January 24th, 1656
Dakshin Bharatiya Empire, The region of Baluchistan
With the capture of Quetta and the Kojak Pass in its vicinity, plans that had been delayed due to insufficient assurances about the complete capture of Baluchistan had begun in full force.
Until now, these plans were held back due to the large amount of resources required to start the process of integration. Without being completely assured that the region would be under the Bharatiya Empire’s control, it was always risky to invest more resources than necessary.
For this exact reason, since the beginning of the war, the resources invested in Baluchistan were only for the purpose of war and to hasten the capture of the region.
No resources were invested in expanding the influence of the Bharatiya Empire in Baluchistan, and no efforts were made to integrate the region since there were no schools, post offices, police stations, courts, or administrative offices being built.
All these problems stemmed from the empire’s hesitation in integrating Baluchistan due to its sheer size and the type of terrain, which made the integration of Baluchistan seem more formidable. Baluchistan, though having a lower population than Gujarat, is almost as big as Germany in later generations.
Its terrain, which caused so much trouble for the army already trained in heavy and harsh environments, did not help the cause of integration either.
Fortunately, the situation is about to change. With the fall of Quetta, the empire now had enough assurance to keep the region for itself. Hence, various infrastructure projects have immediately sprung up throughout the region. To fill the labour gap, opportunities were given to the local people.
Unfortunately, with the region of Baluchistan having a total population of only a million people, which is a drop in the bucket compared to what the empire wanted to achieve, the projects could not commence at full scale.
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However, there is also a flip side to this as it brings more opportunities to the people back in the empire since Baluchistan does not have its own ample population to fill up the labour gap.
Additionally, the refugee problem back in the empire could be permanently solved by sending the excess refugees constantly pouring into the Bharatiya Empire due to the war with the Mughal Empire into Baluchistan.
Hence, without any fear, the Ministry of Transportation, cooperating with the military logistics department and Director Jaipal Singh, the current director in charge of Baluchistan logistic affairs, employed an additional 400,000 workers, added to the already present 200,000 labourers, to migrate to the region of Baluchistan.
Of course, all these people will not be transported at once, as that would be highly unsustainable. Hence, they will be transported in batches after the living supplies for these people are arranged.
For now, the first batch of 50,000 people, split between the Gwadar and Ormara Port, disembarked, and the military logistics department immediately arranged their jobs in various construction groups.
Surprisingly, witnessing the arrival of this new batch of workers, the private contractors who managed to reach the uppermost level of the construction hierarchy immediately swarmed these labourers like a group of sharks smelling blood.
They received many orders from the logistics department simultaneously for the construction of multiple public infrastructures in various towns on the southern side of Balochistan. Due to each project being counted for major merit points, which in turn means more investment from the military logistics department, all of these contractors were currently out for blood.
Among these contractors, the person who managed to recruit the most workers was someone surnamed Ambani, thanks to his almost-loss-making business model.
At the same time, the first group of workers who had worked since the beginning of the war had already gained an ample amount of arable land in the region of Baluchistan, and these workers started to bring their families from their hometowns and settle in the local region.
Although these were still the minority, it is undeniable that such groups of people are bound to rise as time goes on, And in a year or two, with more naturalization and some Demography engineering, the native Bharatiya population is bound to gain at least 30% of the total population in the region of Baluchistan.
Of course, this is still the case where the original inhabitants of the region of Balochistan do not leave their hometowns and migrate to the Empire.
Now the question is, is such a thing possible? Unfortunately for the Mughal Empire, it is not possible.
Migrating the local population to the empire is one of the major efforts the empire is putting in: the effort to migrate as many people as possible back to the empire in order to quickly change the demographic percentage in the region, thus fully stabilizing it and not giving any chance to the Mughal Empire to influence the region.
As for how the empire is doing such a thing?
Well...
Hoshah, South of Khuzdar, the region of Baluchistan
"Masthan, Masthan! Come out quickly, I have good news to tell you!"
