Indicus's maps, wikiboxes, &c thread

[Indicus]

The origins of the Partition of India are enormously controversial and heavily disputed; nevertheless, in 1946, the leader of the Muslim League Muhammad Ali Jinnah brazenly declared, "We will either have a divided India or a destroyed India", and the following year, both occurred. A line was drawn carving out Pakistan from India by a man who knew little of the ground situation, and even if he did there was no clean way to draw such a line with Hindus and Sikhs on one side and Muslims on the other. The result proved to be horrific. Mass rioting broke out, and Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh religious fanatics saw a clear opportunity to create a pure society through ethnic cleansing. Hindus and Sikhs on Pakistan's side of the border, and Muslims on India's side, fled onto trains to the other side, as they realized the only alternative was to be slaughtered. Entire peoples were created, such as the Punjabis of Delhi and the Mohajirs of Karachi. The result was massive amounts of destruction, and both India and Pakistan were left broken societies, left to make the long road to recovery. There are many who say they have yet to recover; there are still others who say they never will.

Pakistan was, further, left with the issue of being divided into two halves, one western and one eastern. The western half, centred around Urdu-Punjabi culture and dominant within the Muslim League, and the eastern half, centred around Bengali culture and having a majority of the population. In the western half, virtually all Hindus and Sikhs fled to India; the eastern half, even with mass flight, was 18% Hindu. This political division very quickly made itself known on the national level, when Bengalis who made up a majority of the state advocated parity between Bengali and Urdu. This quickly irked Jinnah, who himself abandoned his native Gujarati for Urdu and believed Bengalis should accept Urdu hegemony. In a speech given in Dhaka on April 21, 1948, where in addition to declaring Partition exclusively featured anti-Muslim violence, accusing his opponents of being communists, and declaring every Muslim should join the Muslim League, he declared that Pakistan's national language ought to be only Urdu and tarred those who said otherwise as enemies of Pakistan. This brazen statement was met with horror by Bengali society at large, causing agitations, all the while Jinnah refused attempts to enact any sort of compromise. Ultimately, with the constitution yet to be written, these protests dissipated.

At the same time, Islam was quickly framed as the founding principle of the nation. In a speech to the Karachi Bar Association on January 25, 1948, Jinnah declared that the issue of the constitution was resolved 1,300 years ago and it would be framed on the basis of sharia. Furthermore, he set up a Department of Islamic Reconstruction led by Muhammad Asad (formerly Leopold Weiss), and he requested assistance from Hassan al-Banna, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, on writing a constitution to frame Pakistan's government as purely Islamic. At the same time, Jinnah spurned Islamic doctrine. He drank wine, ate pork sausages, and had a large collection of Saville Row suits. How could he justify such an asymmetry? Fundamentally, it was because to him Islam did not necessarily denote a religion; instead, it denoted a Perso-Arabic culture which, in the subcontinent, involved Urdu. That Bengalis do not fit such a culture and instead are "culturally Hindu", was the principal reason behind Bengali tensions.

The project of the writing of the constitution proved difficult. As Governor-General, Jinnah could not directly affect affairs of the Constituent Assembly despite his immense cult of personality, and thus instead it proved enormously inept. After India promulgated a constitution in 1949 to come in effect the next year, Jinnah realized there was a need to expedite the writing of the constitution. Using both his cult of personality and his power as Governor-General, he organized a special committee consisting of yes-men who write his desired constitution. According to this, Pakistan was to feature a very strong presidency - with few doubting who the president would be - and a very weak parliament. With Jinnah having a very low opinion of politicians other than him, the prime minister was to be abolished and instead the cabinet would be responsible to the president. Furthermore, the provincial governments were to include very weak powers, and the Bengali language was not to be official. Though this was met with an uproar, Jinnah successfully got this constitution passed in late 1951.

The result was rioting in East Bengal. It took a wave of suppression and mass arrests to end this, and this necessitated delaying elections. But at the same time, Jinnah came to realize some sort of compromise was necessary. And so, he declared that, within East Bengal, Bengali would have constitutionally-recognize provincial status, and that on the national level, an appropriately "Islamized" Bengali written with Perso-Arabic script would be a secondary language of business. Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, who broke away from the Muslim League and formed the Awami League over Jinnah's emphasis on Islam in state, quickly emerged as the leader of this Bengali regionalism.

In 1953, Pakistan faced yet another issue when Acting President Jinnah received a petition advocating the marginalization of members of the Ahmadi sect of Islam. This, Jinnah refused, and the result was mass rioting across Punjab. Jinnah denounced this publicly, declaring Ahmadi fellow Muslims who ought to be treated as such. However, few of the rioters agreed with this - indeed, that was why they were rioting - and so it continued. It took Jinnah declaring martial law to end these protests.

Finally, by 1954, a presidential election could be held. It quickly turned into a contest between Jinnah of the Muslim League and Suhrawardy of the Awami League. That Suhrawardy received endorsements from Hindu groups led his party to be nicknamed the "Hindu League", and the perception of his party being that of Hindus and "cultural Hindus" led him to be regarded as the candidate of Hindus. At the same time, Jinnah's extreme popularity in west Pakistan meant most saw his victory as self-evident. If there was evidence there was less popularity in East Bengal, it could be easily disregarded. For indeed, who would vote out the founder of the nation?

The results of the election showed that many would.



Across western Pakistan, for lack of any real competitor Jinnah won by massive margins, in some subdistricts by 90%+ margins; only in Balochistan did Suhrawardy make up a notable margin. In Kalat and some areas of the North-West Frontier Province, where due to rebellion elections were tough to hold, some fraud occurred, but for the most part this was a fair margin, representative of the intense reverence of Pakistanis towards Jinnah as well as the lack of political organization outside the Muslim League. In East Bengal, the story could not be any more different. It was not only Hindus who voted for Suhrawardy; it was a majority of Bengalis. But this majority was nowhere near the majorities Jinnah won by in west Pakistan, and there were enough Biharis in East Bengal and (at this juncture) pro-Jinnah Bengalis that despite East Bengal making up a majority of Pakistan's population, Jinnah won. But the margin was nowhere near what people thought, and it showed that Jinnah's status was far more insecure than commonly believed.

In the coming years, this proved a powerful driver for the adjustment of electoral laws and democratic backsliding; if even with Jinnah at the nation's head the Bengalis could come within spitting distance at taking the presidency, it was revealing of Bengalis having too much potential power. This displayed itself very quickly in the parliamentary elections in the coming weeks, where East Bengal was made to use proportional representation which no other part of Pakistan used. In the following years the Muslim League was entrenched as Pakistan's vanguard party. Though this all ensured that the Muslim League got to continue leading the nation, it also led many Bengalis to wonder if, indeed, being part of Pakistan was really a good thing....

 

[Time Enough]

So an early Bangladesh and a rather despotic Pakistan under Jinnah it seems, till he dies and likely causes a power vacuum that causes chaos.

