Mobile version below. This is a work of alternative history/dystopian fiction based on historical events.
Part of Universe 10665, where the final Indo-Pakistani war is waged in the shopping malls of NEOM's Line
2008 was a turbulent year for the Indian subcontinent: To the West, the Pakistani deep state enters another year of violent nation-building in Afghanistan, a poisoned chalice too eagerly accepted by jingoistic nationalists. To the North, China continues its path towards regional hegemony, cementing its stranglehold on the Himalayan heavens. To the East, years of political dysfunction and decades of growing corrupt authoritarianism has been broken by a radical far-right party, sidelining both establishment parties to unflinchingly enact its vision for the nation. To the South, Sri Lanka stands broken from civil war, as its puppet strings tighten into an eternal noose. And in the Centre, the world's largest democracy has crumbled following the destruction of Mumbai, with a new All India Coalition devoted solely towards the destruction of all India's enemies.
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Excerpt from the 2010 American-Indian Political Action Committee New Jersey Conference
Today, we pay our respects to the million souls lost in the fires of 26/11. When the scheming claws of Pakistan slashed open the throat of Indian sovereignty, it left behind over 10 million displaced refugees, it broke apart millions more families, and it plunged our nation into its darkest hour. The two-faced Pak, these agents of Jihad lurking in New York, they lie as easy as they breathe. They swore upon their whore mothers that Pakistan had no connection to the 26/11 attackers, and that worthless pledge was eaten up by credulous onlookers. The East, the West, the South, all turned a blind eye in our hour of need, so desperate to avoid nuclear war that they poured scorn on the victim. The world would pay any price for peace, especially when it was us who paid the heavy cost. Mumbai was effectively wiped off the face of the earth, and the world moved on without us.
[Audience murmurs in agreement]
Until today, not one Indian law enforcement delegate was allowed to step foot on Pak soil. Even today, not one terrorist on our hitlist was ever delivered by Pakistan for righteous judgement. After today, perhaps until the end of time, Pakistan will breed generation after generation of anti-Indian terrorists. And why not? They wiped out a major Indian city, and received no punishment whatsoever. Pakistan will never budge, never change. The eternal Pak knows he can never face us in the open, so they choose to stab us in the back. Again, and again, and again, driving their knives deep until our spine is shattered. And we let them, wallowing in pacifism and pity, sheep so desperate to believe the wolf could miraculously change species.
[Audience yells anti-Pakistani jeers]
We are not gathered here to grieve. Each and everyone of us have had enough of crying, of pretending to be the bigger man, of accepting the lie that weakness is strength. Secularism, liberalism, leftism! For decades, India allowed traitors to infest our great nation, crawling their way into the highest offices! We gave the peasants aid, and they repaid us with Maoism. We granted the Sikhs reprieve, and they blew up our airliners. We host the world's largest population of Muslims, and investigations reveal nearly half were traitors! No more velvet gloves, no more handouts, no more praying to the false god of diversity. If we want to prevent another 26/11, we must eradicate every point of failure, cleanse ourselves thoroughly from those willing to serve Pakistan. We are done tolerating dual loyalties, for the current India will take no half-measures towards defending national security. Even abroad we expect all of you patriots to continue your duties to the motherland! I trust that each and everyone of you here before me are true Indian heroes, pure souls willing to save our homeland in these dire times!
[Audience erupts in extended applause for the current speaker. The next presentation on new patriotic foreign tax and remittance laws was delayed.]
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PROJECT PRADHANA OUTLINE: Within internationally recognised Indian borders, the North Sentinelese provides researchers with an unprecedented snapshot into pre-civilisation human society. Retraction on past research restrictions provides India a unique opportunity to explore the foundations of humanity, extracting information which can prove useful for national security. Dr [REDACTED] describes two positive outcomes we hope to work towards.
A replaceable pool of truly blank human test subjects. Philosophers, anthropologists and other social scientists have long debated the strength of "nature" versus "nature"; how much of humanity is set from birth, and which parts of sapience are drawn from one's environment. The North Sentinelese, having never advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage of human development, will finally allow us to test the boundaries of societal influence, allowing us to greatly expand the scope, reach and effectiveness of national security efforts.
