Hello. This is Victoria, Narrative Design Lead of Victoria 3, and today I will be covering the narrative content that will be coming in Pivot of Empire. I will also be covering some important free features which I ran out of space to write about in diary #134.
Pivot of Empire is centred around British India, its progression from the East India Company to the British Raj, and the Indian struggle for independence. It also includes a selection of narrative content for the Sikh Empire, Princely States, and the Mughal Emperor in Delhi. Owners of Pivot of Empire will be able to experience a myriad of historical and alt-historical courses, from a revived Mughal Empire to an all-encompassing Company run according to the principles of Utilitarianism.
Imperialism of Promise
During the early nineteenth century, many of the British East India Company’s administrators were influenced by the works of Jeremy Bentham, the founder of modern utilitarianism. The most notable of these figures is John Stuart Mill, who served as an East India Company administrator for thirty years, famously authoring a tract defending Company rule in the aftermath of the Indian Uprising of 1857. Following his return to Britain after the establishment of crown rule in India, Mill would become one of the most notable proponents of utilitarianism.
Utilitarian principles served as a crucial element in justifying British rule over India to the British populace. James Mill, father of John Stuart Mill and a noteworthy follower of Bentham, was a notable advocate for the British Empire in India, publishing The History of British India in 1817. The idea of India as a stagnant region which required the intervention of a dynamic foreign power to prosper was a common attitude amongst the British administration. In the eyes of the utilitarians, the purpose of the British administration was to rationalise the fundamentally irrational society of India. Ideology based around an imagined dichotomy between a dynamic, rationalist West and a stagnant, irrational East is a persistent theme amongst the European intelligentsia of the Victorian era, most often referred to as “Orientalism”.
Historically, the efforts of the utilitarians were primarily concentrated upon codifying and standardising various aspects of Indian society that had formerly gone unwritten. The traditional Indian reliance upon spoken agreement and personal meetings was anathema to the sensibilities of the British administration, who wished to establish absolute, uncontested control over Indian society whilst simultaneously remaining distant from their subjects. British India was characterised by the tension between the need to maintain Indian intermediaries to govern the subcontinent, and a near-total lack of trust in these intermediaries. In such an environment, the administration developed an obsession with paperwork, which it retreated behind in order to distance itself from what it saw as a chaotic and unpleasant society. This fixation is represented in-game through the traits and ideologies of the East India Company interest group, which was revealed in Dev Diary #134.
For much of its existence, the British administration was split between elements which wished to govern by making use of traditional Indian institutions, and those who sought to impose British systems of governance on Indian society. The utilitarian administrators of the East India Company, with their ambitious social reform programs and dreams of benevolent despotism, represented the latter tendency. The government of the British Raj immediately following the Indian Uprising [also referred to as the Sepoy Mutiny] largely represented the former.
The utilitarian administrators are represented by the Utilitarian ideology, which favours a variety of ambitious bureaucratic and social reforms. Utilitarians are connected to the Utilitarian movement, which may appear for any country with the English, Australian, or Anglo-Canadian primary cultures.
The East India Company has a Utilitarian movement at game start, which has a support base largely consisting of European bureaucrats and other Company officials. In a colony such as India, the Utilitarian movement has great difficulty attracting support outside of the administration itself.
If the Utilitarian movement acquires sufficient support amongst the members of an interest group, said interest group is said to be pressured by the movement. A pressured interest group gains the ability to generate leaders with the movement’s ideologies, as well as promoting agitators supporting this movement to leadership positions.
If the East India Company gets a Utilitarian leader, either through random generation or promoting a character such as John Stuart Mill, it will become immensely more receptive to various progressive reforms. However, the utilitarians are deeply unpopular with the Indian population, and their relentless drive to impose their vision upon society will deepen tensions between the colonial government and the Indian populace.
The presence of a notable utilitarian reformer within British India will trigger the Imperialism of Promise journal entry, which covers the efforts of the utilitarian administrators to realise their ideological goals. It will require an enormous expansion of the colonial bureaucracy to complete, as well as passing numerous reforms. These reforms are based on historical policies advocated for by the Company’s utilitarian administrators.
The Indian Penal Code of 1860, the first codified all-Indian system of law, was a utilitarian project incorporating various proposals by James Mill. Another utilitarian, Thomas Macaulay, served as one of the framers of both the Penal Code and the British Indian education system. Despite being drafted prior to the start of the game under Company rule, it took twenty-five years for it to be finalised and enacted by the government of the British Raj. The Penal Code nominally abolished slavery within India, although the practice remained widespread until the twentieth century.
