African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1306: Chapter 315: Dismemberment

As a colony, with India, British enterprises could obviously let loose. Implementing iron-fisted suppression in the British homeland would provoke public opinion and social issues, whereas in India, the Indian lower-class populace had no human rights, and coupled with India’s ”perfect” caste system, at first glance, India appeared to be an investment paradise.

This was an ”advantage” that other British colonies did not possess. After all, when the British slightly raised taxes on America back in the day, the estate owners and merchants of the thirteen North American states revolted.

Of course, investing in industry in India is not without its issues, such as Indians’ poor organizational skills, weak ambition, a tendency to muddle through, skilled in debate but not in problem-solving, and so on.

Even so, India’s shortcomings are not impossible to overcome, which is also what concerns the East African government.

Frier said, ”India has the foundation to become a great power. Once it gains independence from the United Kingdom and inherits Britain’s industry in India, it can immediately become our biggest threat in the Indian Ocean.”

”Therefore, to preemptively eliminate this hidden danger, we should enhance our influence in India, preferably encouraging and supporting conflicts between the different ethnic groups and religions in India, so that even after gaining independence from Britain, India cannot become a unified country.”

”This is similar to our arrangement under Dutch rule in the East Indies (Indonesia). The East Indies can threaten our colony in the South Sea region, so we must prepare for the early division of this area.”

”And among the countries along the Indian Ocean coast that have the potential to pose a threat to East Africa, India is one of them, followed by the Ottoman Empire and Persia, and lastly, the British colony of Australia.”

Among the world powers along the Indian Ocean coastline, there are currently only two: one is East Africa, and the other is the Ottoman Empire. Of course, East Africa is recognized as one of the great powers, while the Ottoman Empire can only be considered a major power.

The criteria for East Africa’s assessment of countries and regions that could pose a threat to its Indian Ocean dominance is also very simple: it depends on area and population, and overall, India is clearly the strong region second only to East Africa in the Indian Ocean area.

It is undeniable that the Ottoman Empire is currently somewhat more powerful than India. After all, the Ottoman Empire, regardless, is an independent country that can freely develop its own military and industry. In the absence of Britain, the Ottoman Empire could completely conquer India with force.

However, the Ottoman Empire spans just over a million square kilometers, much of which is desert, with a population of only around 20 to 30 million, while India’s population is more than ten times that of the Ottoman Empire, and its area is nearly twice as large, with abundant arable resources.

In addition, the Ottoman Empire has long been subject to attacks from the Western world, causing its influence in the Indian Ocean to shrink to the narrow regions of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, with very few usable ports.

So, East Africa ranks the Ottoman Empire after India. Of course, if the Ottoman Empire dominates all of the Arabian Peninsula, this is certainly not a situation East Africa wants to see.

Besides India and the Ottoman Empire, Persia is also a country East Africa needs to guard against, only East Africa has not found an excuse to penetrate Persia.

The reason for this situation is that in the past, Persia was supported by two great powers behind it: the United Kingdom and Russia.

But with the end of the regime change in Russia, East Africa has the capability and obligation to represent the global reactionary forces to make a grand entry into Central Asia and Persia, among other regions.

In the past, other countries could tolerate a backward regime like Russia controlling Central Asia. After all, no matter how powerful Russia was, it wasn’t going to exterminate everything, whereas the Russian Labor Party regime was a thorn in the flesh to the global reactionary forces.

Finally, there is Australia. Although the British colony Australia currently seems unremarkable, even unable to shake off the label of a penal colony, among the countries and regions listed by East Africa as threats in the Indian Ocean, Australia is the largest in area.

Frier said, ”The Empire cannot tolerate the birth or rise of any country that could threaten our rights in the Indian Ocean, so we must prepare appropriate plans for these countries and regions that could threaten the strategic security of the Empire and the future order of the Indian Ocean.”

”Regarding the Indian region, my view is to take advantage of the local complex ethnic, religious situation to divide India into three to four, or even more countries and regions in the future, and strictly prevent the resurgence of the Arabian Sect in the Indian region.”

The reason Frier emphasized the Arabian Sect is not only due to East Africa’s consistent vigilance against Arabian Sect influence but also because the Arabian Sect is most likely to threaten East Africa’s dominance in the Indian Ocean.

Before Western countries intervened in the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sect influence was widely distributed along the Indian Ocean coast; for example, in the west, Zanzibar and the Somali nations, as well as the Buganda Kingdom eliminated by East Africa, or the current Arab countries on the northern coast of the Indian Ocean.

Meanwhile, in the South Sea region, including the Malay Peninsula, Kalimantan Island, and the East Indies, there are Arabian Sect countries or regions present.

Imagine if, under the influence of the Arabian Sect, which has a strong capacity for ideological integration, a unified Arabian Sect nation were to form encompassing most areas around the Indian Ocean; for East Africa, it would be an absolute disaster, and even without unification, just forming a loose alliance would change the entire power structure in the Indian Ocean area.

And the Arabian Sect happens to be the dominant religion on the South Asian Subcontinent; this is not an empty claim, after all, in modern history, the last regime to unify India was the Mughal Empire, which was an Arabian Sect regime, and today, many of India’s princely states have rulers who are Arabian Sect followers.

If it weren’t for the arrival of Western powers, the Arabian Sect would surely continue to rule India and eliminate the various indigenous sects of India.

Take 21st-century India for example, even with Bangladesh and Pakistan being partitioned, India still has over 200 million Arabian Sect people, showing the sect’s strong competitiveness in India.

After all, in the last century, the Indian government’s repression of the Arabian Sect was by no means lenient, yet in such circumstances, there were still so many Arabian Sect people, clearly indicating their tenacious vitality.

Frier said, ”We should support the development of forces in India other than the Arabian Sect; if India becomes independent and an Arabian Sect country, it will directly become a bridge and hub for communication between the Arabian Sect in the South Sea and the Middle East.”

”Therefore, a divided India must be separated into several countries capable of confronting Arabian Sect forces, whether they are Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, or Catholicism, and even the Eastern Orthodox Church, as long as it’s not the Arabian Sect, they can be supported.”

”Besides this, we can also support internal forces in India based on ethnicity and race, such as the Dravidian people widely distributed in southern India.”

”The three colonies France is trying to trade to us just happen to fall within the Dravidian region, we can fabricate a Dravidian ethnic identity, thus constructing a new ethnicity in South Asia.”

The Dravidian people are actually the original natives of India, possibly the founders of ancient Indian civilization. With the southward migration of Aryans, the Dravidian people were constantly conquered, so the Dravidian forces in southern India, on the contrary, preserved their ancestry better.

The Dravidian people are also one of the representatives of the brown race, having some connections with the South Sea region or the indigenous peoples of Australia in the past.

Frier’s idea is to restore a Dravidian nation, regarding the plan, it’s similar to how France exported nationalism in the past, leading to today’s half-dead state of Austria-Hungary.

Even if this nation cannot gain independence, as long as they can play the current role of Hungary, hindering India’s development, it would be quite beneficial for East Africa in the future.

Of course, the British in the past divided India into two countries based on Hinduism and the Arabian Sect for one important purpose: to isolate the expansion of the Arabian Sect.

In Frier’s strategy, India is obviously not so important, because what the British did was due to their inability to intervene much after India’s independence.

And now that East Africa is a ”capable” and ”responsible” great power in the Indian Ocean, it naturally bears the responsibility of striking against Arabian Sect forces along the Indian Ocean coast, and as long as East Africa does not decline or undergo regime change, this situation will always be maintained.