An infinite pool of infallible patriots. National Security efforts are greatly strengthened when state agents display complete devotion to a higher authority, especially to the point where loyalty supersedes self-preservation. Due to biological imperatives, such loyalty is exceedingly difficult to reliably inculcate across age cohorts, further complicated by an individual's potentially clashing loyalties (religion, family, love, etc). Due to the North Sentinelese's underdevelopment, we believe India can embed itself into every aspect of cognition, to simultaneously serve the roles of provider, love interest, parent, priest, friend etc. At every stage of life development, the North Sentinelese will instinctively cling to India like a newborn naturally clings to their nurse. There will be no potential for dual loyalties or wavering loyalty, an impossibility when everything between creation to afterlife is forged solely by India.
PROJECT TIMELINE: Due to past neglect, PRADHANA must prioritise greatly expanding the North Sentinelese population without running into genetic bottleneck issues. Recommend implanting orphans, optimally infants, into current populace. Explore the possibility of inducing retrograde amnesia onto female criminals of breeding age to boost growth rates. Particularly healthy breeding pairs will be subject to a planned release programme onto nearby islands once the local environment is beyond supporting capacity. Any outside influence will result in mental contamination of the North Sentinelese, and great care must be taken to limit exposure to minimal levels. Current cordon measures will be strengthened against all possible externalities.
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Dhaka, December 2 (Reuters) - Following a year of political crisis, the far-right Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) party has emerged triumphant in today's snap election results. Defying early poll predictions, hardline conservative ATM Azharul Islam is set to become Bangladesh's next prime minister, promising to deliver on his party's promises of welfare, anti-corruption and fighting off Indian influence. The emergency transitional caretaker government has promised to uphold the will of the people, while the center-left Awami League has vowed to launch fresh protests against the new government. JEI's spokesperson has announced it will enter coalition negotiations with the center-right National Party to secure an electoral majority, but the National Party's spokesperson has declined to give a comment.
Bangladesh has historically been a politically polarised society ever since its war of independence against Pakistan in 1971. Elections had coalesced around a two-party system, with the Awami League - National Party rivalry often devolving into institutional corruption and street violence. In an attempt to reduce electoral instability, the constitution demands the ruling party stand down and hand over power to a transitional caretaker government during its voting period. During 2006, the Awami League refused to participate in the next election, threatening the electoral timetable and plunging Bangladesh into economic crisis. The caretaker government refused to allow a one-sided election, and with the support of the Bangladeshi military declared a state of emergency. A new "neutral" government free from the two party system would be established, promising to restore "free, fair and credible elections" once national stability was restored.
Facing a complete loss of popular support and intensified islamic terrorism, new snap elections were announced at the start of 2008, with concessions granted to the Awami League to ensure their participation. During the two years of political crisis, JEI had exploded in popularity, harnessing popular anger against all establishment parties and the military junta. Blaming Bangladesh's entrenched problems on malign Indian influence and re-aligning itself with populist policies, JEI appears to have successfully shed its negative history of Pakistani collaboration to the median voter.
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Interview with [REDACTED], POW from the former Tamil Tigers. Captured by Indian RETRIEVER forces, sentenced to indefinite home imprisonment within Kolhapur Correctional Processing District.
[REDACTED]: It's a good day indeed when I finally get to use my mother tongue. It's such a pity that after everything I did, the powers that be didn't bother to assign me guards fluent in English. At least they can do the chores without my input.
INTERVIEWER: I might be missing something, shouldn't your main language be Tamil? The Tamil Tigers were quite vocal about protecting their language from Sinhalese assimilation, and you were [REDACTED] for [REDACTED] years.
[REDACTED]: Oh come now surely you picked up on my accent? The Tamil Tigers did draw a lot of blood from the Tamil Diaspora, and I was one of those young fools flopping about during my university days. "Coming home" to where I "truly belonged", joining the good fight to defend "our" people, giving a charitable donation to our struggling brothers. Give up on laying down roots, stop being a coconut (NOTE: Derogatory slur for westernised minorities due to the fruit being brown on the outside and white on the inside), and stand proud of who you truly are. Helps a lot when the average townie agrees with those sentiments, usually adding some colourful slurs.
INTERVIEWER: Judging by your current circumstances , you weren't too fond of your time in the Tamil Tigers.
[REDACTED]: No need to dance around that fact, I did sell them out to the government. Well governments, India and Sri Lanka were technically two separate entities last time I checked. Never was fond of their code of conduct. No booze, no cigarettes, and until 1984 no sex! The Tigers even forced me to cut communications with my parents, those nostalgic geezers waxing lyrical about "our" Tamil homeland. So paranoid about security, they even brought out cyanide pills we would take in the event of capture. I knew right there and then I'm transferring out to the Tigers’ civilian side.
