Fanfiction: The expansion of the Dragon, Based on the story of the other... Options

[__CrUsHeR]

Well, tonight I was inspired to write more fanfiction about the universe of ROTR.

This time I'll show a little more about China and its expansionist campaign in Asia, I hope you enjoy and comment about.

Republic of India

The Republic of India
Leader: Abhay Pandit
Capital: New Delhi
Population: 1,218,644,793
Active Troops: 1,500,000


The Republic of India began its ascent to the development in the late 20th century and began the new century figuring among the 10 nations with the highest GDP in the world, as a reflection of their respectful image the country has incorporated in the BRICS group as a one emerging power with the Russia, China, Brazil and South Africa. In 2007 when the global financial crisis pushed down the biggest economies of the world the India's GDP continued to grow contrary to the expectations of speculators, in mid-2017 the India had conquered a significant proportion of exports to the consumer markets of Europe and Southern Africa, the bilateral relations with the rivals Pakistan and China were becoming increasingly necessary, and with Russians the Indians over the years have signed several strategic partnerships and developed advanced technologies together, especially in the military field.

In mid-2018 began a new decade of changes in the region of the Indian subcontinent and in Asia as a whole - the Global Libertation Army led by General 'Deathstrike' had started a anti-imperialist campaign against China through the already weakened Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, shortly afterwards the Pakistan was severely punished by terrorism promoted by the GLA that has destructured the Islamic Republic and spread chaos across the country, violent riots in India due to the discontent of the population caused the resignation of the president, the new ruler who assumed the Republic in 2019 took measures to increase the national security and help the Pakistan to contain the terrorists waves, the government of Pakistan that was resistant to Indian helps was forced to accept it when the GLA surrounded the outskirts of Islamabad, the task force was able to expel the terrorists ridding Pakistan from the tyranny of the GLA and opening the doors for a greater approximation between two countries.

In 2021 as a response to Chinese expansion that threatened the interests Indo-Pakistanis the two countries began to perform joint military exercises annually and in 2025 when the 'Deathstrike' controlled the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan New Delhi and Islamabad signed a military alliance against terrorism, as part of the agreement India has disabled its only aircraft carrier - Vikramaditya - and in return Pakistan recognized the portion of Gilgit in Kashmir as Indian territory, the Indus Water Treaty has been revised and India removed the dams that limited the water resources for neighbor country that has benefited from better conditions for agriculture. In 2028 with the rise to power of President Suvorov the arms exports quadrupled between Russia and India, in 2030 at the apex of bilteral relationship between the two countries a batch of Sentinel Tanks were delivered to the Indian army. The deterrent power accumulated by India and the treaties signed contributed to the maintenance of peace with neighboring countries that would rather have the Indians as partners than as enemies.

Parade of the Indian army in 2018.

When in 2031 the SSAN, later called GAPA (Greater Asian Peoples Alliance) was created India and Pakistan viewed with distrust the Chinese weft and for this reason refused to join the group. In 2034 after the failure of the EU and the formation of the ECA the policy of the European community changed drastically, the new horizons for businesses that came to India that reached the consumer markets of Oceania and America, this lucrative trade boosted the Indian industry, consequently creating new jobs and generated trillions of rupees for the country.

The social inequality remained the biggest challenge of the 21st century India was overcoming the sociocultural abyss that divided the huge multicultural population of the Republic between ethnicities, castes, religions, languages, customs and traditions, the first steps for the "social evolution" in India were traced by own government that abolished the castes and reformulated the internal policies to minimize the effects of social segregation, however only with the violent protests of 2036 a revolution took shape, as happened in 2019 millions of people took to the streets of the big cities demanding the resignation of President, the situation became untenable for the government and a new president was sworn in mid-2038 - Abhay Pandit - this demonstration of popular power has renewed the democracy and opened the way for a new level of equality between people.

Currently India and Pakistan continues with the Kashmir litigation with rival People's Republic of China, terrorist cells under the banner of GLA lurk around the disputed region and threaten to start a new war against the "imperialist infidels" at any time, in 2045 the diplomatically situation with the Chinese neighbor became more delicate after the secret service of India revealed a large network of secret agents infiltrated in countless government sectors under the command of Jin - General of the Chinese secret police.