Other notable utilitarian reforms in India include the abolition of Sati and the creation of the English education system under Lord Bentinck, and the legalisation of the remarriage of widows under Lord Dalhousie.
Historically, the projects of the utilitarians fell short of their goals, unable to overcome the contradiction between the administration’s desire for uncontested control and its unwillingness to trust non-Europeans. Despite their enormous bureaucracy, vast railway networks, and unparalleled capacity for violence, the British never truly managed to secure supreme political power in India. Outside of the employment of violent measures, their ability to effectively and sustainably govern India was relatively limited. The outbreak of the Indian Uprising in 1857 and the end of Company rule shifted the priorities of the British administration–the utilitarian outlook of reforming Indian society mostly fell out of fashion, and the Raj shifted towards a more conservative sort of administration that made greater use of Indian intermediaries and traditional institutions in its governance.
If one can complete this journal entry, however, they will have successfully realised the utilitarians’ vision for India–an all-encompassing bureaucracy devoted to codifying, rationalising, and anglicising all aspects of life across the subcontinent.
Indian Nationalism
Once pan-nationalism is researched by British India, it will become eligible for the Indian National Movement. This is a unique political movement which represents Indian secular nationalist organisations such as the Indian National Congress. It has the Sovereignist ideology, which favours basic civil liberties, equal rights for native Indians, and policing laws that institutionally favour Indian landowners over the colonial government.
The Indian National Movement represents the more secular form of Indian nationalism that characterised organisations such as the Indian National Congress. India also has movements that represent the explicitly Hindu and Muslim nationalist movements, which will be addressed later in this dev diary under “Communal Divides”.
An astute observer may note that the movement cares about more than just law stances. Political movements may now possess scripted factors which adjust their Activism in various directions according to any condition one may think of. In the case of the Indian national movement, having a high liberty desire increases their activism, as does being a less autonomous subject type. If British India can achieve Dominion status, this will appease the Indian national movement just as much as possessing a favourable law will.
The Indian Home Rule journal entry represents the initial demands of the Indian national movement - improved status within the British imperial system, and later the granting of self-government to India. Whilst steps in the direction of self-government were taken historically, these measures were only implemented after the Amritsar Massacre of 1919 had turned the Indian nationalist movement towards full independence.
Whilst the Indian Home Rule journal entry is active, the government of British India will be able to petition the British government for permission to democratise its administration. The chances of success will be determined by the progress bar, which represents the level of trust that Britain has in India. Poor relations with Britain will harm its progress, as will famines or aggressive governments on either side.
Once the Home Rule journal entry appears, Britain will receive a journal entry interfacing with it. If the British AI feels that its rule over India will be threatened if reform is not carried out, it will be inclined to press these buttons, creating an Indian legislature and democratic elections for such.
However, if a civil war of any kind breaks out, or if the Activism of the Indian national movement rises above 50%, British soldiers will fire on the protestors, and India will be sent into a downward spiral.
Once the Amritsar Massacre occurs, all hope for reconciliation between British administrators and Indian subjects is over, and the only option left for the British authorities is to hold onto India for as long as possible whilst trying to avert civil war. The Indian Nation journal entry will persist until the Indian national movement is marginalised, or India has been granted independence.
If a civil war breaks out in India whilst India possesses the Indian Nation journal entry, Britain will be inclined to pull its agents out of India and either leave the subcontinent to collapse, or hand over governance to whoever the rebel leader is. The former option will create an absolute mess in the formerly British-controlled regions for the newly-independent Indian state to deal with, whilst the latter will give the revolt control over all of India.
A British evacuation does not always signal the end for the Raj. In some circumstances, the British administration may choose to take a third option, and ignore the British call for withdrawal.
Pivot of Empire also includes numerous events related to the Indian national movement, such as the famous Salt March and various other actions carried out by Indian nationalists against British rule.
Communal Divides
Once you advance sufficiently into the game, and as ethno-religious identities start to emerge and solidify, you will have to contend with the growing issue of Hindu-Muslim intercommunal tensions. Juggling the political interests and desires of these two groups will not be an easy task, and you will periodically get events that complicate it even further.
As long as the Communal Divides journal entry is active, radicals from discrimination and attraction to religious nationalist political movements will be increased, so resolving the issue will quickly become a priority.
An Indian federation, wherein Muslim majority states will be granted autonomy will be one way to tackle the issue, but reneging on the promise of autonomy later on will result in massive unrest in your country’s Muslim population.
