Full NationStates Name: The Empire of Cholarajam
Full Political Name: Thiru Chola Pēraracu
WA Nation: See above
Claim: Indian states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala. Indian union territories of Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep Islands. All of Sri Lanka. All of the Maldives.
Total land area: 1,019,164 km²
Map: 
Government Type: A constitutional monarchy, where a separate head of government is present, but royalty does hold political power. Religion is also influential in the government.
Head of State: Perarasan (Emperor) Thiru (honorific title) Yadavesvar Chola, Shivan Makankalil (of the Sons of Shiva).
Head of Government: Talaivar (literally "Leader", plays role of PM) Thiru Asvini Tyag Srinivasan.
Capital City: Cholapuram (Official name Gangaikonda Cholapuram).
Estimated Population: 331,432,000
Official language/s: Tamil (on nationwide level), Telugu, Kannada, Konkani, Gondi, Marathi, Sinhala (on provincial levels. Malayalam is not included because of medieval Tamil standardisation in the Tamilakam province, wherein Malayalam was considered a western coastal dialect of Tamil. Dhivehi doesn't exist in this timeline because of mass suppression of the language in the Maldivian islands during said period of Tamil standardisation).
Official Religion: Hinduism.
History
The Empire never falls.
In our real life timeline, the Chola Empire fell because of instability and the rise of the Pandyas. In this timeline however, around the time of the Chola decline, the Emperor decides to take action against rising Pandya power in the Tamilakam region, and forms a temporary alliance with the Kannadiga Hoysala Empire against the Pandyas. The Chola-Hoysala coalition was later able to defeat the Pandya Empire in Northern Kerala in 1280. The resurgent Cholas then set about completely toppling the Pandyan dynasty, eventually capitulating them by surrounding and taking Madurai in 1285.
The new Chola resurgence and expansion.
After reconsolidation of power in the Tamilakam, the Chola Empire set its sights on retaking Sri Lanka and Vengi. With a now rebuilt army and navy, the Cholas crossed into Eelam and stirred up pro imperial sentiment amongst the Tamil majority of the region. This made it easy for the Cholas to reconsolidate Northern Lanka back into the empire in 1292. The rest of the island was soon taken in 1294. Quickly after this, Vengi Nadu was taken back from the occupying Kakatiya Empire. Finally, the now hegemonic Cholas crossed into Hoysala lands. The aim was to conquer all of the Kannadiga lands. The Cholas were initially blocked at Talakadu town, but made later progress at the towns of Srirangapatnam and Belur. The Hoysala Empire was finally defeated at the Siege of Halebidu in April 1300, and the conditions of the peace treaty made it so that, just like with the Pandyas, all enemy territory was to be handed over to the Chola Empire, and the enemy emperor would be exiled from his homeland. Chola hegemony was now spread throughout Tamilakam, Lanka, Vengi Nadu, and Kannada Nadu. However, for the then Emperor Rangaswamy I, it was not enough to restore the Chola Empire's former territory. He wanted his nation to become even greater.
Medieval Chola interactions with Islamic Northern India+expeditions to islands of the Indian Ocean.
Around the 1300s, Islamic powers were taking hold in the northwest of India, and although their power was staved by Ramashoka, Islamic conquerors had made inroads in the Dandak region of Maharastra. The Cholas viewed the Muslim expansionists as an extreme threat to their realm. They observed the Yadavas of Devagiri, the erstwhile rulers of much of Maharashtra, as a weak defence against the Khalji Dynasty of Delhi. This caused the decision to launch a preemptive invasion of the weakened Yadavas. The Cholas claimed that this was to bolster Hindu power within Maratha Nadu against Muslim influence. While they were invading the Yadavas, the Cholas also quickly absorbed the Kadamba and Silahara kingdoms of the Konkan coast. This was claimed to be because the Cholas didn't want the Konkan coast to be dominated by Muslim Arab traders, as they were seen as weak kingdoms, like the Yadavas. In the Siege of Devagiri, the Yadavas quickly surrendered in May 1315. The Yadava king was exiled, and in place of the Yadavas, the Cholas installed a puppet kingdom within the area known as Maratha Nadu, ruled by a Maratha nobleman, backed by a Maratha and Tamil government. They didn't take direct control of the Maratha region because the dominant class of the Tamils in the Chola Empire were too dissimilar to the native Maratha people.