 

[Indicus]

So an early Bangladesh and a rather despotic Pakistan under Jinnah it seems, till he dies and likely causes a power vacuum that causes chaos.

It took quite a lot for Bangladesh to finally go for independence in our timeline. I don't have a real idea how things would pan out here, other than that Pakistan turning into a one-party state would wreak great havoc on institutions and all, but things still have some way to go until the Bengalis are truly alienated from Pakistan.

 

[Nyvis]

It took quite a lot for Bangladesh to finally go for independence in our timeline. I don't have a real idea how things would pan out here, other than that Pakistan turning into a one-party state would wreak great havoc on institutions and all, but things still have some way to go until the Bengalis are truly alienated from Pakistan.

It's hard to imagine how they'd right the ship considering how deeply rooted the rejection of Bengal as an equal partner seem to be though.

 

[Time Enough]

It took quite a lot for Bangladesh to finally go for independence in our timeline. I don't have a real idea how things would pan out here, other than that Pakistan turning into a one-party state would wreak great havoc on institutions and all, but things still have some way to go until the Bengalis are truly alienated from Pakistan.

Maybe that attempted Communist coup is a bit more successful due to some Bengali support before failing leading to an attempted crackdown or something and a Left Wing Nationalist revolt appearing or something, I’m not as knowledgeable on this as you.

 

[Indicus]

It's hard to imagine how they'd right the ship considering how deeply rooted the rejection of Bengal as an equal partner seem to be though.

As you say, Pakistan holding a general election before 1970 puts immediate pressures on the system that did not exist. So yes, it would definitely be difficult.

On the other hand, I don’t think equality between the two halves of Pakistan was a demand initially, and even as late as 1964 Bengali regionalists were willing to support Fatima Jinnah who did not want that. Furthermore, that after the 1958 coup Ayub Khan was able to dissolve the regionalist-dominated assembly of East Pakistan, and dissolve the Awami League and arrest its leadership without activating a Bangladeshi independence movement, shows that such pressures could be survived for a time.

 

[Nyvis]

As you say, Pakistan holding a general election before 1970 puts immediate pressures on the system that did not exist. So yes, it would definitely be difficult.

On the other hand, I don’t think equality between the two halves of Pakistan was a demand initially, and even as late as 1964 Bengali regionalists were willing to support Fatima Jinnah who did not want that. Furthermore, that after the 1958 coup Ayub Khan was able to dissolve the regionalist-dominated assembly of East Pakistan, and dissolve the Awami League and arrest its leadership without activating a Bangladeshi independence movement, shows that such pressures could be survived for a time.

Oh it'll take time to build up. But I don't think the country's leadership will stop heaping abuse upon Bangladesh and won't take the kind of actions needed to change the ultimate conclusion, even if it'll take a lot to radicalize the country into independence.

 

[Indicus]

The Sarbat Khalsa is a deliberative assembly which represents and governs the Sikh religion, having the authority to issue gurmatas that are typically considered binding on Khalsai Sikhs. As Sikhism is predominantly a Punjabi religion, almost all members are elected by Punjabi gurdwaras; some representatives are elected from other countries in India, and there is some discussion on including the diaspora.

The first iteration of the Sarbat Khalsa emerged in the wake of the death of Sikh leader Banda Singh Bahadur in 1716; to organize the Sikh panth, a few years later in 1720 a deliberative assembly was called to organize common policy against the Mughals. To preserve the very fractious unity of the Sikhs, Sarbat Khalsas proved highly necessary. In 1733, a session accepted an offer from the Mughals for a jagir and a nawabship over the province of Lahore, which was the first time religious and temporal Sikh sovereignty were merged together. In 1748, this resulted in the organization of the Sikh order into 11 feudal theocratic republics, or misls, bound together as a Sikh confederacy which made common policy in regularly-called Sarbat Khalsas with representatives from each of them. In this period, the assembly effectively turned into a forum for discussion, and nothing more.

The unification of Punjab by Ranjit Singh in 1801 saw the Sarbat Khalsa effectively abolished, when he refused to call any other. But beneath the surface, the religiously pluralistic rule of Ranjit Singh saw a nostalgic belief in the days of Sikh theocracy, and a wish that the greatness of the Punjabi Empire could have been met by a more explicitly Sikh state. For the most part, these feelings were satisfied by the seat of Sikh authority, the Akal Takht, flexing its muscles, as well as some Punjabi rulers leaning into the Sikh religion more than others. Most famously, this occurred when Maharaja Ranjit Singh was publicly chastised for marrying a Muslim nautch girl. But as the Maharajas attempted to exert control over religious places of worship to centralize the state, and as the failure of the Punjabi Empire on a variety of issues escalated, calls for the convening of the Sarbat Khalsa escalated. During the Punjabi state failure during the Great Indian Famine of 1876-78, there were even some attempts to convene such an assembly, but the Akal Takht refused to participate and the assembly was dissolved by the army. The 1882 coup saw some discussion of convening a Sarbat Khalsa to write a constitution, and even after a more pluralistic constituent assembly was convened there was some discussion over making the Sarbat Khalsa a constitutional institution. But ultimately, following the 1883 coup the new republican constitution ensured that Punjab would be secularist. The decision to treat the constitution as the enthroned true ruler of Punjab, in a parallel to the Guru Granth Sahib being the permanent Sikh guru, saw some discontentment, and the attempt of the Maharaja of Patiala to make himself an explicitly Sikh emperor saw some Sikh clerical support. But ultimately, that the early republic faced the immediate threat of British and Afghan invasion meant Sikh institutions gave it full support.

This full support did not, however, mean that it didn't flex its muscles, and during the unstable governments of the early republic, the Akal Takht was a social institution that politicians of all stripes wanted support from. Furthermore, this brought it in conflict with caste Sikhism is nominally a religion that rejects caste, but in practice it exists in a society which has it, and as a result it has proven harder to reject. As a result, though many low-caste Hindus and Muslims converted to Sikhism to escape their social position, they found themselves in much the same situation. Sikhism was initially a religion most prominent with the Khatri merchant caste, but as it expanded it saw itself in a tussle between the agrarian Jats who flocked en masse to it. Prem Nath Kaul, the driving force of the Punjabi Revolution, fiercely rejected caste and famously cut off his own Brahmin thread as a demonstration of this. And the army he organized featured large numbers of low-caste Mazhabi Sikhs. As he engaged in military campaigns to bring Patiala and the hill states to heel, his army forced temples, gurdwaras, and mosques to admit low-caste people to all positions within them, and he declared caste a feudal remnant. This interference in gurdwara management met attention from the Akal Takht, which denounced "Pandit Kaul". But in practice, this did not affect him. But this meant that, when Kaul launched his 1890 coup d'etat and made himself dictator, relations between the state and Sikh institutions turned frigid.

