Ibn Rashid al-Kanyali
Chieftain
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2024
- Messages
- 5
I was pleased to see that the Mughals will finally be represented as a civilisation in VII.
However, it does beg the following question: why have we never seen them represented in the franchise before? They are absent not just from the mainline of the franchise, but also its spin-offs: Call to Power (I + II) and Civilization Revolution (I + II).
The Mughals are by far and away the most famous and iconic civilisation within the Indian Subcontinent. They had a meteoric rise and fall, with incredible accomplishments in the domains of culture, warfare, architecture, and religion.
Akbar is one of the few leaders who was known as ‘the Great’ and often appears on lists of the greatest rulers in world history. Despite an incredibly successful 49 year reign, he only gets a spot as one of India’s Military Leaders in III, and is relegated to Great General status in IV and V.
Shah Jahan also had a lengthy and prosperous reign, during which he commissioned several works of architecture that are represented in the franchise. His Taj Mahal is one of the most famous and iconic world wonders in history, and is often used as an emblem of India. It even appears as Ghandi’s background image in IV, as well as a golden age-triggering wonder in 3 consecutive iterations of the game (IV, VI, VI). His Red Fort is also included as a wonder in V. Shah Jahan’s constructions even inspired India’s Unique Buildings: the ‘Mausoleum’ (IV) and the ‘Mughal Fort’ (V). Despite all this, his appearances in the franchise were limited to either Great Merchant (IV, V) or Great Engineer (VI).
During Aurangzeb’s 49 year reign, Mughal India was arguably the richest, most populous and most powerful polity in the world. He has never been referenced in the series.
The Mughals became such an icon of legitimacy within the subcontinent that even after it had crumbled into a rump state, those who had revolted and declared independence from them still paid nominal homage and portrayed themselves as ruling in their name.
When Hindu and Muslim troops rebelled against the British East India Company, they rallied behind the Mughals. Despite the Mutiny being crushed, the Mughal Emperor, even in his elderly and powerless state, was seen as such a symbolic threat to the British that he and his family were forced into exile and never allowed to return to Delhi - royal families in the subcontinent was usually allowed to retain nominal self-rule.
For Civilization VI, the developers were vocal about their commitment to the inclusion of ‘big personalities’ as well as increased diversity of representation, and the game also allowed civilizations to possess alternate leaders. Under this framework, figures such as Babur, Akbar, Shah Jahan, or Aurangzeb would have been especially fitting.
After the release of the base game, VI received multiple DLCs, followed by two large expansion packs, after which came the New Frontier Pass, which itself was followed by a Leader Pass. By the end of VI’s development, Ancient Greece had 2 civilizations and 3 leaders. England had 4 leaders, and China had 5. Canada, Australia and Scotland had all been introduced into the series for the first time. And yet, the only non-Gandhi alternative for India was Chandragupta.
Gandhi has lead India in every iteration of the franchise despite never historically leading the nation. Wherever a female counterpart was required, the deeply flawed Indira Gandhi was chosen. India always has a strong (but passive) religious and/or happiness bent, alongside a war elephant as a unique unit. The inclusion of Chandragupta in VI was the sole exception to this portrayal; his grandson Ashoka (IV, VII) is always just characterised in the same vein as Gandhi.
The Indian Subcontinent exceeds even China both in terms of population and length of history, and far surpasses it in terms of cultural, religious, and ethnic diversity. India alone is home to more people than the entirety of Europe, the United States, Canada, and Australia combined. A significant and growing proportion of the subcontinent speaks English due to the legacy of colonialism. Why is it that even in VI, the developers did not attempt to capitalise on this market?
The very idea of a unified Indian civilization makes little sense – it is akin to having a ‘European’ civilization or a ‘Sub-Saharan African’ civilization. Even still, India is one of the few civilizations in the franchise for which arising in 4000BC (as the Indus Valley Civilization) and continuing into the near future (as the modern nation state of India) is not completely absurd. As a staple of the franchise, surely India deserves better treatment than it has received thus far? With VI, Firaxis emphasised their desire to maximise representation from every region; accounting for population, the Indian subcontinent has been the most neglected area of the world. With representation like this, you'd think India was some obscure, poorly documented archeological culture.
Forgive my speculation, but in my opinion, Firaxis has never included the Mughals as leaders or a civilization because their economic, cultural, architectural, military, and religious characteristics did not neatly fit into the mould of the ‘Indian Civilization’ that they had perceived in their minds and constructed in their game. Indian civilization has been consistently portrayed in the franchise as an extension of Gandhi himself: fundamentally passive, religious, ‘Hindu’, and symbolised by a lotus flower or spoked wheel.
With all this said, I am glad to see that the Age structure of VII has finally allowed for the division of the nonsensical ‘Indian’ civilization into the Mauryans, Cholas and Mughals in VII, and I hope to see more in the future. For the time being, I will not dwell on this bizarre nature of transitioning from the Cholas to the Mughals - I just hope that medieval persianate and turkic cultures have the option to transition into the Mughals. However, I still have reservations – will the Chola or the Mughals ever get their own leaders (e.g. Rajendra Chola, Shah Jahan), or will we be stuck playing through these civilizations as Ashoka? Leaders take far more development time and resources than civilizations do – will Firaxis consider Indian leaders important enough to merit inclusion within VII, or can we instead expect to see more leaderless Indian civilizations lead by Ashoka?
