alternatehistory.com

The POD is that, instead of temporarily partitioning Bengal, which severely aggravated Hindu and Muslim tensions, Curzon partitions another part of India:

1899-1905: Lord Curzon of Kedleston [1]
1905-1911: Lord Morley of Blackburn [2]
1911-1920: Lord Harding of Penshurst [3]

[1] Lord Curzon wasn't really the worst viceroy of India, but he is seen quite badly by most historians. In his term as viceroy, he quelled a rebellion by Pathan tribes in the North-West Frontier Province, and he was mistrustful of Russian interests in the Great Game. However, his worst failure was the famine suffered from 1899-1900, which killed millions of people, and he has suffered from accusations that he did not do everything to relieve this famine. This remains a vast dark mark on his record, and Indian historians especially loathe him. Yet, his final act as Viceroy wasn't really a bad act. He partitioned the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir into the smaller princely state of Jammu and the provinces of Kashmir and Ladakh. As it turned out, this has proved to be a good decision, as no feeling of unity existed between the three disparate peoples of the region, and Jammu was later absorbed into the Indian province of Punjab, fitting in seamlessly with Western Punjabis.

[2] The importance of the Morley reforms, better known as the Indian Council Acts of 1910, cannot be underestimated. They brought millions of Indians into the governance of the Raj, and it was because of this that such men like Motilal Nehru were brought into government, to rule the nation. But otherwise, his viceregal term was fairly quiet, in stark contrast to that of his successor.

[3] The dominating aspect of Harding's term was the Great War. Recommending that the Indian martial races be drafted en masse, with India having been fairly peaceful, this was accepted, and Indians from India, wearing their distinctive turbans, were a common sight across the trenches of western Europe. Passchendale was a dominating experience of the Indian efforts, and it has gone down in Indian legend as a symbol of a useless battle in a war of tyrannical empires, as a moment in which Indians fought for their occupiers nevertheless with valour. And as soldiers came home after a bitter-fought victory, they found that they gained no rights or benefits from fighting for the King-Emperor. They were left cynical and jaded, and many became fierce nationalists. Furthermore, the Spanish flu spread from these veterans, killing millions of Indians, and many found Harding's reaction to this plague insufficient. In reaction, as one of his last acts, Lord Harding recommended that India become a dominion with further native involvement. In 1920, this was accepted from the British authority albeit with Burma cut off from India, and the British Raj became the Dominion of India. Finally, India could govern itself. Furthermore, the post of Viceroy became the much weaker post of Governor-General, and naturally Harding left India after the creation of a Dominion.


1920-1931: Earl of Reading
1931-1940: Earl of Willingdon
1940-1949: Lord Churchill
1949-1963: Charles Lambe
1963-1967: Enoch Powell


1920-1937: Motilal Nehru (Indian National Congress) [1]
1920 def. H.N. Kunzru (Indian Liberal Party)
1924 def. H.N Kunzru (Indian Liberal Party)
1928 def. H.N. Kunzru (Indian Liberal Party)
1932 def. Madhav Shrihary Aney (Indian Liberal Party)
1936 def. Madhav Shrihary Aney (Indian Liberal Party)
1937-1948: Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Indian National Congress) [2]
1940 def. Madhav Shrihary Aney (Indian Liberal Party), M.N. Roy (Indian Communist Party)
1944 def. Madhav Shrihary Aney (Indian Liberal Party), Govind Ballabh Pant (Republican Congress), M.N. Roy (Indian Communist Party), C.N. Annadurai (Federalist)
1948-1950: Vallabhai Patel (Indian Liberal Party) [3]
1948 def. Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Indian National Congress), Govind Ballabh Pant (Republican Congress), M.N. Roy (Indian Communist Party), C.N. Annadurai (Federalist)
1950-1963: Morarji Desai (Indian Liberal Party) [4]
1948 def. Jawaharlal Nehru (Indian National Congress), Govind Ballabh Pant (Republican Congress), C. Rajagopalachari (Azadi), M.N. Roy (Indian Communist Party), C.N. Annadurai (Federalist)
1952 def. Jawaharlal Nehru (Indian National Congress), Govind Ballabh Pant (Republican Congress), C. Rajagopalachari (Azadi), M.N. Roy (Indian Communist Party)
1956 def. Jawaharlal Nehru (Indian National Congress), Govind Ballabh Pant (Republican Congress), C. Rajagopalachari (Azadi)
1960 def. Govind Ballabh Pant (Republican Congress), Jawaharlal Nehru (Indian National Congress), C. Rajagopalachari (Azadi)
1963-1964: Charan Singh (Indian Liberal Party) [5]
1964-1967: Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (Republican Congress) [6]
def. Charan Singh (Indian Liberal Party), Gulzaril Nanda (Indian National Congress), C. Rajagopalachari (Azadi)

