Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 163 Nationalism ? And Reaction Of Muhammad

163  Nationalism ? And Reaction Of Muhammad

A few days after the coronation, Vijay issued an order for the translation of names of schools, police stations, courts, and other official documents into the Bharti language. Subsequently, an official bill was passed, declaring the Bharti language as the official language of the empire. It would be incorporated into the curriculum of all schools and colleges, serve as an official language in courts and police stations, and be taught alongside regional languages. Similar to how English was taught in Vijay’s previous life, the Bharti language would become the compulsory language, and all the core subjects like maths and science would be written in the Bharti language, while the regional languages would serve as secondary languages based on the locality. Additionally, there was an option to choose a third language when necessary.

Vijay implemented a policy of making two languages compulsory: one national and one regional. The goal was to prevent potential future issues. The intention behind establishing a national language was to weaken any future regionalism that might arise and to make the empire more connected. However, Vijay did not suppress regional languages; they were preserved and allowed to propagate whenever and however needed. The introduction of a common language for communication across the empire was aimed at fostering unity. Vijay believed this was not a difficult task, considering that in his past timeline, most Bhartiyas were familiar with at least two to three languages.

Choosing to shift the capital to Bengaluru, which was in close proximity to most southern states, was another move Vijay planned to take. These are the regions where regionalism was more prevalent in his previous life, Vijay aimed to curb this sentiment and promote the growth of nationalism. The term “nationalism” might evoke discomfort among Europeans due to historical associations with fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Communist China and the Soviet Union. European countries are actively working to dissolve this nationalistic mentality among their people.

Vijay thinks that the problem of Europeans being unable to cope with nationalism and channel it to a better cause is because countries in Europe are not diverse enough, and the diverse countries cannot produce nationalism. Additionally, they don’t seem to last a long time either. For example, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which had a very diverse number of cultures, eventually split up into different countries due to cultural differences. Europeans have not found anything that binds all European cultures together, except for Christianity. Unfortunately, Christianity is too shallow to bind the diverse continent together.

In this perspective, Bharat stands apart from Europe, as it did not give rise to the spread of religions with shallow narratives like the Abrahamic ones, which revolve around specific protagonists. Instead, Bharat developed a comprehensive way of channelling faith, incorporating elements from diverse cultures and creating a more resilient and profound spiritual foundation. Similar to America, Bharat is geographically isolated from the rest of the world by the ocean, the Himalayas, and other mountain ranges, making it an ideal cradle for civilization. For an extended period, foreign invasions were minimal, and with advanced developments in science and technology, there was little impetus for unification across the subcontinent. Various regions thrived independently, growing almost like separate countries.

Vijay often expressed the view that India is similar to Europe but was forced to unify due to the threat of foreign aggression. Despite the historical challenges, no region in India gave up its native culture. Also, Bharat was not naturally inclined toward unification; it was the result of foreign aggression that ignited nationalism among every Bhartiya.

Hence, unifying India in the 21st century was seen as a miracle to the world, as no one thought that India would be whole, but it did. Hence, nationalism in India is not bad; on the contrary, it is very good because of the complexity of cultures in India, which would never lead to fascism or dictatorship. The government is accepted because it is a large body of power that is democratic and could get equal representation of all cultures in India. The decisions of the government could be seen as decisions made to make a unified India prosper, even if some states need to sacrifice their interests a little. But this will not be the case in dictatorships or fascist regimes, due to the highly centralization of power. Any decision made will at least offend a few cultures or regions in the nation, and they will think that the centre is against them.

Europe could potentially embrace nationalism if the European Union aspired to become a unified country, dissolving the national boundaries of its diverse cultures and nations within. The adoption of nationalism for a unified European country wouldn’t necessarily lead to dictatorship. the same principle applies to Bharat.

Back to the present, the response from Europeans to the name change was relatively muted. They couldn’t comprehend why such a fuss was made about changing the name of the Empire. In Europe, it was commonplace to change the name of a country whenever the need arose. What they failed to recognize was that certain names carried a power distinct from others. For instance, after the collapse of the Roman Empire, no single nation dared to inherit its title. European countries quarrelled over the right to claim the throne of the Roman Empire, but ultimately, none dared to assume the name of the Holy Roman Empire, the most successful empire in the European continent. Unaware of the history and nuances of Indian civilization, Europeans did not pay much attention to this significant event.