However, it does beg the following question: why have we never seen them represented in the franchise before? They are absent not just from the mainline of the franchise, but also its spin-offs: Call to Power (I + II) and Civilization Revolution (I + II).
The Mughals are by far and away the most famous and iconic civilisation within the Indian Subcontinent. They had a meteoric rise and fall, with incredible accomplishments in the domains of culture, warfare, architecture, and religion.
Akbar is one of the few leaders who was known as ‘the Great’ and often appears on lists of the greatest rulers in world history. Despite an incredibly successful 49 year reign, he only gets a spot as one of India’s Military Leaders in III, and is relegated to Great General status in IV and V.
Shah Jahan also had a lengthy and prosperous reign, during which he commissioned several works of architecture that are represented in the franchise. His Taj Mahal is one of the most famous and iconic world wonders in history, and is often used as an emblem of India. It even appears as Ghandi’s background image in IV, as well as a golden age-triggering wonder in 3 consecutive iterations of the game (IV, VI, VI). His Red Fort is also included as a wonder in V. Shah Jahan’s constructions even inspired India’s Unique Buildings: the ‘Mausoleum’ (IV) and the ‘Mughal Fort’ (V). Despite all this, his appearances in the franchise were limited to either Great Merchant (IV, V) or Great Engineer (VI).
During Aurangzeb’s 49 year reign, Mughal India was arguably the richest, most populous and most powerful polity in the world. He has never been referenced in the series.
The Mughals became such an icon of legitimacy within the subcontinent that even after it had crumbled into a rump state, those who had revolted and declared independence from them still paid nominal homage and portrayed themselves as ruling in their name.
When Hindu and Muslim troops rebelled against the British East India Company, they rallied behind the Mughals. Despite the Mutiny being crushed, the Mughal Emperor, even in his elderly and powerless state, was seen as such a symbolic threat to the British that he and his family were forced into exile and never allowed to return to Delhi - royal families in the subcontinent was usually allowed to retain nominal self-rule.
For Civilization VI, the developers were vocal about their commitment to the inclusion of ‘big personalities’ as well as increased diversity of representation, and the game also allowed civilizations to possess alternate leaders. Under this framework, figures such as Babur, Akbar, Shah Jahan, or Aurangzeb would have been especially fitting.
After the release of the base game, VI received multiple DLCs, followed by two large expansion packs, after which came the New Frontier Pass, which itself was followed by a Leader Pass. By the end of VI’s development, Ancient Greece had 2 civilizations and 3 leaders. England had 4 leaders, and China had 5. Canada, Australia and Scotland had all been introduced into the series for the first time. And yet, the only non-Gandhi alternative for India was Chandragupta.
Gandhi has lead India in every iteration of the franchise despite never historically leading the nation. Wherever a female counterpart was required, the deeply flawed Indira Gandhi was chosen. India always has a strong (but passive) religious and/or happiness bent, alongside a war elephant as a unique unit. The inclusion of Chandragupta in VI was the sole exception to this portrayal; his grandson Ashoka (IV, VII) is always just characterised in the same vein as Gandhi.
The Indian Subcontinent exceeds even China both in terms of population and length of history, and far surpasses it in terms of cultural, religious, and ethnic diversity. India alone is home to more people than the entirety of Europe, the United States, Canada, and Australia combined. A significant and growing proportion of the subcontinent speaks English due to the legacy of colonialism. Why is it that even in VI, the developers did not attempt to capitalise on this market?
The very idea of a unified Indian civilization makes little sense – it is akin to having a ‘European’ civilization or a ‘Sub-Saharan African’ civilization. Even still, India is one of the few civilizations in the franchise for which arising in 4000BC (as the Indus Valley Civilization) and continuing into the near future (as the modern nation state of India) is not completely absurd. As a staple of the franchise, surely India deserves better treatment than it has received thus far? With VI, Firaxis emphasised their desire to maximise representation from every region; accounting for population, the Indian subcontinent has been the most neglected area of the world. With representation like this, you'd think India was some obscure, poorly documented archeological culture.
Forgive my speculation, but in my opinion, Firaxis has never included the Mughals as leaders or a civilization because their economic, cultural, architectural, military, and religious characteristics did not neatly fit into the mould of the ‘Indian Civilization’ that they had perceived in their minds and constructed in their game. Indian civilization has been consistently portrayed in the franchise as an extension of Gandhi himself: fundamentally passive, religious, ‘Hindu’, and symbolised by a lotus flower or spoked wheel.
With all this said, I am glad to see that the Age structure of VII has finally allowed for the division of the nonsensical ‘Indian’ civilization into the Mauryans, Cholas and Mughals in VII, and I hope to see more in the future. For the time being, I will not dwell on this bizarre nature of transitioning from the Cholas to the Mughals - I just hope that medieval persianate and turkic cultures have the option to transition into the Mughals. However, I still have reservations – will the Chola or the Mughals ever get their own leaders (e.g. Rajendra Chola, Shah Jahan), or will we be stuck playing through these civilizations as Ashoka? Leaders take far more development time and resources than civilizations do – will Firaxis consider Indian leaders important enough to merit inclusion within VII, or can we instead expect to see more leaderless Indian civilizations lead by Ashoka?