With this, the Akal Takht launched regular denunciations of the government - denunciations that, in practice, had little effect - and it attempted to gain power. To that end, in 1891 it convened the Sarbat Khalsa, with members nominated by various gurdwaras despite opposition by government-aligned Sikhs. Sikhs aligned to the government tended to be Khatris, while gurdwaras tended to send Jat representatives, and this resulted in some degree of caste conflict. As a result, this brought the government into immediately complicated territory. As Prem Nath Kaul launched into anti-caste efforts, he always justified his stance on the basis of Sikhism's theoretical opposition to caste, and when he arrested Sikh clerics on charges of casteism, he dared the Sarbat Khalsa to violate Sikh principle. And his promotion of Mazhabi Sikhs to high positions saw much anger, but anger that the Sarbat Khalsa had to mask. Furthermore, when Prem Nath Kaul attempted to promote a new variant of the Perso-Arabic script in place of the Sikh liturgical script, this saw staunch opposition by the Sarbat Khalsa. And when Prem Nath Kaul attempted to electrify the Golden Temple, the Sarbat Khalsa refused on the basis that electricity was "un-Sikh" and that to electrify the Golden Temple would be worship of electricity. This conflict, which threatened both the state and the Sikh religion, finally saw resolution in 1896 in a concordat which recognized the Sarbat Khalsa as a religious institution. Furthermore, more quietly, the Golden Temple was electrified.

But all the while, some disputes continued. Prem Nath Kaul and his successor Azimullah Azad expanded irrigation networks and opened up much land for farming. The anti-caste policy of the government resulted in the bulk of this land going to the landless, who were mostly low-caste. As a result, in new cities such as Kaulabad and the land around them, low-caste people now had a much higher status than previously, and low-caste systems of worship, in Sikhism including worship of the (low-caste) purported writer of the Ramayana, Valmiki, were suddenly brought into the limelight. However, such forms of worship were simply unacceptable to the Sarbat Khalsa, and it refused to accept such gurdwaras into the Sikh religion. This, however, heavily weakened the position of the Sikh religion as, suddenly, nominally-Sikh functionaries and deputies were excluded from the faith. That this unsubtle caste-based discrimination violated Sikh theology exposed blatant hypocrisy. And so, in 1930, the government forced the Sarbat Khalsa to come to an agreement. According to this, Valmiki would be considered in the same light as figures of Sufi Islam and Bhakti Hinduism, a saint who preceded the ideas of Sikhism. Though explicit idols and statues of Valmiki were declared forbidden, pictures of him were not. This was accepted, and though in practice those Valmiki gurdwaras with idols and statues of Valmiki simply moved them into Valmiki Hindu temples where Sikhs are allowed to pray, it brought Mazhabi Sikhs decisively into the fold.

In the 1940s, during the height of the xenophobic anti-Hindustani refugee Rawalpindi Compact, the Sarbat Khalsa proved supportive, and it was even willing to oppose those refugees who were Sikh. That such waves saw staunch opposition from many Sikhs saw gurdwara elections become deeply politicized, and following Rawalpindi Compact collapse in 1947 this was reflected within the Sarbat Khalsa. This saw moves to include non-Punjabi representatives within it, though they were excluded from all Punjabi state functions. And with that, the Sarbat Khalsa attained its modern form.

 

[Callan]

This is very, very

 

[Indicus]

From its foundation in the seventeenth to its triumph in the eighteenth to its subsidiary alliance with the British in the nineteenth, over the centuries Maharashtra changed greatly as an entity. Even as British subsidiary alliance provided the Maharashtrian elite with much wealth, many were discomfited by the loss of the nation's historic greatness. Where had the people who flew the saffron banned from Attock to Cuttack gone, and why were they now serving as footsoldiers of the Britishers in China? Furthermore, the great price of the elite's newfound wealth became clear with the Great Famine of 1876-78. The horrors of this great famine occurred across India, but nowhere were they more apparent than in the Deccan, where entire districts were depopulated with hunger and emaciated families had to not only survive with what little food they could find but also fight off cannibal gangs. This was greatly exacerbated by British export policy, fixed in treaty with Maharashtra, which required free trade in grain. Thus, districts which could not feed themselves had to export the bulk of their grain. When Vasudev Balwant Phadke attempted to fight against this by organizing bands of warriors to kill the middlemen exporting grain to the ports, the reaction of the government was to execute him. When the famine came to an end, this horror forced the Maharashtrian elite to determine why this had occurred.

Quickly, the finger was pointed at the nature of the government. At the top was nominally the Chhatrapati, the direct descendant of the much valorized founder of Maharashtra, Shivaji. But in practice, all knew the true ruler of Maharashtra was none other than his nominal head of government, the Peshwa, who served for life on a hereditary basis, and he kept the Chhatrapati in perpetual house arrest. Every once in a while, there was some discussion among the old Maratha clans about overthrowing the Peshwa, and that the Peshwa was a Brahmin and the Chhatrapati the direct descendant of the quintessential Maratha aggravated these tensions. But nothing came out of these discussions. Until 1881, when letters flew around the nation calling for a consultative assembly, and Chhatrapati Rajaram II, wishing to regain his power, signed a decree and got it past the Peshwa's guards. And so, in 1882, a National Convention was held in Puna, with an eclectic group of representatives from various city councils and feudal lords of various sizes. In character, it was surrounded by the atmosphere of a village fair. Here, however, it advocated something a little different from merely restoring the Chhatrapati; rather, it advocated the establishment of constitutional government. And so, in 1883, it issued a draft for a constitution, a charter establishing a federation with formal institutions, and this the Chhatrapati was forced to accept since it, indeed, did enhance his own power while also circumscribing it. And the Peshwa, on the backfoot, saw the way things were going and accepted this too, even as he was reduced to the first among equals in an aristocratic-oligarchic council. This charter, however, was refused by the Rajasthani, Bundeli, Gujarati, and Vidarbhi lords, thus reducing its power to the old heartland.

In the years that followed, the Chhatrapati and Peshwa consistently clashed among one another, while the elite represented in the Praja Sabha attempted to play them off one another to enlargen their own power. For a time it worked. But then, in 1887 came to the throne the young Shahu III, and seeking to gain power he had ideas he was thinking of as heir. He quickly recognized the status of Brahmins in education and administration, as well as grievance by other upper castes and the status of untouchables. To this end, in 1888, he gave a speech declaring the status of Brahmins and Sayyids in Maharashtrian society deplorable, and he declared he had every intention of changing this. He declared that every Maharashtrian not a Brahmin was a Maratha, in the legacy of the great Shivaji, who he declared a god. To that end, in 1889, he inaugurated the first Shiv Sabha in Satara to honour the legacy of his ancestor, and by doing so implicitly attempting to raise himself to the same near-divine level. His agents and supporters created many others across the nation, and quickly they announced candidates for Praja Sabha elections. With full support from the Chhatrapati's agents, in contrast to the Peshwa who lacked anything resembling this, they swept the Praja Sabha. And with that, Shahu III quickly got to work.

