India

From the Weltkrieg through the Civil War

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1914

The Weltkrieg commences with the murder of the Austro-Hungarian heir presumptive, Franz Ferdinand. Congress backs the British Empire, hoping to help their case for Indian independence.

1915

Mutiny amongst the Indian garrison in Singapore is crushed by combined French, British, Russian and Japanese naval elements. Minor uprisings backed by the Central Powers result in some sabotage throughout the Raj.

The Niedermayer-Hentig Expedition attempts to sway the Kabul government into declaring war on Britain and sweep into India. The mission fails to procure immediate intervention by the Emir’s armies. However, the seed for Afghan involvement in India is planted.

Gandhi returns to Bombay from his stay in South Africa. He commences a series of minor protests against provincial British authorities, cementing his position and renown as one of the most influential leaders of the Independence Movement.

1916

The Lucknow Pact. Muslims and Hindus unite in order to pressure the British crown into a more liberal stance towards Indian Independence. Cordial relations are established between moderate and extreme wings of the Congress Party.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Annie Besant launch the Home Rule Movement.

March. Lord Chelmsford is appointed Viceroy. He is not ill disposed towards Tilak and Besant’s demands and convinces the Secretary of State for India, Montagu, to discuss the potential for reform, paving the way for further Indian involvement in the Raj’s affairs of state.

1917

In 1917 the Imperial War Conference passes a resolution regarding a future special Imperial Conference to readjust the relations of the component parts of the Empire. Ganga Singh represents India at the meeting.

Indian forces participate in general Allenby’s rout of almost all Ottoman armed presence in the Levant. Both Jerusalem and Baghdad fall to Entente units.

June. Annie Besant is arrested by Raj authorities and imprisoned at a hill station, prompting threats from both Congress and the Muslim League that her continued confinement would result in country-wide strikes and demonstrations.

September. Finally relenting, the government releases Besant. She is received by much cheering from the masses, her movement finally having expanded beyond the educated circles of Bombay, Delhi and Calcutta and into the interior villages of India. Furthermore the central government is forced to grant Besant vague, but important concessions, namely determining the point of British rule to be eventual Indian Home Rule.

1918

Allenby enters Damascus on the first of October at the head of several Indian divisions, scoring the Weltkrieg’s last great victory for the Entente. Only the last minute arrival of German reinforcements halt an invasion of Anatolia.

1919

With massive setbacks on the Western Front, Allenby and a majority of his forces are shipped off to reinforce the faltering BEF in Northern France. He is succeeded by Sir William Raine Marshall, commander of the III Indian Corps who had successfully participated in the conquest of Baghdad.

Left with limited resources and facing weak, but reorganized Ottoman armies, supported by German troops, Marshall is forced on the defensive. Faisal and T. E. Lawrence’s Northern Arab Army continues to pester the reeling Turkish forces.

The seemingly imminent collapse of the French army leads to the evacuation of the BEF from Dieppe in June. By October, the Third Republic has capitulated with Paris besieged by German troops.

Entente martial failures against the Central Powers greatly frustrate the leaders of the Indian independence movement. Both Besant, Gandhi as well as and others stress that Home Rule must be awarded India - no matter the outcome of the great war.

Revolution in France prompts Britain to seize control of the last French concessions in India. Pondicherry is merged into the Madras Presidency.

1920

Lala Lajpat Rai is elected President of the Congress Party. He also presides over the first session of the All India Trade Union Congress.

April. After a year’s reprieve and relieved of the Russian incursions through the Caucasus, the Ottoman armies finally go on the offensive.

Late April. Otto Liman von Sanders returns to the Levant at the head of fresh German troops, the Turks delegated to a supportive role. Marshall’s thinly stretched line is broken and Sanders occupy Northern Syria. ​

June. The German vanguard reaches the suburbs of Damascus, meeting only sporadic resistance. The majority of the Entente forces conduct a fighting retreat towards the Suez. Newly raised Indian divisions arrive in Basrah, safeguarding most of Iraq from Turkish attack.

July. Ottoman general Mohammed Jemal Pasha captures Mosul.

