Collegian-Independent Online

The arrival of Lord Franklin Martin Baron Gangapur in London as Ambassador Plenipotentiary for the Viceroy of India moves the two large economies one step closer to a new super-state.

Occasionally we read some fascinating story of a couple separated when time severed, often now tragically different in age.  Grandchildren of marriages that didn't happen, lovers separated by decades...all the stock and trade of schlock romance, or the occasional real-life expose, such as Capt. John Nunio and his wife Joann, who are raising an earlier incarnation of Joann, as their ward.  Joann was born in Romania in 1983 and raised in an orphanage.  She was rescued by relief workers and eventually immigrated to the United States where she married John in 2017. Now in her seventies, she and her husband, who is 66 worked with ENY Dr. Julia Johnston to find the Seven year old Ioana in a Romanian orphanage.  Identified by DNA testing, Romanian officials allowed her to leave as a "Citizen of the Empire of New York."  A complex legal case regarding her citizenship was dismissed without precedent when Emperor Michael II decreed Ioana a citizen early this year.  

But what happens when the separated are a Country?  Fragments of an Empire.  In the case of India, the case has been more confusing.

The Empire of India was in 1892 at the time of the event, already a Viceroyalty, with Victoria as Queen.  The British Empire, widely called "Mad Science London" even by its own press was in 1848 at the time of the event, with India still a complex jumble of administrations heavily administered by the British East India Company.

But India never renounced its allegiance to Victoria or her heirs, and the Viceroy governs on an extension of her authority.  And the current King of England, Edward VII is her descendant...indeed he'd later go on to govern India, taking the throne at a far more advanced age.  

There have been such issues before but they are usually so widely separated in time or interests as to be largely moot, such as Los Angeles long reliance on the political aegis of the United States, or the discovery of a Civil War period American Presidency (now defunct).

If the interest shared between "Mad Science London" and the Indian Empire were merely one of ritual, it would probably go nowhere.  But both Empires stand a lot to gain from a merger that allies and enemies are eyeing with concern.  

The Indian Empire is the nominally more progressive the states. Over the past 45 years, the government of India has liberalized, introducing a complex limited Democracy.   Essentially a Hindu dominated lower house has limited powers, while a British-Dominated upper house has the veto.  The system isn't exactly egalitarian, but it's not actively abusive, and most people agree it is "evolving" slowly towards Democracy.  In general the Hindu lower house supports the British Upper House in return for policies disadvantageous to the Muslim underclass, which is increasingly disenfranchised.   There have been several limited Muslim rebellions, none of which got very far.  Magic works outside the cities, but in general the Hindus have stronger and better magic than Muslims.

India is basically the picture of an mid range Constitutional Monarchy.  There isn't complete freedom of the press but censorship for political (rather than sexual) reasons is fairly rare and often provokes controversy or even defiance.  There are numerous aggressive  Newspapers, and fairly inflammatory Hindu Nationalist papers are tolerated.  Muslim Nationlists tend to get the short end of the stick, but even they manage to publish.  There is no active Muslim military resistance, though there are cells and there have been bombings and assassinations. 

Hindus hold reasonably high positions in the Goverment, though they still can hold no position higher than Subedar-Major in the regular Army. The tendency of this is that Military Officer is the default career for young white men.  Hindus (and theoretically Muslims) hold higher ranks in Militias, and so would hold command ranks in time of actual war, so the difference is really just an issue of pay and retirement.

Mad Science London is a hastily contrived Regency less than a decade away from the event, and is seen by some as more of a Dictatorship than a Constitutional Monarchy.  Collegian Political Analyst Colby Kerr says that's unfair.  "Mad Science London is still in transition.  At this point the Empire of New York was still under emergency articles.  Penn State was still being run by a School Committee...they're doing quite well for where they are and the basic British Tradition of Commonlaw is still very much alive."

India is key to a vast storehouse of largely unexploited Bauxite, Iron, Cromite, Limestone, hardwoods, and food. Indian Bauxite is already revitalizing ENY and LA industry, and is heavily sought after around the world.  Britain is in a perilous though sustainable position with regards to food, has plenty of coal, but desperately needs metals and hardwoods to sustain its unprecedented industrial growth. 

