The Muslim League is one of two Nonviolent Factions in Gandhi, alongside Congress. Though they share the same Operations and two of the same Special Activities with Congress, the Muslim League has different victory goals that will eventually pull them away from their Congress allies, perhaps even leading them to work with the British to achieve victory.

Like Congress, the Muslim League seeks to build Opposition to British rule. But unlike the Congress, the Muslim League only gains victory points for Opposition in the ten green-tinged Muslim spaces in northern India. In addition, the Muslim League seeks to establish autonomous regions for Muslim Indians, called Muslim States. For every Muslim State it builds, the Muslim League adds twice the space’s Population to its victory level.

For this edition of The Gandhi Chronicles, we’ll take a closer look at two Special Activities that have features unique to the Muslim League: Negotiate and Infiltrate. Both Special Activities are powerful tools to add to the Muslim League victory level because they can be used to create Muslim States—if the circumstances are just right, that is.

Take a look at the game situation below. To the Raj player, this corner of India may look like a mess—they have lost Control over several Provinces and there is ongoing Protest in West Bengal. But the Muslim League player sees opportunities to profit from the chaos. It can use both Negotiate and Infiltrate to place Muslim States. But since Infiltrate is only an option during times of Crisis, the Muslim League will mostly use Negotiate to place Muslim States. This represents agreements between Raj and Muslim League leaders: the Raj recognizes limited Muslim League sovereignty in exchange for Support for Raj rule. Let’s take a look at some of the ways that they could build Muslim States in this region of India.

Plan A — East Bengal. The Muslim League is close to meeting the requirements for placing a Muslim State using the Negotiate Special Activity. There are more Muslim League pieces here than Congress pieces (2 to 0) and the space is at either Active or Passive Opposition. The only thing that blocks Negotiate now is Raj Control. So what steps can the Muslim League take to remove Raj Control?

1. Use the Civil Disobedience Operation to place a Protest marker in East Bengal. This will Activate both Muslim League Activists. Raj will still Control the space (4 cubes vs. 2 Activists plus 1 Base).
2. Next, use the Persuade Special Activity to Activate the Underground Guerrillas—up to one Guerrilla for every Active NV piece. Now Active adversaries outnumber Raj cubes, so Raj loses Control of East Bengal.
3. In a later turn, select East Bengal for Negotiate. Place a Muslim State marker in the Control box and add 4 to the Muslim League victory total. Increase Restraint +1, remove the Protest marker and set the space to Passive Support; add 2 to the Raj victory total and subtract 2 from both the Congress and Muslim League victory total. Finally, because Troops may never occupy any State, the Raj Troop there must vacate and may be moved to any City.

Plan B — West Bengal. The Muslim League would like to use Negotiate to place a Muslim State in West Bengal. In this case, it meets all but one requirement: Muslim League pieces do not exceed Congress pieces. In essence, the Raj is hesitant to strike a deal with the Muslim League because it isn’t clear whether the Muslim League has the political clout to follow through with their end of the bargain. So how does the Muslim League gain the upper hand here?

1. They could add additional Muslim League Activists. The Rally Operation would place new Activists from Available, or they could use the March Operation to move an Activist from East Bengal into West Bengal.
2. They could remove one or more Congress Pieces. The Persuade Special Activity lets them remove a single Congress Activist. However, this will drop Unity by 1 which limits the total number of spaces the Muslim League may Operate in. Or, a sneaky Muslim League player may convince the Revolutionaries to use Attack or Assassinate to remove Congress pieces!
3. Once the Muslim League outnumbers the Congress, it can use Negotiate to place a Muslim State in West Bengal. As in the East Bengal example above, this will place a Muslim State marker, increase Restraint, set the new State to Passive Support, and remove the Protest marker.

Plan C — Bihar. Barring an Event, the only way to place Muslim States outside of Muslim spaces is via the Infiltrate Special Activity. And this is only possible during a Crisis, when both Unity and Restraint are 1. Now, the Muslim League may trigger a Crisis intentionally to take advantage of this, say by executing Non-Cooperation which drops Restraint by 1. Or, it can drop Unity by using Persuade in an earlier turn to remove a Congress Activist.

During a Crisis, the Muslim League may select any Province with Muslim League Activists, a Muslim League Base, and no Raj Control and place a Muslim State there. And unlike during Negotiate, placing a Muslim State during Infiltrate does not remove any Protest marker and does not set the space to Support—a clear benefit to the Muslim League!

Although both the Muslim League and the Congress share similar Operations and Special Activities as Nonviolent Factions, this is just a small sampling of the ways that they play very differently. In the next Gandhi Chronicles, we wrap up our look at the four Factions by taking a closer look at the Revolutionaries, Gandhi’s sole Insurgent Faction.

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Previous Article in this Series: The Gandhi Chronicles Issue #5: Playing the Congress in Gandhi — Operations and Special Activities