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Indicus's maps, wikiboxes, &c thread

Revolutionary Britain: Order of Menorca
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The Order of Menorca, officially known as the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, of Malta, and of Menorca, is a nation within the Balearic Islands, which are otherwise ruled by Spain. It is the only nation in the world to be run by a military order, the Knights Hospitaller, and it is one of the smallest nations in the world.

Originating in 1099 to protect and maintain a hospital in Jerusalem to serve Christian pilgrims created in the immediate aftermath of the First Crusade, the Order rapidly militarized as a body. Indeed, it went as far to become the most notable military force in the Holy Land, ultimately being given its flag for this. It gained holdings across Europe for its prestige. Following the fall of the Crusader states, it fled to Cyprus, and it was later given its own island in 1310. It continued to be a military force, fighting against the Barbary states, Timur, and the Ottomans. Following the fall of Constantinople, the Ottomans focused on Rhodes, taking it over in 1523. In an agreement in 1530 it was given control over Malta in return for giving the Habsburgs a tribute of a single Maltese falcon, and thus it came to be known as the Order of Malta. And here, it continued its naval activities against Barbary piracy.

In 1565 it faced the Great Siege of Malta from the Ottoman Navy which was successfully repelled, but with much difficulty. In its wake, as the Ottoman threat weakened, Knights Hospitaller enrolled in various other armies and navies, and the Order focused increasingly on combating piracy, a mission it kept until the Barbary piracy threat finally fell away over the nineteenth century. It maintained a presence however, most notably, it gained control of four Caribbean islands thanks to its close relationship with France. However, it increasingly faced difficulties - first, with the Protestant Reformation, much of its property in now-Protestant states was confiscated. Next, with the French Revolution, much of its properties in France were confiscated by the revolutionary government, and later as part of the German Mediatization of 1804 it lost much of its properties in Germany. Finally, in 1823, as a naval base against Britain, it got taken over by the French, and the Knights Hospitaller were forced to flee Malta.

Despite being given myriad offers to take up residence in numerous European states, including a quixotic offer from Lutheran Sweden to control the large island of Gotland despite it being a Catholic order[1], it refused them all in the hopes of regaining Malta. However, following the collapse of the British government in the Popular Revolution, it was forced to give up any hopes of Malta. The King of Spain, Ferdinand VII, eager to gain the credibility of having rescued the Knights Hospitaller, gave them control over Menorca, an island long fought over between Britain and Spain and now decisively in Spanish hands. In return for permanent and exclusive Spanish naval rights, thus, in 1828, the Knights Hospitaller gained control over Menorca. In this period, its role as combatting piracy came to an end as Barbary piracy was definitively quelled.

Instead, with centuries of continuous history behind it, in the tumult of the nineteenth century in which every established regime felt threatened, it became prestigious and it was much romanticized. It continued to recruit Southern Italians to its cause - this has given Menorca its large Italian-speaking minority - and the Order proved wealthy and, to the people native to Menorca, it gave the island renown. Yet, the undemocratic governance of the island, in combination with the rising tides of the nineteenth century, created resentment. In 1897, the island was given a democratic advisory council, its powers were expanded in 1919, and finally in 1952 its current constitution, establishing the Residents' Council elected only by members of langues of the Order who happened to be on the island rather than the Order as a whole, was established. Today, while the Knights Hospitaller continue its humanitarian work, it largely occurs elsewhere from the island. Nevertheless, its presence on Menorca is well-liked, as having a Crusader order on the island has given it recognition and respect abroad and brings in many, many visitors eager to witness the order in action - even if that action in this case happens to be ceremony to crowds of tourists.



[1] This is OTL - following its loss of Malta to Napoleon in OTL, the King of Sweden offered Gotland to the Knights Hospitaller despite, again, the whole "different denominations" thing.
 
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Revolutionary Britain: The Nations of South Africa
European colonization in the region of South Africa began with the Dutch under the VOC in 1652. Fights with colonial authorities, as well as smallpox epidemics, would cause the collapse of the native Khoisan population. Dutch influence promptly expanded rapidly over the Cape, and in particular the semi-nomadic Trekboer culture emerged over the eighteenth century. Much of this Dutch population was increased further with the migration of Huguenot refugees. Slaves and unfree labour was imported from India and particular the Malay world. By 1795, Dutch rule was well-established in the colony.

With the Batavian Revolution in 1795 resulting in the establishment of the modern Dutch state, Cape Dutch resentment of the corrupt VOC rule of the colony resulted in the proclamation of independent republics of Swellendam and Graaff-Reinet. The French alignment of the Batavian Republic, however, would result in a British invasion of the Cape Colony. This conquest proved swift, and it conquered Graaff-Reinet and Swellendam as well. Subsequently, as the Cape frontier moved east of the Great Fish River to meet Bantu Xhosa peoples, this drew the British forces into a war with the Xhosa to the east, which ended with the Xhosa being driven beyond the Great Fish River.

Following the end of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1804, the Cape was returned to the Netherlands, or rather the new Batavian Republic. It subsequently appointed Jacob Abraham Uitenhage de Mist to the position of Commissioner-General. In this post, he pushed for a series of reforms. While the Dutch Reformed Church retained some official status, the Rights of Man, including religious liberty, became enshrined in the new colonial charter. De Mist, who regarded the Cape Dutch as semi-barbaric, reduced the size of the northern frontier to prevent "barbarization" and he also brought in a number of immigrants from the Netherlands, as well as some from the French ports of Anvers and Bruxelles. This gave the Cape, for the first time, small Catholic and even Jewish minorities. Most famously, he declared the gradual abolition of slavery, with all slaves born on or after 1807 free from birth. In practice, this had little effect outside the district seats and the area around Kaapstad, and many on the colonial council made clear their displeasure. The importation of indentured servants from Java would ultimately have a much greater effect on slavery's economical position. Despite being averse to expansion, settler encroachment on the eastern Zuurveld border resulted in a war with the Xhosa which ended with Dutch forces driving the Xhosa off of the land beyond the Great Fish River. He subsequently brought in a high number of settlers from the French region of Flanders; their Catholicism subsequently caused sectarian tensions which hampered attempts at making an eastern bloc for years to come. In 1819, he resigned from office and returned to the Netherlands. However, in 1823, with war with France, its sister republics (including the Batavian Republics), and Britain would result in a second British occupation. In this period, British control proved heavy, which caused Cape Dutch fleeing their authority to flee to the northern frontiers, and a republic was even declared in Uitenhage before it was occupied. However, in 1827, Britain fell into revolution; the revolutionary regime promptly sued for peace and returned all colonies to the Dutch. After all, in 1810, British forces create a naval base on the way to India; this the British was retained in the peace settlement.