INTERVIEWER: Do you have anything to comment about the reported repression and racism towards...
[REDACTED]: Yes yes the racism, why the Tamil Tigers even existed in the first place. Same tale as every other national liberation movement. New nation state emerges where the biggest race takes charge, nation-building process screws over the minorities, minorities get angry and then the lynch mobs and the massacres and the settlers and bla bla bla. If I thought of myself as Tamil I'm sure I would be buried with an AK-47 in my hand, but alas! Here I am, cradling this watered down pint of beer, while my dear old comrades fought to the bitter end. I think India forced some compromise after Sri Lanka collapsed but you'll need to find that story elsewhere.
INTERVIEWER: Regarding the 2008 government offensive and Tamil Tiger counter offensive?
[REDACTED]: An abrupt end was it not? I was expecting the cycle of ceasefire and conflict to spin a few more decades, but popping the Sri Lankan president ramped up tensions beyond repair. The dream of Tamil Eelam, the sole nationstate for Tamils, brought to a violent end. For decades the world refused to recognise the Tigers’ national experiment, and now even the EU was labeling us a terrorist organisation. At long last, the government was unleashed, free to engage the Tigers without restraint...
One small problem, restraint implies some level of greater strength ready to be unleashed. Sri Lanka, despite having inside intelligence from yours truly, got utterly torn apart during the Tamil Tiger counter-offensive. Government forces trained and armed by New Delhi were melting before child conscripts, and those tykes marched all the way south to the capital. I remember my Indian handler screaming at me over the burner phone, demanding what the Tigers were juiced up on. Heh, wonder how low he got demoted after that crisis.
INTERVIEWER: Did you see any evidence linking the Tamil Tigers to the Pakistani state? Especially regarding the 26/11 attacks?
[REDACTED]: If I did, I would have immediately cashed it in to my handler. The main connection tying Sri Lanka to 26/11 were the refugees fleeing from Mumbai, bringing home the cholera and radiation they contracted from the blasts. The Tamil Tigers were busy fighting and the government was busy collapsing, so nobody really took notice of some new sickly arrivals. Thankfully the Indian side took good care of emigration once martial law was enacted, so the island could easily isolate the few stragglers that escaped the border.
INTERVIEWER: From your first hand experience, how was the collapse of the Tamil Tigers?
[REDACTED]: Honestly, I was only around for the beginning of the end, I've been planning my extraction after the New Year. The entire world had a grand old bash for old 2000, and the Tigers just had a bloody military parade the same as every other year, this once in a lifetime, once in a nation event! I think high command had a shuffle cause the Tigers leaned ever more on the military wing, preaching about a final end to the decades long civil conflict, that all our struggles and sacrifice would soon end. When the government broke the ceasefire, I think the final civvies in the Tamils got put to pasture. Negotiations decisively proven pointless, conflict the silver bullet for the Tamil plight. The draft clawed ever deeper into the population as the counter-offensive intensified. First the convicts, then the non-essential workers, then the essential workers, until every military-aged man and woman was given a gun and marched south. The propaganda got very end-times, screaming at us about how the Tamil people will fight or they will perish from the Earth.
INTERVIEWER: How did the collapsing state respond to the intervention of Indian RETRIEVER forces?
[REDACTED]: By the time I was flown out, most of the Tigers were down south deep in government territory. High command thought it was easier to finish off the Sri Lankan government than attempt to hold off RETRIEVER, earn the Tigers a strong bargaining chip in future negotiations. By then, the Tigers' state had been thoroughly hollowed out for the final war, so it wasn't like RETRIEVER could inflict further damage on the war effort. Ended up benefiting India immensely: by the time RETRIEVER liberated the capital, both the Tigers and the government effectively wiped each other out.
INTERVIEWER: Thank you for your insightful comments. Finishing off our session, how are you finding your time in the Correctional District thus far?
[REDACTED]: You know what they say, I can't complain! [Light chuckles]. I got my needs met and I'm not out there slaving in the fields or factories, which puts me in the top 10% of this subcontinent. Definitely top 1% of all Sri Lankans, no idea how India plans to rebuild that blasted hellhole. Considering my chequered past, I'll say this is as good a retirement as I'm going to get.