October. Standing at the gates of Jerusalem, Liman von Sanders manages to drive a wedge between British and Arab troops in Iraq and Palestine. Marshall barely holds the line. The war in the orient slowly winds down, as veteran British troops finally begin to arrive in Haifa whilst new Ottoman forces, snake their way down the Levant.

1921

April 2nd. Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading is appointed Viceroy of India.

May-July. A redoubled German-Turkish offensive against Jerusalem fails. Likewise, a British attempt to break through Sanders’ troops in Iraq spearheaded by Indian divisions is defeated. Faisal’s Northern Arab Army retreats into the Hedjaz. The mobile war of 1917 has been replaced by a static showdown.

September. Ludendorff proposes his “Peace with Honour”.

November 11th. The Peace with Honour is signed, effectively ending the Weltkrieg for the Raj. At the cessation of hostilities, the British Indian Army fields almost half a million men and has suffered close to 115.000 casualties in the different theatres of the war.

November 30th. A special session of Congress is called to determine the course of the Independence Movement. Gandhi is elected president of Congress.

1922

January 1. Six years after the Easter Rising, Ireland is granted dominion status as the Irish Free State. British strength is deemed by many Indians to be at its lowest.

February. Although he at the time of his arrival in India was in favour of negotiating with the British, Gandhi finally becomes convinced that the central government has no intention of granting any kind of home rule as a reward of Indian sacrifices in the Weltkrieg. The beginning of the Non-Cooperation Movement, spearheaded by Gandhi.

March. British authorities are thoroughly consistent in their policy towards the Independence Movement. The Rowlatt Act is passed, indefinitely prolonging the emergency measures put in place during the Weltkrieg. Thus, the government is allowed to arrest, imprison and exile suspects for two years without trial. The act is dubbed a betrayal of the British promises of Home Rule.

Late March-early April. Gandhi and Congress call for a Hartal in response to the Act. In effect, a general strike takes place throughout the Raj. London and Delhi are alarmed that revolution might sweep them out of India for good.

April 19. The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. British Indian Army troops under command of Brigadier-General Dyer open fire upon an unarmed peaceful demonstration in Amritsar. The demonstration was called to protest the arrest of two prominent nationalist leaders, imprisoned under the Rowlatt Act.

May. Looking for a way to lower internal unrest, the Afghan emir, Amanullah, invades British India. Skirmishes break out along the Durand Line, as Afghan troops attempt to seize Peshawar.

June. The invasion splits the Nationalist Movement. Besant as well as Tilak’s heir, Jinnah, support the war effort, clinging to the hope that cooperation will sway the defeated British Empire. Gandhi, Rai and others refuse to endorse the war effort and are subsequently arrested.

July. Hard pressed, the British Indian Army nevertheless manages to push the Afghans back, though every advance comes at a high cost. The prolonged warfare takes its toll on the public and dissent continues to soar.

August. Treaty of Rawalpindi. The British finally manage to push the Afghans out of India, but are forced to accept unequivocal independence for Afghanistan. Radical Indian nationalists see this as further proof of British weakness. Subhas Chandra Bose terms the Raj as the ‘Terminal Sick Man of Asia’.

October. The imprisoned Congress leaders are released. The Non-Cooperation Campaign continues.

1923

February 5. The Chauri Chaura Incident. 23 policemen are killed by a mob protesting against a supposed assault on Congress Officials. Gandhi is appalled and demands an end to the movement, deeming the Indian people unprepared for non-violent resistance.

February 12. The Non-Cooperation Campaign is officially terminated on a national level by the Congress leadership.

Jinnah and Besant keep their pamphleteering and rallies going, furthering the Home Rule Movement.

March 10. Gandhi is arrested on charges of sedition and sentenced to 6 years imprisonment. Without his unifying persona, Congress faces yet another splintering between moderates and radicals.

1924

June. With Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi imprisoned and the nationalist movement disoriented, Isaacs finally passes a new Government Act of India drastically heightening Indian involvement in the affairs of state. The Imperial Legislative Council is reformed into a bicameral parliament, with Indians electable. Jinnah, Surendranath Banerjee, Besant and others acclaim the reforms while Congress condemns them as meaningless as long as the Rowlatt Act remains in place.

