The Fascist Republic of India: An alternate history of Independent India

The USSR has with India, a relationship similar to Japan ,i.e, non-aggression but with the significant distinction of not promising the western allies that they'll fight India after the war.
Secondly, the US has also seen the writing on the wall. India is, for all intents and purposes, an Independent nation and with the D-Day being catastrophic for Britain, Britain has no means to launch a land invasion.
Thirdly, the US estimates that the Soviets can convince Bose to turn on the Japanese, and thereby aid their war effort.
Britain is pissed but can't really do anything.
Your suggestion is noted and acknowledged @Noscoper but I am thinking a Suez type crisis happening in Sri Lanka once the Cold War begins.
British Ceylon depended on imports from india for basic sustenance IOTL, around 2/3 of the rice was bought from India, by Indian merchants. British Ceylon did not have the capacity to farm rice as the population was employed in rubber, cinnamon and tea plantations. it will be interesting to see the how the British will feed the population.

IOTL two prominent local Ceylonese leaders and their parties contemplated siding with japanese to gain independence as the massacre of locals during 1915 riots were still in their minds. these leaders were J.R. Jayawardena ( later first president of Sri Lanka), Dudley Senanayake ( later a prime minister of Sri Lanka). It will be interesting to see if India can contact these leaders and gain their support to unify the entire sub continent.

i do not think it's practical for British to keep sri lanka against a determined India. Locals of Sri Lanka were never fundamentally against India at 1940s.
 
A New India and A New Front
Gwalior
Initially, there had been celebration all around the city after the Viceroy's surrender. The people were showering the INA men with flowers but that had all been overturned into a period of mourning after Pandit Nehru was assassinated. The Maharaja of Gwalior had commissioned a statue to commemorate Nehru.

Atal, who had obtained a college education had decided to work on it as well. He had joined the Arya Samaj. Now he had taken membership of the congress as well. He only stayed back in the Arya Samaj on his father's insistence. Atal, like millions of other young Indian men had been enamoured by Netaji. The man who had single-handedly liberated India and ruined the British Empire. He had not participated in the Quit India Movement but had enthusiastically heeded Subhash's call to attack British officials.

The war was still raging in Europe and East Asia but that of no concern to Atal. He was working on the Nehru statue for now and once that was done he had decided to join the army. He figured he owed it to Bose to do his share for the nation. Atal was also a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, a hindu-majoritarian organisation but was now disenchanted with it. The organisation's leader, M.S Gowalkar said that Muslims were traitors and foreigners and for the longest time he believed it. He had hated muslims for the longest time and had an opinion of absolute abhorrence for Muhammad Ali Jinnah. However the events that had transpired over the past year had had a deep impact on Atal.

Jinnah had announced that he no longer sought Pakistan and merged the League with congress. Then there were the stories of the legendary spy chief Shaukat Malik. He was also a muslim. The visceral hatred was not completely gone yet but there was new sense of unity and reconciliation in his mind.
"Maybe they aren't so bad after all" thought Atal.
His father was conservative Hindu Brahmin and while he also supported Bose, he had no love for the Muslims. He had kicked his son out of his home precisely because of their conflict regarding faith. Atal was becoming secular and abandoning overt rituals whereas his father resented this.
The final straw was when Atal asked his father to accompany him to the house of the girl he wished to marry. His father thought a marriage might make the lad more responsible and could potentially reconcile them both. But his father and senior members of the community were incensed when they got to know that the girl was a muslim. The girl's side was just as bad. They had no special love for the Hindus. This only made the two lovers more determined to be together. They both decided to flee to Delhi to get married and here Atal signed up to be deployed.
This was increasingly the case with a lot of young Indians in big cities. While the generation before them remained ever entrenched in their dogmas, the new generation seemed to be leaving them behind, perhaps as a relic of the British Raj. Everyone had contributed equally towards liberating India, Netaji had said as much. As a result Delhi had become a melting pot of various religions. Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians everyone lived in peace.

This did not mean that society had become egalitarian overnight. Smaller towns like Gwalior were still highly conservative and orthodox. Religious conflict and casteism were still prevalent. Riots had not happened in a while but there was underlying tension however it had not transpired into widespread conflict, yet.

