Tamil Nadu
The three southern Indian states of Telangena, Mysore and Tamil Nadu are liberal democracies and are doing well economically. A brief, three-way war broke out between them after the Second Cataclysm but they have since put their differences aside and now work together towards regional peace. Blue Zone Mysore has even aided Yellow Zone Tamil Nadu and Telangena and is helping them rebuild.

Ceylon

The island of Ceylon/Sri Lanka is split into two. North Ceylon is Tamil-dominated and has close ties to Tamil Nadu on the continent. Sri Lanka in the south claims sovereignty over the whole island but wrestled with its own internal problems and has been unable to enforce that claim.

Wastelands

Western Khorasan in Central Asia, and the Four States (Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal and Jharkhand) in eastern India are lawless wastelands. These areas are hostile to life and are sparsely populated; mostly kaetifs by also assorted human misfits, exiles, and scoundrels, and a few locals who flatly refused to leave their homeland. Those who live here shelter in reinforced bunkers and in fear of the Abhorrents.