This post has been edited by __CrUsHeR: 4 Mar 2013, 21:37

[MARS]

I like the overall idea behind this story but a literal war between China and India seems like a major gamechanger. For one, an earlier update, The East is Red, somewhat implies that China and India are trade-partners, but that India kinda flip-flops between them and the Russians diplomatically. Pakistan was also wrecked by the GLA War as seen in 'The Stories of Others Part I'. While I don't mind the basic gist of this backstory, it does somewhat collide with our canon, mainly that bit about China and India literally going to war with each other. The idea of a social revolution, arms trade with Russia and a pragmatic alliance with the leftovers of Pakistan after the GLA War does seem like an interesting hook though. Maybe you could spread these out a bit to cover a greater timespan, add some more tangible information and make this period of change the focal point of the story instead. If you could re-fit this a bit and get rid of the actual war with China (which would have had catastrophic effects on China as well; India is NOT a pushover), I might declare this canon for the Wiki.

[Shatterfury]

What MARS said , you shouldn`t go against the story.Also I would suggest you enrich the story with many more details,for example you could describe a few battles and then jump to the end.

It`s important to understand what structure the factions have,for example ECA wouldn`t be involved humanitarian aid since it`s just a military alliance with a free trade agreement part of ECA itself or as a separate treaty.Don`t confuse today`s EU with the ECA, one is on it`s way to slowly become federation while the other it`s bowing down to European nationalism following GLA incursion in North Germany thus ECA itself doesn`t have any political power since member states are fully sovereign thus ECA saying anything is worthless without the backing of the member states.

I might start my own fanfic about the Romania.

[__CrUsHeR]

I like the overall idea behind this story but a literal war between China and India seems like a major gamechanger. For one, an earlier update, The East is Red, somewhat implies that China and India are trade-partners, but that India kinda flip-flops between them and the Russians diplomatically. Pakistan was also wrecked by the GLA War as seen in 'The Stories of Others Part I'. While I don't mind the basic gist of this backstory, it does somewhat collide with our canon, mainly that bit about China and India literally going to war with each other. The idea of a social revolution, arms trade with Russia and a pragmatic alliance with the leftovers of Pakistan after the GLA War does seem like an interesting hook though. Maybe you could spread these out a bit to cover a greater timespan, add some more tangible information and make this period of change the focal point of the story instead. If you could re-fit this a bit and get rid of the actual war with China (which would have had catastrophic effects on China as well; India is NOT a pushover), I might declare this canon for the Wiki.

sure, I'll perform these modifications soon and edit this story.

[MARS]

It's also important to remember that the ECA is very self-centred which is part of their origin story (created through populist revolutions and coups against the central government). As such, their interest rests solely on Europe, parts of Africa that are right across the Med, the Arctic Ocean (Greenland still technically belongs to Denmark, which itself is an ECA country) and the small colonial holdings in South America (Curacao, French Guiana, Falklands). Beyond that, they don't have much of a reason to care about India, let alone engage in humanitarian operations that don't directly serve their own interest. They did that in North Africa not out of common courtesy but because they wanted to drive away the GLA by forcibly secularising and developing these countries to a point where the population would not support them ever again.

Points that you could elaborate on:
- The ambivalent trading relationship between India and Russia/China
- India's reaction to the GLA War and the partial balkanisation of Pakistan
- The social revolution in India itself is a very complex topic that could easily make up the bulk of the backstory
- India's role in the Commonwealth of Nations which is said to have become more important/cordial after the UK pulled out of the EU

[__CrUsHeR]

Yes, I could explore all these points very easily and I will explore them intensely from now.

[Cobretti]

I also wonder if the US would have strong links via trade and possible alliance to India, given the countries' growing relationship between each other. It seems likely that the US would have either maintained (even after the withdrawal from Europe) or try to rebuild its alliances with its old allies and trading partners in the Pacific/Indian Ocean area given the rise to power of it's possible rivals/foes in China and Russia. Some sort of Pacific Rim alliance between the US, Japan, Korea, India, and Australia and New Zealand would seem likely with China's Southeast Asian bloc and a resurgent Russia.