But change was coming. Slowly but surely, change was coming.


New Delhi

J.R.D Tata had been quite happy about India now being an independent nation but was not too keen on the violence unleashed on Indian soil. It was bad for business. He had been broken by his friend Nehru's death. Despite that, as India's leading industrialist he was doing his best to cooperate with the government. Bose had met him personally to appoint him as the manager of two joint projects with the Soviets and the Japanese.

"It is good to see you, Jeh. I am sorry for summoning you so urgently but this is important."
"Of course, Netaji. What can I do ?"
"Well, I have a bunch of experts coming from Russia and Japan to undertake certain projects in our country."
"Sounds promising. I am sure that will help with our employment problems."
"That is the hope but I need you to be on joint management with them. Our government will retain the majority share at 90 percent whereas the rest will be with the Soviet and Japanese government. I am appointing you to run them on the government's behalf."
"It would be my pleasure Netaji. I am always ready to serve our nation. What are the projects ?"
"Well the Russians are going to help us build a dam on the Sutlej. I am being told that it can help us provide electricity to all of North India."
"And what are the Japanese going to help us with ?"
"Well, I think that might be bit of a new domain for you but I am sure you can handle it."
"Heh, we have got our finger in each pie, Netaji. I am sure we can handle it. What is it ?"
"I want you to build an indigenous aircraft for India. We cannot rely on the Japanese for air support. We need to build our own aircraft."
"Very well, sir. I can handle that."
"Thank you, Jeh."


Jeh and the other industrialists, both big and small had small measure of resentment for Netaji. He had made a minimum daily wage of ₹5 for all industrial workers in private and government enterprises mandatory. He had also announced a slew of worker welfare measures such as paid maternity leave, banning of child labour by all children under 15, making it compulsory for factories to conform to hygienic and environmental standards set by the government. While in the short run, these measures could cause problems for small businesses by raising their costs, Netaji believed that this was beneficial in the long run. This increased his popularity among the workers even more.
He believed that private enterprise was central to developing the Indian economy as a means of creating incentive and competition but at the same time deemed it important that workers were not exploited for the sake of profit. Subhash rejected Nazi and Japanese economic policies, considering them to have been tailor-fitted for war. He wanted something in the middle of the planned soviet economy and the capitalist American economy. An economy of planned capitalism. He wanted to implement a new upcoming system of Dirigisme in India.

Under that, the large-scale industrial development was to be done almost exclusively by the government with only Indian conglomerates like the Tatas being allowed to serve under contract. Bose had decided to keep foreign collaboration to a bare minimum, just enough to get the technical know-how and to retain maximum Indian control. The initial collaboration with the Soviets and the Japanese was a step forward in that direction. He was looking to collaborate even with the Americans once the war was over.

War in China
While the domestic front was going smooth, there was now some tension on the Chinese frontier. An alliance with the Russian communists also meant that Subhash was sympathetic to the Chinese Communists. That coupled with the fact that Subhash's other ally was at war with Chiang and his nationalists meant that territory in the Himalayas was ripe for the taking. The Casus Belli was the Chinese X-force fighting in the Battle of Kolkata. India was going to launch an offensive into tibet and south-western China in collaboration with Japan. The main objective was to capture and annex territory upto Lhasa. The offensive was launched on a large scale with over 4,00,000 troops in addition to about 2,00,000 Japanese troops. The aircraft and armoured divisions used in the liberation of India were to be used here. The fall of India had collapsed all allied forces in Burma and India and the lend-lease supplies to China from the Himalayas had ceased. American airbases had also been closed off as they could not be supplied any longer and as a result neither side held absolute air superiority in Tibet. The Chinese nationalists had around 5,00,000 troops in Guangxi and Hunan fighting the Japanese and now had to divert them to Tibet to fight the Indians. The offensive was planned in conjunction with the Russians and the Chinese Communists, who had doubled down on their own guerrilla campaign.

On December 1st, 1944 the offensive named Operation Everest was launched.


Somewhere in the Baloch desert...

