Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

22nd March 1660

Ugadi, the grand celebration for the arrival of a new year in the Dharmik tradition, just ended auspiciously two days ago, deepening the cohesion and unifying common cultural bonds between people of different classes and cultures. A grand mela was held in all major cities and towns of the empire, to commemorate the new year with stories of Lord Vishnu. Additionally, discounts were provided on goods, pushing consumption. The Europeans, who had taken a short break in January due to their New Year, slowly returned. These amazing discounts made the festivities even more lively.

"Your Majesty, the prototype of the sea mine has been produced. Would you like to inspect it?"

"Oh." Vijay took a look over the design drawing of the prototype and smiled. "It looks good theoretically. I don't see anything wrong with it, so let Gangadhar inspect the prototype." He turned around, looked at the naval map of the Bharatiya Empire, and said, "As for putting it into service, let's decide after the inspection."

Vinod nodded respectfully. "Your Majesty, one more thing—Balachandra said that he has researched the prototype of a converter capable of smelting steel from molten wrought iron."

Vijay suddenly looked back. "Well, this is a surprise. I did give him a deadline of four months to complete the research, but who would have thought he'd really done it?" He thought for a while and ordered, "Schedule it after the year-end summit."

"Oh, right. Is there news from the BNV Dairya?" Vijay asked, remembering the merchant ship that had gone on a voyage across the Pacific Ocean.

"The ship just arrived at Manila Bay two days ago, Your Majesty. It brought back all the local specialities you ordered. Currently, a few merchant ships from the Brown Logistics Company are transporting it back. It should reach Visakhapatnam in a day."

"Good. Ask the people from the Agronomy Department of the Ministry of Civilian Sciences to test if the fruits and vegetables of the Americas can grow in Bharat and let them find a way to localize their production."

"As you wish, Your Majesty."

---

The Parliament Hall, on a rare occasion, saw the attendance of all the cabinet ministers, ministers of the parliament, and the Chief Minister in one sitting. Such a gathering had last been seen almost 3–4 years ago, right when His Majesty declared Total War on the Mughal Empire.

The politicians greeted each other with pleasantries while soulful sitar music played in the background. Everyone was excited for the year-end summit, as this was their chance to showcase their achievements to the people of the empire, who would be reading about it in the newspapers.

The politicians were smart; even without Vijay guiding them, they quickly understood the importance of newspapers in elections. For the elections that would be held next year, they knew the answer sheet given today would play a huge role, almost a deciding factor.

It is for this reason that the Liberals and Radicals, along with the political body of youth, had already started soft campaigning for votes in the election of 1661.

Suddenly, the trumpets were blown.

"His Majesty, the illustrious grandson of Emperor Venkatapathy Raya, the noble son of Emperor Srirangaraya, the sovereign ruler of the Vijayanagar Empire, the Samrat of Bharat, the unwavering devotee of Kalabhairava, the Rajyapati, His Imperial Majesty Emperor Vijay Devaraya, has arrived!"

As soon as the call was heard, everyone stood up from their seats with a namaskara, and the music of the sitar was suddenly stopped, replaced by rhythmic drum music. A young figure walked through the centre of the parliament in a black sherwani embroidered with gold-threaded Nandi. Vijay sat on the main seat with dignity, majesty, and nobility.

"Get seated!" Vijay gestured, after which everyone sat down, slightly bowing their heads.

Vinod stood up from his seat and gave a brief welcoming speech, after which he glanced at Vijay, asking whether to start the report.

Vijay nodded. "Let's get started."

Prime Minister Vinod took out a paper on which he had prepared all the notes, raised his head as he looked at the ministers who were eagerly waiting for him to speak. "Let me start off my report with what could be considered the foundation on which any nation stands—that is, the amount of land it rules and the size of the population. Over the last five years, the land area of the Bharatiya Empire has expanded more than four times."

"Back when we were the Dakshina Bhartiya Empire, the size of the empire was only over one million square kilometres, but now, after unifying the subcontinent under the rule of His Majesty, the total land area of the Bharatiya Empire is over 4.6 million square kilometres, comprising a population of 190,000,000 Bharatiyas."

"Over the years, the government has done some rough census work, and I have some data on religion."

Arnav Sharma, the managing journalist of the Bharatam Daily, leaned forward in his seat, filled with anticipation because he could feel that the next words of His Excellency would attract a lot of attention from the people.

"There are over 2.8 million minority tribes practising animistic religions in the empire, occupying 1.5 percent of the total population; 5.7 million Buddhists, occupying 3%; 7.6 million Sikhs, occupying 4%; 10.4 million Muslims, occupying 5.5%; and finally, 163.5 million Sanatanis, occupying 86%."

Suddenly, an MP from the Radical House raised his hand. "The Muslims—are they Dharmic or Islamics?"

Vinod thought for a while and answered, "There are no detailed statistics on this, but from the analysis of RAW, over 6 million Muslims in our empire are self-identified New Testament Muslims, or what we like to call Dharmic Muslims."

"Thank you for the clarification," the MP said, then sat down.

Arnav Sharma was rapidly writing down all the details.

Vinod turned the page and continued, "Discussing the distribution of wealth, the empire is composed of four different classes, mainly the aspirational class, composed of over 148.2 million people, or 78% of the whole population; the middle class, composed of 38 million people, occupying 20%; the high class, composed of 3.7 million people, occupying 2%; and finally, the elites, occupying 0.1 percent of the population."

"Now, the wealth is calculated based on how much a person can earn in a year and the assets he holds, inclusive of tax."

Vinod stared at Jagannath Mohan. "Could Minister Mohan please outline the monetary differences between the four classes?"