He announced new schools, open not to Brahmins but to everybody else, and in a particularly explosive move he declared the establishment of new reservations in government jobs for non-Brahmins. The Peshwa was shoved aside, and with it untouchables like the Mahars were relieved of the horrific persecution they suffered at his hands. But this quickly went further. With him recognizing that the most prominent institutions in Maharashtra were the temple and mosque, he declared they should be removed from the hands of those who currently operated them, the Brahmin of the temple and the Sayyid or other Ashraaf of the mosque. This very quickly turned into Brahmins being forced out of temples with state force. In many cases, temples were razed down and their idols placed in newly-constructed ones on their ruins. Those to serve in them were a group of new people - Brahmins from North India, or newly-trained priests from among non-Brahmins, so-called "Maratha Brahmins". All the while, the Bhakti movement with all of its focus on less esoteric forms of worship quickly spread and became more common, to fill the void created by the weakening of priests, and that Shivaji was undoubtedly a man in the Bhakti mold meant this quickly gained steam. Similarly, among Maharashtrian Muslims, upper-caste Muslims found their status challenged, as their dubious claims of foreign descent were turned against them by a state intent on promoting a more Indic identity and a unique Maharashtrian Islam. One byproduct of this was that the Muslim reform movement, which often viewed low-caste Muslims as unwashed masses unworthy of new reforms, had little impact in Maharashtra.

In many cases, this wave against Brahmins resulted in rioting, shocking the state. But nevertheless, through all of this, the state was able to spread its control around temples and mosques, and through it centralize. Shahu III continued to be a vigorous reformer, whose monopolization of the legislative process led him to create new schools, colleges, and universities. He created new banks, and he banned child marriage. He created new railways across his nation, and when it looked as if debts to the British would be unpayable, he successfully negotiated the transfer of Orissa, nominally run by him but really under Nagpuri rule, to the British in return for relief of these debts. By his death in 1929, Maharashtra was a very different place. But all the while, his reformism reached his limits. That all non-Brahmins were grouped together as "Marathas" meant only a specific group, upper non-Brahmins, got all the benefit of reservations and education, and tensions between them and other so-called "Marathas" came to the surface as it became apparent they were just as capable as virulent casteism as any Brahmin. Though the worst abuses of untouchability were stopped, the practice continued. It must come to no surprise that untouchables and other low-castes started to reject any Maratha identity instead of another label that would allow them to assert themselves. At the same time, Shahu III's refusal to accept anything but the vague form of constitutional government left many wanting more.

And so, during the great crises of the 1930s and 40s, Maharashtra was ill-prepared. The Hindustani War of Independence saw the Hindustani people rebel against both the British and princes, and that some of the princes brutally killed by their own subjects were ethnically Maharashtrian and that Maharashtrian soldiers were bound by treaty to fight for the British, meant sudden division in society. Various Shiv Sabhas made declarations both for and against the war. And the Praja Sabha ceased to be a mere puppet institution as it instead saw raucous debates. The revolution in Andhra in 1941 made these problems worse, as Hyderabad was overthrown and replaced by a Telugu nationalist associationist republic. In both cases, Maharashtra saw large numbers of refugees enter. The Shiv Sabhas saw splits between those who sought to reform to avoid such events occurring in Maharashtra, and those who wanted to keep those ideas out. This division asserted itself as Shiv Sabhas expelled members not in accordance with the majority, and those expelled formed their own organizations. By 1942, Shiv Sabhas effectively split into two organizations, and this became recognized in fact with further political organization. With Maharashtra unilaterally breaking its alliance with the British, this division and the rising low-caste movements would profoundly transform Maharashtrian society....

 

[Indicus]

The Philippines used the Spanish flag during the Spanish period; during the British occupations, it used the Union Jack along with the various ensigns it used. During the Third British occupation (1851-5), Lord Cochrane attempted to legitimize his occupation by declaring a Philippine republic, and to that end he created a flag using the colours of the Venezuelan flag but in a lozenge layout, as well as a sun in the middle to represent the illumination of the Philippines but likely inspired by the use of a sun symbol by Platine revolutionaries. However, this attempt failed and the flag was quickly forgotten as the British occupation came to an end in 1855.

With the Young Filipinos launching Philippine Revolution in the 1870s, a great many flags were used. They often used a red background due to its association with rebellion, as well as the prior use of red pennants by Filipino merchant ships. On these flags were placed a number of things - letters to stand for the Philippines, or for the Young Philippines (Batang Pilipinas), or with the emblem of the Freemasons. One flag in particular was emblazoned with the pre-Spanish Baybayin script letter for pa, standing for the Philippines - this was representative of a desire among many revolutionaries to entirely denounce Spanish influence. Following the Pact of San Miguel in 1881 and the exile of Filipino revolutionaries to Formosa, this flag became the most common, and when they returned to resume the revolution in 1884 it was seen in many of their campaigns.

Following the French intervention in 1887, the Philippine Constituent Assembly drew up a flag consisting of a red banner with yellow and blue bars, as well as a yellow sun with a Baybayin pa within it. Though some were worried that the use of Baybayin script, a script used for Tagalog, would imply Tagalogization, for the time being many did not see it that way. This flag was quickly spread across the nation and the sun was quickly used as a national emblem. With the positivists who governed the Philippines establishing many vast cold and imposing buildings devoted to science, they always ensured to stamp them with the sun emblem. While flags did and still do have an important place in the Philippine Independent Catholic Church, with all bishops' robes emblazoned with it. And in the most official depictions of the flag, the yellow is represented by gold leaf - the most famous depiction of this is within the Presidential Palace. But ultimately, as the Filipino state attempted to turn Tagalog into the lingua franca in place of Spanish, it came with calls to revive Baybayin. These moves resulted in the establishment of a new "reformed" Baybayin script, and it was used on many buildings; that few understood it meant it was often decorative in nature. Such moves resulted in the motto, in English "love, order, progress", which had been turned from Latin to Tagalog "pagibig, kaayusan, pagsulong" some years before, to be represented officially exclusively in Baybayin script:



In 1913, the decision was made to put this motto on the flag itself, onto the lower blue bar, to represent the Tagalog nature of Philippine society. This portended the state emphasizing not only Tagalog, but also Baybayin. This quickly proved deeply alienating, and ultimately in 1924 it resulted in the Cry of Pampangan initiating the Philippine Civil War. The Federalistas flew a black flag with a white sun, a stark symbol representative of the fight to the death that they desired. Ultimately they proved victorious with French assistance, and though they did issue a general amnesty, they excluded Centralistas from all power. This in turn caused a revolt by Centralistas in 1930, which flew a version of the flag which emphasized the Baybayin pa, as a symbol of Centralismo. At the same time, the Philippine flag became less important, as provincial politicians increasingly acted like feudal lords, and French-controlled lands received permission to run their own law. After the Federalistas sought to avoid further Centralista revolt through allowing for some free political activity, in 1935 the Centralista candidate Ramon del Fierro won after receiving enough endorsements from feudal lords and also winning in the free elections of cities. And though, after a few years of centralizing his rule, he continued with a more democratic form of the Centralista agenda of positivism and centralization, he refused to touch the flag.