Lieutenant Geoffrey Langlands stood before a 100 soldiers and officers of the British Army in the middle of the Baloch desert.
"Gentlemen, the Raj has fallen to the rebels. The princes have deserted us and the wretched subjects of our colony have revolted against us. These are ungrateful pricks who have no gratitude for all the things the British Empire has endowed them with. They have murdered our governors, officers and civil servants. They have the gall to arrest the representative of His Majesty The King."
"TO HELL WITH THE INDIANS!"
"DOWN WITH BOSE!"
"BOOOO!"
"Well gentlemen, I for one do not intend to let the status quo stand. 200 years ago we took this country with a handful of men. And now we are going to take it back. Remember how bravely men like Robert Clive, Arthur Wellesley, and Lord Dalhousie fought and defeated these savages. We are the descendants of these great men. We shall emulate their success."

The Lieutenant handed over a letter to a soldier and announced,
"Private Horton, take this letter to the British commander in Tehran and inform him of our rebel alliance. With their assistance, we are going to attack the INA forces and destroy their infrastructure. I will kill Bose with my own hands."
"ONCE AGAIN THE UNION JACK SHALL FLY PROUD ON THE RED FORT AND INDIA SHALL ONCE AGAIN BECOME THE JEWEL IN OUR KING'S CROWN. GOD WILLS IT!"
"GOD SAVE THE KING!"
"GOD SAVE THE KING!"
"GOD SAVE THE KING!"


 
British Ceylon depended on imports from india for basic sustenance IOTL, around 2/3 of the rice was bought from India, by Indian merchants. British Ceylon did not have the capacity to farm rice as the population was employed in rubber, cinnamon and tea plantations. it will be interesting to see the how the British will feed the population.

IOTL two prominent local Ceylonese leaders and their parties contemplated siding with japanese to gain independence as the massacre of locals during 1915 riots were still in their minds. these leaders were J.R. Jayawardena ( later first president of Sri Lanka), Dudley Senanayake ( later a prime minister of Sri Lanka). It will be interesting to see if India can contact these leaders and gain their support to unify the entire sub continent.

i do not think it's practical for British to keep sri lanka against a determined India. Locals of Sri Lanka were never fundamentally against India at 1940s.
Well yes you're right. The Ceylonese aren't too keen on being British subjects but the status quo wont change anytime soon. British naval and aerial superiority is absolute so neither side can fight in Sri Lanka now. Once the war is over, and British naval strength decreases and the Indian strength builds up, Bose will attack Sri Lanka. Until then his agents will try to foment revolt on the island.
 
Oooh, quite interested to see what you are going to do with the Himalayas and what India wants. I first thought about pushing the boundary to the Yarlung Tsangpo at the maximum or simply to Kailas mountain and Mansarovar lake.

As for the idiots in the Balochistan, I wouldn't care much for them. The fact that they are shouting in a desert is saying something. And the fact that Persia has not fought a war...... for how many years now?
 
Gwalior
Initially, there had been celebration all around the city after the Viceroy's surrender. The people were showering the INA men with flowers but that had all been overturned into a period of mourning after Pandit Nehru was assassinated. The Maharaja of Gwalior had commissioned a statue to commemorate Nehru.

Atal, who had obtained a college education had decided to work on it as well. He had joined the Arya Samaj. Now he had taken membership of the congress as well. He only stayed back in the Arya Samaj on his father's insistence. Atal, like millions of other young Indian men had been enamoured by Netaji. The man who had single-handedly liberated India and ruined the British Empire. He had not participated in the Quit India Movement but had enthusiastically heeded Subhash's call to attack British officials.

The war was still raging in Europe and East Asia but that of no concern to Atal. He was working on the Nehru statue for now and once that was done he had decided to join the army. He figured he owed it to Bose to do his share for the nation. Atal was also a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, a hindu-majoritarian organisation but was now disenchanted with it. The organisation's leader, M.S Gowalkar said that Muslims were traitors and foreigners and for the longest time he believed it. He had hated muslims for the longest time and had an opinion of absolute abhorrence for Muhammad Ali Jinnah. However the events that had transpired over the past year had had a deep impact on Atal.

