Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 427

Chapter 427: Peter’s Travels Part (2/2) (Big) Chapter 427: Peter’s Travels Part (2/2) (Big) 25th January 1657 Dakshin Bharatiya Empire, Cholapuri State, Tanjavur City Peter, along with his group of delegates from Russia, arrived at the cultural and educational capital of Cholapuri, Thanjavur.

Roaming around the streets, Peter marvelled at how consistent the infrastructure of this empire was.

Along the way, he passed by multiple large temples, which intrigued him because he did not understand why there were temples on every street.

On top of all that, these temples were aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

It was not like Peter had not come into contact with other indigenous faith systems because that was false.

There was a minority of people in the Russian Empire who still practised the Indigenous Slavic faith systems, and he knew that there was some similarity between the Hinduism of the Bharatiya Empire and the shamanistic belief systems of the Indigenous Slavic people.  Hence, he somewhat understood how the practice of Hinduism worked, but he still felt intrigued since Hinduism has an almost uncountable number of gods, which is an outlier even among pluralistic faiths like Celtic paganism, Greek polytheism, Roman polytheism, Slavic paganism, Egyptian polytheism, Baltic paganism, and Finnish paganism.

Even among all these pluralistic and paganistic beliefs, Peter found that Hinduism is the most different from all.

He does not know why.

Maybe if he delves deeper into Hinduism, he might know, but being part of the royal family of Orthodox Christianity, he does not want to get into the muddy waters of religion.

___ Bharatiya Institute of Technology, Tanjavur On the outskirts of Tanjavur City, near the banks of the Kaveri River, a large university stands tall with a height of nearly 50 meters, and the campus spans a total area of nearly five square kilometres.

The university is decked out with all the educational infrastructure one could wish for, including machine tools, the latest laboratory equipment, and even a water wheel, which is used to power the machinery that keeps the mechanical department running.

The university management system is quite modern, as it is similar to the universities of the future, with all the fundamental facilities required for human habitation for a long time.

All the BIT universities do not allow their students to attend the university from home.

On the contrary, all the students have to stay in the dormitories of the university.

For this reason, beside the university complex that looks like the White House of the United States from the past timeline, there are two large apartment complexes, each located on polar opposite sides of the university complex, and each one of the apartments, spanning five floors in height and hundreds of meters in width, are the dormitory complexes for male and female students respectively.

There is one more complex, a smaller one at the edge of the campus, which is the supermarket, containing all the necessities the students, as well as the teachers, could need.

Currently, since it is the time of graduation, the university is bustling with activity.

Students, around the age of 16 to 24, are adorned in modern Bharatiya clothes, which is an updated version of sherwani and an updated version of Chhuti Dhar, around the campus, fully representing the beauty of youth and vigour.

The students are pretty excited as they are about to graduate, and they have already procured job opportunities from the government itself.

This is a good year for the students since they are graduating at a time when the government is almost starving for talent as the empire has been drastically expanded by almost 100 percent.

For this reason, although reluctant, Educational Minister Raghavendra Bhatt had to lower the requirements for graduating students, which led to almost 80% of students graduating from the universities.

Due to this, many unqualified students received degrees in a short amount of time, which drastically reduced the quality of graduates in the empire.

Fortunately, the measure of talent and hard work was still present in the form of a unified exam held by the ENEC commission.

The commission, responsible for elections, nobility, and examinations, became the main criterion for state-owned companies and private employers to search for talent.

Throughout the empire, nearly 80 to 90 thousand students are graduating, which is the highest number ever.  Each student clearing the ENEC centralized exam is given a specific ranking according to their performance.

Ranks 90,000 and below are considered township-level talents, ranks 50,000 and below are considered township-level director-level talents, ranks 30,000 and below are considered city administration-level talents, ranks 10,000 and below are considered city administrative director-level talents, and those ranked below 5,000 are eligible to run various small to medium-scale state-owned factories by themselves.