With the border with Northern India secured, the Cholas entered a phase of economic and spiritual growth. Numerous temples in the empire were rejuvenated, such as the Srirangam Temple in Tiruchirapalli, Meenakshi Temple in Madurai, Mallikarjuna Temple at Srisailam, and the entire temple town of the capital city of Gangaikonda Cholapuram. Many new temples to Shiva, Vishnu, Parvati, and Lakshmi were built in the conquered areas. Trade with Arab, East African, Southeast Asian, and European kingdoms and empires flourished, further increasing the size of the ports in Tamilakam, such as Kozhikode, Kochi, and Thoothukudi. The increase in trade meant that the Chola Navy had a reason to become the great force that it once was, and so this period of time was notable for the Chola naval rebirth. Between the years of 1350 and 1360, naval expeditions were led to the Maldives, Lakshadweep Islands, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. On the Andaman and Nicobar, they found ruins of a long forgotten Chola naval base, set up centuries ago to launch invasions into Southeast Asia. They also rediscovered the natives of the isles, who for the most part didn't seem very friendly at all. A settlement was set up on Great Andaman known as Nakkavarampuram. This city would be used in later centuries to reconquer lands in Southeast Asia. The expeditions to the Lakshadweep Islands and Maldives, however, ended up in anger. The Cholas discovered that the descendants of the Tamils and Sinhalese who had inhabited these islands had mostly converted to Islam from Buddhism and Hinduism thanks to Arab traders. The islanders no longer spoke Tamil, but instead spoke a language known as Dhivehi. This caused anger in the Chola court, and as they took over these islands, they began a mission of converting the populace of few thousands to Hinduism by building gurukuls and temples. Tamil imposition was also widespread in the isles. Many times, this was met with violence from the islanders and armed uprising organised by the sultans, which the Chola Army successfully suppressed. This development of the empire, standardisation of Tamil, and expansion of Hinduism continued right into the 1500s. The spice trade with Europe, however, ceased for a few decades, thanks to the Ottoman Empire.
Interactions with European colonies and Christian missionaries. The Early Modern Era.
In the year 1498, Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama landed in Kozhikode, Tamilakam. A few decades later, small land purchases had grown into the Portuguese State of India, a collection of a few small port colonies on the Malabar coast that prospered under Portuguese colonial development. The Chola Empire was familiar with firearms and artillery at this time, and interactions with the Portuguese gave the Cholas more knowledge on developing firearms. The first regiments of Chola riflemen were developed in the early 1500s to keep the small Portuguese colonies in check. Cannons were soon also applied to the navy, which helped massively in the defence of Chola trading routes to Iran, Europe, and China. Soon, Spain was also interested in acquiring small amounts of land for port construction and trade. The Spanish were allowed a share in the port of Kozhikode, and a share in Thoothukudi, but that was about all that the Cholas were willing to give up to foreigners such as the Spanish and Portuguese. After this, all other foreign pleas for the acquisition of land were turned down. This was so the Cholas could keep dominance over the waters of the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, and much of Southeast Asia.
In 1526, India was shocked when Turkic invaders led by Emperor Babur stormed the Northwest of India, quickly snatching the city of Delhi from Sultan Ibrahim Lodi. The realm of Ramashoka was quick to defend their lands against this new immediate threat, and the Chola Empire followed soon after. They assumed complete, permanent control of the puppet state of Maratha Nadu (the decision was welcomed by most Marathas, as they needed a strong defender in the face of Mughal invasion from Gujarat), and soon the Chola Army was at the northern borders of the Maratha regions with Maratha, Portuguese, and Spanish battalions accompanying them (as a thanks for allowing them to acquire land). At the Maratha city of Nashik, Chola artillery saw off the Mughal advance. However, the subsequent Chola advance into Gujarat was halted at Vapi port. After over a decade of skirmishing, the Chola Mughal War came to an end, the border between Chola controlled Maratha Nadu and Mughal Gujarat was solidified. Maharashtra was saved.