Outside a tent located on the outskirts of Hoshah Town, a young man who appeared to be in his early 20s with a tattered appearance yelled at the top of his lungs, as if trying to wake up the person inside the tent, which looked like it could blow away with a strong wind.
"Ah, why are you making noise, Matheen?" A disgruntled voice was heard from inside the tent as if the person had just been woken up and was annoyed.
*Step*
The man who stepped out of the tent was an older teen, at least 6.3 feet in height, with a white complexion. But similar to Matheen, this person also wore clothes that hung loosely on his malnourished body, and his eyes were shallow as if they had lost the brightness and cheerfulness of youth.
Matheen, however, did not mind his friend’s lifeless appearance, since he was also in the same situation a few minutes ago until he heard the news.
Without explaining too much, Matheen immediately grabbed Masthan’s hand and dragged him towards the inner part of the city.
"Hey, Matheen! Where are you taking me? Why don’t you let go of my hand?" Masthan angrily yelled, trying to free himself from his friend’s grasp. But no matter how much he tried, he could not do so, even though he was the bigger one out of the two malnourished youths.
However, Matheen, with sweat on his forehead, felt tired pulling his unwilling friend and yelling in an angry expression, "Do you want something to eat or not? If yes, then come with me without making a noise!"
Masthan "..."
Hearing the reply, he quickly quieted down. Masthan was immediately convinced when his friend mentioned food. Although he was not completely starving, it was not much better since he could only eat one type of food once a day, and that was it for the past month.
This was caused by the war completely cutting off trade between various cities, which meant vegetables grown in one city could not be transported to others, and grains grown in one part could not reach another. Such cases occurred throughout the region in the majority.
Due to this, the limited and unhealthy diet made Masthan more and more malnourished, similar to most people in the town. Now that his friend was saying there was a way to get more food of a different kind, he did not resist much and quietly followed.
In all honesty, the Bharatiya Empire did not want to cut off various food supplies from one city to another. However, it was just too risky to allow people from one city to contact another, as there was not enough manpower to inspect each and every good travelling from one city to another.
Additionally, if there was information transfer between these occupied cities, then it would cause a lot of headaches for the Bharatiya Empire. Hence, Even though the problem was serious, it was something the empire had to live with.
In the meantime...
*hubbub*
The friends Masthan and Matheen finally joined a sea of people at the town centre.
*hubbub*
Seeing the scene in front of him, both of Masthan’s eyes and mouth were wide open in surprise, as this was the first time he had seen so many fellow villagers gather in one place. As far as he could see, there were hundreds of heads standing in queues, some quarrelling amongst themselves for a further spot, and some talking with each other in loud noises.
Even more surprisingly, there were even people from nearby villages who normally would never come to their village for anything.
Common amongst all these gathered people was something rare these days: the hope and expectation for the future, similar to the anticipation for better days he saw on his friend’s face. Still, these expressions caught his attention, as he did not know what made these people have such overflowing emotions. "Only food will not make these people put on such frantic expressions, will it?" he thought.
"Hey, Matheen, what is going on here? Why are so many people gathered? It is not only for food, is it?" Masthan asked, wanting to fully understand what was going on Since he highly doubted all these people were here only for food.
Matheen immediately smiled upon hearing his friend’s question, and answered with joy apparent on his face, "Of course, it is not only for food. It is said that the empire that conquered all the neighbouring areas is recruiting people to work as labourers in multiple construction projects starting in our town."
His eyes brightened as he continued, "And the reward for labour is ample food, and apparently there will also be land and cattle that can be redeemed after earning enough merit points from the labour we do."
Masthan was immediately shocked, and he felt like this was fake, but before he could voice out his thoughts, Matheen did not give him a chance to speak as he continued, "The only problem is that the land can only be redeemed in the empire.
But I feel like this is a good deal, as I have heard from the workers who have come from the empire that the conditions there are better, and the weather is not so harsh, along with there being ample food and water. So, I plan to do enough labour until I can redeem the land and move to the empire and gain citizenship," his voice filled with hope for the future as he stated his intentions.