With the Cape returned to Dutch hands in 1828, the new Commissioner-General, Godert van der Capellan, set out to establish his own plans. He established the town Barnevelt, named after the seventeenth-century Dutch republican martyr, near the British-constructed Fort Frederick. After another Dutch-Xhosa War, the landdrost of Barnevelt Andries Stockenström established a treaty system with the Gcaleka Xhosa which was aimed at ensuring an end to the great warfare. With De Mist's manumission made a pure joke outside the region near Kaapstad and the district seats, in 1837 slavery was declared abolished across the Cape Colony, although he also made moves to increase importation of Javanese indentured servants to ensure there would be a continued supply of unfree labour. This subsequently caused the long-running wave of settlers to the region then known as Transorangia, between the Gariep (then known as the Orange) and the Vaal rivers, to turn into a surge to turn into a great wave; with Shaka Zulu's campaign of conquest having caused deep amounts of chaotic strife, these settlers were able to establish the Transorangia Republic. This was met with horror from Kaapstad, and when news of this got to The Hague, it sent a great military force aimed at taking over Transorangia; it swiftly did so, renaming the town of Pieterburg to Wittenstad after the seventeenth century Dutch republican martyrs Johan and Cornelis de Witt, and there they established the District of Wittenstad. This, notably, gave the Dutch a theoretical border with the British colony of Natalia.

In 1810, British forces established a port then known as Port Charlotte. This settlement grew into a town with the help of Irish penal labour that would otherwise have been diverted to Australia; some of them fled to the increasingly chaotic interior. This port declined after the second British takeover of the Cape; following the British Popular Revolution, many of the convicts had their sentences commuted and Port Charlotte was renamed after the British constitutionalist martyr John Hampden. In 1839, in return for assisting, him, the Zulu king Dingane gave the British a colony now christened Natalia. Further settlement, mostly consisting of Irish settlers but also of refugees fleeing Zulu expansionism, grew Natalia's population. With the Dutch having conquered Wittenstad, there was now a theoretical border between the Dutch Cape Colony and Natalia. As relations between the British Isles and the Batavian Republic worsened over the 1840s and 50s over the Malay archipelago, this led to fears of war.

In both Natalia and the Cape there grew a lobby advocating expansion, in the Cape over expanding into Xhosa, or "Cafre", lands, in Natalia into Xhosa and Zulu lands. Such sentiments led to Anglo-Xhosa Wars which ended with the Rharhabe Xhosa, along with the related Pondo and Bhaca, becoming effectively suzerain to the authorities in Hampden. Only the king of the Basotho, Moshoeshoe I, retained his independence by skillfully playing the Dutch and the British off one another. There also grew movements advocating self-government; in Natalia, the existing Parliament won responsible government after a lengthy campaign, while in the Cape Colony the existing colonial council was expanded into a formal legislature. In the Cape, the influence of republican ideals of citizenship from the metropole and the colony's solid white and mixed-race majority led to a non-racial franchise, while Natalia's solid black majority led to a property franchise that was in practice racial.

In 1871, diamonds were found in what was then the Bastaard (mixed-race) independent republic of Bastaardland, resulting in a great wave of Dutch settlers who promptly overthrew the Bastaard government and petitioned for integration into the Cape; promptly, this wave only increased. A town, named Paulustad, named after the first head of state of the modern Batavian Republic, emerged near the great new diamond mine. This rush would be outmatched by a gold rush in 1883 in the area just beyond the Vaal River in territory nominally claimed by the Portuguese. Settlers, who were mostly Dutch, Irish, and Portuguese in origin, clamoured for various governments in difference; with the recent rapprochement between Britain and the Netherlands, the two nations acted as one force to force the Portuguese government to recognize a condominium in the region named Ouroria after the Portuguese word for gold, ouro.

In the German Unification War (1880-1884), the Batavian Republic made the shocking decision of breaking with its old ally of France and declaring its neutrality aligned with the British Isles. France suddenly lost its main port between the metropole and its colonies of Formosa and Cygnie. It immediately aligned itself with the Zulu, struggling to maintain its independence in between Portuguese and British pressures, giving it a large number of arms in return for control over Sainte-Lucie and Boulanger. France being incapable of projecting power across the Zulu kingdom from its small ports helped it to maintain its independence. A new factor was added to South African affairs - a French presence.

With the Netherlands facing an aggrieved internal crisis, including political violence, over the 1880s as a result of its controversial breaking of its alliance with France, it strengthened the hand of advocates of colonial autonomy, and in 1888 the Dutch government accepted the right of the colonial council to appoint a Commission to govern over internal affairs. Even with this power, the multi-racial franchise was maintained, in no small part because, with the exception of the east where Bantu peoples who increasingly spoke Dutch made solid pluralities and majorities, whites and mixed-race peoples made a majority everywhere; as such, multiracial suffrage only meant a handful of black legislators. Yet, at the same time, in Natalia, the suffrage question proved far more controversial due to the colony's solid black majority; a variety of laws known as the Penal Laws of Natalia rendered black people increasingly second class citizens. However, this drew ire from the Irish population, many of whom remembered how their ancestors suffered under penal laws. This caused decades of tumult as the suffrage question proved to be a polarizing issue.

In the 1930s, following the disaster that was the Hindustani War of Independence, the British Isles proved reluctant to hold its colonial empire. As such, when the eastern Xhosa made motions for independence, the British let them. Such waves also impacted the Cape Colony, which now made its unofficial independence official; with the Gcaleka Xhosa free from the grasp of the Dutch, Xhosa nationalists finally succeeded in creating a unified Xhosaland (since renamed KwaXhosa). In Natalia, the suffrage question was finally resolved after decades of tumult, with universal suffrage a reality in 1948; desirous of making a new future on its own, in 1952 this new multiracial democracy declared its independence.

Today, the nations of South Africa stand; despite problems with development disparities, unresolved racial issues, and other inequities, they are intent on meeting the future and triumphing over its issues.