[MARS]

They do definitely want to rebuild their old relationships as the story is going to point out, although it's worth noting that they also have that love/hate relationship with China. On the one hand, the US are interested in restoring the ties to their former allies in Asia to contain China while on the other hand, the US and China have often operated as a tandem when it came to dealing with Russia's expansion.

[Cobretti]

Yeah, makes sense. I'd think its quite possible that they'd still be pretty big trading partners on top of having the same concerns about Russian expansion (hence the note about them being a "possible" rival).

[__CrUsHeR]

I rewrote the story and did a much better version more rich in details and compatible with the universe of ROTR. Read and comment.

MARS Thank for your help.

This post has been edited by __CrUsHeR: 4 Mar 2013, 22:03

[Alex1guy]

I like this one better, more fitting and well written.

[Serialkillerwhal...]

Less pictures of explosions though.

[__CrUsHeR]

I like this one better, more fitting and well written.

I have this same sensation because the India is more contextualized with the universe of ROTR and with the events of the plot.

Thanks for your review, I'm waiting for your next work of fiction.

Less pictures of explosions though.

What????

[TheCeLL]

I dont think Mars needs to write more Stories of Others anymore

[SpiralSpectre]

I swear I tried to keep it short but this post just kept growing.

The overall plot and writing is solid and plausible. Oh whom am I kidding, this is awesome, like it's like something I would want for my birthday. But like already mentioned, in a sense India rather has rather complex foreign relations and they usually try to play it safe with every faction, making them hard to fit in ROTR that's based on an era of expansionism where your country has to chose a side or a side gets chosen for you.

Anyway firstly, like the other nations of Sub-Continent Indian foreign policy also takes a hit depending on which political party is in charge. If team A says East, team B is pretty likely to say West. Like already said, India would want to co-operate with China rather than becoming openly hostile. Like mentioned in an earlier update, they are most likely to go for large trade deals with China. And since India isn't exactly a bug China can crush and annex without paying a good cost, the calculating Chinese wouldn't have any reason to deny. But the mutual suspicion and distrust would prevent them from getting in an effective alliance. It would pretty similar to what ROTR US and China have for each other.

I agree with how India got into big deals with reemerging Russia. Considering ROTR China and GLA it's likely India would push faster in their booming arms trade, including the purchase of Sentinels. Again do note Like China, India has a similar (but much less extreme) habit of building their own versions of foreign weapons based on stuff they buy and I wonder how the others would think about that.

India's relation with ROTR US needs a bit more clarification. Naturally US abandoned India after ZH but what about now? Are they trying to regain India's trust as well? If so then how is India's reaction? What is India's stance about the Japan-Korea alliance which is most likely to become close allies of US?

And like already said, ECA are somewhat self-centered to come to any effective alliance with India. While India would love nothing else more than that it's unlikely ECA would agree unless they have a lot to gain from this. And this would increase the possibility of increasing hostility with their strategic pal and money lender China so ECA probably wouldn't approach them.

And now the most interesting and surprising part of the story - India and Pakistan's alliance and close collaboration. This is the kinda surprise that donates to the charm of ROTR stories. This is like a dream come true for MANY people, but it's also very unlikely considering their history which you know well. You've mentioned things like Kashmir and even mentioned India's water monopoly, I am not gonna elaborate that. It wouldn't be bad to mention Pakistan also has it's share of historical faults. Anyway while it's very likely they would sign an anti-terror agreement, it's equally unlikely that they would go for joint military exercises like that. Unless Pakistan got reduced to rubble by GLA and China abandoned them completely in face of certain extinction by their own nukes... the story does imply a situation like that.

The social revolution is a complex topic, but it's very interesting while plausible, something you would expect from an ROTR story.

