I think India needs a series of thorough changes. Let me show you what I think.
REGION
First of all, provinces/states of India are wrong to begin with. They are too large, have bad nomenclature (Indore is not a region for example), have completely wrong borders
And to add to that, when India splits into multiple nations, Pakistan gains parts of Punjab it never had, due to the same wrong borders. Many mods got them right, so they should also be fixed in the base game.
Meanwhile, implementing the weird British-created provinces of India would result in an absolute mess. Too many of them are there and princely states cannot be represented properly either, even if some of their borders are present.
I think traditional provinces of India should be implemented. Provinces had been the mainstay of every Indian empire (including the British colonial one) and since 12th and 13th century they have remained relatively similar.
These include:
- Rajputana
- Dilli (capital city and large area immediately to the east, proposed as Harit Pradesh area today)
- Bundelkhand
- Baghelkhand (can be combined with above)
- Malwa
- Mahakaushal
- Maharashtra
- Vidarbh
- Jharkhand
- Odisha
- Bastar (modern day Chhatisgarh state)
- Tamil Nadu
- Telangana
- Andhra
- Karnata
- Kerala
- Lanka (called Ceylon by British) + Maldives
- West Bengal
- East Bengal
- Awadh
- Bihar
- Bhojpur
- Assam
- Border states of the east (call it Purvanchal or something)
- Arunachal
- West Punjab
- East Punjab
- Haryana
- Nepal (divide it into two)
- Bhutan
- Sikkim
- Kashmir
- Ladakh (separate from Kashmir, common misconception that they are same because they were combined into one province by Sikh Empire and then British)
- Sindh
- Balochistan
- Pakhtunwa/Pashtunistan (bordering Afghanistan)
Each of them has decent amount of population. That way, India is on-par with China in terms of provinces and industrial potential (only behind in terms of actual infrastructure in place in 1936/39, which takes time to correct but isn't too hard) and can potentialy become as strong as early-mid-game Germany if player works really hard.
____________________________________________________________________
VICTORY POINTS
Similarly, a nation this size would never be that easy to conquer. The British only managed to occupy India because Indian rulers, former imperial governors etc. were willing to side with them to crush their rivals only for both of them to be played off until they became weak and relegated to vassalage/princely state status.
This game takes place in a time where political importance of Indian kings and princely states almost became non-existent, and nationalist movement, grassroots campaigns and popular uprisings replaced and overrode their influence...led by people like Gandhi, Nehru, Jinnah and a whole lot of others.
If Japan, Germany, Soviets or anyone else invaded India, they would need to wage an ideology war (Axis tried this a lot in India, actually) instead of allying with kings and using them to conquer the rest like British did in 1818 and 1858.
So, each of those provinces I mentioned above, should have provincial capitals as victory points. Except for Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai/Madras, all of them should be small in number.
That way, India won't be a pushover and while it will remain less important compared to other major theaters, anyone invading India will have to conquer large parts of the subcontinent to force it to capitulate. For example if Japan manages to hold and defend all the major and minor port cities of India, they will only have to capture a bunch of inland provinces before India collapses...but if Soviets invade from the northwest by land, they will have to capture a large part of the Gangetic plain before the same thing happens.
____________________________________________________________________
INDUSTRY
Now, for a region that had potential for industrialization at a decent speed (or very fast if certain circumstances had been right), there is a need for more factory slots. Raw resources were/are abundant, the labour market was huge. What India lacked was infrastructure, and intentionally (and often fatally) restrictive policies of the British, that prevented any industrialization and disallowed any and all agriculatural reforms, which led to mass deaths.
It was British doctrine since 1919 that arms be produced in India for Indian troops, rather than be imported from Britain as was policy since 1833. This came after experience from WW1 where the British couldn't equip enough Indian divisions as most of the resources were directed to European theater.
That means India should have more factories to arm itself. Sure, technology of gun production was outdated, but industrial capacity wasn't. And the game allows player and AI to fix that.
By the endgame, India should be a major power under the AI, and an industrial and economic powerhouse if player manages well.
____________________________________________________________________
ARMY
The Raj should really get a bit more manpower. I know that modifier restricting manpower represents the fact that British were afraid to create a large army in India (or allow Indian officers in it), because it would start siding with Indian revolutionaries...which it later did.
But at the present, colonial India becomes helpless the moment Japan reaches Burma. Even in jungles at the eastern border of India, they are steamrolled.