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Flags of Goa
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The Goan Revolution was successful in establishing a new Goan Republic separate from its Portuguese masters in 1830, and this state needed a new flag. Many different flags were proposed but refused - despite the Mestiço officers who revolted being inspired by the French Revolution, French-style tricolours were deemed atheistic by the Catholic Brahmin priests who made an important part of the new state. After much discussion, this flag was a cross, representing Christianity, but this cross was to have three colours as if to imply a French-style tricolour. Blue, considered a Catholic colour in Portuguese heraldry, was prominent. The symbols of the municipality of Velha Goa - a mural crown covered with armillary spheres and crosses, the Wheel of Saint Catherine, and a castle - defaced the new flag. It was an overtly Christian and Catholic flag, in a state in which only Christians were eligible to vote, and its overt European symbolism made it clear that it viewed itself as an outpost of Christian civilization in India, a land of "pagan" and "Moorish" barbarity.

In the coming decades, to the Hindus who made up an increasingly large minority of Goa's population, this flag represented their subjugation by the state. It represented that they were nothing more than subjects, of a state which claimed to uphold ideals of liberty and equality. As the Religious Liberty Association advocating Hindu emancipation gained steam in the 1870s and 1880s, unifying Hindu Brahmins and Kshatriyas in the name of equality while also separating itself from the Maharashtrian nationalism which so often sunk previous emancipationist movements. After much difficulties, in 1888 it finally won religious equality under the law, as the Christian supremacist provisions of the Constitutional Code were removed. But the overtly Christian Goan flag became a symbol of the law's former anti-Hindu exclusivism, and in 1891 it was replaced with a new one. This new flag was a French-style tricolour, to imply the ideals of equality of the French Revolution would be truly followed. The Wheel of Saint Catherine remained on the flag, though now it was redefined - according to the flag law, it was simply a "wheel of justice". To Catholics this could still refer to Saint Catherine's martyrdom, but to Hindus this "justice" could mean the Hindu concept of dharma, often represented by a wheel. Above it was a mural crown, representing republican authority. It was a flag, the new government hoped, that could represent Hindu and Catholic alike equal under the law. And in this it has succeeded. The new flag of Goa has become an important part of Goan nationalism, so often nebulous and difficult to define in contrast to the similar cultures of surrounding Maharashtra. And thus it has succeeded.
 
Revolutionary Britain: Weights and Measures Act 1835
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The British Isles had a confusing and arbitrary measuring system. The main unit for weight, the pound, could refer to a troy pound, an avoirdupois pound, or any number of local pounds. The main unit for liquid measurement, the gallon, could refer to the Winchester gallon, the Elizabethan gallon, the Wine gallon, or any number of local gallons, and these units could differentiate by as much as 100 millilitres. Even in distance, which was indeed legislated for, a mile could refer to the statutory mile set at about 1.6 km, or any number of local units usually set at over 2 km. In short, the British system confounded all categorization, and made it difficult for people in the same nation to refer to units of measurement.

Following the Popular Revolution, the revolutionary regime found this contradictory, confusing mess of systems the height of absurdity. Not only did it violate the Magna Carta's statement that there should be but one system of weights and measurements throughout the realm, but it served as a restriction to the free trade believed by Moderates and Radicals alike. With continental Europe gradually adopting the metric system pushed by France despite much abhorrence at its fierce republicanism, it seemed the opportunity was ripe for establishing the metric system in the British Isles. But this was much resented - many alleged that it was inherently "Jacobin", "atheistic", and "ungodly", much as in the accusations levied against the revolutionary state. And so it got delayed, and delayed. In 1835, the Radical Prime Minister Samuel Whitbread introduced a Weights and Measures Act establishing the metric system in the British Isles. However, to ease its adoption, it made a concession in that traditional measures would remain in place, but with some changes. They were now redefined in terms of metric units, so that converting. These units go as follows:

1 metric mile = 2 km
1 foot = 30 cm
1 acre = 20 m x 200 m = 4000 sq. km
1 pound = 500 g
1 gallon = 5 L

This Act met immediate shock. The accusations that the new regime was "godless" and "Jacobin", already strengthened by Samuel Whitbread's radical policies and his father being a convert from Unitarianism, were now strengthened. Many were worried that this dramatic standardization was to be the prelude to the abolition of all local government and its replacement with a French-style top-down system of prefects. Indeed, there were even reports of riots over metrication, as there likewise were over the decimalization of the pound. Yet, the extreme complication of the existing weights and measures, along with the use of the metric system with which these units could be easily converted, as well as its usage in schools, ultimately led to the new metricated system becoming dominant over the others.
 
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METRIC MILE

This is all brilliant, Indicus. I’m really enjoying this series. A lot of inspired worldbuilding about things that we take for granted but would undoubtedly be very different.

Thank you.

This idea was inspired by Napoleon, who in OTL instituted “mesures usuelles”, redefining pre-metric units in metric terms as part of his project of reconciling France to the Revolution.

Furthermore, measures standardization and metrication were widely discussed in this time period, with metrication failing in Britain because in nineteenth-century it hated everything even remotely associated with Jacobinism. One of the people discussing metrication was none other than Samuel Whitbread, the very same person who I’ve made into the founder of the Radical Party here.
 
Indeed, very interesting Indicus.

My favourite factoid about this remains the fact that the Russian pre-metric unit of long distance, the verst, is suspiciously close to a kilometre despite predating it in that form by centuries (introduced by, of course, Peter the Great). Clearly the Russians hacked the French Revolution.
 
Indeed, very interesting Indicus.

My favourite factoid about this remains the fact that the Russian pre-metric unit of long distance, the verst, is suspiciously close to a kilometre despite predating it in that form by centuries (introduced by, of course, Peter the Great). Clearly the Russians hacked the French Revolution.
the first ever russiagate
 
Indeed, very interesting Indicus.

My favourite factoid about this remains the fact that the Russian pre-metric unit of long distance, the verst, is suspiciously close to a kilometre despite predating it in that form by centuries (introduced by, of course, Peter the Great). Clearly the Russians hacked the French Revolution.

I get the impression that every possible length of distance, amount of weight, etc. was a unit in some pre-metric system.
 
Revolutionary Britain: District of Uitenhage
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The District of Uitenhage is a district of the Cape Republic. Its capital is Uitenhage, but its largest city is the great port city of Barnevelt.

It was formed as a loosely-defined eastern frontier district by the first Commissioner-General of the Cape Colony, Jacob Abraham Uitenhage de Mist, in 1804 following the First British Occupation. Its capital was the newly-founded town of Uitenhage. Bordering the Xhosa lands, it became a spot for various Dutch-Xhosa Wars, as Xhosa expansion beyond its border of the Great Fish River interfered with Dutch expansion in that region. However, De Mist was hostile to expansion, believing that Kaapenaars dwelling in frontier regions side-by-side with Xhosa people would turn them into "savages"; thus he established a neutral zone in the extreme frontier of the Zuurveld while also attracting settlers from the Batavian Republic and Dutch-speaking parts of France, many of whom were Catholic, to minimize "savage" influence. He also had imported Javanese indentured servants particularly in this region, giving it its large Javanese minority. During the Second British Occupation, the British authorities bungled their way into a war with the Xhosa, ending with them solidly conquering the neutral lands of the Zuurveld and integrating it into Uitenhage district.

