India

India
Government type	HM's Government
Ruling party	National Congress Party (Conservative)
Capital	Calcutta
Population	Overall pop: 97.21M Adult male pop: 24.30M Primary/accepted pop: 12.35M
Primary culture	Marathi
Accepted cultures	Kanauji, Bihari, Avadhi, Tamil
Religion	Varies depending on forming nation. (Either Sunni, Shiite, Sikh, Mahayana or Hindu)
Literacy	10%
National value	Equality
Tech school	N/A
Status	Primitive

Most of the Indian subcontinent are controlled either by the British directly or the British puppets.

India is one the biggest and potentially powerful countries in the entire game. Covering its own entire subcontinent, multiple acceptable cultures with millions of Pops, it can potentially be the dominant power in all aspects of the game. That future is however far away. The biggest hindrance to success is that the most of India is initially controlled either by United Kingdom directly or the British puppets. Panjab and Sindh (and potentially other Indian nations) can form India if it gain access to all of its cores. It is not an easy task to form India but it is very lucrative and India can easily turn out to be the most powerful nation at 1936 with both an enormous population (soldiers and craftsmen) and significant RGO production for both export and industrialization. With Avadhi, Bihari, Tamil and Kanauji as Accepted Cultures, India has a large pool of potential Capitalists to build up Industry with.

Releasing India

The easiest way to play India is to release it from the UK at the beginning. The released India is uncivilized in 1836, but will have a relatively easy time westernizing thanks to the vast army it can field, and the much smaller foothold Great Britain will have in the region. Taking over nations like Makran and Sindh once India has at least one of the first four military reforms will allow it to modernize very quickly. Once Westernized, India will have to fight several wars against the United Kingdom to free the Indian minor puppet states. Once they are free, you have a free Restore Order Casus Belli on every one of them. Alternatively, you can avoid the infamy from using "release puppet" if you become a Great Power as India, as sphereing the Indian puppet nations (plus Nepal) will eventually result in an annexation event.

However, Britain is aware of this and will fight extremely hard to maintain her puppets, so influence technology is advised if you are to take this route. There is also a chance in the mid-game that rebels (such as communist or anarcho-liberal) will take control of an Indian minor state, which effectively frees them from British rule and allows you to invade.

Forming India

A harder (but more rewarding) way to play as India is the form the nation by one of the independent Indian nations. Sindh, Panjab, Makran, Sikkim and Nepal are available from 1836 to do so. The nation chosen will need to westernize and fight off the British Empire for the Indian core regions.

Alternatively, as the 1870s arrive with Revolution & Counterrevolution, Great Britain will be plagued with rebels within the British Raj, which will force them to release Indian minors you can puppet or annex for RGOs.

Note that if India is formed by pan-nationalist rebels it will have significantly more accepted cultures than by forming it by decision.

Post formation

India has very good RGOs for a textile industry. It has dye, cotton and wool in abundance. Additionally it has more potential workers, than India could ever employ. Every time a factory opens, two more is needed. Lots of textile mills and luxury clothes factories are a safe bet for an industry.

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  A graphic of all Indian core provinces in 1836, with Panjab representing non-core provinces in states with core provinces.

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  A graphic of all provinces with a majority primary/accepted culture of India in 1836. Panjab represents provinces where a different culture is the majority of the population.

Countries