Also, there should be two different phases of the army based on which way the player goes:
- The colonial Indian army that serves the British, uses British-style equipment and training. They would mostly lack any real combat power until war breaks out, after which they exist solely to serve British campaigns abroad and defend Indian frontiers. As already said, this army would have some major limits, and the only actual Indian commanders would be from event or such, rest would all be British.
- Independent Indian army. This would be absolutely enormous, have access to near limitless manpower just like China, and would be well supported by whatever side you are on. Uses bought equipment at first, and then switches to Indian weapons as India becomes an industrial powerhouse by the late game.
As for focuses, this should be joined with naval focus (see below for more details). A player going down the army path should have an exclusive tree that relates to each of the four doctrines. Ability to stay as a British style army with planning and command doctrine, focus on mass combat (bonus if communist), focus on mobility and armoured warfare (if allied with Germany), and so on.
Each of these trees will bring India on par with rest of the world in one chosen field. Either infantry, or armour, or support and such. The rest, player will have to research himself.
I suppose more unit-granting focuses would be nice too.
Oh and did I mention generals and admirals? We need more commanders and Indian portraits, and removal of European generals except existing ones after independence. And a far better naming because Indian names have been severely lacking in every Paradox game I've played.
And yes, there is also a need for Indian division names in Hindi once independence is achieved. Paradox could try to contract a historian and linguist for that terminology issue.
____________________________________________________________________
AIR FORCE & NAVY
First of all, within the game timeframe India is essentially reeling from over a century of colonial horror and having been exploitated to death. It doesn't have the resources to focus on both army and navy at once. Which is why, halfway down the focus tree, the player will have to choose either to strengthen India's army, or go for India's navy. In simple words, the army and navy tree should be connected.
This is important because India's long shoreline and central location requires a good navy, while at the same time not having a good army would be unthinkable.
The naval focuses should start off as colonial (and give the usual experience points/doctrine bonus), but divide into two branches afterwards. First branch focuses on how India handles its navy and tactics (much like carrier VS capital and other such things for France and Britain), second branch focuses on how India builds its navy. These would be 2-3 mutually exclusive choices, like:
- A money oriented navy - India buys ships from all over the world. From Britain, France, America, Soviet Union, and even Japan if oriented towards Axis. This allows India to build up a huge navy very rapidly, but that also means having to service and use older designs and paying up. Quantity instead of quality here.
- A naval buildup - India builds its navy from scratch, by itself, using its own resources. It doesn't rely on foreign designs or have to buy off outdated ships, but takes a lot of time. This would grant research bonuses and unlock ship types, but no production bonuses until later down in the same branch. Ships turn out great but only a small, strong navy can be built with focus tree's help.
- Both buying and building - A mix of the above two. India buys off ships from other countries around the world, but also produces many of its own. Historically, this is how India went later on, producing small ships by itself while buying off carriers, cruisers and submarines. This path should put India as a decently powerful naval nation by the last year or two in the game.
As for air force, Indian air force should rely almost entirely on foreign design until very late into the game. That means focus that make India ask allies on any side to help out in research, purchase blueprints and establish a few foreign factories, create a mix of plane models from all major countries (instead of just British ones) in the tech tree, and a few fictional/generic ones for the last few years.
The focus tree for air force should be either about fighters or bombers, and one of them should grant bonuses to paratroopers down the line as well.
____________________________________________________________________
FOCUS TREE AND POLITICS
I agree, it is bland right now. There is just "be communist and get rekt" or "be fascist and get rekt", or "be a democracy, break yourself up and get bored" for its path.
There needs to be a compromise focus tree where India remains united in exchange for retaining the Zamindari lordship system (it was a primary point of contention that impacted in India's splinter in 1947). Zamindari would force major unrest and significantly lower stability and war support, but allow India to eventually come out united. Later in the same tree, Zamindars would slowly be suppressed and eventually by late game, India would emerge as a fully unified.
There also needs to be focus to take over Nepal, Lanka & Maldives. Especially if India goes fascist and thus irredentist. Nepal was an Indian state in all but name because originally, they were a kingdom large (and remote, and economically less useful) enough that British left them more autonomous than any other princely state.
And being in the same hostile and warlike fascist tree, there would be an option to expand into Afghanistan (for protecting frontiers and preventing a repeat of 1761 disaster, or other such reasoning etc.), vassalizing Persia and Thailand, attacking British Middle East bases.
No matter which tree taken, Goa and Pondicherry would be annexed back into India from Portugal and France respectively.