With Dutch control of the Cape resumed in 1828, Dutch settlement of the area continued unabated. The creation of the treaty system with the western Xhosa in the 1830s and 40s would result in Xhosa moving across the border despite the authorities' opposition, and this inspired further Dutch settlement and importation of Javanese labour. The establishment of civilian institutions of government over the nineteenth century led to the Catholic-Protestant divide brought to the surface, and despite some support for establishing an eastern political front advocating expansion and separation from the anti-expansionist west, this confessional divide made establishing such a political front difficult. The enfranchisement of some Xhosa and Khoisan people by the fairly broad Cape franchise led to politics in this region being yet more infamously chaotic.

Political developments following the breaking of the Franco-Dutch alliance and establishing of an Anglo-Dutch alliance in 1881 saw widespread resentment among many, particularly in the east where expansionist desires were desired the most, and were now decisively blocked by the Xhosa lands becoming a buffer between the Dutch-governed Cape and British-governed Natalia. Following the winning of self-government in 1889, this resentment caused Uitenhage representatives, along with many other portions of the eastern Cape, to be among some of the most stringent advocates of expansion of self-government, even as the they fought one another over the confessional divide. This power and these expansionist desires would be broken over the twentieth century, with the expansion of suffrage to more and more Xhosa. Furthermore, Javanese nationalist influence put an end to the importation of indentured servants and the growth of movements for equal rights for Javanese Kaapenaars; with these growing activities linking up with liberal movements in the western Cape, expansions of the qualified franchise were not selective as some desired; instead, they were non-racial. This massively weakened the power of the old white and coloured elite and resulted in the old Catholic-Protestant divide weakening in prominence. By the time the Cape became independent in 1944, Uitenhage was a fairly pluralistic district; yet, the heavy black and Javanese minorities led to the emergence of radical politics heavily distinct from the liberal tradition of the west. Urbanization led to the port of Barnevelt growing further and further, becoming a highly multicultural place, while internal migration brought people from across the Cape Republic to the district.

The District of Uitenhage is, like the other districts of the Cape Republic, run by an appointed landdrost and an elected council. Recently, the landdrost has lost power while the Council of Citizens has grown in power as part of federalizing reforms.
 
Revolutionary Britain: District of Wittenstad
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The District of Wittenstad is a district of the Cape Republic. Its capital and largest city is the eponymous city of Wittenstad.

While exploration had taken place in the area beyond what was then known as the Orange River since the 18th century, Cape influence only emerged steadily with the arrivals of the Bastaards (mixed-race between Khoikhoi and White) in the late 18th century, settling areas inhabited by the related Khoikhoi. Indeed, this was the original Bastaardland, ruled by the Bastaard Kapteins, and their presence was merely tolerated by the Dutch authorities. While some Dutch Kaapenaar farmers moved into the area before it, following the establishment of the modern Batavian Republic in 1795 and their assumption of control over the Cape Colony in 1804, their reforms such as the liberty of the womb and full religious liberty led many of the agrarian Boer people to view the authorities in Kaapstad as tyrannical heathens who sought to destroy their society, forcing the outnumbered Bastaards to move east. Such feelings were mutual, the Dutch colonial authorities viewing the Boers as barbaric, backwards people who spoke a nonsensical patois. As a result, this trickle turned into a wave, particularly following the full abolition of slavery in the 1830s. In 1842, these Boers settlers declared the Transorangia Republic, named after its position relative to what was then known as the Orange River, and its constitution resembled less any sort of enlightenment ideal, than a medieval republic similar to that of the old oligarchical Dutch Republic that the contemporary Netherlands felt was outmoded.

Upon hearing of this declaration, the authorities in Kaapstad were disgusted at what they could only regard as a counter-revolution and feared it could embolden other Boers, and after some failed attempts at diplomacy to bring it in line, they informed the authorities at The Hague of this new republic. They too found this republic, which ignored the Rights of Man, an abhorrent one, and apocryphally the name of "Transorangia Republic" led the Dutch, paranoid about an Orangist restoration, to fear these people were Orangists. And so, the Dutch sent numerous batallions to crush this new republic. Despite some resistance by commandos, it was weak and only recently established, and by 1847 it collapsed. While some Boers moved beyond the Vaal River, nevertheless this marked a certain downfall in their plans. And so the capital of Transorangia, Pieterburg, was renamed "Wittenstad" after the seventeenth century republican martyrs Johan and Cornelis de Witt, while a great number of settlers from the Netherlands, as well as some Protestants from the French region of Flanders were brought in. The Orange River was renamed the Gariep River, a name which it keeps, and a school system was established. Yet, nevertheless, severe tensions remained between the Boers and the Cape Dutch, which adversely affected its politics.

The District of Wittenstad immediately expanded. With much land devastated by the Mfecane, the great ethnic movements caused by Shaka Zulu's expansionist campaigns, they were able to expand their authority, even if having to fight to ensure their authority. Most dramatically, they would fight with Moshoeshoe I, the ruler of the Basotho, and though unsuccessful they nevertheless shrunk his kingdom down. The Dutch established a vast school system aimed at Dutchifying the Boers and destroying their patois dialect. Furthermore, to the area's large black (largely Sotho) population, larger than any other part of the Cape, they sought to make them Dutch through education, though this proved unsuccessful; it did create a new class, however, which under the electoral laws had a vote (though in practice there were not enough of them to qualify for suffrage). In 1871, diamonds were discovered in neighbouring Bastaardland, and a heavy number of settlers moved into the area, where they promptly overthrew Kaptein Adam Kok III's government and clamoured for annexation. Despite talk of establishing it as part of Wittenstad district, it was instead made the separate District of Paulustad.