But the changing of names on all the official buildings caught their eye. Before, it was written in some language called Tamil. Now, after inquiry, the language of Tamil was still there in one corner, but a new language called the Bharti language was added to the other. ‘What was the point?’ they thought in doubt, but soon they lost interest as they did not pay any attention to this change after a while but were busy with their own affairs of making money. But one among them was cooking some evil plot – it was Thomas Bartholomew, who had a devious smile on his face after he sent a letter back to the mainland.

He also ordered the guards he brought with him to form a forward base on the island of Mauritius, near the Dutch colony of South Africa. He did this because he thought that this would be an ideal location for conducting operations in the Indian mainland. For the past week or so, he had been driven mad by all the materials shipped from this land and the money being made. This empire alone was enough to fulfil the spice requirements of a quarter of Europe. How much money was that? And the manufacturing capabilities of this empire were astonishing. Because of how fast they produced the weapons that had been ordered, Thomas really wanted to sneak inland and see how this manufacturing was done very badly. However, he was stopped by the damned Negroes guarding the special economic zone. ‘Why were there Negroes in this land anyway’, he said, annoyed.

It was Vijay’s plan to arrange for black African-origin people to stay guard and prevent the white people from making any unnecessary and unwanted moves. He did this because there was not enough vigilance from the people born in Vijayanagara, as they had not yet seen the cruelty of the white man, but the black people had, and they had enough hatred not to fall for the white man’s tricks.

The reaction unlike the Europeans, was much different in the Mughal Empire.

“Your Majesty, the new report,” Moin Ali said as he handed over a document to His Majesty, Mohammad the Fifth. Mohammad took over the document and started to read it. Seeing the latest changes in the Vijayanagar Empire, oh no, it is the Dakshin Bhartiya Empire now. ‘whatever it is, the empire of infidels,’ he thought annoyed. But when he read about the language unification bill that was passed, he stood up suddenly. His family had been trying to make Persian the national language of the Empire for many generations, and it had not succeeded. With the slight change he made, the infidels under him would rather die than accept his rule.

Because of this, he was in a very tied-up situation, as he could not make any drastic changes to the power structure of the Empire, as one wrong move could make it come toppling down very quickly. He was planning to impose the new manufacturing standards of the southern neighbour on the nobles forcefully. But when he thought about how he could resist the infidels yelling, ‘I would rather kill a few and die before accepting your rule,’ after the instigation by the nobles, he shuddered, Just thinking about 70 million people becoming frantic.

But the crow mouth effect of Muhammad played an effective role, as the next content in the letter was about a few small-scale riots that had broken out towards the southern end of the Empire. Apparently, the people had been proclaiming that they needed to go home. When denied, they even fought back and tried to march forcefully. Fortunately, the border was filled with soldiers, so although the people had a larger number, they were no match for the trained soldiers.

“Where is their home, and why do they keep yelling we want to go home anyway?” Mohammad said as he put a hand on his head, confused. “Your Majesty, what I think they mean is, as the southern neighbour changed its name to Bharat, the infidels felt that it was their call to return home.”

Listening to this reason, Mohammad yelled, “God damn it!” He got up and punched the wall in annoyance. Then he made his firm decision and ordered, “Let that new guy Naveen take charge of our forces in the infidels’ land and assassinate that bastard Vijay.”

Moin Ali was shocked and asked, “But your Majesty, will this be wise? If what you said needs to be successful, we will have to mobilize even the most secretive assets. Once failure occurs, we will lose all our pawns in the empire,” he said, worried. But Mohammad had a wry smile and replied, “Don’t you see it, Moin? The establishment of the Bhartiya Empire has already shaken the roots of our Empire. Now it is just the southern areas that want to go home. But what if the news spreads? No matter how much you control, this is a land of 70 million infidels. It is not so easy to hide anything from them.

“So taking out Vijay Deva Raya is the only chance to resolve our conflicts quickly. But in case the operation is unsuccessful, even if we do not make a move and start a war, I don’t believe that the bastard Vijay would not… God damn it all,” Mohammad explained as, by the end of the sentence, he got annoyed again and yelled.

“It’s a pity. I wanted to use this pawn for a while longer. It was a very talented pawn. Unfortunately, its time for it to perform its mission has come,” Mohammad said, thinking about Naveen. But Moin Ali felt a tinge of doubt, which he quickly covered up.

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