The Dravidian Movement
The early twentieth century in British India saw the emergence of several popular movements opposing caste discrimination. The Dravidian Movement began in opposition to the dominance of Brahmins in the administration of the Madras Presidency, and eventually led to the establishment of caste-based reservations in Madras.
The British East India Company starts with the Caste Not Enforced law, to represent the yet-uncodified status of the caste system in the 1830s. Once the British Raj is established, the Caste System Codified law is automatically enacted, representing the efforts of British administrators to codify the caste system nationwide in the aftermath of the Indian Uprising of 1857. The incorporation of native Indians into the Indian Civil Service under the British Raj was, historically, enormously skewed towards Brahmins. This inequality sets the stage for the future Dravidian Movement.
The Dravidian Movement journal entry covers more than the historical Dravidian Movement. To expand the scope of this narrative from the Madras Presidency to all of India, we have wrapped several other historical anti-caste movements into this journal entry, such as the the Self-Respect Movement of Erode Venkatappa Ramasamy [or Periyar] and Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar’s “annihilation of caste”.
Whilst the Dravidian Movement is active, events pertaining to the struggle against caste discrimination will periodically appear in British India.
The Non-Cooperation Movement
The historical Non-Cooperation Movement was a movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi in 1919, with the goal of achieving Indian independence through refusing cooperation with British authorities. Whilst the Non-Cooperation Movement was not the first major movement towards Indian independence, the variety of strategies used by the movement and its massive scale makes it particularly interesting to portray.
The distant and paranoid nature of the British colonial administration made the creation of Indian-dominated parallel power structures necessary for the functioning of Indian society. The unwillingness of the administration to extend trust to its Indian subjects led to a cycle of abdication of traditional governing responsibilities, breakdown of social structures, social unrest, and violent reprisals to reassert authority in the wake of this unrest. In response to the breakdown of social structures in regions of India, organisations such as the Arya Samaj established parallel school systems and informal governing institutions. In the absence of a reliable central government, self-reliance facilitated by various non-governmental groups became necessary.
The necessity of self-reliance formed the base for the first Swadeshi movement, which occurred in the late nineteenth century. Indian nationalists established independent banks to provide capital to nationalist enterprises, boycotted British goods, and encouraged the development of both Indian handicraft enterprises and modern manufacturing industries. The principles of the Swadeshi movement in terms of reducing India’s reliance on foreign goods were incorporated into the standard strategy of the Indian independence movement, and served as a notable component of the Non-Cooperation Movement.
Other strategies employed by the Non-Cooperation movement included strikes and picketing of British-owned enterprises, the resignation of Indian civil servants from their positions, and the renunciation of awards granted by the British administration. Whilst there are some notable cases such as Rabindranath Tagore’s renunciation of his knighthood, the latter measures were relatively ineffective, with elite Indians often being unwilling to renounce their titles and awards. The Swadeshi measures, however, formed the most effective component of the movement’s strategy. We have thus chosen to focus primarily upon these measures in this journal entry.
The Non-Cooperation Movement journal entry serves as a midpoint between the Indian Home Rule journal entry and the Indian Nation journal entry. The Amritsar Massacre and the Indian Nation triggers at 50% activism for the Indian National Movement, whilst this journal entry triggers at 35% activism. If this journal entry appears, a British India player can treat it as a warning of the Indian National Movement stepping up its activities towards independence.
The Non-Cooperation Movement has different objectives, depending on whether India has been granted its own market by Britain or not. In the former case, the Non-Cooperation Movement will focus on attempting to make a British trade route exporting goods to India unprofitable. In the latter, it will focus on reducing India’s economic dependence upon Britain.
Whilst this journal entry is active, events pertaining to the movement’s various actions will occasionally appear. The below event threatens the tax and tariff revenues in a given state, as Swadeshi measures encourage greater self-sufficiency. Other events pertain to hartals, or work stoppages, and boycotts against British goods.
If the activism of the Indian national movement reaches 75%, the Non-Cooperation Movement will spiral into bloodshed, and the Indian national movement will suffer a temporary decrease in its attraction. This event refers to the historical Chauri Chaura incident, where an angry mob burned down a police station hosting officers that had broken a picket line at a liquor store. Following this incident, Gandhi ordered a halt to the movement. This hasty truce is often regarded as stopping a violent uprising across British India.
Indian Famines
It’s difficult to find a more contentious topic than famine in India. Theories stressing environmental causes inherent to India’s ecology have clashed with more political explanations for decades now, and it’s safe to say that the matter is far from settled. We have tried our best to incorporate both of these perspectives in the content surrounding them.
