Hindustan (Fidem Pacis)

The Republic of India is a sovereign state located in the northern half of the Indian Subcontinent. Bordered by Baktristan to the west, Deccan to the south, Burma to the west and Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan and China to the north, and with coastlines along the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, India is one of the most populous and culturally diverse nations in all the world.

Indian civilization has a long and prosperous history. The first known religion was Hinduism, which was introduced by Aryan invaders some three thousand years ago, but Islam was introduced in the 8th century during the reign of King Narsieh Nirvasita of Hindustan and quickly became established in several coastal regions. In the 13th century the area came under the control of the Muslim rulers of the Maratha Empire, and over time Islam gradually became dominant in the northern half of the subcontinent.

This Delhi Sultanate, as it was known, lasted until the mid-18th century when the Durrani dynasty from Afghanistan became interested in the region. Having already secured the independence of the eastern provinces of Persia, Ahmad Shah Durrani sought to expand into the stagnant and vulnerable India. In 1761 he defeated the Marathas at the First Battle of Panipat, after which he conquered Delhi and much of northern India.

Ahmad Shah's son and grandson would come to rule almost the entire subcontinent. However, in 1809 Shujah Shah mistakenly sacked a trading post owned by the Albic East India Company and, despite his apologies and offers of compensation, Albion saw fit to intervene militarily and despose him. Afterwards the East India Company would seize more and more Indian land, until the First Indian War of Independence of 1857 overthrew both the Company and the Durranis. The remaining members of the Durrani dynasty retreated to Afghanistan, where they established the foundation of the modern country of Baktristan.

Albion did manage to defeat the rebellion, but reorganized India to come under direct Albic rule and formally gave the Indian people all the rights of Welshmen.

India became a key part of the Albic Empire, and Indian troops served all over the world from Borneo to Zululand, and to the fields of Aquitaine during the First Great War. However, in 1944 at the height of the Second Great War, with the majority of Albic troops already occupied in the European theatre, China launched an invasion of India from the north and east. The Azad Hind organization, formed to fight for India's freedom, quickly gained thousands of recruits who helped take the entirety of the northern half of the Indian Empire.

At the beginning of the Long Ceasefire, India was divided between the independent Republic of India in the north, and the Albic-controlled Indian Empire in the south, with occasional raids and skirmishes across the front. The front however never fully reopened with the resumption of the war - in 1958, with decolonization rapidly gaining pace around the rest of the world, Albion and the Republic finally agreed to peace terms, which involved the south's independence as the Dominion of the Deccan, while the Republic renounced any affinity to China or the rest of the Axis powers.

Ever since then relations between north and south have been cordial, if a little tense at times. Deccan helped India repel a Chinese invasion in 1961, and the two have cooperated on matters such as energy and foreign policy. Nevertheless, with all the historic differences between north and south there seems to be little prospect of reunification, and the majority of both India's and Deccan's citizens seem to be happy with the current situation.