Around the 1550s, the situation in the empire was relatively stable, with the Mughal threat having been dealt with decades ago, and the Iberians were causing no trouble to the Cholas. An emperor arose to the throne in 1556, known as Rajendra IV, and he wanted to see Chola domination over Southeast Asia to be restored. At this time in history, Southeast Asia was experiencing the largest empire ever seen in its history, the Burmese Taungoo Empire. They ruled from the city of Pegu, the centre of the region which the Emperor sought to invade and conquer. This would be tough and would need thousands of men to accomplish. The Taungoo were most certainly a regional powerhouse of South and Southeast Asia, just like the Cholas. In 1558, Rajendra Chola IV had made up his mind, and using the casus belli of a dispute over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands between the two, war was declared on King Bayinnaung and the Taungoo Empire. The war would last for around 4 years, and over 5000 would die on both sides, however it only really began in late 1559. This was the time when an Ani (Chola naval term used to describe a fleet of around 300 to 350 ships), loaded with thousands of Chola soldiers and Portuguese mercenaries and armed with Spanish made cannons and artillery, set off from the great ports at Thoothukudi and Velankanni. This great force of 300 ships was composed of 50 thirisadais (Chola equivalent of a battle cruiser, able to hold 400 men each), 100 vajaras (Chola equivalent of a frigate, fast attack crafts used to reinforce fleets), 50 dharanis (Chola equivalent of a destroyer, highly endurable main weapons platforms of the fleet), and 100 lolas (Chola equivalent of a corvette, lightly armoured, made for swift offense, mainly used as escort vessels). This fleet first sailed to Yalppanam (Jaffna), then the Chola city on Great Andaman, Nakkavarampuram, and from there they sailed to the Mouths of the Irrawaddy. From there, the navies and armies of the Cholas and Taungoo launched offensives against each other in the dense, low lying jungles of the area. The war finally ended with the Fall of Taungoo and Pegu. After this, the Cholas gained control of Southern Burma, though at the cost of around 140 of their ships and 5000 or so men. Construction of that fleet had crippled the economies of the Telugu towns, and so moneymaking resources from the new colony were shipped to Telugu Nadu first to deal with the economic crisis there so as to avoid uprising. However, the empire and its people could now be proud of the fact that they were now a colonial empire. This invasion by the Chola Empire caused the rapid downfall of the Taungoo Empire, after which the Cholas quickly seized Rakhine. A second invasion took place around 3 decades later in 1601, where the Sultanate of Aceh would become a tributary of the Cholas. In the following years, the same was done to the Sultanate of Johor, and through intimidation, Portugal was made to give up its colony in Malacca. This would cement dominance of the Cholas in Peninsular Malaysia and their trade routes in the area. These activities of imperialism would continue into the late 1800s.
Interaction with the English East India Company began in the 1600s, and the Emperor granted them shares in the ports of the towns of Chennai and Velankanni. When the English saw that they had only been given shares in the ports of meagre towns, while the Spaniards and Portuguese had been given shares in major power centers, they were outraged. A battalion of English soldiers set out to seize the most important temple of the empire, Srirangam Temple in Tiruchirapalli. The local landowners got wind of this plot to take the holy site, and routed the English at the city of Thanjavur with their own private armies in an ambush. The English were naturally surprised, and were beaten back, sustaining heavy casualties. English properties in Chennai were also seized by the Cholas. Letters and delegations were sent to England to inform them that they would no longer be allowed to keep properties within Chola ports, and that they should consider it an honour that they would still be allowed to trade with the Cholas at all. Unlike the terrible relations with England, relations between the Cholas and the Iberians remained beneficial to both. It should be recognised that it is because of the cooperation with the Portuguese that the Cholas had a technological advantage over the rest of South and Southeast Asia.