Zamboanga was a city the French received provisionally as part of their deal with the Filipino revolutionaries, and they got control over it after the departure of the Spanish. Here, they allowed some flying of the Filipino flag, as it was technically part of the Philippines; in practice, however, the French flag was dominant, and this only became the case further with the migration of Chinese, Malay, and Tamil people into the city who saw Philippine control as the technicality it was. Instead, one flag became prominent as an unofficial symbol of Zamboanga permitted by the French - a French flag with a yellow sun in the middle. As Chinese, Malay, and Tamil people merged into Zamboangueño culture and the people came to speak French-influenced Chavalcano, this symbol quickly acquired a symbolism beyond that permitted by the French. As a result, when del Fierro successfully negotiated the return of Zamboanga to the Philippines in 1939, there was some resistance at a presence that seemed alien. Though much of that has been blunted by Zamboanga's crucial trade ties to the rest of the nation and its status as a federal province, the flag remains flown by many today.

 

[Gary Oswald]

Just want to say that this entire thread is full of really excellent imaginative takes and I'm glad I've read through it now.

Particularly enjoyed the Transvaal if Shepstone was right/not lying and Cetshwayo was actually planning on invading to aid Sekhukhune.

 

[Indicus]

Just want to say that this entire thread is full of really excellent imaginative takes and I'm glad I've read through it now.

Particularly enjoyed the Transvaal if Shepstone was right/not lying and Cetshwayo was actually planning on invading to aid Sekhukhune.

Thanks, appreciate it.

I have to admit, I didn’t think of the Transvaal like that. I was reading about the Bapedi and how they brought the Transvaal Republic into very dire straits until the British occupied the Transvaal and conquered the Bapedi, and I thought it would be very interesting if the situation got worse for them.

 

[Gary Oswald]

Thanks, appreciate it.

I have to admit, I didn’t think of the Transvaal like that. I was reading about the Bapedi and how they brought the Transvaal Republic into very dire straits until the British occupied the Transvaal and conquered the Bapedi, and I thought it would be very interesting if the situation got worse for them.

I think the scenario is very good and a really interesting glimpse at a fascinating possibility.

But like the thing 'about how the Bapedi brought the Transvaal Republic into very dire straits' is, in my personal opinion, much more what the British said was happening than what was actually happening. Like the Bapedi had certainly battered the Boers in conventional combat, but by the time the British turned up, the Boers change of strategy towards raiding and scorched earth had really damaged the Bapedi food supplies and they had basically surrendered (yes, Sekhukhune was lied to about the peace treaty but even by his own words he'd agreed to a peace which saw him lose some land just not all of what the treaty he signed said.)

The British, and their agent Shepstone, certainly argued that the Transvaal was in dire straights and the Zulus (and Swazi) were about to invade and it was only their presence that dealt with the Bapedi and saved the Republic. But the Zulus weren't about to invade and the Bapedi were if anything perfectly happy for the British to turn up so they could play them against the Boers. They arguably did better against the British than they had against the Transvaal. I don't really believe the British on this.

But I kind like of that the scenario is what if Shepstone was right and all the stuff he said would happen does happen.

I especially like that it then pivots into the other scenario Britain was fear mongering about which is an uitlander dominated Transvaal which acts like a new United States.

It's all the stuff Cape Politicians talked about to justify invading the Transvaal but in reality, which is good fun.

(And sorry for dragging this thread so far off topic, I just like talking about 19th century Africa.)

 

[Indicus]

I think the scenario is very good and a really interesting glimpse at a fascinating possibility.

But like the thing 'about how the Bapedi brought the Transvaal Republic into very dire straits' is, in my personal opinion, much more what the British said was happening than what was actually happening. Like the Bapedi had certainly battered the Boers in conventional combat, but by the time the British turned up, the Boers change of strategy towards raiding and scorched earth had really damaged the Bapedi food supplies and they had basically surrendered (yes, Sekhukhune was lied to about the peace treaty but even by his own words he'd agreed to a peace which saw him lose some land just not all of what the treaty he signed said.)

The British, and their agent Shepstone, certainly argued that the Transvaal was in dire straights and the Zulus (and Swazi) were about to invade and it was only their presence that dealt with the Bapedi and saved the Republic. But the Zulus weren't about to invade and the Bapedi were if anything perfectly happy for the British to turn up so they could play them against the Boers. They arguably did better against the British than they had against the Transvaal. I don't really believe the British on this.

That's a lot of stuff I didn't know about, thanks.

What I based my claim on was that the president of the Transvaal himself led a battalion to attack the Bapedi, and then got defeated personally. The president of a country being defeated while leading an army - well, that struck me as a colossal defeat.

On the other hand, that doesn't really threaten the Transvaal as a whole, and as you say that was exaggerated by the British for their own purposes. So, I must have misread its implications.

I especially like that it then pivots into the other scenario Britain was fear mongering about which is an uitlander dominated Transvaal which acts like a new United States.

It's all the stuff Cape Politicians talked about to justify invading the Transvaal but in reality, which is good fun.

(And sorry for dragging this thread so far off topic, I just like talking about 19th century Africa.)

Oh no, I quite like getting responses based on my posts.

 

[Gary Oswald]

What I based my claim on was that the president of the Transvaal himself led a battalion to attack the Bapedi, and then got defeated personally. The president of a country being defeated while leading an army - well, that struck me as a colossal defeat.

Oh, absolutely. Like the Bapedi had the best army in Southern Africa at the time. They were a genuine threat, as they proved against the british over the next few years, and the Transvaal only won by resorting to siege and scorched earth tactics after direct confrontation led to them getting trounced.

But also the President was leading the battalion mostly because nobody else would lead that army for him. The biggest problem the Transvaal had in the mid 1870s was that President Burgers was a relatively liberal christian for the dutch reformed church and so most of the other boers thought he was an heretic and wouldn't fight for him.

Like there's such (understandable) focus on the racism that we sometimes forget just how fundamentalist the boers were, Kruger was a flat earther, and he was just like 'I will not fight for a man who doesn't view the bible as literal truth in all areas'.

Like if there ever was a point where natives armies would break the power of the Boers, it would be during that clusterfuck of internal conflict. There's a reason the British managed it.