A brewing movement for self-governance emerged, and it sought to create a Kaapenaar identity which could unify the Cape Dutch and Boers in order to create a united front for self-government. In 1889, it proved successful, and self-government was established. Yet, the broad Cape franchise also enfranchised a large number of black voters, particularly in the districts of Graaff-Reinett, Zeelandia, Paulustad, and especially Wittenstad, and while the government in theory believed the Rights of Man were for all human beings regardless of colour or clime, in practice it did not want too many non-white voters or legislatures. As as a result the Cape adopted single-member districts gerrymandered so in practice reduced the black voice in the legislature substantially. Yet, there also emerged a movement against this system, with many Cape liberals believing that, in truth, black Kaapenaars should be equal to white Kaapenaars and represented as such. As the local Council of Citizens contained smaller constituencies, it made it tougher to gerrymander it, and so it proved far more representative of Wittenstad than the top-level constituencies; furthermore, black legislators opposed to a heavy degree the movement for establishing a federation with the metropole that emerged in this period, which created alliances with the western-centred Liberal Party which similarly opposed Federation.

As the franchise was broadened, there grew moves to make it a racialized electorate, but ultimately such moves were halted by the Liberal Party, which looked to black Kaapenaars for support. In 1923, the Cape adopted proportional representation in a move by the Liberals to enhance their support, and this increased black representation immensely and permanently broke through white dominance. By the time the Cape won its full independence, as one of its only black-majority districts, Wittenstad grew to become very distinct from the rest of the Cape; the Sotho language movement successfully won the recognition of Sotho as co-official at the district level and secondary at the official level.
 
Revolutionary Britain: Charles Gavan Duffy
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Charles Gavan Duffy was an Irish and Canadian politician, who served as Premier of Upper Canada for a variety of periods from 1857 to 1891, serving as one of the commanding figures in Canadian history.

Born in Monaghan, Ireland, Duffy moved at the age of 9 to Canada following the Great Irish Famine of the 1820s. As Irish society faced deep deterioration under the Famine, Duffy's parents were quick to use the opportunity to emigrate, where they moved to the city then known as York (now Toronto), where they became part of the great Catholic community of the city, massively expanded by the Famine. Duffy would go on to be taught in various Torontonian educational institutions despite him and his fellow Catholics often meeting heavy discrimination. Ultimately, he would even be called to the bar. As the Irish of Canada organized over the 1830s, inspired by the great Irish advocate Daniel O'Connell's visit, Duffy was drawn into O'Connellite politics, and by the 1840s he was a rising star.

In 1842, Duffy became a Member of Upper Canada's Parliament, for a Catholic-majority riding of Toronto. He worked quickly to ingratiate himself in Radical circles, making himself known as an advocate of cooperation and non-sectarianism. He quickly became a member of the Radical frontbench and he was heavily prominent at Radical Party Conventions. He built connections with others, and he was a major engineer of the Radical landslide in the 1857 midterms. In its wake, the Radicals were able to dismiss the Bureaucrats' ministry and force the Bureaucrat governor to call a Radical ministry; in a further humiliation for the anti-Catholic Bureaucrats, Duffy, a Catholic, was to become the new Premier. Subsequently, Duffy absorbed vast amounts of power and gained control of the spoils system, becoming the true head of Upper Canada, though this position weakened after the Radicals took control of the Governorship. In office, Duffy engineered the acquisition of the Red River Colony, not out of any belief in expansion and settlement but solely because he believed the people of the region would vote Radical. Yet, in 1863, Radical fortunes came to an end when in that years' midterms it lost control of the legislature to the Bureaucrats, and though the Red River did vote Radical it wasn't enough.

But upon taking control of the premiership once more in 1870, Duffy would expand his control further. Again he strongly supported expansion merely for votes, and he would strongly back acquiring the Saskatchewan Valley. He promoted a national identity, but solely out of a desire to promote unity between Protestants, Dissenters, and Catholics. He expanded his control of the legislature yet further, and any and all legislation needed to be checked by him to pass the Legislative Assembly. He became an intense figure of hate and scorn, and the Radical defeat of 1876 would be driven in part by opposition to him. Yet, when his leadership was opposed from the backbenches, Duffy defeated them all with decisiveness.

In 1879, the Radicals won back power. Duffy became Premier once more. Yet, he was for all intents and purposes a fossil, a product of an older time. His policies suited for an agrarian, colonial society were dated and made little sense in the highly commercial and urban Upper Canada of the late nineteenth century. Resentment at his total grasp of the legislature grew, and many began to revile him. In 1880, a Homestead Act won passage despite Duffy's opposition to it, and in the 1882 midterms the Radicals were decisively defeated. Duffy's political acumen slipped. Yet, Duffy maintained connections, and he became Premier once more in 1888. But his political skills became sloppy, and his increasingly heavy-handed use of his power won resent even among many Radicals. In 1891 the backbenches finally forced him out of power. And so finally ended a half-century career. Duffy died in 1903, and his funeral was witnessed by many. But ultimately people viewed him as a bygone of a lost time, as a political figure left best in the past.
 
Revolutionary Britain: Tower of London
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The Tower of London, officially the Tower of London Museum, is a historic castle in London on the north banks of the River Thames. It lies within the Borough of Stepney, which is separated from Old London by the park of Tower Hill.

The White Tower, which forms its core, was constructed in 1078 by William the Conqueror to prevent resentful Londoners from rebelling, and it quickly became a symbol of royal power. It was used almost immediately as a prison, although it also served as a royal residence. Walls were constructed around it for fortification, and it grew. The castle expanded yet further, and its outer walls were constructed over the thirteenth century. Famously, in 1214, rebellious barons put it under siege, which was only lifted following the enactment of the Magna Carta, and this atmosphere of rebellion meant that the heavily fortified Tower of London became the main royal residence. During the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, peasants stormed parts of the Tower before being forced out, and during the complicated Wars of the Roses, it was besieged multiple times. In 1483, the notorious killing of the Princes of the Tower occurred under mysterious circumstances.

During the Tudor period, the Tower of London became what it is chiefly known as - a munitions camp, and most infamously, a prison. In the sixteenth century, it quickly came to be known as a cruel and unforgiving prison, though historians agree that the Tower was exclusively for high profile prisoners and as such the torture it is known for generally occurred elsewhere, and executions occurred at nearby Tower Hill. Yet, many were tortured in the Tower, such as the infamous Guy Fawkes who attempted to blow up the Protestant king in 1605. During the English Civil War, following Charles I's infamously bungled attempt to arrest the Five Members, Londoners took control of the Tower of London, and following the restoration of the monarchy, Charles II was the last monarch to hold a procession from the Tower.

