Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

183  Changes

Dakshin Bhartiya Empire, Maharashtra (Satavahana), Wardha grama (town).

Satish, the police officer of Wardha town, got up early today as he was informed that a package would be sent to the town from the royal capital. Satish has changed a lot since he took the post of the police officer. He has been promoted a few times, from an officer of a small village to an officer of a medium-sized town like Wardha. Before, he only had a group of subordinates whom he recruited himself, but now he has two different police stations in the town to take care of. He was also assigned new police officers from the head branch of the district, in order to assist him.

After dealing with the challenges of the recent Islamic rebellion, the past few days offered him a much-needed rest. Now, tasked mainly with resolving civil disputes and handling petty theft cases in the town, he found himself growing bored. The once-eventful routine of rising early, donning his police attire, and eagerly awaiting something more exciting began to feel monotonous. Just as the dullness was taking hold, the individual he had been expecting finally appeared. Holding a letter marked with the seal of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the long-awaited Orders had finally arrived.

Opening the letter, there were multiple orders for him to follow, along with some instructions given in general to all the officers at his level from the Minister of Internal Affairs, Arjun. After reading the letter, he did not delay any longer and got to work. First, he visited a carpenter and asked him to make two new banners for the pair of police stations in the town. In total, two new banners were ordered, and he also mentioned the specifications for both banners.

"Sir craftsman, create Two identical banners measuring 1.5 meters in height and 5.5 meters in length. At the top, inscribe ' Police Station' in a bold Bharathi language. Right beside it, in slightly smaller font, add 'Wardha Branch.' Below, repeat 'Police Station' and 'Wardha Branch,' maintaining the same format, but this time in Marathi language. Ensure that the text in the Bharathi language occupies 40% of the banner, with the Marathi language covering 30%. For the remaining space below the banner, include the address of this town."

The craftsman, diligently noting down the orders, ended up looking perplexed, scratching his head, he said with an embarrassed expression. "Sir, please forgive me, but I don't know how to write in the Bharathi language as I haven't attended a school that teaches adults yet."

Satish remained calm upon hearing the craftsman's embarrassment, as he had anticipated the problem. To reassure him, he said, "Do not worry; I have a sample of the written text for you. Just emulate this." He handed over the written sample in the Bharathi language. Additionally, Satish provided the craftsman with the Town address to include on the banner.

"Ensure that the background of the banner is yellow throughout its length. However, the area where the address is mentioned should have a red background."

"In addition, on the right side of the banner, draw this symbol," Satish said, handing over the police emblem.

The emblem featured a Garuda with two lions on either side, all three animals standing on a pedestal. The Garuda was positioned at a higher elevation than the lions; both lions were at an equal elevation but at a lower position compared to the Garuda. After conveying all his instructions, Satish was about to leave when, surprisingly, Nagappa showed up. Nagappa also brought multiple orders for banners, but unfortunately, he was not proficient in the Bharati language. Still learning, he wasn't yet skilled enough to write it. Satish assisted him, and to his surprise, along with making a banner for the panchayat, Nagappa also created banners for inns and workshops. Intrigued, Satish asked for the reason.

"Don't you know about the law that has passed in the government? It's called the 'Local Representation Law.' According to this law, all workshops and businesses in the Empire should identify themselves with a banner within this month. The language for which the banner should be made has also been specified. Businesses can have their own text on the banner, but 40% should be in the Bharati language, 30% in the local language, 20% for the address of the business, and the remaining 10% according to the owner's wishes. The government has given a month's time to comply, and if a business is found without a banner after this period, they will be fined." n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Satish became thoughtful because he did not receive this information; perhaps he would get it at a later date. Nagappa, after finishing his orders, was about to leave. Suddenly, he remembered something important and hit his forehead with his hand, muttering, "Look at me, even this important thing I forgot." He then said, "Sir craftsman, before doing all that, come with me to the outskirts of the town; the banner for the town should be made first." Upon hearing that it was for the town's banner, the craftsman also put down his work and accompanied Nagappa. Satish followed along as he had to help out with the writing.