August. First elections to the new government is held. Congress boycotts the campaign, resulting in the Home Rule and loyalist parties splitting the vote and securing a tiny majority in both chambers.

1925

September 14. The massacre of 41 unarmed pamphleteers in Britain by units of the Territorial Army ignites the flames of revolution in the Home Isles.

October 24. The British government collapses amidst revolutionary fervor and widespread violence between rebellious and loyalist units of the Territorial Army. Two days later, the royal family evacuates Britain aboard the HMS Bagshot.

October 27. The chaos that had engulfed Britain finally reaches India. Some units of the local armed forces refuse to obey their British commanders whilst Congress immediately calls for an immediate release of all political prisoners and a withdrawal of British troops from the subcontinent.

November 1. In an attempt to placate the nationalist current sweeping through the Raj, Ganga Singh, a progressive, but loyal Maharaja who held a seat on the Imperial War Cabinet during the Weltkrieg, is appointed vice-roy by the British government in Canada.

November 14. Ganga Singh commences negotiations with the thoroughly disorganized and rattled British government in Ottawa concerning an emergency bestowal of Dominion status to the collapsing Raj.

November 17. A general amnesty is granted. Gandhi is released and immediately travels to Calcutta where the Congress leadership has convened to await the conclusion of the negotiations between Delhi and Ottawa. Meanwhile, strikes and communal violence continue to spread.

November 30th. The Anglo-Indian Treaty. One month after his appointment, Singh signs an agreement with the King-Emperor’s representative in the Red Fort, officially creating an independent Indian state stretching from the Khyber Pass to the Malay peninsular. Under the articles of the treaty, India would remain within the British Commonwealth of Nations - keeping the King-Emperor as head of state. Further points assured British/Canadian rights in regards to the sale of Indian raw materials, British control of several naval bases and ports, the partial withdrawal of colonial troops and a guarantee to protect the rights of the Princely States. Congress immediately denounce the treaty as a betrayal of what they deem the Indian people’s most sacred demand - complete independence - and refuse to accept the provisions.

December 14. The “Imperial Parliament” in Canada ratifies the Anglo-Indian Treaty. Winston Churchill, the most ardent opponent is ridiculed publicly.

December 31. The Central Legislative Council narrowly ratifies the Treaty whilst the Indian National Congress immediately denounce its legitimacy.

1926

January 2. In a special session of the INC, a triumvirate is established between Gandhi, Lala Lajpat Rai and Subhas Chandra Bose - uniting moderates and extremists of the nationalist movement. The next day, Congress officially declares India independent with its provisional capital in Calcutta. The new government is dominated by Congress leaders with Rai becoming president, Gandhi premier and Bose secretary of state. The British administration in Calcutta and the Bengal refuses to acknowledge this new state and the province’s governor, Victor Bulwer-Lytton, orders the Territorial Army and native units to apprehend the “rabble rousing fakirs”.

January 5. British officers and native constabularies arrive at the doorstep of the provisional government with an order to arrest the Bengali triumvirate. The resulting stand-off between the representatives of the Dominion Government and supporters of Congress leave 25 dead - including the five commanding British officers. Calcutta explodes in revolutionary fervor as native army and police units defect to the provisional government. British members of the Indian Civil Service evacuate the city alongside Bulwer-Lytton and Bose announces a call for a nationwide Hartal. Revolts erupt in Orissa, the United Provinces and the Madras Presidency.

January 6. Shaken by the revolts in the East, Ganga Singh declares martial law throughout the Dominion of India and mobilizes his most loyal army formations, threatening to escalate the conflict further.

January 8. Gandhi is sickened by the bloodshed spreading through the subcontinent and resigns from his premiership of the provisional government, although he opts to remain in Calcutta. Bose ascends to the vacant position, definitely weakening the moderate wing of Congress in favour of the militarized socialist cadre of radicals. At mass meeting at Dalhouise Square, Bose calls for the formation of revolutionary army units from defected Dominion forces, exclaiming to the crowds, “Give me blood and I will give you freedom!”.