During the early Georgian era, the Tower's defences were modernized and revamped by a regime unnerved at the possibility of a Stuart restoration, adding guns and strengthening the walls. This process continued throughout the 18th century; with the French Revolution causing a period of reactionism and suspicion of everything with even a whiff of revolution, its defences were modernized yet further. With war with France seeing its returns in the 1820s, the Tower of London's connotations as the British Bastille returned. The tower gained as its prisoner Samuel Whitbread after he made a speech comparing the contemporary regime to the Stuarts with the implicit threat of revolution, and his arrest received widespread scorn as he came to be viewed as a living martyr of free speech. As Whitbread used every opportunity he was even remotely in outside communication to strongly denounce the regime, the Frederick regime forbade him to communicate with anyone else or even show his face for the fear he might give a "secret sign of rebellion", and this confinement led to fears he was being tortured or secretly killed The Tower became more fortified, as the government feared a storming was imminent. And indeed it came in 1827.

A violent mob, intent on freeing Whitbread, quickly stormed the Tower of London, ripping through its walls and reaching the White Tower. Soldiers proved wholly reluctant to fire out of the fear of ending up like the Bastille guards of 1789, with many of them abandoning their posts out of fear. The Royal Mint was sacked and its building in the Tower complex was destroyed. And so, the mob knocked on the doors of the White Tower. The guards quickly opened the doors, to reveal Samuel Whitbread, fully alive and healthy - the government had no desire to make him a radical martyr - and he immediately thanked the great mob and told them to disperse. And so they did, carrying Whitbread on their backs. Yet, as word of this storming of the "English Bastille" spread, King Frederick and a great deal of the elite immediately fled in abject terror, and a mob pillaged Buckingham Palace after he left. The Frederick regime was over.

During the Convention Parliament of 1827-29, the badly damaged Tower was a topic of discussion. It had fallen like the Bastille; yet, the new government had no desire for the Popular Revolution to end up like the French one with all of its extreme democracy. France had established, in place of the Bastille, a great column of liberty coming out of a miniature model of the Bastille, but only after over a decade following its storming. Britons did not know what to replace their own Bastille with. But the Convention was focused on writing a new constitution and codifying liberty, and so the Tower remained a half-destroyed mess even as it was called a monument to the "Norman Yoke" which ought to be destroyed and turned to rubble. It would only be during the Althorp premiership elected following the Convention that the government knew what to do with it. The Tower was to be fully reconstructed as a medieval fortress, only with gates through all of its walls to represent the openness of the new British Isles. The monuments to liberty that were to be constructed were small, and the main purpose for it was to be a museum, open for all. The hope was that this would override any violent implications of the Tower. This project was complete by 1831, and the newly opened museum immediately became popular, with the Tower having long been a landmark in London. As London grew, as romanticists wrote about the Tower, the Tower attracted more and more tourists, and today it is a great tourist trap. Notably, the Crown Jewels, held in trust by Parliament, are on permanent display in the Tower under Parliamentary guard.
 
Republic of Bombay
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The Republic of Bombay was a city-state that existed from 1947 to 1963.

In the aftermath of the Hindustani War of Independence, the prestige of the British Raj was all but destroyed as a result of the atrocities it committed as part of the war effort, and British authority was now impossible to push into allied and princely states. In 1939, Gujarat declared its independence and quickly annexed British holdings in the area, while Maharashtra's theoretical independence now became real. Bombay became a British coastal holding surrounded by native powers once more. Furthermore, ideals of independence and democracy rapidly spread into Bombay, causing protests throughout the 1940s. And the British Isles was horrified by this, particularly when the white-dominated police fired on them. And so, in 1947, it gave Bombay its independence as a city-state, in the hopes that it could be commercially dominated by Britain. Colonial imagery remained dominant in this state, be it the flag with its representation of the ships of colonization, or the motto which implied that India was a land of barbarity before the arrival of the British.

Yet, nevertheless, Bombay was quickly drawn into local politics. It contained a decisive Marathi majority with a large Gujarati minority[1] - yet, the Gujarati minority held far more commercial power and influence than the Marathi majority. Bombay's famed Zoroastrian minority, as it spoke Gujarati, was typically considered part of the Gujarati elite. It was this Gujarati elite which drew up Bombay's constitution, drawing it in such terms so that they would be drastically overrepresented in the legislature. The first President of Bombay was Nasarvanji Engineer, a Gujarati speaker. Inevitably, upon independence, questions were raised over whether Bombay should merge with Gujarat, or Maharashtra, or none, though President Engineer ignored them in the fears they would cause a race war. Thus Bombay initially stuck it out alone. Its proximity to Maharashtra inevitably meant it immediately developed massive trade links, which to even Gujarati-speaking merchants led them to consider union with Maharashtra as a way to gain better access to markets. The issue was complicated further, and despite President Engineer's attempts to avoid them they came to the surface. In 1957, an advocate of union with Gujarat, Vivek Mehta, became President.

When he announced his intentions to make Bombay an autonomous part of Gujarat, the result was widespread mass rioting across Bombay only stopped by the Maharaja of Gujarat and the Chhatrapati of Maharashtra making a joint statement for calm. Immediately, President Mehta changed tack. He tried to negotiate the creation of dual rule, in which both Maharashtra and Gujarat would send a commissioner to rule Bombay, but negotiations for this failed. He later tried to negotiate associated state status with Maharashtra, but this also failed when it refused it. In 1962, a Marathi speaker, Ashok Ranade, was elected president with clear intentions for union with Maharashtra. Yet, the overrepresentation of Gujarati speakers in the Legislature meant inevitably any such union required Gujarati assent. Thus, Mehta proposed keeping Bombay's republican form of government despite every state in Maharashtra being monarchical. He noted that the Nawab of Janjira was elected by the legislature and could similarly be deposed, but the Daftardar of Maharashtra retorted by noting that this was an evolution of an ancient mode of election by local chiefs that existed ever since the state of Janjira was founded in the seventeenth century by Ethiopian slaves. Furthermore, seats were to be redistricted, as the gerrymandering of seats to overrepresent Gujarati people was widely considered opposed to the democratic values considered fundamental to Maharashtra. But after much negotiation, ultimately Maharashtra proved more than willing to concede special autonomies to Bombay - its massive wealth outweighed any strife it would cause. Thus, Bombay retained its elected president, English and Gujarati remained co-official with Marathi. In 1963, Bombay became a part of Maharashtra, quickly becoming its commercial centre.



[1] This was the case in OTL until 1947, in which Sindhi refugees forced out of Sindh by the mass violence of Partition fled to Bombay. This gave the city its famous Sindhi minority and reduced Marathi people to a "mere" large plurality.
 
Cape Republic: Cape Javanese
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The Cape Javanese are a Kaapenaar ethnic group composed of people primarily from Java, brought in as indentured servants, and they are chiefly concentrated in the districts of Paulustad and Uitenhage, making up considerable minorities there.