During the 1700s, imperialism was flickering in the eyes of the Chola Emperor yet again. The Emperor Chakravarti I saw the Ayutthaya Kingdom as a great threat to Chola power in Pegu Nadu (Southern Burma) and Malacca. Disputes over the Tanintharyi Coast were used as casus belli for the invasion of the Ayutthaya Kingdom in 1744. From Pegu and Tavoy, a Yanapadai (elephant corps with 300-500 elephants in it), a Kudhiraipadai (cavalry force, with 500-1000 horses in it), 3 Kaalaatpadais (infantry corps, with 2000-3000 men each), and 2 Marathuravanis (medical corps, each with 200-300 doctors in horse drawn carriages) all journeyed towards major settlements within the Ayutthaya Kingdom. The war lasted 1 year only, and ended with the Razing of Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya was forced to give up the Kra region to the Cholas. This blatant act of imperialism that managed to destroy the most powerful Southeast Asian state caused a massive power vacuum in the region, with the Khmer, Lan Na, Luang Prabang, Vientiane, Dai Viet, and Champasak all vying for supremacy. The Cholas managed to vassalise the rest of Ayutthaya, the Cambodians, Champasak, and Vientiane. This was certainly the Chola Empire at its zenith.
During the 1760s, the Chola Empire started a mass movement of Dravidian migrants to their colonies in Burma and Malacca, mainly from Tamilakam and Telugu Nadu. In this period, the cities of Pegu and Singapore became 65% Dravidian and 75% Dravidian respectively. Many of these people were chased out during the times of the British rule, however this has contributed to the Dravidian race making up the largest demographic in large cities in South Burma (such as Rangoon and Pegu) and in Singapore in the modern day. Moves were also made to increase the standard of education within the empire for all citizens. This increased empire wide literacy rates from around 15% to 65% in a matter of a few decades, making it the most educated nation in Asia.
Just after this war had been finished, the Cholas were faced with the Seven Years War in India, which didn't last too long for the Cholas. They sided with the Portuguese against the Spanish in the ports, and before long, the Spanish presence in Tamilakam's parts was nothing more than a memory.
Age of Industrialisation. Late Modern Era up to end of WWII
Around the 1800s, the Cholas made contact with the now extremely influential and powerful British Empire, which was seeking to make colonies in Southeast Asia. The British hadn't forgotten about how the Cholas had pushed them out of the ports, and using this as casus belli, went to war for Pegu Nadu and Malacca, starting a series of wars known as the Anglo-Chola Wars. The First Anglo-Chola War (1814-1815) was marked by the destruction of the small British fleet at the Mouths of the Irrawaddy by the superior Chola Navy, which always kept on top of technological advancements thanks to their Portuguese allies and collaborators, and ultimately the chasing out of the British from Pegu. This demonstration of Asian military prowess over a European superpower shocked the world in the same way that the world reacted when Russia was beaten by Japan in the early 20th Century. This also gave the Chola Empire a fatal sense of over-complacency. The Cholas faced off the British again in the year 1817, hoping to see off the threat yet again. However, their overconfidence and pride proved to be the downfall of most of the Chola Empire in Southeast Asia. The Chola Navy was ambushed at Singapore by a large British fleet of over 200 ships, whereas the Singapore fleet only had around 30. The tides turned at the Mouths of the Irrawaddy, as the British fleet gained the upper hand over the Cholas and eventually besieged Pegu. In the Treaty of Visakhapatnam, the British were ruthless. Kra was to be ceded back to Thailand, Pegu Nadu was to come under the rule of the new British Burma colony, and Malacca and Singapore were to be handed over to the British to form the new Malaya colony. The Cholas sought revenge for this, while the British set their eyes on expansion in the subcontinent, starting with the subjugation of the Cholas. In 1819, the navies of the British and Cholas met at the Coromandel and Malabar coasts to engage in naval warfare of epic proportions in the Third Anglo-Chola War. 340 ships overall were sunk, 220 of which were British, 120 of which were Chola. The Chola Empire successfully defended the Chola mainland from British imperialism. This inspired a popular revolt in Singapore from not only the majority Dravidian population, but from the Chinese and Malay minorities. The revolutionaries said that the Chola Empire had led their city to prosperity, and treated the people fairly. Eventually, the short-lived British rule in Singapore came to an end. In the Treaty of Cholapuram, three main mandates were lain out: the Chola Empire would recognise the control of Pegu Nadu and Malacca by the British, and Kra by Thailand, the British would respect the territorial integrity of the Cholas, and finally, the popular demands of the Singaporean people would be complied with, with a hasty return of the city to the Chola Empire. After this, the Cholas and British turned over a new leaf with each other. Embassies were set up in each others respective capitals (Cholapuram and London), and British investment was crucial in the Industrialisation of the Chola Empire, which we will talk about now.