And since I might be able to help a bit and would like (no wait love, tots love) to hear more about India's local politics and since you mentioned treaties being signed, here are some points on some interesting players:

Like I said, India would wanna play it safe like it always does, unless it's about their direct neighbours like Pakistan, Sri-Lanka or Bangladesh with whom it's more of a relation of mistrust, suspicion and perhaps hatred that has piled up over countless generations. Or at least that's how it is in current RL terms. Dunno if China's rise would actually make them flock together... that could be interesting.

Again Pakistan or at least Sri-Lanka might be more willing to co-operate with China rather than India. Specially if China takes a honeyed move similar to what they took for Mongolia. China has supported Sri-Lanka's all out war against Tamil rebels while India has openly criticised it, China has been helping to build up advanced infrastructure in Sri-Lanka... Sri-Lanka is much more likely to swing towards the dragon. But a GAPA approach by China might push them back make them swing towards India, making another surprise alliance.

Pakistan also wouldn't have any reason to say no to China unless China totally abandoned them during the GLA attacks. But since that's the route you're taking maybe it would be better if you detail it further. Pakistan loves to refer to China as something like their historic allies and with the growing distrust in the love-hate relationship Pakistan has with US, China is becoming more and more of a serious love interest and current Pakistan would love to be beside China if they were in a world without US influence (which late ZH, ROTR-verse happens to be).

As for Bangladesh (as a sidenote that happens to be the most densely populated country in the world)... it completely depends on who would be in power. If a certain party supports India the other would go for team China without the slightest hesitation. They would wanna play it safe just like India, they have a history with both India and Pakistan... it's complex. But practically losing all independence and becoming Beijing's toy can be a strong motivator. If, which is a big if, India and Pakistan become allies like you described Bangladesh would follow them.

Overall the treaties you mentioned are very likely. Even an alliance is plausible considering the grim dark state of ROTR-verse.

Another point you could notice in the future is India's stance on using nukes. Both India and Pakistan are fond of building their nuclear arsenals and now they have one hell of a nuke happy, suspicious superpower neighbour.

Overall - thumbs up mate. This is something you should be proud of. And a shameless request - please do add more on the social revolution, India's neighbours and US's role in the area.

[__CrUsHeR]

Thanks for your feedback and for having written enough to help me in a future revision. I'll keep the focus on these topics that seem to be plausible.

[MARS]

Taking into account that non-specific Middle Eastern map from the first Stories Of Others update, Pakistan actually lost a lot of its territory to what appears to be an independent state of Balochistan when the entire region got wrecked by the US/GLA/Saudi/Iranian war. A rump Pakistan would practically require some sort of ally in order to survive which leaves the question: Would they turn towards China at the risk of being marginalised and absorbed by their influence or would they turn to India despite the historical grievances in a 'better the devil you know' kind of fashion? Geographically, Pakistan shares a long, wide open land border with India and a short but extremely mountainous border with China. Would Pakistan use that opportunity to team up with India to fortify the Himalayas region or would they offer themselves as a PLA gateway into western India?

[__CrUsHeR]

China as it is presented in the ROTR has become an extremely imperialist nation, I guess it is about two times more rich and powerful than China we know today and its businesses surpassed the USA with a certain distance.

The India and Pakistan may have improved its economy over time however could not compare with China that continues to grow and spread its tentacles by region, India and Pakistan may have to put aside their old historical differences to be able to hold a 'greater evil'.

[MARS]

A 'greater evil' which, at the same time, would still be their most important business partner, so the relations between China and India/Pakistan would be kinda like the current China/US relationships: Definitely not friends and engaged in a political duel for influence in the region which might even be conducted via proxy conflicts but at the same time, they do not want to risk an actual war which would jeopardise both their economies.

This makes me think, maybe a future Canon Fodder update should be about maps. Not entirely text-based, but commented maps that show various aspects of the setting on a larger scale, like the global allegiances and power blocs.

[Admiral FCS]

I personally find some aspects of the work not so convincing. It's a great piece of fanfiction, don't get me wrong, but considering how China have been supporting Pakistan for a long time, it just seems unlikely that Pakistan would just ditch everything China's done and get along with India considering how they had several border wars with military leaders on both sides threatening to use nukes. It would also seem unlikely that China would ever leave Pakistan to deal with themselves, not before Beijing was nuked; if nothing else, Pakistan is a semi-satellite state that helps take some pressure off the Sino-Indian border issues.