The first Javanese people to the Cape were likely brought in soon after the establishment of the Cape Colony in 1652, as part of the Indian Ocean slave trade, although much larger numbers were Malay, Bugis, Indian, and Malagasy. The Muslim parts of these groups gradually merged together over the eighteenth century. They also converted some Khoikhoi slaves to Islam, a process tolerated by slaveowners as, by the law of the time, Muslim slaves could be mistreated more than Christian slaves, and they too provided their impact on the new, emerging Cape Malay creole culture. The slave trade would come to an end with the First British Occupation of 1795-1804 and the resumption of Dutch rule - however, in between, the VOC was dissolved, and the Netherlands became ruled by the modern French Revolution-inspired Batavian Republic, radical for its time. The new Commissioner-General of the Cape Colony, Jacob Abraham Uitenhage De Mist, declared the end of the Indian Ocean slave trade. In addition, he desired to end slavery freeing the slaves owned directly by the colonial administration and declared liberty of the womb, though in practice the latter policy would be circumvented outside district cities by slaveowners backdating births.

Desirous to destroy slavery once and for all, De Mist focused on making it economically unsustainable. He promoted the migration of Dutch and Flemish migrants to create a body of free labour, and he imported labourers from the East Indies. Yet, these were not to be slaves, but indentured servants, working thanks to contracts. In practice, much of this labour was unfree - people were often coerced into signing contracts, and servants could only be freed from their contracts before the end of their term by buying out their contracts, which was often impossible thanks to low pay - but it was not the abject horror of slavery. Due to the high populations of these ethnic groups, most of these workers were Javanese, with a large minority being Sundanese and a smaller minority being Madurese. Most of these servants were sent to the eastern frontier, around Uitenhage district, and many of them would choose to live in the Cape Colony after the end of their terms, living around the great port of Barnevelt [Port Elizabeth]. The often dire state of the indentured system was ignored, though from time to time controversies led to regulations that improved the system but did not fix it, and indeed the Javanese indentured system expanded to the rest of the Dutch colonial empire and even beyond to the French colonial empire.

In addition, political prisoners continued to be imprisoned in Robben Island, most famously the rebellious Sultan of Jogjakarta and Javanese national hero Diponegoro, and a shrine on Robben Island dedicated to him is today the site of Javanese nationalist pilgrimage. This population intermarried not with the low-status Javanese servants in the far away east, but the elite of the Cape Malay community. Notably, the influence of Salafi political prisoners from the Padri War has given Cape Malay Islam a certain strict ethos, far stricter than that held by Cape Javanese Muslims.

The greatest of the indenture controversies came about as a result of the Grotia diamond rush in the 1870s and 80s, in which large numbers of Javanese servants were imported under unusually harsh contracts, and unauthorized movement out of compounds now required passes. Even at the time, people thought this inhumane. The Dutch opposition would come to power in 1893 with the help of the cry of "Javanese slavery", and immediately lightened their contracts and ended the flow of Javanese migrants in favour of Pedi and Xhosa migrants. Yet, the system continued, only coming to an end in the early twentieth centuries with both the Javanese and Sundanese independence movements opposing it.

With the end of the continued flow of indentured servants, community transmission of the Javanese language came to an end, and today the Javanese language is most common among the elderly. Non-Javanese ethnic groups were absorbed by the Javanese, though the centuries of Javanese-Sundanese bad blood which eventually led to the Island of Java divided between Java, Pasundan, and Djakarta meant the Sundanese were able to ensure a separate identity until intermarriage much more recently. Yet, unlike the Cape Malay, there was little creolization, though Cape Javanese culture has nevertheless drifted considerably. The Cape Javanese made an important part of the civil rights movements of the twentieth century, fighting for their rights along with Catholics, bruinmensen, and others. Today, while not as central to Cape society as the famous Cape Malay, the Cape Javanese are nevertheless an important ethnic group. The wayang puppet performances of the Mahabharata and Ramayana, an important part of Javanese culture, have become an important part of the cultural fabric of the eastern districts of the Cape Republic, and their cuisine, even if made much milder, has recently begun to spread across the Cape Republic.
 
Cape Republic: District of Grotia
(why yes, I did redesign the map a lot)

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The District of Grotia is a district of the Cape Republic, and along with Wittenstad, it is one of two districts beyond the Gariep River. Its capital is Grotia, but the largest city is Paulustad.

While this area has been populated by Khoikhoi and Tswana people for generations, Dutch influence emerged in the mid-nineteenth century. Following the Dutch conquest of the Transgariep region and its establishment as the District of Wittenstad within the Cape Colony in the 1840s, the Korana and Bastaard peoples who had previously ruled large parts of the region now lost their power, and though many of them stayed, others under the leadership of the Bastaard kaptein Adam Kok trekked west with his followers to create the Republic of New Bastaardland. This state quickly grew localized, with the local Khoikhoi quickly blending with the closely related Korana and Bastaard peoples. Its coexistence with the Cape Colony proved greatly uneasy, with the Cape maintaining some desire to claim New Bastaardland but not wanting to waste resources in conquest. This changed when, in 1871, massive diamond deposits were found in the republic, and this immediately caused a massive rush of miners into the area. Following disputes with the government, they promptly overthrew it and declared a new republic; the Dutch authorities at the Cape Colony, not wanting another troublesome Boer republic inspiring rebellion in its lands, issued a proclamation declaring the annexation of the region and sent 4000 soldiers to force its way; the miners promptly accepted this. With this approach, Adam Kok moved west again into the Namib region and swore loyalty to the Free Republic of Goshen, to join their Bastaard cousins. The town of Kokstad was renamed Grotia after the seventeenth-century Dutch republican martyr Hugo Grotius, and the town which rapidly grew around the diamond mine was named Paulustad after Pieter Paulus, the first head of state of the modern Dutch state.