Industrialisation in the empire came very quickly after the tension of the Anglo-Chola Wars had subsided between the two belligerents. British companies assisted in the construction of 5 modern factories in the cities of Chennai and Cholapuram in 1830. The Great Chola Railway first started construction in 1835, and with investment from the British and Portuguese (mainly British, as Portugal had been economically crippled by Brazil's independence, and had actually taken to selling its lands in India back to the Chola Empire just so it could try to recover its own economy), took over 60 years to fully construct. This megaproject linked major cities from all over the empire, from the now Chola controlled city of Mumbai, all the way to the southern city of Madurai. A smaller rail network was built for Singapore as well. In Sri Lanka, the railways mainly routed on the land near the coast, where most of the major cities were, such as Trincomalee and Kotte. It gave vast employment opportunities for the poorer farming communities of the rural lands. Rural to urban transmigration became increasingly common. Standards of health, education, sanitation, and happiness massively increased in both urban and rural areas. More people than ever could read and write, with a literacy rate of 80% by 1900. The infant mortality rate decreased rapidly, from 100/1000 to 36/1000 babies dying under 1 year of age in the cities, and 250/1000 to 55/1000 in the countryside. A clean, reliable water supply had reached over 70% of all villages in the empire by 1915. By 1910, open defecation was completely unknown in cities, and was being eliminated in villages with the swift construction of toilets where there were none.
The Industrial Revolution was not the only Western influence that the country took on, another influence was that of democracy. In the 1895 Chennai Conference on Democracy, Emperor Madhavesvar Chola I agreed to the diluting of his absolute power. A new, second leader was to be elected next year. This new system would take the people's choice into account, but in the Chola democracy, the royals would still have a political say, and religion would not be separate from the government, as the emperor mandated that it be present to act as a tool for the upkeep of dharma in the government-that is to say, righteousness and morality of the politicians. Voting was made to be mandatory for all those who were eligible to vote (18+, literate, no criminal background). In 1896, the first democratic elections took place within the Chola Empire, being won by the newly formed Conservative Party of the Chola People, taking 48% of the vote. It being a proportional representation system, the Conservatives won 48% of the seats in the new Natalumanram or Parliament. The first Talaivar of the empire was called Thiru Gopalakrishna Nayak.
In the 1910s, the world experienced the First World War. The Chola Empire was officially neutral in this war, both in the royal family and the ruling party. However, in the 1916 elections, the place of the opposition party was taken by the new Socialist Party of the Dravidian People, and after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, they began to aggressively display support for Socialist revolution. In 1918, the Socialists were told to stop calling for armed revolution against the emperor, otherwise their party would be banned, so they reluctantly complied.
The Great Depression hit the Chola Empire like a sack of bricks. It initiated mass economic downfall all over the empire. Famines started to kill hundreds of thousands in the rural areas, many companies were forced to shut down because of stagnation that they had never seen before. In all this chaos, an organisation known as the Sanatana (Hindu) Fascist Party of Chola Nadu rose to prominence, just as the Nazis were doing in Germany at this time. They entered villages and distributed free grain to starving villagers all over the empire. They took in the unemployed and gave them food and employment in their own services. They ran fitness camps for children and adults. By the early 1930s, when recovery of the economy was speeding up, the party had become extremely popular amongst the rural masses, and amidst many in the middle and upper classes too, as they had been seen to deal with the "Communist threat" by breaking into Communist Party meetings and beating up their party members. In the 1932 elections, they won 70% of the vote, and consequently, 70% of seats in the Natalumanram. In March 1933, the armed wing of the Fascist Party stormed the Natalumanram, and proclaimed a dictatorship. Almost instantly after these events, the Fascist Cholas sought alliances with Germany, Italy, Thailand, and Japan, all of which gladly accepted. The Fascists proclaimed that their main goal was the unification of Akhand Bharat (undivided India, which stretches all the way from, and including, Afghanistan to the Burmese border). They also wished for all non Hindus to convert to