The industrial focus tree should have India getting help from its allies to industrialize. Slow process in the early game, with sudden expansion in the mid-game and large-scale industrialization and research by late game where it comes on par with technology of the rest of the world.
Personally I want a "reestablish Indian Empire" focus tree branch, where Britain is driven out and one of the major or influential kings in India becomes Emperor of India. The advisors available are all Nawabs, Nizams, Rajkumars (princes), Rajas and Maharajas and all the descendents of the 18th century elite of Indian society. You know, like in some parts of Kaiserreich.
The restored imperial monarchy option would result in a unified, warlike India coming back from the EU4 days. But frequently receive events about internal disputes between governors and rulers, and cause major civil unrest. And weak to foreign ideological sabotage because ruling monarchy will be a non-aligned party (so they'll spend extra time and effort keeping peace). If the player handles it well, India would well become the most powerful monarchy in the game after a while with later focuses.
And there should be elections in case India comes out a democracy at the cost of splintering into pieces like in real history.
____________________________________________________________________
RENAMING STUFF
Lastly, the British applied a lot of weird terminology and nomenclature to India. Much of it was immediately removed after independence (some of it unfortunately remains today). So India should automatically rename cities, regions and such to actual local pronunciation if Britain loses control.
For example -
- Calcutta -> Kolkata
- Delhi -> Dilli
- Oudh -> Awadh
- Madras -> Chennai
- Madras region -> Tamil Nadu
- Bombay -> Mumbai
- Bombay region -> Maharashtra
- Bengal -> Bangala
- North West Frontier Province -> Pakhtunwa
- North East Frontier Province -> Arunachal
- Howrah -> Havara
- Sind -> Sindh
- Cashmere -> Kashmir
- Srinagore -> Shrinagar
- Jabbalpore -> Jabalpur
- Bangalore -> Bangaluru
- Hyderabad -> Haidarabad
- Lucknow -> Lakhnau
- Ceylon -> Lanka
- Pondicherry -> Puduccheri or Pandiccheri
- Goa -> Gopak/Gova
- India -> Bharat (optional)
...and so on.
I can't put my finger on politics and focus trees about Indian independence. They aren't that good right now, but other players might suggest better than me in this regard on how to improve them.
REGION
First of all, provinces/states of India are wrong to begin with. They are too large, have bad nomenclature (Indore is not a region for example), have completely wrong borders
And to add to that, when India splits into multiple nations, Pakistan gains parts of Punjab it never had, due to the same wrong borders. Many mods got them right, so they should also be fixed in the base game.
Meanwhile, implementing the weird British-created provinces of India would result in an absolute mess. Too many of them are there and princely states cannot be represented properly either, even if some of their borders are present.
I think traditional provinces of India should be implemented. Provinces had been the mainstay of every Indian empire (including the British colonial one) and since 12th and 13th century they have remained relatively similar.
These include:
- Rajputana
- Dilli (capital city and large area immediately to the east, proposed as Harit Pradesh area today)
- Bundelkhand
- Baghelkhand (can be combined with above)
- Malwa
- Mahakaushal
- Maharashtra
- Vidarbh
- Jharkhand
- Odisha
- Bastar (modern day Chhatisgarh state)
- Tamil Nadu
- Telangana
- Andhra
- Karnata
- Kerala
- Lanka (called Ceylon by British) + Maldives
- West Bengal
- East Bengal
- Awadh
- Bihar
- Bhojpur
- Assam
- Border states of the east (call it Purvanchal or something)
- Arunachal
- West Punjab
- East Punjab
- Haryana
- Nepal (divide it into two)
- Bhutan
- Sikkim
- Kashmir
- Ladakh (separate from Kashmir, common misconception that they are same because they were combined into one province by Sikh Empire and then British)
- Sindh
- Balochistan
- Pakhtunwa/Pashtunistan (bordering Afghanistan)
Each of them has decent amount of population. That way, India is on-par with China in terms of provinces and industrial potential (only behind in terms of actual infrastructure in place in 1936/39, which takes time to correct but isn't too hard) and can potentialy become as strong as early-mid-game Germany if player works really hard.
____________________________________________________________________
VICTORY POINTS
Similarly, a nation this size would never be that easy to conquer. The British only managed to occupy India because Indian rulers, former imperial governors etc. were willing to side with them to crush their rivals only for both of them to be played off until they became weak and relegated to vassalage/princely state status.