Just my two cents.

Also... regarding the above comment of China being extremely imperialist... maybe another word? I'm just curious as to the word choice.

[__CrUsHeR]

I personally find some aspects of the work not so convincing. It's a great piece of fanfiction, don't get me wrong, but considering how China have been supporting Pakistan for a long time, it just seems unlikely that Pakistan would just ditch everything China's done and get along with India considering how they had several border wars with military leaders on both sides threatening to use nukes. It would also seem unlikely that China would ever leave Pakistan to deal with themselves, not before Beijing was nuked; if nothing else, Pakistan is a semi-satellite state that helps take some pressure off the Sino-Indian border issues.

Just my two cents.

Really the alliance between Pakistan and India was not well explained I need to work on this subject.

Also... regarding the above comment of China being extremely imperialist... maybe another word? I'm just curious as to the word choice.

I think in the ZH and ROTR China has imperialist ambitions to the point of being 'swallowing' the culture and economy of the Arab World, but this is a speculation.

@MARS
About a updating of maps: please make this!

This post has been edited by __CrUsHeR: 7 Jul 2013, 7:58

[Admiral FCS]

Really the alliance between Pakistan and India was not well explained I need to work on this subject.



I think in the ZH and ROTR China has imperialist ambitions to the point of being 'swallowing' the culture and economy of the Arab World, but this is a speculation.

@MARS
About a updating of maps: please make this!

I think you mean Africa =P

As far as I can see in the canon storyline, China is doing exactly what it's been doing in Africa since the 80's and the 90's; helping African nations build up their nation while demanding to have a large, if not exclusive share in local resources as well as the possibility of directly constructing military bases overseas (which is new). It's kind of similar to what the Americans have been doing in the past years as far as I know, and although that is indeed neo-imperialism, in the case of China it appears to have somewhat more benefits to the African nations. I would call it mutual cooperation, although China benefits a lot more from the deal than the African nations.

Then again, I maybe biased towards thinking of China as more of a good nation due to my nationality of being Chinese.

[MARS]

That's actually quite accurate. The Chinese territories in Africa (Egypt, North Sudan, Ethiopia, Nigeria) have their own local governments which, while obviously pro-Chinese in the grand scheme of things, act independently while China gets to station troops and extract resources in these countries. The only areas that are actually occupied and administered by the PRC itself would be Somalia, Djibouti and Eritrea, which got turned into military protectorates because they used to be failed states and pirate havens in the setting. The Chinese are making no efforts to re-educate or colonise the African countries but their treatment of the Asian GAPA countries is noticeably different in that regard.

[Admiral FCS]

That's actually quite accurate. The Chinese territories in Africa (Egypt, North Sudan, Ethiopia, Nigeria) have their own local governments which, while obviously pro-Chinese in the grand scheme of things, act independently while China gets to station troops and extract resources in these countries. The only areas that are actually occupied and administered by the PRC itself would be Somalia, Djibouti and Eritrea, which got turned into military protectorates because they used to be failed states and pirate havens in the setting. The Chinese are making no efforts to re-educate or colonise the African countries but their treatment of the Asian GAPA countries is noticeably different in that regard.

Reminds me of the saying "keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer". Even if Africa makes trouble, it's far enough from China to not cause any major problems, hence the cooperative attitude, wheras if a Southeast Asian nation decides to act up, China may be negatively affected and thus the iron grip that controls the GAPA, right?

[MARS]

Pretty much and in-universe China has, among other things, done away with the one child policy in order to achieve a better demographic balance and boost its economic capabilities, both in regards to workers and consumers, even further, so they may even want to use their influence to grab new territory as well. Russia is already seeing the consequences in its Far-East district to the point of ethnic tensions getting bad enough to have a harmful effect on the diplomatic relations and General Jin has been specifically ordered to ensure the safety of these citizens from across the border. At this point in the story, ROTR China is basically screaming for an excuse to claim these lands and integrate them into the home country.