January 12. With the Bengal mostly in the hands of the Calcutta Government and revolutionary army units securing vital strategic positions, Ganga Singh finally decides to end “dual rule” and orders troops from Delhi, Burma and the Madras Presidency to march into the rebellious province, apprehend the provisional government and restore order. The beginning of the Indian Civil War.

January 17. As Dominion forces begin their march on Calcutta, Britain and France - themselves reformed revolutionary states - extend diplomatic recognition to the provisional Indian government.

January 18. A mutiny breaks out in the Burmese army units, effectively preventing their participation in the Delhi government’s advance upon Bengal. Utilizing this confusion, the Kingdom of Siam invades the eastern parts of the Burmese provinces and annexes the former Raj’s territory on the Malay Peninsular. Enraged at the lack of support from Delhi, local landowners and business magnates conspire with native army units to dissolve the union with India. A month later, the deposed Konbaung dynasty is restored to the throne under Myat Paya Lat, eldest daughter of the exiled king. Breaking off their connections with India, the new Burmese kingdom officially acknowledges the gains of Siam and secludes itself from the conflict in the erstwhile Raj.

January 25. Troops loyal to Calcutta clash with Dominion forces around the Jamuna salient of the Ganges. Following hours of die hard fighting, Subhas Chandra Bose scores the first victory of the war for the provisional government and not only halts the advance of Ganga Singh, but throws the Dominion units into complete confusion.

February 3. Alarmed that his troops might be overwhelmed and the Calcutta army formations push all the way to Delhi, Singh and his British advisors decide to call up the forces of the southern Princely States. Hyderabad, the most powerful of the gun-salute princes, does not respond.

February 6. The British and Dominion garrison in Bombay is overwhelmed by strikes and mutinies amongst the native constabulary, leaving the city divided. Bose, the rising hero of the Indian revolution praises the uprising - promising that his troops will relieve the besieging insurrectionists.

February 10. With the bulk of the loyalist forces tied down attempting to break through the Calcutta defences, Bombay gripped in armed revolution and Hyderabad not responding to the call to arms, the Dominion government is seemingly close to collapse. Sensing an imminent chance to further cement his standing at home, Amamullah Khan of Afghanistan rallies his troops and advance through the Khyber Pass, striking the the unprotected western flank of the Delhi government. Beginning of the Fourth Anglo-Afghan War.

February 22. Afghan forces make substantial gains, capturing Peshawar and threatening Quetta and the vital port of Karachi beyond. Bombay finally falls to Calcutta forces. The red flag is hoisted from the Victoria Terminus. Fearing for the life of his government and Canada sensing the complete loss of influence in their former colony, Ganga Singh assumes near dictatorial powers and arranges for the imminent arrival of several British battalions from Britain’s former Asian colonies. Slacking the defences of the Jamuna Front considerably, the defense of Delhi is secured and Dominion troops halt the Afghan advance.

March 1. Swelling with success, Bose attempts to make good of his promise to the isolated revolutionary troops in Bombay and pushes south, circumventing Ganga Singh’s forces on the Jamuna and advances through Orissa. Panic all but breaks out in Delhi.

March 3. The Jamuna front collapses in the face of a renewed Calcutta offensive. Fighting on three fronts, Ganga Singh reorganizes his forces - putting a substantial number of troops under command of fellow maharaja Bhupinder Singh, another veteran of the Great War.

March 5. Finally scoring some kind of victory for the loyalist government, sir Atul Chandra Chatterjee signs an immediate truce with the Kabul government, acknowledging Afghan suzerainty of the Northwestern Frontier Provinces and the city of Quetta. The treaty is formalised and signed two weeks later in Rawalpindi.

March 22. Skirmishes erupt between Calcutta troops and the Nizam of Hyderabad’s princely forces. Osman Ali Khan, the state’s young prince, denounces both Calcutta and Delhi as legitimate centres of authority. The ‘red’ offensive across the Deccan plain is halted.