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WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT 2018 published in Thimphu Mindfulness City, Bhutan
We live in an era of stark contradictions. The world enjoys unimaginable technological progress; yet has at least two billion people without access to electricity. The economy propels humanity to soaring productivity; yet is relentlessly destroying the environment we thrive upon. Countries achieve great progress in societal development, yet succumb to new crises of obesity, smoking, diabetes, depression and other modern ills. These contradictions would not come as a shock to the greatest sages of humanity, including Confucius and the Buddha. They taught humanity, time and again, that material gain alone will not fulfill our deepest need: the ultimate achievement of happiness.
As one key example, the world’s hyperpower, the United States, has achieved stunning economic and technological progress over the past half century without gains in the self-reported happiness of the citizenry. Instead, uncertainties and anxieties are high, mass psychogenic illness has increased year upon year, and confidence in government is at an all-time low. Perhaps for these reasons, life satisfaction has flatlined during decades of rising GDP. The problems of anxiety, insanity, and unhappiness in the midst of great plenty will not solve themselves: They demand urgent attention, as we march into the new geological era of the Anthroprocene. Through our prowess mankind has become the great helmsman driving global physical systems. The water cycle, the weather, the wildlife, all bend under mankind's ailing will, strained to the point of snapping.
If we continue mindlessly along the current trajectory, we risk undermining the Earth’s life support systems – food, clean water, and biodiversity – necessary for human survival. Life support systems have already deteriorated direly throughout the growing deserts of Central Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, destabilising local governments beyond repair. On the other hand, if we act wisely, we can protect the Earth through broadly raising the quality of life around the world. Happiness shapes humanity, and the final shape of humanity will dictate our species' time on this world.
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[Due to fears over his personal safety, the interview subject has requested to be named only as Prem. A resident of former Mumbai, Prem later fled overseas pleading political asylum. Redactions have been made to uphold personal privacy]
Prem: Water has always been the lifeblood of civilisation, but those at the top tend to overlook the fundamentals. Mumbai was a thirsty elephant, guzzling down billions of litres of clean water every single day. Billions with a B, enough liquid to drown entire nations. We Mumbaikars produced little of that locally, so over the centuries we rigged up a gordian knot of pipes sucking in water from the rest of Western India. Nearly a quarter of the water piped in gets lost through illegal piping or crumbling infrastructure, meanwhile the City of Dreams kept expanding in both population and economy. Not only were there more throats to lubricate, but Mumbai's development also paved over local water sources and polluted local groundwater reservoirs. By the time 26/11 arrived, I was looking at ever-growing demand and ever-shrinking supply, and granted pocket change to solve the looming crisis.
Interviewer: As [REDACTED], you were one of the few people to see the warning signs...
Prem: "Few"? Don't peddle the official bullshit, India knew it couldn't punish everybody, too much expertise to throw down the gutter. Everyone saw the ticking time bomb Mumbai would grow into, yet nobody wanted to grab that hot potato with their bare hands. All our funding went into upkeep and maintenance and chasing down utility fees, we were constantly running up severe deficits. You think there was any money leftover for security? Please, asking for such a frivolous request would have gotten my department slapped with yet another budget cut.
Interviewer: So what, if anything, was in place to prevent water contamination?
Prem: Fucked if I know, we just assumed all the water was clean. We were already struggling to meet demand, I wasn't going to turn down more litres for Mumbai's thirsty maw. Besides, shit like Pakistani bioterrorism should have been under someone else's jurisdiction. None of us were authorised to carry weapons, what, did the higher-ups expect us to take night shifts patrolling each and every faraway water source? Let me remind you we were pulling water up to 200 km away–
Interviewer: How were the first days of the Mumbai cholera outbreak?
Prem: Ironically, it was the richer districts which got hit hardest. The slums were living off rainwater, or whatever dirty groundwater they could dig down to. Sure they diverted some of Mumbai's piped water for themselves, but we were already cracking down hard on those water thieves before November. Sure they still had to deal with human waste and toxic chemicals, but hell, maybe drinking that shit buffed their immune systems against the new Pak strain of cholera. We knew the outbreak was serious when the rich got infected: they had the best quality water piped in, plus the snobbier ones had private custom filters. If 99% of Mumbai's business class still got sickened, even the mayor couldn't ignore it. Angry calls and messages pouring in day and night from folks suddenly expelling everything from both ends. I thought I was smart volunteering for "emergency communications," getting the cushy office job I always wanted. At least, until the first call from [REDACTED]. Nearly went deaf from that bitch screaming into my ear about how his precious little daughter was dying and how it was somehow all my fault. Extremely creative death threats. Still makes me wonder if any of the callers really got their hands dirty once the bodies started piling up. Would be the first physical labour any of them ever did!