 

[Indicus]

The Malê script is a script by Bahian Muslims used to write Portuguese. Nago Muslims, who speak a variant of Yoruba, also use this script, and historically it has been used for Brazilian Hausa and Fulfulde as well. Historically Bahian Muslims have used it for all purposes, but with the rise of public education usurping the status of the madrassa, as well as mass literacy, it has been de-emphasized in favour of Latin script. Nevertheless, it is still used in the Grand Madrassa of Salvador, as well as within the oldest Bahian mosques.

While Arabic script was used for in the time to write the Andalusi languages, including that from which Portuguese evolved from, the Reconquista put an end to that. The modern usage of Arabic for Portuguese began much later, when African slaves were imported into Brazil. These slaves were largely Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, or of related cultures, and many of them were Muslim. The massive death rate of Brazilian slaves meant that no Muslim community could establish itself anywhere in Brazil, but gradually in Salvador there were enough Muslim slaves released who chose to stay that there emerged a Muslim community, known as the Malê, in the city. Indeed, this community even converted other freed slaves. They achieved a measure of wealth, and with it they established small mosques and educated themselves in Arabic as much as they could. They wore several symbols, such as amulets of paper with Quranic verses. When the Bahian War of Independence erupted in the 1830s, the Malê happily joined the rebellion, and when it succeeded with French arms, they fully supported the new republic. The abolition of slavery subsequent migration of many first-generation slaves back to Africa did not include comparatively many Malê slaves, as they tended to be more creolized and had a better position in Salvador. The first legislative assembly even had one Muslim representative, representative of the radicalism of the new state.

With their existence legitimized, the Malê quickly established more open institutions. They established a madrassa and a mosque in their neighbourhood of Salvador, forever ensuring that they would be an urban community. In the initial formation of the new community, while a majority were Nago and spoke it, there were enough minorities that they needed a lingua franca. Though many would have preferred Arabic in such a role, and certainly the clerics used it, common people used Portuguese in such a role. The madrassa also used it even as they tried to push Arabic; furthermore, they used it in writing. Thus, Malê script was born, a script derived from the forms of Arabic script used for African languages but evolving in its own manner and, at this point, unstandardized. In the aftermath of the collapse of the Catholic Church in Bahia and its replacement with a state-led independent church, Malê people proselytized Islam to other freed slaves although this was done with middling success and the Malê remain a small minority. Furthermore, with the Portuguese being forced to import slaves from the United States due to French ships attempting to suppress their slave ships in Africa, there were no longer new Muslims coming from beyond the shores. As slaves of different ethnicities married one another, their children spoke Portuguese, although the creole Portuguese they spoke was distinct. And thus, by the 1870s, the Malê became one community largely speaking Portuguese, even though it still had a large Nago minority.

However, in the 1870s the American Civil War, breaking over slavery, received international attention. Much of this attention also went to the "black nations" of the Americas, namely Haiti, Grenade, and Hairouna. Though Bahia's abolitionism and independence was hardly as radical as theirs, it received much of this attention. This attention was international enough that it also received some from the "natural leaders" of the Hanafi maddhab, the Caliphate of Sokoto. Ruling as it did much Hausa and Yoruba land, it naturally looked to Bahia. In 1876, it sent a cleric to educate the Malê in proper Islam. Though factors such as the Malê's abolitionism and Sokoto being slaveholding caused tension, ultimately he went native and ceased to be Sokoto's representative, though Bahia's policy of balancing foreign interests to maintain independence meant he was often treated as such. He wrote a lengthy book on the proper fiqh and, to ensure it would spread among all, he wrote it in Portuguese with a standardized alphabet, which quickly became the norm.

This set the norm for decades. However, in the 1930s, education became more accessible for the average Bahian, and this resulted in many Malê students getting their education in them rather than the madrassas. This slowly reduced the widespread used of Malê script, even as it furthered their national integration. By the 1960s, even many mosques started using Latin script. By the modern day, Malê script has ceased to be anything other than a decorative script, and a marker of Muslim identity.

 

[Indicus]

The Constitution of Punjab is the supreme law of the Punjabi Republic. It superseded the administration of the Punjabi Empire. It comprises of 5 sections which delineate the frame of the republic, although these sections have been extensively modified. Its first section defines human rights in a charter inspired the most by France's Declaration of Rights of Man. It also defines the official languages. The second section defines a Punjabi as well as citizenship requirements, the size of the nation and the secular nature of the state. The next three sections define each of the three powers of the nation - legislative, executive, and judicial - and their relationships with one another. It is second only to the Goan constitution as the oldest constitution in Asia still in force.

Punjab's first constitution is often considered to be the hukamnana of the Sikh Sarbat Khalsa organizing the religion, in practice headquartered in Punjab despite its original pan-India dreams, into an organized pseudo-polity in 1716. In practice, however, this was not a true polity due to Mughal and later Afghan invasions and occupations. In 1748, the Sikh panth was organized into 11 republics, or misls, which were of a theocratic nature and only loosely allied with one another. Finally, in 1801, Ranjit Singh of the Sukerchakia misl was crowned Maharaja of Punjab and, through a combination of conquest and negotiation, established Punjab into an empire. He did not truly abolish the old misls, but in practice their institutions fell into abeyance. Instead, the empire was organized into a mixture of governorates and princely states, and as it expanded further into Pashtun and Sindhi lands, this only got haphazard. The theocratic nature of the state fell into abeyance as Ranjit Singh sought to include Hindus and Muslims into his empire, which required the enumeration of pluralism. His successors more-or-less continued these policies, even as their own discrete patterns of religious patronage tended to be different from one another, and even as the rising tides of religious revivalism threatened this arrangement. However, the Great Indian Famine of 1876-8 showed the massive deficiencies of this arrangement as a lack of a centralized civil service meant aid management was haphazard, while at the same time the economy was sufficiently interconnected that massive crop failures affected the whole nation. At the same time, epidemics were widespread across the nation. Many looked to solutions for this. The French-educated liberals who wrote western-style potential constitutions now had a much larger audience, and so did those Sikh revivalists who desired the re-establishment of the union of state and the Khalsa. Among those who wanted a regeneration of the state was the general Prem Nath Kaul. At once learned in much Punjabi culture and French-educated, he had a unique vision, and as he rose as general he had every intention to implement it. Finally, in 1882, he stormed the imperial palace and threw Maharaja Jawahar Singh out of the palace and, after publicly stripping him of his turban, out of the nation. He propped liberal prince Dalip Singh onto the throne with the more democratic title "King of the Punjabis", and had a Constituent Assembly convened.