April 10. The Treason of the Princes. Abandoning their oath of loyalty to the Delhi government and secure in their own military capability, the princes of Hyderabad, Bastar, Kolhapur and Mysore declare themselves independent, citing Ganga Singh’s dictatorial coup of February 22 as an illegal break with the Anglo-Indian Treaty. Instead, they hail Osman Ali Khan as the true governor-general of the dominion and thus head of a new nationalist government. However, the princely states in Rajputana, Kashmir and Gujarat all declare for the Delhi government, lessening Osman’s authority somewhat.

April 11. The princely state of Travancore ejects British advisors and declares loyalty to the Hyderabad government. Administrative and rightist political groupings along the Malabar Coast join ranks with the Maharaja.

April 14. British administrative units that divide the rebellious maharajas are seized by troops loyal to the gun-salute princes, effectively uniting most of the south-west under Osman’s control. Declaring himself legal successor to the office of governor-general, the Hyderabadi prince denounces the bolshevik agitation of Bose and Tilak and proclaims Ganga Singh to be a puppet of British interests. The princely states, he goes on to claim, are the only true native successor to the hated British colonial rule.

April 20. Seeing India in absolute chaos, King Tribhuvana of Nepal finally rids himself of the oppressive Rana family. Using the Nepalese army, the teenage king rounds up and executes the entire senior membership of the former all powerful family. Revolts in Patan and Bhaktapur are quelled with unseen harshness, leaving the young monarch absolute master of the Himalayan kingdom.

April 21. The Calcutta troops in Hyderabad are hard pressed by the Nizam’s elite formations, straining the line of supply to Bombay.

May 1. May Day is greeted with some distress in Calcutta as news reach the provisional government of Bombay’s besiegement. Surrounded on all sides by princely troops and blockaded by the British navy, the Bombay revolutionaries seem doomed. Leaving the Orissa Front heavily defended, Subhas Chandra Bose attempts a final push towards Delhi. Driving Bhupinder Singh’s mixture of British and Indian troops before him, Bose halts at the Ghaghara salient, hoping Ganga Singh might be persuaded to give up.

May 3. With Bose’s red army miles from Lucknow and the southern princes in full revolt, Ganga Singh prepares to fortify Delhi for one last stand. Bhupinder’s forces are reorganized behind the Yamuna River and re equipped with modern British arms. Generals Alfred Knox and Hugh Elles arrive from Canada with two detachments of Mark V tanks at Karachi, dramatically reinforcing the faltering governor-general’s confidence.

May 15. After almost two weeks of stalling, Bose decides that the Delhi government is not looking for a negotiated end to the war and prepares to cross the Ghaghara.

June 1. vanguard elements of the Indian Red Army make good progress against scant resistance and make it into the suburbs of Lucknow.

June 2. Just as the first regular battalions of Bose’s troops are about to enter Lucknow, his flanks come under heavy attack by refitted Dominion divisions, led on by the tanks of Elles and Knox. Hammered on three fronts by fresh enemy forces, the until now undefeated Bose attempts to withdraw across the Ghaghara. The retreat unavoidably turns into a complete rout, with Bose losing up to a quarter of his men in the process. Three days later, Bhupinder Singh crosses the river.

June 3. Gandhi calls for an emergency meeting amongst the delegates of the provisional government, all but demanding an end to the fighting. Bose, still at the front, wires a rude answer back to Calcutta.

June 22. Bombay falls to princely troops, resulting in two days uncontrolled sacking.

June 26. Dominion forces cross the Ganges at Patna, spearheading into what Knox declared “the soft underbelly of Indian bolshevism”. Bose fails to halt their advance and finds his troops slowly driven into a corner with the Damodar and Hooghly rivers on each side.

July 31. Concluding northern India all but rid of native troops, King Tribhuvana of Nepal expels his British advisors on charges of being accomplices of the Rana family and orders his Nepalese troops into the Ganges-Yamuna basin, causing havoc to Bhupinder Singh’s supply lines. In the nick of time, Bose saves his troops and crosses the Hooghly that separates the Red Army from Calcutta. With the territory of the provisional government reduced to mainly eastern Bengal and Assam, the Red Netaji found himself marginalized within the provisional assembly, hindering any military activity.

