Swastika Days

[Falecius]

Originally Posted by Roger II

Is the pun on Fortune Days intentional?

I have no idea what you are referring to, so I suppose it isn't.

[Kishan]

What is the POD of this TL? When does the British Rule end and India attain independence? Do you envisage a democratic India for any length of time? How does the Aryan nazis come to power? Any fascist organisation must have a supreme leader and who is the Sarvoch/Sarvoch Nayak (Supremo/Supreme Leader) of the Aryan Suryajaya Regime? Many similar questions remain unanswered. Hope Falecius will clear many of those doubts in course of time.

[Falecius]

Originally Posted by Kishan

What is the POD of this TL? When does the British Rule end and India attain independence? Do you envisage a democratic India for any length of time? How does the Aryan nazis come to power? Any fascist organisation must have a supreme leader and who is the Sarvoch/Sarvoch Nayak (Supremo/Supreme Leader) of the Aryan Suryajaya Regime? Many similar questions remain unanswered. Hope Falecius will clear many of those doubts in course of time.

I will. I currently have to finish some work (I mean, real life work) so I won't come back to either this TL o my other one for some days yet.
I am still working out details, but the PoD will be in late 1800s. I think Annie Besant might be involved.
The basic point is that a right-wing independence movement based on a "reformed" Hinduism mixed with racial bullshit, a "socialism" of sorts, and theosophy, takes off and gains hegemony over the Indian Nationalism. They'll manage to exploit European wars to gain leverage and finally obtaining power. Their alliance with Nazi Germany is going to be loose enoungh to allow this regime to survive a very different WWII.
India will be independent in the late thirties/early forties after a bloody conflict, and she will never be a democracy: the Pure Bharat will be the dominating party from the start and soon it will start its genocidal spree.
I hadn't considered the leader issue yet. I toyed with two ideas about this: using Candra Bose or a Mohandas Gandhi in "evil twin" mood. The second option is mostly for the lulz, and I am inclined to discard both. Gandhi might stay in South Africa TTL. Hilarity won't ensue. (remember, South African apartheid will be there, and the nationalist Afrikaner will be Aryan allies to Evil India).
I'll probably use a fictional character as The Evil Leader in the end.
I think I will need to do some homework about the OTL history of the Arya Samaj before giving more detailed answers.

[The Troubled One]

What with India being so diverse, how exactly are the Aryans going to establish a racial hierarchy? Since there are literally thousands of different ethnicities present, which ones would become the elites? How exactly does Suryajaya function?

[King Henry]

Interesting story idea. So essentially a worse WW2 leaves Europe functionally irrelevant for the war? and the craziness of the Indians means Japan sides with the allies?

hmm, is the middle easts significantly different form OTL?

[Falecius]

Originally Posted by The Troubled One

What with India being so diverse, how exactly are the Aryans going to establish a racial hierarchy? Since there are literally thousands of different ethnicities present, which ones would become the elites? How exactly does Suryajaya function?

Caste system is enforced, to the extreme. Indoeuropean-speaking Hindu groups are the top guys, but high caste Dravidian-speaking Hindus are considered on almost equal footing. Followers of "Semitic" religions are persecuted, especially Muslims and Sikhs (of course), as they apostatized their Aryanness. People like the Muslims of the Indus valley are not racially inferior. Are members of the Master Race who willingly degraded themselves adopting "Semitic" values.
This anti-islamic hysteria has to be somewhat toned down for political reasons since the Persian Aryamehr is a key ally, both geopolitical and ideological. Probably someone will come out with the idea that Twelver Shiism is the "Aryan" form of Islam, so that only Sunnis will be targeted for utter distruction.
Since attributing the Sunni-Shii split to "racial" differences between Aryan and Semites has flied quite well in Europe OTL, I guess it might work here too.
However, as the original Nazi hierarchy, the one of Suryajaya is not a completely coherent system on which every top ranking party member agrees. There is debate as to consider Buddhism an expression of True Aryan Values and where Tibetans fit into the hierarchy of races, for example. And political expediency plays a part. Cambodians and Javanese are considered "almost Aryans" at the start, but this will change. At some point, Batavia, Semarang and Soerabaja are nuked, that is where the Alliance really forms out of fear and horror at a regime willing to nuke its own people.

However, in general you have Northern Indian, Hindu Kshatriyas and Brahmins running the show.

[Falecius]

Originally Posted by King Henry

Interesting story idea. So essentially a worse WW2 leaves Europe functionally irrelevant for the war? and the craziness of the Indians means Japan sides with the allies?

hmm, is the middle easts significantly different form OTL?

Well, yes. There no Pearl Harbor TTL. The Indians are on relatively good terms with the Japanese and when they take over SE Asia thanks to the collapse of european metropoles wrought by German Nazis, they let oil flow.
Japan is finally defeated in China by the Communists, but survives as great power. I'm not sure they'll keep Manchuria, probably not, but they still have Korea and Taiwan.

Middle East is a mess, but basically at some point the Arabs and the jews there come to realize that the Aryans will not care for want branch of Semiticness they belong to and that they are all targeted with intended destruction if India wins. A small alt-Israel, Turkey, and a group of Arab states are among the minor Alliance members, as are all unoccupied European states except Spain and Switzerland, who cling to neutrality. But Europe in general is wreck and some parts of it are nuclear wastelands.
A rump Vichy France has set up shop in Algiers and sided with India, as did South Africa and alt-Rhodesia. Portugal first leaned to the Aryan bloc but then switched sides to the Alliance. South America is either Allied or neutral. Canada and Australia are the biggest second-tier Allies behind the Big Five.

[whitecrow]

Great TL! I'd love to see more.

For some reason the first thing that poped into my mind after reading this was what ATL Indiana Joanes films would be like.

"Hindis. I hate Hindis"

[Falecius]

Sorry guys,
thanks to everyone here who expressed interest.
I have much more work to do currently than I anticipated, and I am experiencing a bit of a creative block. Plus, I have to do some serious research on the topic of this TL, looking into the history of early Arya Samaj and the plausibility of Theosophy influencing their views, the myths surrounding the "Aryan" concept in late nineteenth century, and such things.
I'm putting this on hyatus fot a months or two, but don't worry, I'll be back.