This Constituent Assembly was, at this point, highly diverse in its modes of election. Some were appointed by vassal princes, and others were elected by city councils. In some small cases, there were even events similar to general elections. But nevertheless, Maharaja Dalip Singh attempted to get a constitution through to them, a constitution deeply inspired by liberal monarchism which sought simultaneously to provide a privileged place for the Khalsa while guaranteeing full liberty for the non-Sikh majority. But that he all but dictated the constitution to them disturbed not only the most radical voices he needed to carry, but also General Prem Nath Kaul. And so, in 1883, he stormed the royal palace once more, and he removed Dalip Singh from power. For good measure, he arrested the princely delegates in the Constituent Assembly, and he organized a committee to quickly write a constitution. There were some important measures they had to meet - it had to be firmly secularist, and it had to be fully democratic up to western norms - and these were met. In its preamble, the constitution evokes God - but it carefully uses the non-sectarian "Rabb", originally an Islamic phrase but also commonly-used term in Sikhism and thus by many Hindus. It declares the separation of religion and state, and though India has no clear concept mapping onto the term "religion", the constitution used "panth", a term meaning a spiritual path typically founded by a single guru. It abolished the vassal princes, though the framers had every intention of integrating them into administration, and replaced them with French-style departments. Under universal male suffrage, a Legislative Assembly, or majlis-i-qanun, was made central, and they were to elect the Sadr-i-Sarkar or "Chief of Government", simply known as the "Sardar" in the common parlance. Most peculiarly, however, it declared the Constitution the true sovereign of Punjab and granted it the power of king. This peculiarity was implemented because, firstly, Sikhs revere their holy book the Guru Granth Sahib as their living guru (and the martial order of the Nihangs treat the Dasam Granth written by Guru Gobind Singh in the same manner), and secondly, the idea that republics should be ruled by laws but not men is central to liberal ideology. But the largest reason was that Prem Nath Kaul understood these liberal ideas were all radically new, and it would take time for them to be accepted. To tie the constitution to the common ideas, he sought for it to be treated similarly to the Guru Granth Sahib, but with secular rituals inspired by positivist ideas of religion revering not God but humanity. Perhaps due to this, the constitution's official book was written in Sikh liturgical script, Gurmukhi, rather than a commonly-used script. And so thus, this constitution was enacted into law across the nation. The vassal rulers refused to sign on, and the result was their rebellion with British support, along with a coterminous Afghan invasion. The chaotic early republic period came to a beginning.

As Prem Nath Kaul personally led campaigns against the Patiala and Pahari princely states to conquer them, this enabled the relatively free operation of the republic. The electoral system came into full bloom, as messes of candidates saw election to the Legislative Assembly in those areas not in rebellion or Afghan occupation in an extremely free system. At the same time, the provisions on separation of religion and state were difficult to implement because the term "panth" has a narrower meaning than the English word "religion", and non-Bhakti Hinduism and non-Sufi Islam were comparatively harder to compress into such a mold. At the same time, as Prem Nath Kaul was involved in the extremely difficult process of integrating Patiala and the Pahari states, and to this end he held elections which, despite high turnout due to the novelty, simply elected his chosen candidates. This further muddled the legislature and made it yet more chaotic, while at the same time religious institutions gained heavy influence in the legislature despite provisions on secularism. Furthermore, the weak administrative service meant the human rights provisions of the constitution simply could not be implemented. These major deficiencies were quickly viewed by Prem Nath Kaul when, after saving the republic from being murdered in its crib, he returned to Lahore. And so, in 1890, he launched a coup. Taking control of large parts of the city and getting the loyalty of the army, he forced the government to resign and, with the assistance of his legislative placemen, he became the new Sardar. And with that, he could finally get to work in modelling his nation.

Firstly, he sought to make secularism an understood concept. To that end, he organized a religious conferences with various Sunni movements, as well as with Shia Islam, and also one with what he understood as "traditionalist" Hinduism. These conferences organized their movements into panths or equivalents. Furthermore, to ensure the people would be tied to the state, he established customs around the constitution itself. They were distributed around the nation, and as civil service and post offices got established he ensured each of them would contain the constitution seated atop a throne. Every Republic Day, he held a grand darbar in Lahore held not in any small hall but in public, in which the Constitution was anointed in a manner similar to a royal coronation, concluding with its crown removed and smashed. Smaller celebrations were to be held in each prefecture and sub-prefecture. Other civic rituals were invented to be focused around the constitution, including new ghazals. While at the same time, the rise of the Freemason movement saw new Masonic lodges open with constitutional thrones as well and even more elaborate rituals invented around them. When the quasi-religious Masonic element was removed and turned into a separate network of lodges, its own throne was made to include, at the top, the constitution, and below it the Dasam Granth, the Masnavi, and a collection of Tulsidas' hymns. When Prem Nath Kaul established script reform which made a standardized form of Perso-Arabic script the only official one, the original copy of the Constitution was replaced by one much fancier, with every page illuminated, and written exclusively in Perso-Arabic. It is this which remains the constitution of Punjab

Following Prem Nath Kaul's death in 1903, his successor Azimullah Azad inaugurated a civilianization of the Punjabi state. The position of the military was made weaker, a process which also saw the rise of oppositionist political movements which he proved willing to allow to compete elections. He also saw an effort taken towards implementation of human rights, as well as the release of political prisoners. This process also saw the popularization of civic custom as the military element was intentionally replaced with a civic element. Furthermore, the constitution was amended so that candidates only had to swear an oath condemning monarchy and feudalism, rather than the far longer oath they were required to swear, while electoral signup was revised to make it harder for the government to interfere. Following the transfer of power in 1912, the constitution survived; this was demonstrative of its success.

Over the 1930s, a crisis began to emerge. The remarkably broad citizenship provisions clashed with emerging anti-refugee sentiment as they came over the Hindustani War of Independence; following the rise of the anti-refugee Rawalpindi Compact to power in 1940, it amended the constitution to ensure that refugees could never be naturalized, even stripping many of citizenship to this end. It was, perhaps, evocative of the shattering of constitutional norms. The constitution was at risk, and the courts' attempts to step in were crushed by the government simply refusing to follow its orders. Following the collapse of the Rawalpindi Compact in 1947, the constitution saw a series of amendments which were aimed at ensuring these abuses of powers could never be repeated; the basic structure was specifically entrenched and the remaining refugee population was enfranchised. The success of this reform movement is such that the constitution has not faced any major reforms since then.

 

[Thande]

Most peculiarly, however, it declared the Constitution the true sovereign of Punjab and granted it the power of king. This peculiarity was implemented because, firstly, Sikhs revere their holy book the Guru Granth Sahib as their living guru (and the martial order of the Nihangs treat the Dasam Granth written by Guru Gobind Singh in the same manner), and secondly, the idea that republics should be ruled by laws but not men is central to liberal ideology.

I like that, it makes a lot of historical sense.

 

[Indicus]

The Grand Lodge of the British Isles is a Masonic Grand Lodge which governs Masonic lodges in the British Isles, as well as in many of its former colonies, and this is done chiefly through intermediary Provincial Grand Lodges.