August 4. Nepalese troops succeed in cutting the disorganized Dominion troops into two halves. One part, constituting the majority of the British Expeditionary Force under command of Alfred Knox, is pushed into the United Provinces - whilst the other under Bhupinder falls back towards Lucknow. In effect Tribhuvana’s intervention separates the Calcutta and Delhi forces, granting both a much needed reprieve.

August 12. Osman Ali Khan, demands that Ganga Singh renounce his dictatorial control over the northern dominion’s state apparatus and acknowledge the Hyderabadi prince as true leader of a united India. Ganga Singh replies that if Osman pushes north from Bombay and into Gujarat the Delhi government will give him a “7-man gun salute” referring of course to a fusillade, “and I shall command it myself.”

August 29. Whilst Knox and Elles’ troops make their way north, Bose finds himself restricted to reinforce the area left under the control of the provisional government. In the north, Bhutan has unilaterally annexed the province of Itanagar whilst Nepal swells under her new conquests relying on the pretext of protecting both Nepalese and Hindu populations in the territories.

September 14. The Nizam of Hyderabad again demands Ganga Singh’s resignation and is once more ignored.

September 22. Osman attempts an invasion of Gujarat, claiming a local prince has asked the protection of the ‘national government’ against British exploitation. Just as the civil war was about to simmer down, flares erupt once more.

October 1. Anchoring his left flank on the Indus, the Nizam begins a push north and envelops Ahmedabad, who, despite all odds, withstand the onslaught of the southern princely states. R.H. Tawney arrives for the first time in Calcutta.

October 16. After two weeks of advance through Gujarat, the princely offensive runs out of steam and the southern forces, lacking the numbers, training and experience of their northern counterparts begin to falter. Ganga Singh takes control of the first and second Indian Division, leaving the capital under the control of Bhupinder, and meets Osman near Udaipur.

October 17. The Battle of Udaipur. The vastly better equipped dominion forces make short work of Osman’s invasion, unravelling all of the Nizam’s conquest. Helles’ tanks only pause at the Daman Ganga River. However, Amamullah Khan of Afghanistan commences a mobilization of Afghan and Pashtun forces in Peshawar, hinting a possible alliance between himself and the Nizam. Ganga Singh returns to Delhi in triumph.

October 22. Almost a year after chaos threw Britain into revolution, some order finally emerges in the former United Kingdom. John Maclean commences a series of cooperation treaties with the Calcutta government, utilizing the vast size of the British Republican Navy to export industries and weaponry to the exhausted revolutionaries.

November 4. Opting to make good of his promise to put the treacherous Nizam in front of a firing squad, Ganga Singh himself leads loyalist troops into Maharathi part of the United Provinces. For the third time in a year, Bombay comes under siege. However, supplies float into the city aboard German merchant vessels operating out of Ceylon. Toronto protests this as a breach of the articles of the so-called “Peace With Honour”, but Berlin does not react.

November 15. Gandhi calls another special session of Congress to facilitate an immediate end to the war and subsequent reunification. This time, Bose attends.

November 22. On the first day of the session, Gandhi and Bose squares off in one of the most famous political debates of the Indian Civil War. Gandhi’s moderate appeal apparently surpasses Bose’s wartime accomplishments and the Gujarati lawyer succeeds in making a truce with Delhi the first part of the agenda.

November 23. In the capital of the Dominion, Jinnah and Bessant - leaders of the Home Rule Movement - plead with the temporary governor Knox to convince Ganga Singh to give up his wartime powers. Civilian unrest is mounting in the north-west.

November 29. As the special session of the Indian National Congress is concluded, the two opposing sides are all but equal in influence. Gandhi and his allies Tangore and Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya secure important positions within the domestic parts of the government besides making it a priority to obtain a negotiated end to the “dual rule of the two capitals”. However, Bose and his militarist compatriots secure the foreign secretary for the Netaji as well as keeping the support of most of the armed forces. Narendra Deva ascends to the premiership.

