AHC: No United India

Kibbutznik

India is a remarkably diverse nation, possessing no single unifying language culture, and relying on a mutual Hindu unity to exist.

What are the chances that the British, not trusting the Congress to maintain a unified India, and wanting to create several states so that none of them could truly resist British economic influence, instead divides India by linguistic, not religious, boundaries?
The created states will probably be Sikkim, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Gujarat, some sort of Deccan state that could possibly evolve out of Hyderabad, a state specifically for Hindi speakers, etc.

Bonus points if there is no united Pakistan either.
 

Taloc13

I don't think the Brits could pull that off after 1900. Nationalism was on the rise, and whatever the right wing nutters might like to say it definitely wasn't based on a 'Hindu Identity'. The demand for Pakistan came due to the refusal to have a reservation system for Muslims, which would have made about 1/3 rd constituencies Muslim electorates I.e only contestable by Muslim candidates. The Congress refused as it was not deemed to be a good model for stability.
Anyway achieving a disunited subcontinent is easy just have the British be less successful. Some PODs for this could be
1) French victory in the 7 years war
2) British defeat at Plassey in 1757 ( easy enough just have Mir Qasim be caught beforehand)
3)British defeat in the Third Anglo-Mysore war (they lost the first and second one )
4)British defeat in any of the numerous Anglo-Maratha wars
5) Successful Revolt of 1857
I could go on but you get the picture. The British dominance of the region was by no means guaranteed. In fact, it was only an extraordinary number of things going right ( it is almost ASB ) for them which enabled their eventual dominance. Remove any of these and you would get several Indian states closely competing with each other.
 

Kibbutznik

Are there any factors that could change the sense of unity post-1900? Maybe ideological differences, or rising regional rivalry?
 

Taloc13

Hmm so the goal is to have a permanent British influence in a multi-state Indian subcontinent. Okay the scenario could go something like this:
1) The Schlieffen Plan is marginally more successful, let's say that von Bülow and von Kluck are able to co-ordinate better resulting in the German capture of Paris in 1914.
2) France and Britan are able to retake Paris in spring '15 (TTL's equivalent of the Marne Offensive) and the situation devolves into French warfare as per OTL except Germany holds twice as much French territory.
3)TTL's losses are much, much higher for the Entente causing mass anti-war sentiment at home especially since the more mobile nature of the TTL western front means the govt.s are not able to suppress news of the repeated failures.
In short, the British Empire draws much more heavily on the Indian manpower reserve than OTL.
Historically, the INC had been promised home rule after WWI for their full support of the war. They obliged and India contributed 1.4 million soldiers. TTL could well see over 4 million troops, which means this time that promise would have to be fulfilled in some way.
Let's say that they think long-term and reorganize British India by dissolving the Princely states and form separates subjects under overall British suzerainty. The states would be :
1) Punjab ( with NWPF and Jammu & Kashmir)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punjab_Province_(British_India)
2) Hindustan ( United Provinces + Bundelkhand and bit of Bihar)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Provinces_of_Agra_and_Oudh
3) Bengal (+ Assam)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_Presidency
4) Bombay Presidency (this one would be tough to handle)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombay_Presidency
5)Burma
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_rule_in_Burma
6) Madras Presidency ( + Mysore and Hyderabad)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madras_Presidency
7) Baluchistan (+ Aden and Trucial States )
Yemen apparently was a part of Bombay Presidency under British India.
8) Gondwana ( Central Provinces+ Berar + Orissa )
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Provinces_and_Berar
 
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