Conflict brewing

It was March of 1743, and the Maratha army of a hundred thousand men led by Peshwa Balaji Rao had entered Bengal and had begun negotiations with Alivardi Khan, the Nawab of Bengal. Their joint attack on Raghoji Bhonsle and his army would begin soon.

It seems like Bengal will get its peace back very soon after it pays its dues to Peshwa Balaji Rao. It was an expensive price to pay but the people in Bengal might be happy to pay it to get rid of the Maratha scourge.

The Mughal empire was still in disarray with their Nawabs showing off their ambitions and disregarding the capital and the crown.

And the other kingdoms were busy fighting each other to gain every little bit of extra land they could get their hands on. Every ruler wanted to create the next great empire of the subcontinent.

The Europeans were tense with the flames of war raging back home. While trying to add more fortresses and factories, and gain more land the Europeans were also having small skirmishes here and there on their own.

In the meantime, Vir was able to complete the design of the fountain pen with the help of the artisans. The pen still had problems like the hassle of changing the ink, difficulty of changing the nib, high cost, difficulty of maintenance, and a slight chance of ink spill.

But even with its disadvantages, it was much superior to reed pens. When Vir handed the pens to each of the scholars, they instantly fell in love with the pens.

"How can it write so smoothly? Writing with this feels so much better."

"Wow. It can even write nonstop until the ink runs out? This is a genius invention. Why didn't anyone think of this before?"

"With this pen, we can work much faster. There is so much to write but so much time is wasted with the reed pens."

The scholars were full of praise for the fountain pens. To increase productivity, they even had two pens each with a servant by the side who was there just to fill up the empty pens.

Even after hiring the artisans, they could only produce five pens each day. The difficulty of crafting was an obvious problem but to make the nibs, precious metals including gold alloy were used which made crafting the pens even more complicated.

Manu Chand decided to continue increasing the production without releasing the inventory for a couple of months. He was sure it would sell anyway so he decided to take his time. He will instead gift a few inexpensive ones to people to create word of mouth as suggested by Vir.

As for the work being done by the scholars, the standardization of Khariboli was completed and now it was renamed Hindustani. It was written in the Devanagari script. The simplified grammar book after compiling everything was about 200 pages.

The work for the dictionary of Khariboli or now Hindustani to Persian, Marathi, and Bengali was going on simultaneously. Two assistants each were assigned to the five scholars. The assistants were students from a local Brahmin school.

This work was expected to take anywhere from half a year to a year to be completed with plans for more assistants and scholars to be added using some of the proceeds from the sale of the pens. Alphabets will be divided between the new people who join in and each will work on words beginning from the alphabet assigned to them.

The plan was to create two types of dictionaries divided into two levels. The advanced dictionary will have extensive entries with all the words from a common conversational level to the academic and official words.

The beginner's level on the other hand will have fewer words with a focus on words used in day-to-day settings instead of academics and official settings. This is focused on commoners as well as new students just starting to learn the language.

Recently, Vir's days were spent reading the books that had arrived from Europe and making notes about them. He would read the textbooks and mark the things that are different or proven wrong in the future.

For his plans to establish schools and a university, he first needed the books. He was planning to train the teachers himself from existing scholars. With his books and his added guidance, a lot of new teachers should be created.

Vir wanted to train young and open-minded youth who were open to learning new things and desperate for a change. Every era had plenty of this kind of youth. That's why in a few decades, a bunch of youth mostly in their early twenties will begin the American Revolution.

The combination of disgruntled youth and a radical idea is an explosive one. Freedom and liberty with the Americans, Marxism with the Russians, and Maoism with the Chinese were all combinations that led to results that changed the world.

Vir wanted to propagate his own brand of radical ideas through the teachers and the school. The idea of nationalism and enlightenment.

Because there were too many kingdoms and empires, he planned on identifying the Indian sub-continent itself as a single unit or a stand-in nation for the people living within it.

By designating the Europeans and the Central Asian empires like Afghanistan as invaders and enemies, a narrative of us versus them can be created. We, the people of the Indian subcontinent are being invaded by outsiders who are killing and looting us. We need to band together to resist them.

With the idea of nationalism comes the concept of resistance. So how will we resist? They are using better technology than us to take our resources and make money off of us. So we need enlightenment. By learning and improving the existing knowledge we can resist them.

