Hello and happy Thursday! Welcome to the first narrative design dev diary! Today we will be going through the British Indian Caste System and Social Hierarchies, hosted by Em. But first a word from Shubham!
Hey Everyone, my name is Shubham. I am a narrative designer and history nerd from India, and I had the pleasure of working on the upcoming Pivot of Empire immersion pack! There are a lot of cool new systems, Journal Entries, events, and art coming your way, and honestly, I am very excited by all of them. But as dev diaries can’t be book-length, I will try to focus on some of the really big points.
The first and foremost is the Caste System, which is accompanied by the discrimination rework and also introduces social hierarchies. Em will get into this later, but I’ll focus on the history of the subject and what we tried to capture with its implementation.
You will see that the Caste System is labeled the British Indian Caste System in the game. This is because the modern understanding of Caste, within and without India, is very much a colonial creation.
Before the Indian subcontinent was consolidated under British Colonial rule, the Hindu identity was fragmented. So, while casteism was very much practiced then, it had greater variance and malleability. It was also not legally enforced to the same extent across the nation. Partly because there was no singular power that could enforce it but partly because different places had different beliefs around its relevance. However, after colonization, in an effort to streamline administration, the British conducted a census that tried to give a fixed value to caste. As this process happened, caste became codified and simplified. It became based solely on the Varna system and no longer allowed for any change in status. The Varna system recognizes only four castes and a fifth ‘outcaste.’ It also gives social roles to each tier.
The Brahmins are ‘meant’ to be teachers and priests. The Kshatriyas are warriors and leaders. The Vaishyas are merchants and traders. The Shudras are peasants. The outcastes are offered no name and are simply considered untouchable. The Portuguese later used the term Dalit to describe them, and that became their caste name.
However, as understood by the British, this Varna system ignored Jati, which is also a part of caste. Jati ranges in the hundreds, if not thousands. This resulted in a rigid system that deepened social divides and made social mobility nearly impossible. A lot of effort was made to capture this complex reality in-game.
We also considered using different labels for the tiers in the caste system. As Dalits are the most oppressed by this system, we thought to make it a two-tier system consisting of ‘Savarna and Avarna’ (those belonging to Varna Castes and those outside it). However, this erased the oppression faced by Shudras by other higher castes. Not to mention the role every tier of caste played in oppressing those immediately ‘beneath’ them.
We wanted to capture some of the nuance and complexity of the Hindu identities in that time period, as well as the oppressive, contradictory, and self-cannibalizing nature of the caste system.
The other topic that I want to discuss is the Indian independence movement. The Indian Independence movement had many leaders and many different factions. Furthermore, nearly all of them didn’t initially demand independence.
At first, as the exploitation of resources and people continued under British Raj, discontent pushed those with the privilege (money, land, education) to demand better laws and governance. Many leaders at this time were happy to let the British Empire rule so long as they were allowed to govern themselves with more dignity. It was only when these efforts repeatedly failed that the people were radicalized into starting a revolution. The game captures this through the journal entries around Home Rule and the Indian Independence.
But as you will see, many factions affect your ability to complete either Journal Entry. This is because they were not always aligned, even when various leaders agreed that independence was the only way forward. Indeed, the divisions sowed by the British and resultant from the complex history of the subcontinent made it so that factions were fighting each other just as much as they were fighting the British.
Three figures really capture this tension: Muhammad Ali Jinnah, leader of the Muslim League and the founding father of Pakistan; Mohandas Gandhi, key leader of the Indian National Congress and the founding father of India; and Periyar, founder of the self-respect movement and leader of the Dravidian movement.
Gandhi initially believed that to be truly free, India needed to return to its Hindu roots and reject all British imposition. This scared Jinnah, who thought that this line of thinking would be terrible for India’s Muslim minority. Despite being quite secular himself, Jinnah would often find himself campaigning for the needs of Muslims lest Gandhi and the rest of the INC forget about them. This often put the two parties and the two leaders at loggerheads, a matter that would eventually result in the partition.
If returning to Hindu roots upset Jinnah, it also worried people like Periyar. He had initially been part of the INC. As a low-caste man, he feared the INC leading India as most of the leadership was high-caste and often callous towards the needs of the lower-caste people. Thus, Periyar and Jinnah usually tried to negotiate, argue, and even cooperate with the British even if it weakened Gandhi and the INC’s stance. To Jinnah and Periyar, it was an opportunity to be heard.
Historically, Gandhi did become more cognizant of the needs of the lower caste and Muslim people. But as he and the INC also had to earn the support of the staunch conservative Hindus, such as the Hindu Mahasabha, it was always a compromised position. If you try to build an independent India in the game, you will hopefully feel how the game pushes and pulls at you.
Okay, lastly, I want to talk about the Sikh Empire. The Sikh Empire was in a precarious position in 1836. They have the Afghans on one side and the British to the south. Their leader, Ranjit Singh, established the first Sikh Empire but with one too many heirs. When he passes away, a series of successions occur that are violent and sometimes comical. Integrating the narrative of the Sikh Empire was a lot of fun as often it felt like writing a season of Game of Thrones. I hope you have a good time going through these events, as they are as ridiculous as they are compelling.
Hello! I’m Em, one of the game designers on Victoria 3 that specializes in narrative. This is my first dev diary and I’m excited to share a bit more about what to expect with 1.8 and Pivot of Empire! Today I'll primarily be walking you through a couple things we’ve been working on, namely Social Hierarchies, the British Indian Caste System, and a new law group associated with the Caste System.