"Sure. A person is considered to be in the aspirational class if his yearly salary is less than 20,000 Varaha or fixed assets are less than 50,000 Varaha. Similarly, a person is considered to be in the middle class if his yearly income is between 20,000 and 50,000 Varaha, with fixed assets less than 100,000 Varaha. A person is considered to be in the high class if his yearly salary is anywhere from 50,000 to a million, with assets no less than 2.5 million. Lastly, a person is considered to be in the elite class if his yearly starting salary is at a million and fixed assets are over 4 million Varaha."

Vinod nodded at Jagannath Mohan in gratitude. "So, does anyone have any more doubts regarding population, their earnings, and the territory?"

An MP from Solanki Puri raised his hand. (Gujarat)

"Minister, please speak."

"Thank you, sir. Prime Minister, I have read through the monthly report that you update every month, and I know that the overwhelming majority of lower-class people reside in the northern part of the empire, while the overwhelming majority of middle-class, high-class, and elite-class citizens of the Bharatiya Empire reside in the southern part of the empire."

He took out a piece of paper that showed a visual representation of the unequal wealth distribution on a map of the Bharatiya Empire.

"For example, out of the thirty-eight million middle-class population, over 20 million reside in the southern part of the empire. Given that the total population in the southern part of the empire is around 55 million, nearly 40% of all people in the South come under the middle-class category. This is only because of the infrastructure projects that have somewhat diluted the wealth statistics in the South, otherwise, it would easily be above 60%. Not to mention, over 80% of all higher-class and elite citizens reside in the southern part of the empire."

The man looked straight at Vinod. "So, respected Prime Minister, does the empire really have the intention of developing the northern part of the empire just like the South, or are you thinking of the North as a colony of the South?" His words were sharp and straight to the point as he stared daggers into Vinod's eyes. In fact, he actually knew whose idea it was to favour Southern Industries over the North, but he couldn't really look that person in the eyes directly, so he chose the one who represented that person—the Prime Minister.

Vinod immediately furrowed his brows.

"What is this minister talking about?"

"How can he be accused of such heinous deeds? No! Minister, you have to explain yourself."

"Huh, what else can you mud-le... um, Northerners do but complain?"

"Minister, you might as well resign right now. The people of the empire won't take kindly to your political attack."

The parliament was in an uproar. Everyone knew that the Bharatiya Empire was at the forefront of the world in its anti-colonial stance on the Europeans, but now a member of the empire's own parliament had accused the empire of being a colonial power. How could this not trigger outrage among the people in the parliament?

The ministers from the northern part of the empire tried to refute, but their experience in the parliament was still less than that of the politicians from the South, so they were on the back foot.

In the viewing section of the parliament, Mahalakshmi Ghorkha, Jayadwaj Singha, and other prominent figures from the northern part of the empire nodded their heads in satisfaction as they looked at the minister who raised the question, their expressions filled with satisfaction.

Vijay had a slight smile on his face. It was naturally his fault for the empire to be crooked in such a way where the southern part of the empire had become a large parasite on the northern part. Although the main reason he did such a thing was legitimate, he couldn't really publicize his idea of the Industrial Revolution and its need for tech infrastructure now, could he?

Thankfully, being an emperor had its perks. If there was backlash from a policy, the blame could be absorbed by the government, since it was the government that acted on his orders. For the people, since the government was the face, it was naturally seen as the government's doing.

Vijay always utilized the advantage perfectly; if the aftereffects were positive, he would get the credit, and if they were negative, the government would. The drawback of doing such a thing is that if it is done too many times, it is easy to get exposed, and the dissatisfaction attracted would be several times more than before. Fortunately, Vijay hadn't made too many mistakes, so the government could still take the blame for him.

Vinod was in a tricky situation, but he was not the Prime Minister of the Bharatiya Empire for the last five to six years for nothing.

He first calmed down the MPs from the southern part of the empire.

"Dear Minister, I am very sorry that you feel the way you do, and when I say 'you,' I mean the people you represent."

"But please understand, the northern part of the empire has only been independent for barely three to four years, and the southern part of the empire has always been independent. So we had a lot of time and foundation to build the prosperity that we currently have."

"Whereas in the northern part of the empire, the war left it devastated. We even had to import grains from the Europeans to make do. The Mughals had not maintained the roads properly; they had not built many water conservancy projects; they had not improved education; they had destroyed many temples; the death toll on the able-bodied population due to the total war was immense; and, most importantly, they imposed severe restrictions on Gurukuls, crippling the passing of knowledge, which can still be felt today since not all knowledge of our civilization is written down but rather passed on orally."

"So please tell me, Minister, is the government not doing enough? Infrastructure such as roads, ports, Arkha Dristhi communication channels, post offices, courts, schools, colleges, and universities are all being built constantly."

"I can understand you are unhappy with the government due to its inability to provide support for production plants in the north and seeing the rising inequality of wealth, but sir, everything is a gradual process. When the conditions are met, the government will naturally come forward and resolve the issue. And most importantly, we all belong to the same civilized nation. I am a northerner as much as you are a southerner. So please refrain from seeing the southern part of the Empire as a different nation that has forcefully conquered the northern part," Vinod's eyes were stern.

The minister fell silent, as everything said by the Prime Minister was indeed the truth, but he really couldn't see the other part of the empire, barely one million square kilometers in size, outpacing the rest of the empire by several magnitudes. "Can the Prime Minister tell when the conditions can be met?" he asked, staring intently at Vinod.

Vinod thought for a while and replied, "It should take two years to see the changes reflected in the economy. But in order to prove the sincerity of my cabinet and the government, I will see to it that at least the riverbank industrial zones are established in the northern part of the empire by the end of December 1661."

The minister finally nodded in acceptance. "Thank you for your clarification, Honourable Prime Minister. You have the gratitude of the 500,000 people that I represent."