Hinduism, for the "original caste system" to be installed in all walks of life for all groups, in exchange for the "corrupted caste system" that they believed was the fault of the British, to push the "Jewish backed British influence and French control" out of India through great invasions into the French Mughals and British company buildings within the three Indias, and when they would control Akhand Bharat, they would try to enact the conversion of all Muslims and Christians to Hinduism. As for their racial policies, they announced that, with the exception of non Dravidians in Singapore, Portuguese people, and the people of Maharastra, non Dravidians would be subject to deportation, and death if they resisted. This saw the deportation of many British from the empire. Their justification for this was that "as Krishna said in the Gita, action must be taken to rectify Unrighteousness. The Jewish backed Anglos are Unrighteous, and they plot our downfall, because we are one of the few Asian states that have successfully resisted their rule". Under Fascist rule, children took part in "mandatory cultural activities", such as the learning of the martial arts of Kalaripayattu (look it up, it looks pretty cool tbh) and Silambam, which were put in place to increase fitness and also mindfulness of the youth, learning how to play at least one musical instrument, singing included, for young girls, cooking classes were set up where they learnt how to make popular dishes from their respective regions, such as dosas and idlis in many regions of Southern India, Tamil language classes were available in the times after school, and for the naturally talented and intelligent, they were encouraged to select a second language to learn. All children were also given free copies of sacred Hindu texts, those being the Vedas, the Bhagavad-Gita, Ramayana, and the Upanishads. For farmers, their wages saw an unprecedented rise, which of course made them happier. Thanks to good harvests in recent years, the populace was hardly ever starving, as grains and crops made it everywhere, even to the remote villages. For industrial workers, similar schemes to the German "Strength through Joy" were set up. Hard workers were given time off to visit temple towns such as Madurai, Kanchipuram, Srirangam, and many more, and the beautiful countryside, such as the Western and Eastern Ghats, tickets for the new theatres, and just like in Germany, if the worker saved enough of his money, he could buy the all new state vehicle for the common man, known as the "Tolilalivakan" or the "vehicle of the worker". This company still makes cars for people across the empire today. Now that most people had a radio, even in rural areas, it was made easier for the government to broadcast announcements to the people.
In 1938, the Perarasan and Talaivar both received telegrams from the Germans and Japanese, telling them to prepare for war instantly. Large sections of the navy were moved into the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, army presence at the borders of the French Mughals and Ramashoka was increased tenfold, the air force was put on standby, and the populace was told to exercise more and stock up on food in case of a preemptive invasion by their enemies, so that they might be geared for war themselves. In late 1939, the Chola Navy made the move of blocking the Malacca Straits from Singapore, and just a few days after Germany invaded Poland, the Cholas launched Operation Strike, wherein British settlements on the Malacca and Burmese coasts were bombed by the Chola Navy, the air force started bombing missions on Ramashokan and Mughal army bases and cities, and the army swiftly advanced into enemy territory. War had begun. By mid 1940, the Chola Empire had a huge upper hand. They had taken the French and the Ramashokans by surprise, had already destroyed many of their army's bases, and had captured lots of land. By the end of 1940, the Rann of Kutch and the rest of Gujarat was Chola land, and both Chhattisgarh and Orissa had fallen. On the Southeast Asian Front, the Cholas had advanced and taken Malacca from Britain with Japanese assistance, and had annexed the Kra and Pegu Nadu yet again, and Sumatra had been annexed from the Dutch. In these parts of the new empire, systematic genocide was carried out against Bamars, Thais, Karens, Shans, and Rohingyas, as they were viewed as "inherently inferior to the superior Race of Dravida". This caused much tension with Thailand, who was meant to be an ally of the Cholas. This annexation of much of Burma, Thailand, and Malaya meant that Japan could sweep through the rest of Southeast Asia by the end of 1940, as they had less land to worry about taking over. By early 1941, the Cholas looked good to seize Bengal, however Ramashokan resistance in the area was surprisingly strong, and would only get stronger after Britain started sending troops to them through China. French resistance in the West was waning, and at the naval Battle