This game takes place in a time where political importance of Indian kings and princely states almost became non-existent, and nationalist movement, grassroots campaigns and popular uprisings replaced and overrode their influence...led by people like Gandhi, Nehru, Jinnah and a whole lot of others.
If Japan, Germany, Soviets or anyone else invaded India, they would need to wage an ideology war (Axis tried this a lot in India, actually) instead of allying with kings and using them to conquer the rest like British did in 1818 and 1858.
So, each of those provinces I mentioned above, should have provincial capitals as victory points. Except for Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai/Madras, all of them should be small in number.
That way, India won't be a pushover and while it will remain less important compared to other major theaters, anyone invading India will have to conquer large parts of the subcontinent to force it to capitulate. For example if Japan manages to hold and defend all the major and minor port cities of India, they will only have to capture a bunch of inland provinces before India collapses...but if Soviets invade from the northwest by land, they will have to capture a large part of the Gangetic plain before the same thing happens.
____________________________________________________________________
INDUSTRY
Now, for a region that had potential for industrialization at a decent speed (or very fast if certain circumstances had been right), there is a need for more factory slots. Raw resources were/are abundant, the labour market was huge. What India lacked was infrastructure, and intentionally (and often fatally) restrictive policies of the British, that prevented any industrialization and disallowed any and all agriculatural reforms, which led to mass deaths.
It was British doctrine since 1919 that arms be produced in India for Indian troops, rather than be imported from Britain as was policy since 1833. This came after experience from WW1 where the British couldn't equip enough Indian divisions as most of the resources were directed to European theater.
That means India should have more factories to arm itself. Sure, technology of gun production was outdated, but industrial capacity wasn't. And the game allows player and AI to fix that.
By the endgame, India should be a major power under the AI, and an industrial and economic powerhouse if player manages well.
____________________________________________________________________
ARMY
The Raj should really get a bit more manpower. I know that modifier restricting manpower represents the fact that British were afraid to create a large army in India (or allow Indian officers in it), because it would start siding with Indian revolutionaries...which it later did.
But at the present, colonial India becomes helpless the moment Japan reaches Burma. Even in jungles at the eastern border of India, they are steamrolled.
Also, there should be two different phases of the army based on which way the player goes:
- The colonial Indian army that serves the British, uses British-style equipment and training. They would mostly lack any real combat power until war breaks out, after which they exist solely to serve British campaigns abroad and defend Indian frontiers. As already said, this army would have some major limits, and the only actual Indian commanders would be from event or such, rest would all be British.
- Independent Indian army. This would be absolutely enormous, have access to near limitless manpower just like China, and would be well supported by whatever side you are on. Uses bought equipment at first, and then switches to Indian weapons as India becomes an industrial powerhouse by the late game.
As for focuses, this should be joined with naval focus (see below for more details). A player going down the army path should have an exclusive tree that relates to each of the four doctrines. Ability to stay as a British style army with planning and command doctrine, focus on mass combat (bonus if communist), focus on mobility and armoured warfare (if allied with Germany), and so on.
Each of these trees will bring India on par with rest of the world in one chosen field. Either infantry, or armour, or support and such. The rest, player will have to research himself.
I suppose more unit-granting focuses would be nice too.
Oh and did I mention generals and admirals? We need more commanders and Indian portraits, and removal of European generals except existing ones after independence. And a far better naming because Indian names have been severely lacking in every Paradox game I've played.
And yes, there is also a need for Indian division names in Hindi once independence is achieved. Paradox could try to contract a historian and linguist for that terminology issue.
____________________________________________________________________
AIR FORCE & NAVY
First of all, within the game timeframe India is essentially reeling from over a century of colonial horror and having been exploitated to death. It doesn't have the resources to focus on both army and navy at once. Which is why, halfway down the focus tree, the player will have to choose either to strengthen India's army, or go for India's navy. In simple words, the army and navy tree should be connected.
This is important because India's long shoreline and central location requires a good navy, while at the same time not having a good army would be unthinkable.
The naval focuses should start off as colonial (and give the usual experience points/doctrine bonus), but divide into two branches afterwards. First branch focuses on how India handles its navy and tactics (much like carrier VS capital and other such things for France and Britain), second branch focuses on how India builds its navy. These would be 2-3 mutually exclusive choices, like:
- A money oriented navy - India buys ships from all over the world. From Britain, France, America, Soviet Union, and even Japan if oriented towards Axis. This allows India to build up a huge navy very rapidly, but that also means having to service and use older designs and paying up. Quantity instead of quality here.