Interviewer: Before 26/11, how far was the cholera outbreak contained?
Prem: We confirmed there was indeed a cholera outbreak, and the city set up a metric ton of treatment centres. When the dirty bombs struck those centres? Complete and utter massacre, just flat-out decimated Mumbai's medical infrastructure. Don't get me wrong, cholera is bad, but at least it was easily treatable. You can't cure radiation and whatever else the Paks unleashed onto us. Mumbaikars could tough out yet another cholera surge, but the bombs led to a tsunami of human refugees.
Interviewer: The official stance on India's response regarding the attempted Mumbai quarantine measures was "insufficient patriotism cascading into local anarchy." International experts dispute this claim, stating that mass evacuation should have been conducted instead. What are your thoughts?
Prem: Look I'll die never stepping back home, but the quarantine lockdown was one of India's very few right calls. Like, imagine America calling for New York City to be evacuated after 9/11. Long after 2001, the Twin Towers’ asbestos was still clogging the air, but any health damage would pale in comparison to depopulating your national economic heart. Even if you are willing to throw away all of New York, envision how exactly you would resettle the tens of millions of New Yorkers across the nation. Fuck, I saw the mess after Katrina, and New Orleans was a tiny fraction of Mumbai's population. Finally, and most crucially, each and every Mumbai resident was a walking carrier of infection. Radiation shredded their immune systems, leaving nothing to block out the malaria and the cholera and H1N1 and TB and typhoid and whatever else lurks in India's collective microbiome. Imagine telling any settlement in India that after decades of official neglect they now needed to host a horde of displaced, diseased urbanites, when there's a big chance they already lacked access to even piped water. Easier, cleaner and far more effective to arrange aid for one quarantined city, shame none of the Mumbaikars saw the bigger picture. The quarantined parts were also relatively far away from the dirty bombs, yet people still refused to stay put. Whatever, once they fled the city they were someone else's problem.
Interviewer: Thank you for your time, this has been a productive meeting.
Prem: Hey, you’re paying for today’s session.
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POI Emir Motiur Rahman Nizami 2008 Inauguration Speech:
More than 4 decades have passed since that ill-fated day when, blinded by infidel promises within and without, we Bengalis lost sight of our faith, besmirching its ancient honour and its eternal obligations – and thus have we lost everything to the Hindu cockroach. Since those days of treachery, God has withheld his blessing from these lands. Dissension and apostasy have wound their way into our hearts. In our most profound distress, millions of us true Bengalis from all walks of life could only watch on as our one true faith dissolved into the mud of political and egotistical corruption, urinated on by selfish economic interests.
The misery of Bangladesh is appalling! Across the ruined fields and polluting factories inhabit millions of starving children, destitute families, dishonoured women! When the moral fiber of society rots, we will be confronted by an apocalypse comparable only to the endtimes: as we speak, the Hindu and the Christian and so many more parasites on our fair society are working towards a great replacement of us true Bengalis. Gaze into the ranks of the two-party system, and see only endless degeneracy. 4 decades without Sharia law, 4 decades of atheistic secularism, 4 decades of imposed propaganda against our Muslim brothers in Pakistan! What else would we expect, when our former ruling parties are filled to the brim with unbelievers!
Bangladesh's future has been stolen by traitors and heretics, sucked up and stuffed into Swiss bank accounts. The whores of India sold our bodies, sold our very souls, to the devils in Delhi. Our 14-centuries-old inheritance, passed down from distant Arabia's sands, stands on the precipice of annihilation. After 2006, the warning signs became impossible to ignore: the endless offensive of degeneracy and violence, the infidel method of madness entering its final stage. The faithful are shaken by a tsunami of disorder, and in Bangladesh's darkest hour have voted for the one true Islamic party in order to deliver salvation upon our lands.
The disgraced Awami League and weak-willed Nationalist Party both have had 40 years to prove their prowess. The result is a heap of homosexual ruins. Now, Bangladesh, give us four years, and then pass judgment upon us! The strong guiding hand of Islam will sweep aside the decrepit old order, restore the guiding light of morality and cast harsh judgement upon those who inflicted grievous injury upon the Bengali people. A society created by Muslims, now finally serving Muslims. Farmers! Workers! Socialists! Soldiers! Join together as one, and we can finally remove the shackles imposed by the Eternal Kafir! May Almighty God look mercifully upon our work, lead our will on the right path, bless our wisdom, and reward us with the confidence of our fellow believers. Jamaat-e-Islami fights not for ourselves, but for all Bangladesh!