Jinnah had announced that he no longer sought Pakistan and merged the League with congress. Then there were the stories of the legendary spy chief Shaukat Malik. He was also a muslim. The visceral hatred was not completely gone yet but there was new sense of unity and reconciliation in his mind.
"Maybe they aren't so bad after all" thought Atal.
His father was conservative Hindu Brahmin and while he also supported Bose, he had no love for the Muslims. He had kicked his son out of his home precisely because of their conflict regarding faith. Atal was becoming secular and abandoning overt rituals whereas his father resented this.
The final straw was when Atal asked his father to accompany him to the house of the girl he wished to marry. His father thought a marriage might make the lad more responsible and could potentially reconcile them both. But his father and senior members of the community were incensed when they got to know that the girl was a muslim. The girl's side was just as bad. They had no special love for the Hindus. This only made the two lovers more determined to be together. They both decided to flee to Delhi to get married and here Atal signed up to be deployed.
This was increasingly the case with a lot of young Indians in big cities. While the generation before them remained ever entrenched in their dogmas, the new generation seemed to be leaving them behind, perhaps as a relic of the British Raj. Everyone had contributed equally towards liberating India, Netaji had said as much. As a result Delhi had become a melting pot of various religions. Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians everyone lived in peace.

This did not mean that society had become egalitarian overnight. Smaller towns like Gwalior were still highly conservative and orthodox. Religious conflict and casteism were still prevalent. Riots had not happened in a while but there was underlying tension however it had not transpired into widespread conflict, yet.

But change was coming. Slowly but surely, change was coming.
I wonder how this non right wing vajpayee will fare.
Also, what happened to forward block?
Also Dirgisme. Sounds interesting.
Also who will be the "national champions" ?
Also its good that Bose is trying to become independent from japan militarily incase somehow japan abolishes its armed forces.
Also Taking civilian help from the USSR is
better for post war.
So Mao is winning civil war?
 
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Looks like India now is taking its first steps as an Independent nation both economically and militarily. Some disrupted British officers are going to try something and fail horribly it seems.
 
Oooh, quite interested to see what you are going to do with the Himalayas and what India wants. I first thought about pushing the boundary to the Yarlung Tsangpo at the maximum or simply to Kailas mountain and Mansarovar lake.

As for the idiots in the Balochistan, I wouldn't care much for them. The fact that they are shouting in a desert is saying something. And the fact that Persia has not fought a war...... for how many years now?
Well Tibet is relatively undefended and Bose is looking to grab as much as he can. This will open another front against Chiang so for the foreseeable future, the Indo-China border will be much further north than the OTL.
The renegade soldiers are well trained operatives, with vengeance on their mind. They are gonna go down swinging.
 
I wonder how this non right wing vajpayee will fare.
Also, what happened to forward block?
Also Dirgisme. Sounds interesting.
Also who will be the "national champions" ?
Also its good that Bose is trying to become independent from japan militarily incase somehow japan abolishes its armed forces.
Also Taking civilian help from the USSR is
better for post war.
So Mao is winning civil war?
Well he has joined the army and India is invading China...
Forward block is dissolved into the compress. Other than the RSS and the CPI, The Indian National Congress currently exists as the only party in India, and it is the ruling party.
Well it is India so projects are going to take long regardless. They've only signed agreements but the work on the dam will begin after the war.
Mao is winning, yes. He might launch full-scale fights against the nationalists soon.
"National champions" ? I am afraid you will have to tell me what that is.
 
They might fail but they will stir enough trouble before they are caught.
Looks like it, perhaps it becomes a prelude to the conflict in Sri Lanka that would act as TTL Suez Crisis.

One thing I've noticed though, you have named this "The beginning of the end", same as one of your previous chapters ? is it intentional or just a mistake
 
Looks like it, perhaps it becomes a prelude to the conflict in Sri Lanka that would act as TTL Suez Crisis.

One thing I've noticed though, you have named this "The beginning of the end", same as one of your previous chapters ? is it intentional or just a mistake
Mistake buddy. I was copying the whole timeline to my notes and might have accidentally pasted it there. Thanks for telling me.
 
Well he has joined the army and India is invading China...
Forward block is dissolved into the compress. Other than the RSS and the CPI, The Indian National Congress currently exists as the only party in India, and it is the ruling party.
Well it is India so projects are going to take long regardless. They've only signed agreements but the work on the dam will begin after the war.
Mao is winning, yes. He might launch full-scale fights against the nationalists soon.
"National champions" ? I am afraid you will have to tell me what that is.
National Champions are state owned enterprises or private corporations that receive special treatment from the government. They may receive tax breaks, government contracts, resources at a discount and so on. A government will use these companies to promote themselves abroad and gain foreign exchange or technology from abroad.
 