Soon, the group arrived at the outskirts of the town, and the boulder, which served as a banner for the town, was quickly whitewashed by the craftsman. Satish helped outline the words "Wardha Grama," signifying the new designation of the town. Finally, with this change of the designation, they were being formalized in the governance system. Similar scenes unfolded in various towns and villages across the region. New towns and villages swiftly entered the governance structure, a development unseen before due to the abysmal management structure of the government.

The government suddenly realized that there were a lot more villages in the Empire than they had previously calculated. Although these new villages were already known to the local administrative bodies, for some reason, they didn't show up in the central government report. With the administrative divisions now clear, the Government of the Empire began assigning district, taluk, and post identities to the cities, towns, and villages that were found eligible.

This caused quite a stir in the empire. The positive outcome of this division was the exposure of many local or regional emperors who held a strong influence over villages of around a hundred or two hundred houses. Previously, they maintained connections with the administration in the nearest town, colluding with careerists to help cover their tracks. However, with the nationalization of the entire system, the foundation on which they relied to feel proud became non-existent, as their contacts, accumulated over generations, suddenly became useless. Multiple cases were unearthed throughout the empire, particularly in the Cholapuri state, where individual pride runs high. After sensing that their status was threatened by the implementation of the village-town-city and post-taluk-district system, many local leaders, deeply hidden in small mountain villages, emerged to cause trouble.

These leaders, lacking substantial knowledge due to consistently focusing on protecting their own backyards and relying solely on their connections to maintain power, suddenly turned into bandits near their villages, attempting to monopolize the influence that was threatened. Surprisingly, this turned out to be advantageous for the government, as the police force was swiftly dispatched. Even though the bandits and their men outnumbered the police when comparing total numbers, with the administrative division determined, resources were efficiently distributed. The Emperor's BIP was also working hard to provide regional updates ASAP, and with intelligence, the police turned into swords, clearing trouble taluk by taluk and district by district. Within a month, all these issues were resolved, and millions of villages, hundreds of thousands of towns, and thousands of cities were firmly centralized under the government's control.

Unfortunately, this caused a lot of trouble for the government as the administrative work they suddenly acquired was more than they could handle.

But the problems in the Empire did not end there. Arjun, the minister of internal affairs, came in worriedly. Vijay, who was going through the reform report, was surprised by his arrival. Vijay motioned him to sit down and asked him to explain his reaso for his arrival.

Arjun replied with an aggrieved expression, "Your Majesty, the jails in the Empire are becoming unsustainable. Due to the abundance of recent manpower, the reconstruction of temples has begun to be completed one spot at a time. Because of this, the hundreds of thousands of Muslim prisoners, the rebels from before, and the bandits recently captured have rendered the jail unsustainable."

"It has become too expensive to adhere to the Minister of Health's hygiene, safety, and health regulations. Your Majesty, could you please consider reducing these safety and health regulations? Following them is turning out to be too costly for the jail."

Hearing the reason, without hesitation, Vijay denied, "No, the health regulations cannot be reduced or changed, for that matter. If not for these regulations, with hundreds of thousands of prisoners living in tightly packed spaces, along with the sweat, blood, and dirt on their bodies, it is inevitable that a plague would break out. What if this plague spreads towards the civilians?"

"It can't be that exaggerated," Arjun thought, but he did not say it out loud, as his majesty looked to be very serious. He wanted to ask what the solution that is different would be, but seeing Vijay's contemplative expression, he quieted down, thinking that his majesty could come up with some idea. And an idea Vijay did come up with shortly after.

"Let's do this. I will find something else for these prisoners to do."

"But your majesty, the reconstruction tasks are becoming less and less week by week."

"I will find some other project to do, but this time it will definitely take longer, and I need at least a million workers working on it. So there is no problem for these prisoners to do this task. The work schedule will be the same as before, also make sure that the work is divided sustainably. I don't want this workforce to die due to the excessive load of work."

"Yes, your majesty. I will make sure of it," Arjun said as he left the palace with a thoughtful expression. 'New project, what could his majesty be up to that needs a million workers? Is his majesty going to build a bigger road?' 'But didn't the minister of transportation, Nirmal, say that the road construction is in its end phase?'

'.....'

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