The Indians are…what’s the ten-dollar word for it again? Polytheist. They believe in a lot of gods. A god for every idea and pastime and job and more. Kinda like the Catholic Saints actually now that I think of it. Anyways, their cities have lots of temples, as many as one of ours has churches, but each one is devoted to a different god. Complete with statues and everything. And in India herself, some of them are thousands of years old. Now that’s history there.
The thicker air of Novaya Rodina has caused many changes as well. Visitors have to wear ear, mouth, and nose protection to keep the pressure from doing damage. The native Novayans on the other hand can breathe that thicker air without any technological support. In fact, they find Earth normal air pressure to be uncomfortably thin. Hyperventilation and feinting is common when they come on board non-Novayan starships. Interesting times those.
To the authorities in England, the First Great Awakening was an attack against King and Country, a rebellion in thought if not in deed. They tried to silence the traveling preachers, to force them to give up on their foolish ideas. Many pastors died when they were lynched by religious mobs, or were hung by British courts. My family stayed out of the line of fire, preferring to do business and make money. But increased taxes and trade restrictions hurt even us.
The Indian worlds are unique. They’re part of the British Commonwealth, but not part of the Western Alliance. Makes for real interesting politics. They’ve remained neutral in matters between the Big Three alliances for instance, maintaining their official pacifism. Gandhi would be proud. Of course, they still have one of the larger militaries out there. They may not want to start a fight, but they will, by all of their gods, finish one that some other idiot starts.
The people of Novaya Rodina have spent centuries slowly diverging from the rest of humanity. Between the early genetic screening and later planned and unplanned genetic manipulation, the change has been pronounced. The first difference that most people notice is that the Novayans are far stronger than other humans. They spend their lives fighting Novayan gravity, which gives them endurance and strength that few who grew on lesser worlds ever achieve.