"So, I brought you here since you are my good friend who has grown up with me from childhood. I hope you will be able to work with me to quickly earn enough merit to migrate to the empire."
Masthan, "Wh- What!"
He was immediately taken aback after hearing the reason why his friend brought him here. Originally skeptical upon hearing the promises made by the Bharatiya Empire, he found reassurance in the fact that many people whom he considered smarter than him came to the recruitment. This gave credibility to his friend’s words.
With this new reassurance, the first emotion he felt was gratitude, as he indeed needed to earn a better future for himself. On the other hand, he did not think much about migrating to the empire, since honestly, he had nothing in Baluchistan except for familiarity.
This was only one of the many stories that are currently being played out in the region of Balochistan, And most importantly, this was not even an isolated incident, as similar situations could be seen in various major towns in the region of Baluchistan, as the Bharatiya Empire started to propagate about recruiting labour for infrastructure and enabling land payment for the work done.
Such an impressive method to change the demographic of the region was only one of the strategies the empire employed. Another strategy used was the method of mass propaganda.
Countless rumours and information suddenly propagated in local areas of Baluchistan, spreading information on a large scale through word of mouth about the empire and its living conditions, also providing proof by giving free medical treatment, which demonstrated how better life is back in the empire.
Hearing conversations like:
"Hey, have you heard that the Bharatiya Empire has sprung all year round? How wonderful!" a normal villager said.
"Sir, have you heard that there is no shortage of water in this empire that conquered us? Apparently, it is easy to grow food anywhere in the empire since all the land is fertile," a loyal servant asked.
"Apparently, there are even towers that work with the magic of the sun, which can pass information from thousands of kilometres in just a few seconds," an intrigued scholar commented.
"Uncle, it is said that each street has multiple bathrooms, and all the cities in the empire are very clean," an envious nephew suggested.
"Aunt, it is said that the Bharatiya Empire also allows women to join the workforce, and practices such as triple talaq have already been banned," a caring niece requested.
"Hey, Grandpa, should we consider going to the Bharatiya Empire? It is said that the Bharatiya Empire does not have nobles ruling on top, so you don’t have to worry that some tribal leader will take a liking to your daughter again," a hopeful granddaughter pleaded.
Although some of these comments may have seemed exaggerated, the widespread news of these claims indicated the success of the propaganda campaign, which was facilitated by the hard work of local intelligence assets such as Muhammad bin Rind, also known as Raftar and his coworkers.
These individuals, having previously served as internal agents and helpers in the Bharatiya Empire’s takeover of some cities, were swiftly recruited into the propaganda campaign department of Balochistan. Due to their prior assistance and their detachment from Balochi society, they seamlessly transitioned into their new roles.
Under Raftar’s command, who had received basic training according to the Bharatiya Empire’s internal protocols, they were quickly knowledgeable at disseminating information to the appropriate audiences. Their familiarity with various conquered cities and towns enabled them to effectively spread the news in targeted locations.
While most of the tribes did not fall for the tricks of the Bharatiya Empire and decided to stay in their own lands, it was not the case for the scattered population who did not belong to any tribe or were only a part of a small tribe.
Even among the tribal population, the lower levels were not much better off than these wanderers, so these people immediately were hooked by the benefits provided by the Bharatiya Empire and started to work hard in the construction department immediately.
To quicken the rate of exchange of population, the amount of labour required for land redemption has been drastically reduced. This is true for both the Balochi people who want to redeem land in the Bharatiya Empire and the Bharatiya people who want to redeem land in Baluchistan.
Due to this easier redemption of land, more people flocked to Balochistan, and the people of Balochistan flocked to the Bharatiya Empire, thereby starting the efficient transfer of population without any bloodshed.
P.S. It was supposed to be 1.5k words, but I had a lot of trouble in this chap, hopefully it slaps