[1] Motilal Nehru, the "Father of Dominion", is today one of the most beloved Indian leaders. After creating an official constitution that notably instituted Hindustani, in both its Urdu and Hindi scripts as the main official language and English as a secondary official language, coming on the backs of the Indian experience in the Great War and the subsequent Spanish Flu, he was intent on improving Indian hospitals. Citing the long legacy of Indian public hospitals since the days of the Delhi Sultanate, he established a number of public hospitals and nationalized many more, promoting vaccination and a good healthcare system. These acts calmed down a population put on edge by a flu nicknamed the "Britisher Plague" by many bitter veterans. Over the next decade, Nehru worked towards crushing farm lords, and land reform made him an enemy to many of the upper class. However, as it turned out, crushing the Indian feudal system made him a very popular man among former tenants, who voted him into power until his death. Another prominent movement during Nehru's term was a movement supported by Hindus and Muslims alike known as the Khilafah movement, which supported the retaining of the Ottoman Caliph as the ruler of Turkey. As it turned out, though his domain was much reduced, losing control over Hejaz to the Hashemites and even Kurdistan to an independent republic, and though the Hashemite ruler proclaimed himself Caliph, ultimately the Ottoman Caliph still ruled over Turkey from his capital in Constantinople. Finally, Nehru promoted industrialization, creating coal mines in Bengal and Bihar and factories across the Ganges, and this cause was furthered when the Statute of Westminster gave him even more power. Despite the Great Panic causing a vast, massive, economic slowdown, some factories even came to exist in Punjab and Madras Province by the time he died in 1937, handing the keys to a trusted cabinet member.

[2] Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a widely respected man and a proud, loyal Indian, considered by almost everyone to be a valiant man who worked hard for his country, and he was closely allied with Mohandas Gandhi to the point that they were called the "Gujarati Brothers", for they both hailed from Gujarat. Under Jinnah, India industrialized further as every country in the world (save for Germany which saw unstable nationalist governments threaten its democracy) recovered from the Great Panic, and he turned India into both a major breadbasket for the world and a "branch plant economy", as despite controversy within the party, numerous companies invested in India. However, left-wing members of the INC bolted from their party and created the Republican Congress, a left-wing party defined in no small part by its staunch advocacy of an Indian republic, and its most hardline members even accused the remaining INC of being collaborators. This also spurred the emergence of the minor Federalist Party, which promoted decentralizing India in reaction to the two language solution (Hindustani and a local language) that emerged throughout the Dravidian south. And when it came time for the 1948 election, these fatal splits as well as rumours of Jinnah's bad health caused the Indian Liberal Party to finally win an election, under a trusted man. As it turned out, Jinnah's death soon after the election vindicated those rumours. Today, the INC's lack of effectiveness as an opposition party has led to its destruction.

[3] Patel was a well-respected man, and held solid centre-right views emblematic of Indian liberalism. As such, he promoted further investment by foreign businesses, while keeping much of the Indian social safety net in place so as to keep money made in India. As it turned out, this resulted in right-wing members of the Liberal Party to form the Azadi Party, a hardline conservative party devoted to freedom as the name suggests, and they extended this philosophy of freedom to the economy. While it obviously held more seats than the Communists, what with Communism having failed to set up any revolutionary government anywhere, it proved to be fickle opposition to the popular Liberals. Patel died in 1950, having at least caused a few good reforms. It would ultimately come to his illustrious successor to hold up his legacy.

[4] Desai largely continued his predecessor's policies. However, it was here they bore fruit. As foreign businesses continued to invest in India, and as India continued to get wealthier and more prosperous, India's population, long a source of consternation by those worried about overpopulation, finally began to level off, and India's greatest issue finally began to go away. In culture, Indian clout began to grow, and today, the Indian movie industry, largely consisting of movies in the Hindustani language, became prominent worldwide as the "Indian Economic Miracle" grew famous across the world. India became a quite prominent part of the British Empire, and the most optimistic estimates at the time make it the wealthiest part of the Empire, at least in terms of total GDP. But of course, the only real thing that India followed the British Empire in was foreign policy, and that would not be tested until a few years after Desai resigned. In any case, with no real challenges, and bearing the fruits of prosperity, a triumphant Desai proclaimed his resignation in 1963, leading a nation that looked like it would only ever improve.

[5] At first Charan Singh had a prosperous and content country. However, then came the Malaya Crisis. Now, at this point, the British Empire looked increasingly moribund. India, its former crown jewel, was no longer toeing its line. But of course, many colonies, Malaya among them, remained under solid British rule. But then the Malay Independence Army proclaimed the independence of Malaya as a free republic, and Britain took to bombing the portions of Malaya under their control. This divided India massively, and Charan Singh's stuttering reply of weak support for the British was considered weak. And the Republican Congress, with its talk of an "Indian Century" and an "independent India", was increasingly appealing. So when election time came around, no one was surprised at the victor.

[6] Having won on the basis of national rage, Bhutto's term as Prime Minister of India was struck by a total refusal to follow Britain's path in foreign affairs and seeking the creation of a republic. In this goal, the governor-general proved surprisingly amenable, despite his reputation as a conservative whacko. Ultimately, the Indian Constitution of 1967 was accepted by British Parliament, and with it, India broke off all remaining links to Britain. The Dominion, and the many petty monarchies inside it, was no more. Now came the Republic, to lead India in a new age of decolonization...