December 30. Ganga Singh is forced to break off the siege of Bombay to attend to the troubles brewing at home.

1927

January: The Home Rule Movement led by Jinnah takes on the role of moderating force in the current of the draconian policies of Bhupinder Singh. When the governor-general returns to the capital, he is immediately overtaken by a stream of complaints and protests levied by the civilian members of the provisional parliament.

February 7. Whilst the loyalist war effort is hampered by political bickering, Princely and socialist columns engage each other across the Chota Nagpur Plateau. Gandhi’s plea for the fighting to stop is barricaded from becoming official policy by the militarists. However, it is evident that the war cannot continue much longer, the revolutionaries in Calcutta being dangerously low on munitions and only emergency supplies by the British Union allows the red army to engage in military operations.

March 1. Ganga Singh decides to strangle the dissent hampering his government by granting himself excessive administrative powers. In the limpering daylight of the first of March, troops occupy the Red Fort and the local centres of authority and the legislative assembly rounded up. In a vote carried under the watchful gaze of the Indian White Army’s bayonets, the assembly ratifies the governor-general’s wartime powers. Almost a decade of military rule descends upon the Indian Dominion.

March 3. Ganga Singh’s ratified usurpation is met with universal condemnation from London, Paris and Berlin - as well as the two rival governments in Hyderabad and Calcutta. German newspapers denounce the maharaja as the leader of a fanatical Putsch. The Exile Governments of Algiers and Ottawa are, however, unwavering in their support.

March 29. As Delhi slips quietly into submission, Ganga Singh renews his offensive against Bombay, hoping to secure the vital port for further supplies from Canada and South Africa.

April 8. Dominion troops cross into Princely territory and envelop Bombay. However, German shipping once again secures the city’s survival by supplying crucial material. A major task force of the Royal Navy departs Canada, aiming for the port of Karachi and a re-establishment of Anglo-Indian naval superiority.

May 1. Calcutta is practically forced to halt all offensives on account of lacking war material. The lack of martial progress allows Gandhi to force through a government promise to establish diplomatic relations with the rival pretender states and a negotiated end to the bloodshed. British ships drop anchor off Bombay.

May 3. The miniscule Royal Indian Marine rendezvouses with their British allies and begin a cordon of the besieged city’s sea traffick.

May 8. After only 5 days of confinement, a privately-owned German ship attempts to break the blockade. An Entente captain loses his head and opens fire on the offending vessel. All hands are lost as the ships quickly sinks after a direct hit. Alfred Hugenberg’s yellow press is up in arms about this attack on “... the peaceful and entirely legal German economic aid to the legal government of Free India”. In effect, the blockade is maintained.

May 22. After weeks of editorial anger in the press, the German imperial government in Berlin, bow to demands of a response to the Bombay Incident. The Hochsee-Flotte is mobilized in Wilhelmshaven and the nearby Imperial navy stations in Singapore and China are ordered to set sails for Columbo, Ceylon.

June. Terrified of German naval involvement in the War, Ottawa orders the blockade of Bombay to be relieved. The Entente naval units return home to Karachi.

July. The campaign of Ganga Singh in southern India is ended as the stronghold of Bombay threatens the notoriously fragile lines of support of the Dominion Army.

August. The war in the south effectively ends, as Singh crosses the border back into Rajputana. The troops of the Nizam lick their wounds whilst Calcutta remains deadlocked by the doves of the INC.

September 3. The German government threatens to extend diplomatic recognition to Hyderabad, if British vessels aren’t withdrawn from the war. Grudgingly, Ottawa complies. At the same time, the economy of the subcontinent is at its last legs. It is feared that further prolonged warfare would result in severe famines.

September 5. Gandhi’s demands finally achieve political pondus as delegates from Calcutta supported by advisors from the British Union depart the Bengal with mandate to negotiate a temporary peace treaty. Their destination is Gwalior. Officials from Hyderabad likewise announce their intention to participate in the peace talks.

