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I'm not sure if this has been discussed before, but where does India fit
into the Tuffley-verse? I've seen where it is listed as part of the ESU,
but that doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense to me. First of all, the
advantage in population alone when you think of a union between Russia, China,
and then India is enormous, and may allow them to steamroll any of the other
powers pretty handily. Secondly, we haven't seen any Indian names in the ESU
fleet. Any thoughts on this? Mr.Tuffley have any thoughts?
James
--
> Ok, I'm not sure if this has been discussed before, but where does
I see India being a fairly independent part of the ESU. Between the Himalayas
and Afghanistan, it's hard for either the Chinese or Russian sections of the
ESU to do any serious power projection into India. My most likely scenario for
India being taken over is an extended period of communal violence and
disruption in India, with eventually the ESU being invited or inviting itself
to restore order.
Once India settles down again, it has enough population and economic power to
secede if desired, but memories
of the previous disturbances and political/military
pressure from the ESU discourages them. The compromise is that India agrees to
loyally follow the dictates of the ESU government, and the ESU agrees not to
dictate very often or very strongly.
A particularly useful aspect of India for the ESU is the long standing
relationship with Britain and other Commonwealth countries such as many in the
Oceanic Union. A lot of external ESU trade goes through India.
> Secondly, we haven't seen any Indian names in the ESU fleet. Any
I suggest that the ESU has one very strong policy towards India, namely that
they can't build up their military
power. The ESU provides Russian/Chinese military to keep
the peace and defend from external enemies.
However...now we have the Xeno War. The NAC, ESU, NSL, FSE, PAU, etc have all
agreed to contribute ships to the UNSC fleet for the defence of the home
planet and the benefit of all humanity. Right after they've taken care of
their own commitments, of course, so the UNSC gets the dregs left over.
So, urgent need to build up the UNSC fleet. And India
happens to have a large well-educated population, a
reasonably strong tradition of science and education, and no existing arms
industry already tied up with war production. Ideal place to design and build
new ships. And then you've got a large population with a long and reasonably
successful military tradition as well, so why not use them for crews? The ESU
won't like it, but after all the future of Earth is at stake so they can't
object too loudly.
I'd expect Indian names in the UNSC fleet, not the ESU. The names shown on the
web page are translations into English for the benefit of us foreigners.
cheers,
> James Moore wrote:
> Ok, I'm not sure if this has been discussed before, but where does
> ESU, but that doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense to me.
The timeline in FT2 only states that the ESU *invades* the sub-continent
(in 2051)... not that it manages to actually *conquer* it.
The DS2 timeline claims that the ESU of the 21st and 22nd centuries
consists of "China, Russia and most of Central Asia" - which doesn't
include the sub-continent.
And, of course, there is one GZGverse major power that doesn't have its
territories explicitly described anywhere, yet which obviously has a major
high-tech resource base independent of any of the other major powers -
the UNSC.
All in all, I suspect that India is in fact *not* part of the ESU :-/
Regards,
> At 11:41 PM +0100 11/17/08, Oerjan Ariander wrote:
And given how India is undergoing a military expansion that is in part bigger
than what the British currently have (not to mention planting a flag on the
moon the other, day) it's a fair guess to wonder if India is independent and
not unlike the OU in the GZG verse or more interestingly, given the way the
ties are getting
stronger with India and the US/UK, part or a
confederated part of the NAC.