- A naval buildup - India builds its navy from scratch, by itself, using its own resources. It doesn't rely on foreign designs or have to buy off outdated ships, but takes a lot of time. This would grant research bonuses and unlock ship types, but no production bonuses until later down in the same branch. Ships turn out great but only a small, strong navy can be built with focus tree's help.
- Both buying and building - A mix of the above two. India buys off ships from other countries around the world, but also produces many of its own. Historically, this is how India went later on, producing small ships by itself while buying off carriers, cruisers and submarines. This path should put India as a decently powerful naval nation by the last year or two in the game.
As for air force, Indian air force should rely almost entirely on foreign design until very late into the game. That means focus that make India ask allies on any side to help out in research, purchase blueprints and establish a few foreign factories, create a mix of plane models from all major countries (instead of just British ones) in the tech tree, and a few fictional/generic ones for the last few years.
The focus tree for air force should be either about fighters or bombers, and one of them should grant bonuses to paratroopers down the line as well.
____________________________________________________________________
FOCUS TREE AND POLITICS
I agree, it is bland right now. There is just "be communist and get rekt" or "be fascist and get rekt", or "be a democracy, break yourself up and get bored" for its path.
There needs to be a compromise focus tree where India remains united in exchange for retaining the Zamindari lordship system (it was a primary point of contention that impacted in India's splinter in 1947). Zamindari would force major unrest and significantly lower stability and war support, but allow India to eventually come out united. Later in the same tree, Zamindars would slowly be suppressed and eventually by late game, India would emerge as a fully unified.
There also needs to be focus to take over Nepal, Lanka & Maldives. Especially if India goes fascist and thus irredentist. Nepal was an Indian state in all but name because originally, they were a kingdom large (and remote, and economically less useful) enough that British left them more autonomous than any other princely state.
And being in the same hostile and warlike fascist tree, there would be an option to expand into Afghanistan (for protecting frontiers and preventing a repeat of 1761 disaster, or other such reasoning etc.), vassalizing Persia and Thailand, attacking British Middle East bases.
No matter which tree taken, Goa and Pondicherry would be annexed back into India from Portugal and France respectively.
The industrial focus tree should have India getting help from its allies to industrialize. Slow process in the early game, with sudden expansion in the mid-game and large-scale industrialization and research by late game where it comes on par with technology of the rest of the world.
Personally I want a "reestablish Indian Empire" focus tree branch, where Britain is driven out and one of the major or influential kings in India becomes Emperor of India. The advisors available are all Nawabs, Nizams, Rajkumars (princes), Rajas and Maharajas and all the descendents of the 18th century elite of Indian society. You know, like in some parts of Kaiserreich.
The restored imperial monarchy option would result in a unified, warlike India coming back from the EU4 days. But frequently receive events about internal disputes between governors and rulers, and cause major civil unrest. And weak to foreign ideological sabotage because ruling monarchy will be a non-aligned party (so they'll spend extra time and effort keeping peace). If the player handles it well, India would well become the most powerful monarchy in the game after a while with later focuses.
And there should be elections in case India comes out a democracy at the cost of splintering into pieces like in real history.
____________________________________________________________________
RENAMING STUFF
Lastly, the British applied a lot of weird terminology and nomenclature to India. Much of it was immediately removed after independence (some of it unfortunately remains today). So India should automatically rename cities, regions and such to actual local pronunciation if Britain loses control.
For example -
- Calcutta -> Kolkata
- Delhi -> Dilli
- Oudh -> Awadh
- Madras -> Chennai
- Madras region -> Tamil Nadu
- Bombay -> Mumbai
- Bombay region -> Maharashtra
- Bengal -> Bangala
- North West Frontier Province -> Pakhtunwa
- North East Frontier Province -> Arunachal
- Howrah -> Havara
- Sind -> Sindh
- Cashmere -> Kashmir
- Srinagore -> Shrinagar
- Jabbalpore -> Jabalpur
- Bangalore -> Bangaluru
- Hyderabad -> Haidarabad
- Lucknow -> Lakhnau
- Ceylon -> Lanka
- Pondicherry -> Puduccheri or Pandiccheri
- Goa -> Gopak/Gova
- India -> Bharat (optional)
...and so on.
I can't put my finger on politics and focus trees about Indian independence. They aren't that good right now, but other players might suggest better than me in this regard on how to improve them.
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