We can make better weapons than them to fight wars. We can create better machines than them to create goods and earn more money. We can do better and be better to live better.

These were the dual idea bombs of nationalism and enlightenment that Vir had prepared to be released after a decade or so of preparations. For such radical ideas to take root, they need the right time and situation.

Vir chose the backdrop of the invasion by the Afghan empire led by Durrani and the active invasion of the French and the British after the Carnatic wars to spread his ideas.

When the people who are already oppressed by their rulers are further invaded by outsiders, they will latch on to any radical idea that can show them a better future.

'Even though it is for a better future, I feel dirty preparing for propaganda when the people are at their most vulnerable and helpless. I guess I am going to hell after I die this time.'

….

Vir had been spending a lot of his time either reading books or with his father. Manu would have long conversations about business and try to teach Vir something new every time. However, he was unaware that this behavior was creating a problem for him in the family.

Vir's stepmothers and stepbrothers were unhappy about the attention and favoritism that he was getting from his father. Although their family was very rich, most of the wealth would ultimately go to the successor with the rest of the male heirs being sent off with a portion of the wealth.

Those sent off to do their own thing could still receive support to kickstart and grow their business on top of a sizable starting capital. So, compared to the commoners of this era, they were already too far ahead.

But the human greed is insatiable. When you can have the rest of the whole pie, why would one be satisfied with just one piece of it?

Manu Chand's eldest son Anup Chand who seemed to be nine or ten years old was being scolded by his mother, "That bastard stays by your father's side all the time and yet you do nothing but play outside. What's the point of crying about that bastard getting gifts now?"

Alka was the first wife of Manu Chand. She had been married off to Manu right after she entered her teens. Even before she could understand what was happening, she was already pregnant with Anup, and her life as a wife of a businessman began.

She followed Manu to a faraway place as he decided to start a business on his own. She had barely started to know and like him but Alka couldn't help but resent him for moving a long distance away from her family and everyone she knew.

"Don't worry. We will start a business and make a lot of money so that our family can live a prosperous life. Anup will become an heir to a large business." Manu had told her on their way to their new home.

After that Alka began living only for her children and her husband as she was taught. The needs of her husband came first before anything and she had to make sure that her children had the best treatment possible.

With some help from the family elders, the smart Manu Chand quickly rose in the business world and his wealth increased accordingly. Their family was living better than ever. Alka's children were living lives no different than royal children.

Then one day Manu came into their bedchamber with a serious look on his face. Alka could tell that something was wrong. She nervously waited for Manu to speak and when he did, her heart broke.

"I am getting married to the daughter of a high-ranking official in the court of the Maratha Peshwa. Since we are living within their sphere of influence and close to their capital, having connections with the Maratha court would be beneficial to the business." Manu tried to explain.

But to Alka's ears, everything that Manu was saying was just an excuse. She knew this day would come, most men including her father had multiple wives. But she had some hope that Manu would be one of those rare men who only took one wife. Those hopes were dashed.

Alka learned to live through that heartbreak and even tolerated the bitch who came to take her place. She steeled herself and accepted Manu's third wife too. It was all for her children. Her Anup would be the successor and the other two sons would aid their brother.

Her dreams for her children once again started to crumble when the bitch gave birth to her pup. The pup turned out to be the monster that would eat away at her son's rightful place.

"He was unusual from the beginning. What child can remain calm all the time and never cry? He even started properly talking by the age of one. And how can a kid spend all his time reading and listening to adults talk business? He is a monster, I tell you." Alka remembered the third wife's rants.

Alka agreed for the most part with the third wife. The child was so strange and weird that even his own mother avoided him as much as possible. But despite all this, the head of the family was infatuated with the boy.

"Why are you smiling husband? Did something good happen?"

"Oh, my smile? It's nothing. I just remembered something Vir had said in the afternoon. That child is too smart. You should tell Anup and his brothers to learn from Vir. I'll get them some books and tutors too if needed."

This kind of conversation had started to become commonplace at some point. Manu was consciously or unconsciously beginning to compare that monster with her children. She didn't want to admit it but her children could never match Vir. They were just kids.

If her children can't compete with him in the normal way, then she has to just level the playing field. If she can't do that either then she can only forcefully change the rules of the game entirely or just flip the table over and the game itself