India Crisis

Location
 Causes
 Result

 **United States-Allies**

 United States
 India
 **Mexican-Allies**

 Sikh Empire
Rajasthan
Tamil State
Naxal Republic
Orrisa

**Military Support:**

 Christopher Reagan
 Joaquín Andrade

The **India Crisis** (also known as the Great War of India or the Great Subcontinent War) was a period of political upheaval and conflict in the Indian Subcontinent between 2119 and 2126. It began almost immediately after the mass suicide of the federal cabinet following what was believed to be a Mexican backed neuro-virus attack and ended with the partition of the country with the New Maldives Armistice. Constituting a series of civil wars, the India Crisis was also a proxy conflict in the Mex-American Cold War in which Mexico and United States supported opposing factions. Around 30,000 people are believed to have been killed during the crisis.

## Background

Part of a series on the

### **India and the United States**

The Republic of India has been a historic ally of the United States through the 21st Century with the country sharing deep economic and geopolitical interests, as well as cultural ties from the large Indian-American population of the US. With its geographically secure position and large military, the US viewed India as a useful source of stability in the increasingly volatile South Asian region, and a guarantor for the security of the Strait of Malacca. By the turn of the century, however, the systemic conflicts in the Asia-Pacific region had overextended India's military and bred dissatisfaction in the populace toward the government, which were often seen as toadies of the United States.

### **Mexican ambitions**

Mexico saw India as the last domino to fall in their gambit to disrupt the US alliance system in Asia and secure Mexican interests in Asian markets. Additionally, there was the fear by some Mexican politicians that should the US secure a bid to build a new Space elevator opposite the Strait of Malacca, the American colonies would have a direct line to Indian Ocean trade that Mexico could not block, growing the power of the American colonies further and giving the US as secure a bargaining chip as the Uganda tower was for holding onto the Congo as an ally.

Capitalizing on the discontent of the populace, Mexico pushed its client states in southern China to fund and train various splinter groups in India and former Pakistan creating a campaign of terrorism that fueled public animosity towards Indian political institutions and deepening divisions within the military.

## Beginning of the crisis

### **Cyberattacks**

On April 10, 2118 a cyber attack was carried out against the Union Council of Ministers. Using a new strain of neurolinguistic virus, the cyber attack infected every tactile neural interface with a visual feedback function to display an additional layer of information over the perceived audio and visual files, that to the user would appear to be slightly corrupted data. However the neurolinguistic virus coded in the data left its victims with a deep sense of depression and abandonment, along with several trigger words and phrases that when spoken collectively would drive the victims to suicide. By 4:29pm, New Delhi time, the President, Prime Minister and entire cabinet had committed suicide, breaking the chain of succession.

### **Terrorist campaign**

The power vacuum was exploited by several rebel groups, supported by Mexican-backed Chinese forces, who used the confusion to carry out a string of attacks across the India that toppled the leadership of several Indian state governments, sending the nation into chaos. With no orders coming in from the central government, generals began attacking rebel positions on their own, and several regions declared home rule to put down these rebel groups. These regimes were actively supported by Mexico itself, while the US focused their own efforts on securing New Delhi and restoring order.

### **Military intervention and constitutional crisis**

By June 30, 2118, the Indian military with aid from the US had installed a provisional government. Marshal law was declared nation-wide and the states that had declared home rule had begun to negotiate a constitutional referendum. Elections were held in September of 2118 in which Om Gaur Chouhan was elected to the Presidency and Kamala Gandhi to Prime Minister. The election caused a split in the government as Gandhi and the Indian National Congress controlled the legislature, but Chouhan and the Hindu Nationalist party controlled the Presidency and were supported by the largest factions of the military. This was particularly troubling because while the Prime Minister was the recognized central leader of the country under the Indian constitution prior to 2119, the constitutional referendum included several provisions for establishing the President as both Head of State AND Head of Government. While this was widely supported by the military, the most of the states that had called for it, Chouhan's position put the country at risk of coming under a radical Hindu Nationalist agenda.

By a 0.3% margin of the popular vote, the constitutional referendum carried the proposed reforms and Chouhan was given sweeping powers as head of government.

## Aftermath and legacy

The cabinet cyberattack was the most ambitious use of brain-hacking as a method of political engineering observed at that time, and records obtained after the Third Mexican War implicate Mexico's National Intelligence Service.