The British Indian Caste System has been designed alongside the Cultural and Religious Acceptance Rework that Lino spoke about a few weeks back. To represent this, we're introducing mechanics for Social Hierarchies and Social Classes to the game. The British Indian Caste System is a Social Hierarchy that makes use of Social Classes in order to represent its effects.
screenshot of Social Hierarchy concept
screenshot of Social Class concept
Previously, Pops were distributed by Profession into the Lower, Middle, and Upper Strata. This was fairly rigid, and meant that the previous system couldn't enable culture or country-specific Strata. Academics could only ever be in the Middle Strata. Clerks could only ever be in the Lower Strata. Social Hierarchies are being introduced to address some of that previous one-dimensionality where the social ranking of Professions might differ in different parts of the world and allow for the implementation of the British Indian Caste System.
To understand a little better, let’s take a look at what this has looked like. Here is how the distribution of Pops by Profession across Lower, Middle, and Upper Strata has appeared previously:
screenshot of overview tab in Population panel where you can see the Lower, Middle, and Upper Strata
Clerks, Laborers, Machinists, Peasants, Servicemen, and Slaves are Lower Strata. Academics, Bureaucrats, Clergymen, Engineers, Farmers, Officers, and Shopkeepers are Middle Strata. Aristocrats and Capitalists are Upper Strata.
Pops are still distributed as they have been by Profession above. But now, in the Base Hierarchy they will be distributed into the Lower, Middle, and Upper Classes:
screenshot of Classes tab in Society panel where you can see Lower Class, Middle Class, Upper Class are Social Classes and are part of a Social Hierarchy called the Base Hierarchy
Pops part of the Base Hierarchy are assigned a Social Class based on their Professions as they had been before. Every Pop has a Social Class, and that Social Class belongs to a Strata. Social Classes can be defined based on a combination of pop type, primary culture, and/or religion. Social Class information will appear in the Society panel. Social Hierarchies are intended to affect all kinds of Pops, with moddability in mind, and can be linked to a law group.
This brings us to the British Indian Caste System. Since Shubham’s given a bit of the historical and cultural context, I'll dive in with what this looks like in the game!
screenshot of Classes tab in Society panel for a country that has the British Indian Caste System where Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Shudras, and Dalits are Social Classes
The British Indian Caste System recategorizes a Pops’ Strata differently from the Base Hierarchy. The British Indian Caste System specifically encompasses all Pops that are Hindu and have the South Asian Heritage cultural trait. Other Pops that are not Hindu and do not have the South Asian Heritage cultural trait will default to the existing Lower, Middle, and Upper Social Classes of the Base Hierarchy.
So where is the British Indian Caste System found? How is it set? The Caste System will be set from game start on the British East India Company and the Princely States.
Otherwise, it will appear with the following criteria:
- A country is a subject of Great Britain
- A country’s primary culture has the South Asian Heritage cultural trait
- More than fifty percent of the population is Hindu.
If the percentage of Pops in a country with the British Indian Caste System drops to ten percent or below, the Caste System disappears and is fully replaced with the Base Hierarchy.
screenshot of Social Hierarchy activated
Tied to the Caste System is the Caste Hegemony Law Group that will appear under Power Structure. This law group is specific to the British Indian Caste System. As such, the law group only appears and applies to countries where the British Indian Caste System is active. This will be the first time a law group is regional or culturally specific.
screenshot of Power Structure laws
There are four laws in the Caste Hegemony law group: Caste System Enforced, Caste System Codified, Caste System Not Enforced, and Affirmative Action. The new laws affect the flow of social mobility via Qualification Gain, Acceptance, and/or Education Access. Where the Caste System Enforced and Caste System Codified laws are more a reflection of 19th century British Raj, the Affirmative Action law is designed to be a reflection of early days of Reservation laws in the early 20th century.
All countries that start with the Caste System or gain it from Pop criteria will activate with Caste Not Enforced.
WIP screenshot of Caste Hegemony Law Group, list of effects subject to change
Effects in this law group primarily only apply to Pops that are part of the Caste System. For example in the WIP screenshot above, the Upper Strata for Pops in the Caste System, the Brahmins, have a minimum Acceptance value of 80. This minimum Acceptance value does not apply across the board to all Upper Strata Pops, such as Capitalists and Aristocrats that are not in the Caste System. It will only apply to Brahmins.
WIP screenshot of Acceptance Status for a Pop that are Brahmins
Other laws in the law group will have more Acceptance and Qualification Growth effects that are specifically applied to Pops in the Caste System. Here is the Caste System Codified law as an example of other types of effects you can expect–
WIP screenshot of Caste System Codified effects, subject to change. We’re actively working on improving readability and balancing the effects of these laws.
Here, there are effects on Landowners political strength and a Bureaucracy Population Cost Multiplier, as well as effects on Acceptance and Qualification Growth. Under the Caste System Codified law, Qualification Growth will be vastly restricted between castes, limiting the mobility between classes to varying degrees depending on the law in effect.
WIP screenshot of Acceptance Status for a Pop that are Shudras
If you are playing as the British East India Company and the British Raj forms via the Indian Uprising Journal Entry, Caste System Codified will be activated if Caste System Enforced or Caste System Codified isn’t already part of your laws.
The British Indian Caste System and the Caste Hegemony Law Group (as well as the Indian Uprising Journal Entry rework) will be free as part of the 1.8 update!
That is all for today, however, we said in the Pivot of Empire diary on Tuesday that we would have two dev diaries this week. We actually are having three! So tune in tomorrow for some more about maps, culture and more by Hansi!