September 9. In an atmosphere tense beyond description, the three sides sit down to discuss peace and the future of the subcontinent.

October 6. After almost a month of negotiations and ultimatums, the parlay ends in chaos with neither side willing to depart from their respective claims to represent all of India. However, a truce for 6 months is agreed upon, a boon for both militarists and doves who respectively hope that the peace will allow either a reprieve for the next clash of arms and a lasting peace for all Indians.

October 10. Back in Delhi Ganga Singh denies renouncing his emergency powers, proclaiming that the peace negotiated in Gwalior remains only a truce and that the watchful eye of the military is needed to preserve the independence and liberty of all classes, religions and castes in the Dominion.

1928

April. Half a year after the guns fell silent across the Indian battlefields, neither side seems ready nor willing to commence hostile operations. An armed guard is established alongside the borders of the three governments, each claimant keeping the others in check.

June. In Calcutta, the cabinet decides to reshuffle itself and sheds the guise as a provisional government. Advisors, especially railroad engineers, from the Union of Britain led by R.H. Tawney begins to trickle into the administration, opening a new era of British-Indian relations. Initiatives are undertaken to collectivize the grand estates of the Bengali zamindars whilst the enormous tea plantations in Assam are put under workers’ control. Divisions within the INC, however, remain deep. Gandhi struggles to promote his agrarian philosophy whilst a young Nehru dreams of raising factories throughout the Gangetic heartland. The warrior-enigma, Bose undertakes several foreign trips to London and Paris, enjoying warm welcoming in both cities.

August. The Madras Presidency, de facto an independent entity, is menaced by Princely Troops. Rightfully scared by the prospect of Hyderabadi rule, the beleaguered government desperately wires Delhi for immediate support, even offering to join the Dominion directly. However, the economy of the North is in ruins and the Tamil heartland far away from Ganga Singh’s reach.

September 4. After a false flag operation, Osman Ali Khan claims that the ill-equipped Tamil irregulars attempted to sabotage a dam in Travancore State demands reparations and concessions from the Madras government.

September 7. Bowing to almost all demands bar one, regarding the stationing of Princely troops within the boundaries of the presidency, the Tamil cabinet attempts to placate the Nizam in vain. 14 hours after the Tamil response is received in Hyderabad, army units operating out of Mysore march into the thinly defended Madras Presidency.

October. Alone, abandoned and without any military projection available, the Tamil cabinet is driven out of Madras itself by a column from Travancore, taking refuge in the city of Tiruvannamalai. Madurai and Villupuram are already occupied.

November 3. After a desperate fight, the Madras Presidency finally accepts the inevitable and formally surrenders to the lead commander of the Princely troops. In his harshness, the Nizam also shows leniency - leaving the Tamil entity nominally independent and outside the Princely Federation, but reduced in size and with gun salute troops stationed at strategic points. All land from Cape Comorin in the south to Madurai in the North are incorporated into the state of Travancore. Humiliated and resentful towards the onlookers in Delhi and the radicals in Calcutta, the Tamil populace cultivates a stab-in-the-back legend and drift towards their own kind of Dravidian radicalization.

1929

February 22. Seventeen years after his ascension to the throne of Hyderabad, Osman Ali Khan conveys a grand durbar to flesh out the practicalities of being head of the vast patchwork of princes, zamindars, emigre nawabs and landlords. Conflicts easily emerge between Muslim rulers and Hindu subjects in Hyderabad itself and vice versa in the other petty states, however, a compromise is reached when the durbar agrees to cement Osman as head of state with the title of Nizam-ul-Mulk (administrator of the realm) whilst the minor princes are organized into a legislature called the Council of Princes, directly taking its name from the late Raj’s princely organ of representation. Common representation is largely denounced, although the civil service is left open for non-royals.

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The Indian subcontinent after the Indian Civil War and wars of Nepalese and Afghan aggression. ​

Recently, I stumbled upon the timeline I made whilst reworking India for Kaiserreich. Since the old forum apparently has been disabled, I figured I could post it here, in case any of the current Devs should want to use it for whatever.