W4E edit version commonwealth

**Dev. Status** | Conceptual

"*But I'm just a soul*

*Whose intentions are good!*

*Oh Lord*

*Please don't let me be misunderstood!*"

- *The Animals*, Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
The Greater Indian Commonwealth are an Echoes faction created by Psychotic Loner. They utilize waves of general and specialized infantry supported by rough and reliable vehicles.

## At A Glance

 **Motives** | Expansionism, Poverty, Security

## Background

### Rebirth of a Nation

In 1948, India gained independence from the United Kingdom, due to extreme political and social pressure both domestically and in the subcontinent. Still allowed to be part of the Commonwealth of Nations, India was faced with an extreme situation due to the desperate poverty its population lived in, and the almost immediate splintering of the former colony two new nations; the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Pakistan. India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, faced an uphill struggle. Most pressing was the realization that communism was a dominant threat on the world's stage that would threaten India's newly won independence before it could even get off the ground. It was decided that, to prevent the nation from falling to communism, India would need to step up onto the world stage in a way few nations had ever done before.

### Kashmir Sweater

The first break for India came with the nascent Bangladeshi independence movement from Pakistan. Quietly, India supported the movement, leaving the region indebted. Though nominally independent, the leaders of Bangladesh knew that their freedom had only come from Indian money and support. Alone, it was a small gain. Yet the ever-encroaching poverty of India's booming population meant that more needed to heed India's power.

The first major break came when Pakistan claimed the Kashmir region in the northwest. Though heavily mountainous and with little in the way of actual value, India rapidly marshaled a new army and went to war. Utilizing technology that was, to be blunt, obsolete, India's sheer numbers allowed the forces of the new nation to quickly overwhelm and engulf the Pakistani army, air force, and naval bases. Realizing it was sitting on a power that was once only though available to the Soviets, the government of India quickly announced they were forming a new political bloc; the Greater Indian Commonwealth.

Other states in the region quickly fell under the sway of the Commonwealth. Sri Lanka quickly fell under the sway of the commonwealth, which claimed to be a "loose confederacy of states under the banner of economic cooperation". Though the Allies weren't fooled, they had bigger issues to face; the oncoming Second World War.

### The Lion of Ashoka Roars

The Second World War placed the new commonwealth in the good graces of the Allies. Indian troops proved invaluable at protecting key positions in the Middle East and Asia, along with containing the spread of Mao Zedong's communist forces to the south. Showing they were no supporters of Communism, the Commonwealth allowed the Allied Nations to set up bases and facilities within India to ensure a steady cooperation. It helped that many nations formerly held under British rule were also given independence shortly after, the British unable to effectively hold their colonies after such decimating conflict.The Commonwealth willingly made itself smaller compared to the Allies, knowing that its still struggling economy would need to gather more steam in order to stand a chance on the world stage.

World War III was that opportunity. With the majority of Allied Nations preoccupied fighting the Soviets in Europe, Commonwealth forces were perfectly placed when the Empire of the Rising Sun began its first push. Pushing through Burma, Vietnam, and across the islands of the Pacific, the Commonwealth's new army developed its own operational strategies. Compared to the expensive and high-tech Allied weapons, the Commonwealth settled on easily manufactured and mechanically reliable weapons and equipment. The sepoys were armed with obsolete M1 Garand rifles, their tanks a gun between two massive treads. Aircraft were kept at airfields far from the front, as mothballed ships from around the world were brought in. Casualties were heavy and in the darkest days of the war, Imperial troops literally stood at the Gates of Delhi while sepoys deployed to the frontlines immediately after parades, but the Commonwealth's government accepted the grim reality that for all the hundreds or thousands lost in each battle, they could be easily replaced.

And in the face of all this adversity, with the warriors of Japan all but poised to decapitate Delhi, the line was finally held after constant retreat and repeated defeats. The Empire had surrounded and destroyed whole corps at a time and boasted of capturing vast swathes of land in its "three point" strategy to conquer India. The Commonwealth simply called in more troops and redoubled it's production efforts What started out as the three point plan became the two point, then the one point, then holding the line, then retreating through southern Asia.

Finally, the time came to punish the Empire as it retreated across the world, and India was all too happy to loan some divisions in the assault on Tokyo. Many had been lost, but the war in Asia was over, and India stood strong.

### The Weeds Grow High

Post-war, the Commonwealth absorbed even more new members. Khalistan was "freed" to give the Sikh people a reason to not cause trouble. Nepal's surviving population was sheltered from the atomic fallout ravaging their homes. The Commonwealth even managed to negotiate a deal with the Mediterranean Syndicate not seen anywhere else. Bhutan and the Maldives quickly fell under the umbrella of the Commonwealth, and India volunteered its troops to man the scattered outposts in Tibet that would observe just what happened in China.

At this point, the Commonwealth decided to flex some of its new-found political and military muscle. Responding to requests for aid in the war against the GLA, the GIC sent its forces into Oman and Somalia to counter the lawlessness being faced. This has inadvertently drawn them into a conflict with the Arabian Coalition when India decided it would rather annex Oman than return it to their control, a war that has caused much tension within the Allied Nations. Indira Nehru, the newest prime minister and daughter of India's first ever prime minister, has so far kept the Allies from complaining too much, but there is a trade off; India is now sending her children to fight the Vietcong, with no end in sight. As a further contribution, India has sent troops into Madagascar for 'safekeeping purposes', but arrived to find the place devoid of people with strange reports of purple machines.

Desperate to gain some advantage in an ever-stranger world, India looked to the atomic hellscape of China. Volunteering mass numbers of newly-minted reservists, the Indians brought back valuable information for the Allies to analyze, including a very valuable green rock that the Atomic Chinese fought fiercely to keep from being taken away. And if they valued it, so did the Indians. In their own secret labs, Western-educated scientists looked over the crystals, and found it a source of incredible power if properly harnessed. Knowing that to hesitate could mean losing out on everything gained, the Commonwealth organized this research and started pushing forward with their greatest resource; numbers.

Ostensibly supporting Allied actions worldwide, the Commonwealth one day plans to stand as equal, not aide, to the founding Allied Nations members. With the ultimate goal of finally crushing the poverty it suffers from to a level like that of Britain and France, the Commonwealth will continue to tow the Allied line as long as it gives them the aid they need. What will happen after can only be imagined.

## Units and Structures

*"Reports coming out of the Mideast where Indian forces are stationed have shown a remarkable decrease in GLA combat capacity. This is compared to the situation in Saudi Arabia, where Peacekeeper and Coalition forces struggle to even contain the GLA. It is this evidence, ladies and gentlemen of the committee, that I feel best illustrates why the current path the Peacekeeper divisions are taking is a danger to the continued security of the free world."*

- John Boyd, testifying to the Allied Parliament Committee on Military Spending and Efficiency