National champions" ? I am afraid you will have to tell me what that is.
These. State backed Private Conglomerates in a Dirgisme economy.
While "NationalChampions" get state backing , other businesses are supossed to stay alive by capitalist compition.
In return for State backing, these businesses need advance the intrests of the state in economic sector.
In turn creating a Percived or Real Monopoly National Champions while being regulated and ultimately creating economic nationalism.
 
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'Hannibal has crossed the Alps'
The Indian army had been divided into 3 parts to launch a 3-pronged assault into china. One would move from Ladakh towards Western Tibet. This army was placed under General Sadul Singh, the Maharaja of Bikaner, who had returned to India from Italy with 10,000 of his state forces. He was leading a 1,00,000 to capture the area upto the Mansarovar lake and build a road connecting it to Srinagar and to construct a military base with an airstrip at Mansarovar. There was minimal resistance here. Sadul Singh was British-trained and had served in Europe. He was marching his army in the form of a supply train, on horses while simultaneously constructing the road. There were mechanised divisions as well but these were civilian vehicles mostly, repurposed to carry soldiers and equipment and possessed virtually no armour. Shiquanhe was tibet's second-largest and westernmost city. It had a very weak garrison of a few dozen Buddhist monks armed with sticks, pikes and other such medieval weaponry. Sadul Singh took ten days to arrive but had managed to overrun them within an hour of arriving, slaughtering them all.

By December 12th he had arrived at the Mansarovar lake with 10,000 of his troops which had cars. The cars were, unquestionably unsuitable for the terrain and weather and were very soon made unusable. Indian forces now had effective control over Western Tibet and had begun the construction of the road and the military base. Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu also volunteered to finance a railway track, which was sanctioned by the Indian government.

Chiang's forces were kept busy by the Japanese in the South West and were well away from disturbing Sadul Singh.

The second army was to enter central Tibet from Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan, three independent states who were strong-armed into allowing passage into China. This army had 2,50,000 men and had the largest amount of armoured regiments and was provided air cover(mostly by the Imperial Japanese Air Force). This was being lead by the Commander-in-Chief of the army, General Mohan Singh. Here the Tibetans had a decent army of 10,000 modern soldiers stationed in Tibet. This was the total effective strength of the Tibetan Army.
Once again Chiang shirked from diverting forces to Tibet, which in his mind was already de facto independent and he had more pressing concerns in the east, i.e, the relentless attacks by the Japanese and the Communists. The entire strength of 5,00,000 had been deployed against the Japanese in Hunan and Changsha.

Mohan Singh had sent an emissary to the court of the Dalai Lama to surrender and be annexed into India. In exchange, they offered to appoint him regional governor and allow him some degree of autonomy. The emissary was humiliated with his hair being cut off and was told that the Indian army should return. Incidentally, the emissary was a Sikh, a community that held hair in high regard. This caused much anger amongst the Indian soldiers, who now wanted to butcher Tibetans- man, woman and child.
On December 15thh, 1944 Mohan Singh ordered an aerial assault on Lhasa and ordered his mechanised divisions forward. He went with his soldiers to ensure that the Dalai Lama was not murdered. He needed to secure his person so as to ensure that the next Dalai Lama could be appointed without much hassle and that the population did not revolt.

Lhasa had no anti-aircraft guns and suffered heavily in the air raids. The Indians consistently bombarded Lhasa, with two artillery shells even hitting the Potala Palace. In what now came to be known as the Battle of Lhasa, around 70,000 Indian troops faced off against 3,000 Tibetan soldiers and militias. The final casualties were as follows,

3,000 Tibetan soldiers dead along with 20,000 citizens killed in Lhasa
The Indian side had merely 94 casualties.