of the Indus Mouth in February 1942, Karachi was seized, taking all of Sindh in the process. This was the end of the campaign against the Mughals, and more efforts were transferred to the Ramashokan Front. Together with Japan, the U-Go Offensive was launched, with the aim of capturing Ramashoka City by mid 1943. Japan however, was held back by resistance in the Naga Hills, and the Cholas by resistive tribals in the Vindhya Mountains. Several battles in the Bay of Bengal, such as the Andaman Campaign were won by the Cholas, however they couldn't win against the numerically and technologically superior Ramashokan and British forces on land. Therefore, the navy authorised an invasion from the sea, and a surprise launch into Bengal from Rakhine. The Rakhine Front dealt much damage to the less well defended East Bengal armies, however the invasion was soon halted in the Chittagong Tract. By mid 1943, the Axis was nowhere near Ramashoka City, or Delhi for that matter, and by the end of the year, they were being pushed back out of Bengal, as the Allies were now on the offensive. Rakhine was soon taken, and at the loss of the Battle of Maymyo, the Japanese lost footing within Burma. Pegu Nadu was annexed in March 1944, and Kra and Malacca by November 1944. The empire had been pushed back by the French in the West, and they were forced to retreat from Sindh in early 1945. In the last phase of the War in India, the Cholas were beaten heavily in the Battle of Ahmedabad, and after losing Gujarat, surrendered in May 1945, only a few days before Nazi Germany did. To avoid capture and execution, the Fascist Talaivar, Rajshekhar Iyer hastily prepared a pyre, and burnt himself to death on May 3rd,1945. His ashes are now stored in his home village near Guntur, in Telugu Nadu. The village was renamed "Ma Nayakudu" in 1950, which in Telugu means "Our Leader", showing that sympathy for the Fascist Party continued for a long time, even after it was forcefully banned.
Modern Era, Post WWII.
After the war's end in the East, the Chola Empire was economically crippled. It had lost all land in SE Asia. It is estimated that 4.5 million men were sent to fight in total from the Chola Empire. Out of those, 1.4 million are estimated to have died, half in Bengal alone, and another 1 million injured and traumatised. Just as in Japan, the army was forcefully limited by the Allies, and lots of economic aid was sent by the Americans to rebuild the destroyed empire. By the 1950s, the Cold War was in full swing with the Korean War. While Japan was very supportive of the westerners, the Cholas thought otherwise, and while they were grateful for the help in rebuilding, they denounced both sides of the Cold War, and decided to remain neutral for its entirety. By the 1960s, the world had started to experience a population boom in developing nations, however since the Cholas had been classed as a developed nation since the 1920s, and since the populace was well spread out, overpopulation wasn't an issue. 100% literacy was finally reached in 1967, and this was the era of technological innovation in the Chola Empire. Many Chola and Japanese companies formed major business alliances and links, especially in the sectors of gaming, everyday technological appliances, such as radios, TVs and later on, even mobile phones, and arms manufacturing. In 1979, the Iranian Revolution was welcomed by the Emperor, who had theocratic leanings, and was happy that another nation had learned to apply religion to government. Many practices set up by the Fascists still continue today, but the only difference is that they are not mandatory, just heavily encouraged, such as the practice of Kalaripayattu, learning many instruments and languages, instilling religiousness and mindfulness throughout the population, etc. The Empire has stood the test of time since 300BCE, and doesn't plan to fall anytime soon.
Economy:
Type: Mixed economy.
Development: Developing/Developed.
Very diverse economy, with primary sector making up large section of economy, as traditional agriculture is still taken extremely seriously by many. Secondary and tertiary sectors are abundant, with the Chola Empire having one of the largest merchant navies on the planet, influenced by a history of naval dominance. The secondary and tertiary sectors are developed enough to have a large global impact, many companies from these sectors are linked with major Japanese companies as well. Industries that are deemed to be "actively promoting the nation's cultures" are economically supported by the state.
Nominal GDP: $1,558,000,000,000 (One trillion and eight hundred and forty five billion).
Nominal per capita: $4,592.94
Military Strength:
Priority: Medium
Equipment: 1990s-2000s standard, much of the equipment is native made, but much of it also comes from Japan and Iran, the latter nation also buys equipment from the Cholas.
% GDP: 2.1
Eligible Manpower: 67,407,800
Active Troops:300,000
Reserve (Optional): 400,000
Total: 700,000