And there's a route between the two.  Goods leave India and cross the Blasted Plain in 30 tonne waggon convoys, to be hauled by truck at Aden and taken by ship to the Sudan.  There they are shipped through Malaysia controlled Eritrea to Syria, and to the ENY and LA through the Jerusalem gate, or by sea to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Main.  International sanctions levelled against Malaysia do not embrace the government of Eritrea which merely receives "military support for peacekeeping" from Malaysia under the terms of a treaty brokered by ENY before the Malysian governmental Coup. India is also a highly profitable trading partner of the USSR, and is the source for a great deal of the world's TL6 Weaponry which is purchased from the USSR through Bombay and shipped through Aden or Srivijaya.

Why haven't the two lovebirds wed?  Technically they are wed.  As the Viceroy put it in an official statement last year "the Empire of India recognizes as its monarch the Sovereign of Great Britain.  However the vagaries of temporal distortion have created many colorful but ultimately unreasonable and illegitimate variations on time. There is a fine distinction between recognizing the Sovereign in principle, and recognizing that a given physical manifestation is indeed a suitably relevant Sovereign."

Negotiations have been ongoing for the better part of a year as trade relations warmed.  Indian businessmen favor an Empire deal which would give them tariff-free access to Britain, bringing it as close, economically as ENY or LA.  But there are reservations as well.  Hindus fear it might deprecate their role in the Government, reducing them to "third class citizens" in a state where they were in line to become nearly equal partners within a generation or so.

In Britain, the Scientists fear war with Malaysia.  Malaysia has long had designs on India, which represses a 40% Muslim minority.  They want to invade and set up an Islamic-Controlled state.  Malaysia needs hardwoods and raw materials for its low tech naval campaign and India could be a very useful source.  A long term Imperial alliance with Britain might dissuade Malaysia from saber rattling...or might prompt a pre-emptive attack.  Malaysia has been training and equipping troops at TL4.  Either way many Britons feel it could mean a military commitment that took the blush of British expansion.

The Sudan

One sticking point is the Sudan.  While much farther away from 1848 than India, and much larger than Aden, Sudan has only a tiny minority of British Rulers.  They rule largely in the northern half of the country over an Islamic population, and fight a near constant insurgency, as well as facing encroachment from the independent south.  A peacekeeping deal put the Indian Empire in charge of the North, Malaysia in charge of Eritrea, and the South under its own independent government.  The British can't withdraw, or the face the massacre (or impoverishment) of an old, entrenched, and numerous British population.  And the Sudan is increasingly strategic having a port that links to Aden.  A war with Malaysia would probably open a second front in Eritrea, with the Indian Empire seeking to control the Eritrea gate.

Jamaica

Jamaica presents another issue.  The Indian Empire assumed British Colonial authority to sell Jamaica to the government of New Orleans.  New Orleans no longer governs the territory of New Orleans and forms a separate state, and most local inclinations go against joining the British Empire voluntarily.  Britain disputes that the Indian Empire had any right to dispose of Jamaica...even the Indians are forced to concede that it was done only through a special act of the Indian Parliament, and rests on cloudy legal precedent.  The British Empire has not prosecuted a direct claim against Jamaica.  But it's obviously an option and nobody is clearer about that than President Ambrose Hall.  

Recognition

In general formal recognition of the Indian Empire would fall along the following lines:

* Recognition of the Empire of India.  In 1845 Britain had no uniform policy towards India, governing largely through the British East India Company.  India wants to be recognized as one Imperial Entity.

* An independent status similar to that granted the Dominion of Canada. The legal precedents and structures aren't terribly challenging to the British mind of 1845.  This is vital to the Hindu Majority who do not want to return to strong Colonial oppression.

Lord Martin has delivered a letter to the India Office, which has recently be filled by the Regent.   

Both states start from the bargaining position that they are already parties to an Empire, and that all legal acts "clarify their relationship and rectify temporal anomalies."

* Britain will Pass an act of Parliament declaring the Empire of India, and describing its status as an independent entity with a Viceroy appointed by the Indian House of Lords and *confirmed* by the Regent (i.e. the King can veto a Viceroy but doesn't appoint one).

* India will pass an act officially recognizing that Edward VII is Emperor of India.

The outcome remains to be seen, but may be resolved in a round of meetings during the upcoming JET deployment.