The soldiers had pillaged the city until the arrival of Mohan Singh who ordered it to be stopped and immediately court-marshalled the officers responsible. The British journalists in the city were murdered and the Austrian Nazi Heinrich Harrer was told to make a movie of the Indian capture of Tibet and write a long article on it. The movie and the article were doctored to depict the Tibetans welcoming Indian troops and showering INA parades with showers. It even showed the Dalai Lama embracing Mohan Singh. Even the British journalists, before being murdered, were forced to testify before camera about the magnanimous Indian takeover of the city. Mohan Singh ensured that the world would not come to know about the atrocities in Lhasa. Bose approved of his actions, even though he did not like the soldiers conduct. The documents about the truth of the invasion were classified and buried.

The Dalai Lama was captured and forced to sign the instrument of annexation of Tibet on January 1st, 1945. The Dalai Lama was exiled to Peshawar, far away from his home to prevent any popular uprising in Tibet. He still remained Dalai Lama but now he was only a ceremonial puppet head. The world was told that he wished to visit India and learn about it. In the same Treaty of Lhasa, The Kings of Bhutan and Sikkim also decided(but were much likely forced) to join India. They retained their princely titles and local autonomy.

Nepal, however still insisted on maintaining its independence. The Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana rejected Bose's attempt at annexation but the king, Tribhuvan was sympathetic. The Indian government appointed Sardar Vallabhai Patel as ambassador to Nepal to orchestrate a coup to give power to the king and annex Nepal.

The Burma theatre on the other hand was a disappointment for Bose. The joint Indo-Japanese force did manage to take Changsha but with huge casualties with 30,000 Indian troops dying here. Bose had however had scored a diplomatic victory with Japan by lending Indian manpower. However this was the first and last time. Japan was being driven back in the Pacific and China was a stalemate.

Bose considered the debt paid. India no longer owed anything to the Imperial Japanese Empire.

Now, he was looking to consolidate his new territory in Tibet and construct military bases all around to prevent any attempt by Chiang to retake it. Sadul Singh was appointed military governor of the region until the war ended. He had full authority to use any means necessary to quell any seditious activity.

Burma, on the other hand, was virtually free of Japanese troops who had now moved north into China. Bose considered Burma a part of India, being inherited from the British Raj. He moved 1,00,000 troops into Burma and categorised it as a regular deployment. The Japanese command did not like this but was in no position to object and even if they did, they had no power to implement their objections. He began to fortify Burma's border with Indochina. He did not have any desire to rule beyond Burma, which he considered a tropical forest full of disease, but still strategically important. Bose estimated that the Americans will attack Indochina to liberate it and might return it to French colonial control. He could fight the French and defeat them but there was simply no question of attacking the Americans. Direct fighting was not a possibility but Indian agents should be spread all across Vietnam to endear India to them.

Shaukat Malik was sent to Hanoi.


Balochistan
Lieutenant Langlands stood before the massacred bodies of the villagers on the outskirts of Peshawar. He and his men had attacked the village and massacred all its inhabitants. The reason was that the village head had killed and raped a British woman. At least that's what they thought it was. They raped the women before killing them and buried the children alive. They raised three, 8-foot tall crosses and crucified the village head and his two sons before burning the crosses. After looting the entire area for supplies, they rode back to their base and prepared to attack Peshawar. The garrison was small, of only about 150 men and they had no idea about the British rampaging in the countryside.

On the village Masjid, a large wooden board was hung that read,
'GLORY TO THE EMPIRE'
and the Union Jack flew atop it.

Private Horton meanwhile had arrived in Kabul and sought an audience with an Afghan noble to convince him to launch an invasion of India and re-establish the empire of Abdali. He told them Bose was busy in Tibet and would not be able to focus on the western frontier. However these appeals fell on deaf ears since the King of Afghanistan had a very pro-axis and now a Pro-India policy.

Disappointed, Horton pressed onto Tehran.
 
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National Champions are state owned enterprises or private corporations that receive special treatment from the government. They may receive tax breaks, government contracts, resources at a discount and so on. A government will use these companies to promote themselves abroad and gain foreign exchange or technology from abroad.
These. State backed Private Conglomerates in a Dirgisme economy.
While "NationalChampions" get state backing , other businesses are supossed to stay alive by capitalist compition.
In return for State backing, these businesses need advance the intrests of the state in economic sector.
In turn creating a Percived or Real Monopoly National Champions while being regulated and ultimately creating economic nationalism.
Aerospace and nuclear power in the future. Defence as well.
 
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