Famines, now a mechanic described in earlier Development Diaries, will impact India as they will other places. Should you mismanage your affairs to the point where multiple states are suffering from a famine, a local food scarcity issue can end up becoming a source of political friction, in the form of the Indian Famines Journal Entry, negatively affecting other Indian content such as the Indian Home Rule Journal Entry for as long as it is active.
Surely nothing bad will come of this
The name of this crisis / Journal Entry is dependent on where in India famine-conditions have taken hold. The Southern India Famine or the Bombay Famine will plague their respective regions, while if you manage to screw things up sufficiently you might get hit with a Great Indian Famine instead, spanning most of the subcontinent.
To counteract the negative effects of the famine, and help it end faster, a series of famine relief decisions can be taken by the player, though choosing to do so will come at considerable cost to the treasury.
Indian Railways
One of the most evocative symbols of the British period in India is the Indian railway system. Railway construction in India began in the late 1830s and grew in pace over time. Prior to 1854, railway construction was largely ad-hoc, with the East India Company commissioning various private enterprises to construct railways, canals, and roads on a case-by-case basis. The opinion of the government with regards to infrastructure was that it was a matter for private industry.
The East India Company’s creation of the Public Works Department in 1854 centralised the development of infrastructure under a single body, and the establishment of British-supported technical universities created cadres of trained civil engineers, both British and Indian. However, the initial focus of the Department was on irrigation and canal-building. Major state interest in railway construction only emerged after the Indian Uprising of 1857. This emerging interest is exemplified by an essay written by John Stuart Mill, in which the Company’s infrastructure investments are used as a justification for its rule over India. Whilst Mill failed to defend the Company against the nationalisation of its territories, his arguments were later adopted by the British government as a source of legitimacy for the British Raj.
To the British administration, the development of railways in India served as a tangible metric for progress made in “civilising” the Indian landscape–and, by extension, its populace. In this way, they served a dual purpose, bolstering the hard power of the state by relocating soldiers and armaments, whilst also reinforcing the ideological justification for colonial rule. From its humble beginnings in the immediate aftermath of the Indian Uprising, the rate of railway construction accelerated enormously over the next few decades.
The Purveyor of Progress and Victoria Terminus journal entries serve to encourage the development of the Indian railway network to its historical extent, and construct a new monument added with Pivot of Empire - the Victoria Terminus.
The Victoria Terminus, now known as the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, was constructed in Bombay, now Mumbai, to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887. The Terminus grants prestige and increased railway throughput by default. It also has a wonderful 3D model once completed.
Sikh Sovereignty
The Sikh Empire, or Khalsa Raj, is a relatively young country. Historically, it lasted for fifty years, from its foundation in 1799 to its defeat in the Second Anglo-Sikh War in 1849. The last years of the Empire, following the death of its founder, Ranjit Singh, were marked by a series of explosive internal conflicts which led to the deaths of numerous Maharajas and the catastrophic weakening of the state. The Sikh Sovereignty journal entry captures this drama. Ranjit Singh’s successors must race to cement their rule, whilst staying ahead of the murderous plots which decapitated the Sikh court time and time again.
Whilst Ranjit Singh remains alive, the intrigue of the court will remain suppressed. However, once he is deceased, factions within the court will be free to make their bids for power. First amongst them is the scheming Wazir of the Sikh Empire, Dhian Singh. Dhian Singh was plausibly responsible for the deaths of two Maharajas, leading a palace coup against Kharak Singh and having him poisoned soon after taking the throne in 1839. Nau Nihal Singh, Kharak’s son and successor, was killed under suspicious circumstances on the day after his father’s funeral.
The progress of the plots against the reigning Maharaja is represented by the Court Intrigue progress bar, which ticks up whilst certain factors are in play. Ruthless and Ambitious characters, such as Dhian Singh, can contribute enormously to the Intrigue bar if displeased - it is best to keep them satisfied by enacting laws they prefer.
Once the Intrigue bar reaches 100%, the reigning Maharaja will meet a grisly end, and be replaced by another candidate. If mismanaged, this journal entry can lead to a carousel of short-lived Maharajas coming to the throne, and being assassinated in short order.
Historically, the cycle of assassinations continued until the accession of the five-year-old Duleep Singh to the throne. The regency of his mother, Jind Kaur, was marked by several coups and coup attempts, followed by her forceful replacement by the British in the aftermath of the First Anglo-Sikh War. Following the dissolution of the Empire, Duleep was brought into the custody of the British, converting to Christianity in 1853. He was sent to Britain in 1854, where he served as a courtier of Queen Victoria for several years before reverting to Sikhism.