Freemasonry in the British Isles has its origins, ultimately, in the medieval era. As with other occupations in the era, stone masons, or as they tended to be known in the era, freemasons, were organized into guilds, but unlike other occupations their only employers were the Crown and the Church. This meant they migrated in groups for new work and stayed at groups of tents they called "lodges". Due to them only having a few employers, stone mason guilds tended to be far simpler in organization than other guilds, and they tended to be as a result more egalitarian. Furthermore, due to their associations with organs of a state, they tended to view themselves as exceptional relative to the rest of society. The secret handshakes and rituals that they invented like other guilds were quickly centred around alleged grand pasts connecting them to King Solomon.

While in England the stone mason guilds fell into decline due to the end of the monasteries, in Scotland they instead received state patronage and regulation over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Furthermore, gentlemen and other non-masons began to join masonic lodges, and by the eighteenth century they overshadowed actual masons within these lodges. These Masonic Lodges creeped down the border, and in 1717 they formed a Grand Lodge in England. The next few years saw Anderson publish his Constitutions, which standardized Freemasonry and, more notably, allowed any monotheist of any stripe to become a Mason. The next few decades saw the Ancients schism from the existing lodges who they derisively called Moderns, and they believed in restoring a more "pure" Freemasonry. Both forms spread across the empire, and even beyond. As Freemasonry erupted across Continental Europe, it attracted subversive radicals and was condemned as an anti-church by the Catholic Church, and this has given it its modern reputation; in contrast, in the British Isles and the Empire, it was heavily establishment and sought aristocratic and royal patronage, and its leadership was chiefly Anglican as a result.

Over time, Modern and Ancient Freemasonry in the British Isles were effectively brought under the same hands of royal patronage. In 1813, they were finally unified, with the Duke of Kent as the Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England. The Duke of Kent was the brother of King George IV and his brother King Frederick. Consequently, when in 1827 a mob stormed the Tower of London, King Frederick fled along with many of his aides, and a Constituent Assembly was convened, Freemasonry lost much of its elite. The Grand Lodges of England, Scotland, and Ireland effectively collapsed, and each Masonic Lodge was effectively separate from one another. In the extremely chaotic atmosphere of the early revolutionary state, this resulted in an immediate danger. It is known that many lodges signed on to the Orange Order and became Orange Lodges, and many of them participated in violence in this era. Some ex-Masons even participated in the Burning of Parliament, although when the backlash against it caused the destruction of the Orange Order some of them signed on to the Scarlet Order's mission of establishing a very powerful monarchy under a broad electorate. In general, the secret nature of these lodges resulted in much state anxiety, even from those who were Freemasons themselves. This came particularly from Radicals, who ironically viewed the Freemasons as a body of counter-revolution. As a result, over the 1830s, they made efforts to stitch together Masonic lodges into a network, and in 1838 they finally unified their provincial networks into a single Grand Lodge of the British Isles. This new Grand Lodge left out many lodges, and in particular it left out the ones who felt allegiance to the Hanoverians over the Water. But, for the most part, the great confusion of British Freemasonry came to an end.

The Grand Lodge quickly sought to spread across the empire. With many lodges in British North America dead, loyal to Hanoverians, or effectively American in nature, it established many new ones with new Provincial Grand Lodges in capitals of colonies. In particular, in Lower Canada, the new Freemasonry became quickly dominated by Francophone anticlericals who defied Catholicism's opposition to it, in contrast to the pre-revolutionary form which was mostly Anglophone and Protestant. In India, the need to stitch together alliances after the costly Anglo-Burmese War as well as the continued ghazi attacks in reaction to missionary activities resulted in Freemasonry being viewed as a way to create bonds between Indians and the Raj. While Freemasons in the Raj were already admitting Muslims and Parsis, they stopped short of admitting Hinduism due to its polytheism and the issue of caste. With the era seeing the rise of Hindus who brought its monotheism to the surface and regarded caste as a social rather than religious practice, the new lodges admitted Hindus. And thus was the birth of Freemasonry as an ideology of empire.

During the Anglo-Spanish War of the 1840s and -50s, Freemasonry played a role in funding the war effort, and soldiers took it with them as far afield as the Philippines. And with the disestablishment of the churches in 1853, the closeness of Freemasonry with power, among both the Radical and Moderate parties, led many to nickname it the new national church. At the same time, the Grand Lodge of the British Isles zealously guarded its role as the chief lodge of the empire, refusing to allow for the formation of any other Grand Lodges at the same level (though splinter lodges emerged anyways). As the British Empire continued to expand, new lodges popped up wherever they went, and they made moves to include "natives" as part of them though they could not generally proceed beyond the second level. Some dreamed of making Freemasonry the bedrock of a new universal religion, and as certain Masonic rituals slowly became a part of British civil practice, they believed those days were coming. But ultimately they did not, as many did not take Masonic ritualism seriously, and the inherent white supremacist nature of British Freemasonry made this impossible. But yet, its reach was impressive, and it did bring together classes of the Empire like few institutions did. When some advocated the unification of the colonies with the British Isles in an American-style union, Freemasonry strongly supported it, but nevertheless ultimately such attempts were unsuccessful.

With the rise of women's rights movements, Freemasonry's restriction on female membership saw scorn; though in France some level of female membership was always accepted, the same was not true in the British Isles. Some mixed-gender lodges saw their establishment, and though there was some discussion on including them into the imperial Masonic network, ultimately this did not come to be. And indeed, when the Grand Orient of France made moves on including more women, the British reaction was to declare the French irregular. Similarly, attempts to include atheists were refused.

With the emergence of liberal movements in the nonwhite colonies, ironically Masons played a role in this. They attempted to leverage their Masonic connections for liberalism, and when their white brethren refused any discussion of this as "political", they decided to form their own independent lodges. Such lodges popped up in India, Natal, and West Africa with alarming alacrity, though most got suppressed. And at the same time, an anti-Masonic impulse rapidly formed, as its association with the colonial state made it hated. Such sentiments erupted in 1937, with the Hindustani War of Independence; though led by many members of independent lodges, the leading anti-Masonic attitudes led them to hastily burn their robes and join in calling for the death of Freemasonry. Ultimately, the Hindustani rebels proved victorious, and a great mob destroyed the Provincial Grand Lodge of Allahabad in celebration. The Hindustani constitution continues to contain very strong provisions banning secret societies as a result of this.

Elsewhere, decolonization saw Freemasonry indigenized and separated entirely from British tradition. But nevertheless, the lustre of imperial Freemasonry was gone. And with it came backlash at home. The Associationists were long critical of it as a middle class-led movement, even though some of them were members of it, but they were now part of a wave that aimed at "separation of lodge and state". This wave did successfully weaken Freemasonry's role in the state, although this wave ultimately swallowed itself as this force attracted conspiracy theorists who discredited the whole movement. And it forced Masons to allow tours of their lodges and support much charitable work, as part of showing themselves as being a social club. But nevertheless, much formerly-Masonic ritual remains part of civil practice, and it is very easy to find Masonic symbols across buildings in the British Isles.