Reactions

(3rd PoV)

As India gained Independence, it meant many things for the world.

For Britain, it was the loss of the cash cow full of resources. While most Britishers denied having benefitted from the exploitation, stating that only the upper class people benefitted, forgot about how London was built, how industrial revolution in Britain started, how they became the major exporter of textile, from where all the iron came, and why Britain even became a country that the common people of the world even know about it.

They either didn't know about British cruelty in India, or ignored it completely due to White superiority complex or blamed the victims.

Some, no, majority even felt proud of the empire. They thought, they civilized and uplifted the backward India. They united it, and they bravely fought against slavery, caste system and saved the wives who get burned daily there when husband dies.

So when the Indian PM straight up threatened the Viceroy of India that it either drops support for Pakistan completely, or ruin relations with India completely.

"That's ridiculous. Why should we listen to the demands of that cracked fucker who spent most of his life in jail?"

Churchill shouted with his potty mouth.

Atlee, as the ruling party's representative and the PM, sighed.

"This isn't some mere warning. He has sanctioned Britain. The trade has completely stopped. Our textile and iron industry is in grave danger. I believe we should just go along with their demands. Pakistan is a small country, and in their inevitable war, with Mr Satyankar Das as India's PM, Pakistan wouldn't be something real in some years."

Even people from his own part disagreed with him.

"Hmph! Coward! Do you even know that they are now coveting our territories in the South Asian Ocean? And as a pioneer of freedom and justice, and democracy, we can't let Pakistan disappear."

And it seems like Churchill just coined the term 'South Asias Ocean' instead of Indian Ocean, to further deny India's claims.

As for Atlee, he didn't have problem with India claiming British territories in the Indian Ocean like Ceylon and that group of islands. Instead, if India took their responsibility, Britain would be able to leave Ceylon earlier and save time and money.

"We don't even know if India will stand. So many languages, so many races, so many religion... who says there won't be another Pakistan? We shouldn't stop relations with Pakistan, and should even develop good relations with it as a much stable country."

But it seems that not everyone on his party had the same thought as him.

"Alright. Let's vote."

And the result of their voting was: Support Pakistan.

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In the other parts of the world, there was hope in the countries under colonial rule. They all have suffered and are suffering a lot under their current regimes. So, they increased their efforts for independence with greater vigour.

In the Indian Subcontinent, the Princely States started joining India either due to the privy purse introduced by the new Indian government, or fear that something may happen to them if they didn't oblige. Joining Pakistan was out of question since it was evident that they will be purged along with the country which was created out of nowhere. Jinnah's idea that muslim regions should come under Pakistan was laughable at best. Bengal had more muslims than Pakistan, and they remained in India, perfectly with the Hindu bengalis.

There were elitists, of course, who only had religion in their mind and wanted to join Pakistan. But kings were different.

Still, states like Hyderabad and Junagadh, and Jammu and Kashmir has decided to try to remain independent and watch things from the sidelines currently. Manipuri people showed more inclination towards joining India as they could get their land leased to Burma back with Indian backing. And since the PM has pushed for states on the basis of language, there isn't much difference between their own state or their own country for a good majority of people of various regions like Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim, etc.

Meanwhile Pakistan has started making plans to annex Balochistan, Sindh, and most importantly, Kashmir. And Muslim League was under a lot of pressure and tension. But they thought of themselves as great heroes who are fighting for the existence of Pakistan.

Ceylon had a different opinion altogether. The dominant party which was controlled by a family didn't want it to become a part of India. And definitely didn't want a part of Ceylon divided into Tamil state. If Tamils wanted to live here, they would have to learn Sinhala, they thought.

The group of islands below Lakshadweep, which were future Maldives and other British Indian Ocean territories, were all for joining India. It didn't seem like Britain had any intentions to give them Independence afterall.

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As the US President read through the letter that he had received from the diplomat, he was pleased. According to the letter, India wants some basic things.

1) No support to Pakistan.

2) No interference in internal matters.

3) Neutrality in USA and USSR's conflicting ideals and differences. Which can be seen in the Chinese Civil War that was going on currently, and the situation building up in Korea as well.

And in return, it will allow American companies to establish factories for manufacturing, firstly textile in Bengal as a trial to see and understand things.

Normally, it would have been the perfect deal for the US. With Britain out of India, US could finally start to dominate in the textile industry. It could slowly build good relations, and influence India slowly to come under its fanction instead of USSR. Getting a reliable 'partner' in the Indian Ocean.

Naturally, it wouldn't interfere in India's internal matters, on paper.

But unlike most people, he didn't underestimate India. One of the chief member of the nuclear bomb maker was a scholar in Sanskrit. He read Gita more than Bible.

So influence wasn't really a problem for India. And it didn't have problems in leadership as well. Afterall, Bengal wasn't partitioned even though it has the largest Muslim population.

But it's the US, a country run by corporations. And differenct corporations have different needs and demands. Manufacturing things in a different country is unheard of, but it's not a bad idea. With the abundance of cloth-related resources in Bengal, a large number of people who are in extreme poverty, who would work for any amount of money, this does seem good for the companies, though bad for American workers.

Who cares about the workers? The textile companies certainly don't.

But the problem is stability of India if they want to establish manufacturing there. While he didn't have the suspicion like many people that it will disintegrate into pieces, the important thing is that majority isn't really certain about that.

As for the UN seat, directly joining as a permanent member or not joining at all isn't US's problem. Both US and USSR will support it to bring India under their influence. That is for certain. The rest is upto Britain, France and Republic of China.

USA can pull strings to make them agree, of course. But why would it do that?

For now, he will discuss it with the textile companies and in the Congress, and see where it goes.

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USSR's diplomat has a meeting today, and he is ordered to discuss good relations and to establish India as a major oil purchaser from USSR since it would be likely that it will be very difficult for it to secure the valuable resource from the South Western Asian Muslim countries since India intends to wipe out the name Pakistan from the map of the world.

"But territorial integrity is a must."

Stalin said, pleased that they think alike. If things go well, USSR will soon have an ally who has an ocean, to counter the advantage USA has over it.

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As for the South Western Asian countries, the relation with India was going to be complex.

Iran didn't really have any problem with selling oil to India, and would prefer it to be a bordering country rather than a country made over religion, even though majority of that said religion still didn't join the country. Atleast for the leadership. What people think is another matter.

The countries which are under British occupation and will form the UAE in the future don't really have any brotherhood with Pakistan. They would rather form better relations with India.

As for the others, like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, etc., they have decided to wait and see, and decide on what to do after they know about India's stance on European Jewish occupation in Palastine, knowing that India has the best relations in the world with Jews, but also has the first or second most Muslim population in the world. If India stands against the occupation, they would be willing to ignore Pakistan.

All in all, different regions have different reactions and responses due to beliefs, language, religion, stereotypes, but most importantly, interests.