If a Maharaja can both successfully cement his rule and retain the Empire’s independence, this fate can be averted, and the cycle of brutal power struggles brought to an end. An independent and stable Sikh Empire in the hands of a skilled player is in a prime position to dominate Central Asia, and potentially take advantage of the Indian Uprising to expand their sphere into the heart of India.
The Prisoner of the Red Fort
The Mughal Empire of the year 1836 is an Empire in name only. Following the return of Shah Alam II to Delhi under British escort following the Second Anglo-Maratha War, the Mughal Emperor has been rendered a vassal of the Company in all but name. Lacking military forces and any serious ability to raise revenue, his influence over India is now limited to status as a cultural symbol.
On paper, the Company is a zamindar and protector of the Mughal Emperor, formally existing within the existing Indian social system rather than supplanting it. This arrangement grants the Company legitimacy in the eyes of conservative elements within Indian society, and serves to align allegiance with the Mughals to allegiance with the Company. This arrangement is best summarised with a mantra repeated by town criers in the North of India: "Creation belongs to God, the country is the Emperor's, and administration the Company's". When the Indian Uprising broke out in 1857, it was the Emperor in Delhi the rebels turned to as the figurehead of the rebellion.
The Prisoner of the Red Fort journal entry for Hindustan is active from the start of the game, and covers the plight of the Mughal court following the British assumption of the role of protector.
Historically, the Mughal court had a tendency of drawing upon British authority to resolve various internal disputes, greatly sapping any pretence of political independence they may have possessed. Whilst this journal entry is active, it will periodically fire events related to the Court’s activities, allowing a Hindustan player to either lean into the British for various bonuses, or stay aloof.
If Hindustan can successfully break free from the East India Company, whether through the Indian Uprising or other means, it will be able to leverage the position of the Emperor to assume an advantageous position in the post-Company subcontinent.
Princely State Content
Over the course of the British conquest of India, many local rulers chose to sign subsidiary alliances with the British. The circumstances under which this occurred were varied–many of the Gujarati princely states were a result of local rulers seeking separate peace amidst the Anglo-Maratha Wars, whilst Hyderabad signed a subsidiary alliance with the British following the assassination of the leader of its French Revolutionary garrison. In the British imperial system, the rulers that signed these subsidiary alliances were referred to as “princes”, and their territories as “princely states”.
The precise conditions of the subsidiary alliances signed by the princely states varied from state to state. Different states were extended different privileges–as a rule, the British possessed total control over their foreign affairs, but the level of influence Britain possessed over their internal affairs varied. Particularly prestigious princely states, such as Hyderabad, Baroda, and Gwalior, warranted twenty-one gun salutes and had direct political relations with the central government of the British Raj, whilst smaller states were organised under regional agencies. During the period of Company rule, the Company repeatedly invoked the Doctrine of Lapse, which permitted for the annexation of any princely state which lacked a biological male heir. The most notable princely states annexed in this manner were Awadh and Jhansi, the latter of which was temporarily re-established by the famous Rani Lakshmibai during the Indian Uprising.
Historically, the vast majority of the princely states remained loyal to Britain for the entire period they were under a subsidiary alliance, with some princes sending soldiers to repress the Indian Uprising of 1857. However, exceptions existed, such as the case of the Nawab of Kurnool’s plot to align with Persia to expel the British from India. A handful of princely states aligned with the Mughal Emperor during the Indian Uprising, and were annexed once the rebellion was defeated. With the Struggle for Sovereignty journal entry, a princely state player may choose to take a similar path.
The Struggle for Sovereignty journal entry may be pursued with the Seek Sovereignty decision, which is unlocked by researching the Romanticism tech, and having high legitimacy and liberty desire. This journal entry comes with a modifier that provides a minor bonus to liberty desire gain and research speed.
Whilst active, this journal entry will trigger various events flavoured for the princely states, covering opportunities to orient oneself towards or away from the British.
If a princely state can succeed in gaining independence through this journal entry–a difficult feat, barring certain circumstances–they will be rewarded with the opportunity to grow their power and prestige even further.
Military Assistance
In Update 1.8, nations which have researched General Staff will be able to dispatch Military Assistance to friendly nations under threat. Military Assistance grants bonuses to the military performance of the nation receiving aid and experience gain for both sides of the pact, at the cost of more expensive military goods for the country providing the assistance. This pact can be useful to sway the outcome of a close war in one’s favour. Effects shown in the image are WIP.
Military Assistance pacts will be available for free to all players in Update 1.8.
And that is all. Thank you for reading. Next week, Douglas will cover the new 3D art for Pivot of Empire.