The great wealth quickly inspired rapid development; Paulustad was one of the first towns in the world to have electric lighting. Mining companies from the metropole quickly came in. Labourers from across southern Africa moved into the region, and they created a new distinct culture. But the mining companies consolidated under the Dutch businessman Jan Thorbecke, creating a conglomerate which made Thorbecke very wealthy indeed. But he found the wages too high and so he imported Javanese labourers under enormously strenuous contracts which went so far as to prohibit them from stepping out of their compounds without passbooks. From here, Thorbecke and other randheeren moved on to the other rushes in the region, in particular to the massive Transvaal gold rush, and they moved their compound system there. But then came reporters, and the internationality of the Transvaal rush meant they came from all around the world, and they lay bare the extremities of the Javanese indenture system in the area, comparing it to slavery. To the Dutch, content at their supremacy in fighting for the Rights of Man, the old ill of slavery being extant was a shock, and the Dutch election of 1893 was fought in part over the issue of "Javanese slavery". Following it, the compound system was banned and the contracts were lightened. No further Javanese labourers came in. But with the new supply of indentured servants added to the mining whole came a decrease in wages, and many white miners quickly blamed non-whites for this and desired them to be banned. This side quickly became backed by Thorbecke and other randheeren, and it joined up with the white supremacist Eastern Cape bloc, making itself known in colonial politics. But the Cape Colony, having just won its autonomy with the help of bruinmensen, opposed the white supremacists and upheld the Rights of Man, and the definitive defeat of the white supremacist movement for federation with the metropole marked their collapse.

In the region also grew a unique culture, influenced by Tswana and Sotho culture, including a nonwhite middle class, and it saw large numbers of interracial marriage. Most notably in this millieu emerged the great black leader, Francois Mogodi (1867-1932), who made history becoming the first black Cape legislator in 1906. He also brought Tswana culture to the overall colonial stage, writing Tswana translations of the works of Spinoza and Grotius, as well as a famous Dutch novel about his experiences with racism. This nonwhite middle class he helped spearhead was extremely distinct from the Xhosa of Barnevelt or the bruinmensen of Kaapstaad, but was nevertheless aligned with them in the fight for the Rights of Man and a liberal franchise. It also adopted Dutch as a common tongue, though the local dialect is nevertheless very distinct from the famous dialect of Kaapstaad. Even after the diamond supply run dry, the industrialization and rail links gave it a strong economy - and there remains other resources to mine. Today the District of Grotia remains one of the most notable parts of the Cape Republic, synonymous with notable moments in its history
 
Revolutionary Punjab: Kaulmukhi script
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The Kaulmukhi script is a writing system used to write several languages spoken in Punjab. It was invented after the Punjabi Revolution to serve the purpose of writing Hindu and Sikh religious liturgy, and it adapted from the Perso-Arabic script which became the state-sponsored writing system in this period. The attempts by the early Punjabi Republic to impose this script as the language of Hindu and Sikh religious liturgy, however, failed, and its usage was abandoned.

Before the Punjabi Revolution, various scripts were in use in the Punjabi Empire. While Perso-Arabic script saw the most widespread use as a script used in commerce, trade, and the military, in addition to its use in Muslim liturgy, it was not the only one: Gurmukhi script was used in Sikh liturgy and saw some official use by the imperial court, Devanagari was used for Hindu liturgy, the Lahnda scripts were used in some parts of commerce as cursive shorthands, while the vassal hill states had their own variously standardized Takri scripts used in local royal courts. It was a complicated system, and following the beginning of the Punjabi Revolution with the Officers' Coup in 1883, the Revolutionary Majlis declared the already-widespread Perso-Arabic script as the sole official script in Punjab, for all languages. This was met with mixed reactions by many who felt it Muslim favouritism, but the decision was motivated by its existing widespread use, and the fact that the new head of government of Punjab was Prem Nath Kaul, a Kashmiri Hindu who was extremely pious even if Kashmiri Hinduism's extreme difference from all other forms of Hinduism made it extremely suspect in the eyes of many, silenced this criticism. While Prem Nath Kaul was busy suppressing the Jammu Rebellion and crushing and integrating the hill states in the Pahari War, the Perso-Arabic script did indeed spread in use to all levels of commerce and it rapidly became highly widespread; yet, Hindu and Sikh liturgy, which required an intense accuracy in vowels which Perso-Arabic script could never provide, continued to use Devanagari and Gurmukhi scripts respectively. When Kaul returned from his campaigns successful, he recognized this, and so he proposed adapting Perso-Arabic script.

This new script was devised by him, with only some assistance. After all, as a Kashmiri Hindu, he learned Sanskrit in Sharada script at a young age as part of the intensive education for which his people are known, and so it was only a matter of combining his knowledge of it with Perso-Arabic script. This new script, known as Kaulmukhi meaning "from the mouth of Kaul", included explicit symbols on vowels, to span the scope of Sanskrit and Punjabi, and it also included many new letters to represent the full scope of aspirants. Unlike traditional Perso-Arabic script, this could be used unambiguously to represent sounds, thus preserving them for posterity. This script combined with an existing project to translate Hindu scripture into Punjabi - though translations from Sanskrit did exist, the prominent ones were into dialects of Hindustani, most famously the Hindu saint Tulsidas' translation of the Ramayana into Awadhi, and while these dialects are mutually intelligible with Punjabi, it served as a barrier to the Republic's program of standardization of language.

And so, these translations were now written in Kaulmukhi script, and so was a new edition of the Sikh liturgical Guru Granth Sahib; these went alongside a Punjabi edition of the Quran. The immediate result was furor. Hindus largely rejected the new script, along with the new translations; Devanagari script is viewed as holy, and the slight foreignness of the Hindustani dialects used in existing translations of Hindu holy texts was perceived as godly and divine. This new script was cumbersome, and the men behind the Punjabi translations were mere mortals without the divine wisdom of translators like Tulsidas. Sikhs said the same about their new editions of the Guru Granth Sahib in this new cumbersome script, as after all the Gurmukhi script was made by a Guru. And the Punjabi edition of the Quran, while widely read by Muslims, was largely viewed as supplementary to the Arabic Quran; attempts to make the muezzin Punjabi language were laughed out of the room. The attempts at standardization failed and saw rejection even among Prem Nath Kaul's pet clerics. Some even took out their anger on Kashmiri Hindus, already having resented them for their longstanding perceived domination of administration. And so Prem Nath Kaul announced the end of attempts to promote this script, even as he continued to push for the spread of the Punjabi language in Perso-Arabic script in all non-religious sectors of society. With that, the script ceased to exist except in some strange manuscripts.

Today, Kaulmukhi remains a footnote of history. Its only use has been as a novelty by hobbyists. But in some ways Prem Nath Kaul has won. With the rise of mass literacy in Punjabi in Perso-Arabic script it has naturally come to encroach on religion, with some Hindu and Sikh commentaries and popular hymns written in Punjabi and disseminated in Perso-Arabic script, and though Devanagari and Gurmukhi remain preferred for their holiness and exactitude, there are indeed some popular editions of Hindu and Sikh holy texts written in Perso-Arabic script with "special markers" which come to resemble Kaulmukhi in their sheer exactness - even if religious institutions have a low opinion of them.
 
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