The ranks 1,000 and below are directly assigned as assistant directors of large state-owned factories of the empire, with an almost guaranteed chance of heading the factory as a director once the senior officer steps down.

If the ranking is below 400, these students are directly taken into various ministries and have a chance to join any executive branch of the government once their working ability is proven.

Although the number of students passing the exam looks large, for a nation spanning 4.5 million square kilometres and a population of 180,000,000 people, it is actually not enough to meet the government’s demand.

For this reason, even individuals who have only passed the senior school examination are being recruited for government jobs, with the only eligibility criterion being the ability to read and write.

“Wonderful!” Peter, having seen all the functionalities of the university in the Bharatiya Empire, was greatly amazed, as he did not expect a university to be run like this, which is completely different from the universities he saw all across Europe.

“I agree, Your Majesty.

It is indeed a marvellous way of education.

Not to mention we Russians, dare I say-even many Western European countries are far behind.” Brezhnev, who initially did not think very highly of the Bharatiya Empire, had completely changed his mind.

Now, in his view, the Bharatiya Empire, in both technology and strength, is no different from Western countries.

“Rather than seeing this as a university, this Institution looks more like a factory that we visited yesterday, which, instead of manufacturing goods, is responsible for producing capable talents for the empire.

This campus is more like a small village that contains all the machinery and ingredients to create capable products for this empire,” Brezhnev said, his eyes a little contemplative as he couldn’t help but imagine, “This one university is capable of turning out nearly 2,000 to 3,000 graduates each semester.

I wonder what the numbers will be when combining all the universities in the nation.” Peter nodded his head, his emotions a little complex.

“By the way, our arrival has been informed, hasn’t it?” Peter asked.

Brezhnev nodded and took out a letter.

“Yes, Your Excellency.

As soon as we stepped into Tanjavur, the guide who came to greet us gave me this appointment letter.

He also said that the management personnel at this university would be ready for our arrival.” Peter was satisfied with the answer but couldn’t help but lament the speed of information transfer within the Bharatiya Empire.

He had only left Coimbatore yesterday and had not stopped anywhere during his travel.

In theory, he should have arrived before the news in a conventional sense, but in the Bharatiya Empire, it seemed that conventional thinking should be thrown out the window, as the news reached the city of Tanjavur and then the Bharatiya Institute of Technology Tanjavur within a few hours after he had made his request at the Coimbatore Municipality Office.

How amazing is that, he even had a hard time wrapping his head around the concept.

___ Bharatiya Institute of Technology Tanjavur, Seminar Hall *Clap!* *Clap!* *Clap!* *Clap!* *Clap!* A steady stream of rhythmic claps rang out in the seminar hall of the Bharatiya Institute of Technology Tanjavur.

“1SB21BE304 Gauri Shankar!” “Congratulations on your graduation!” “1SB21BE305 Harikrishna Belagi!” “Congratulations on your graduation!” The announcer standing on the stage constantly called out the names of the graduating students, and the students, all dressed in traditional Bharatiya attire, stepped onto the stage one by one.

The students, regardless of gender, were all in their graduation robes and wore a pagadi on their heads.

As time passed, the number of students who had not yet received their certificates decreased to single digits.

However, there was no worry on the faces of those students in the single digits, because they knew that they were not the ones who had failed but rather the ones who had done their best.

As expected, when it came to the top-ranking students, the announcer stopped calling out names.

The director of the university, an old man who had been a scientist at the Bharatiya Academy of Civilian Sciences, took the stage to announce the top ten rankers of the semester.

The claps from the students were louder than ever, and there were a few shouts and whistles from the boys’ side, especially from those at the back, who were like wolves howling on a moonlit night.

“Please give a round of applause to the best-performing student of the semester and the valedictorian of your batch, 1SB21PC824, with a ranking of 290, recruited to the Ministry of Finances, Shri Munni Balakrishnan.” *Clap clap clap clap* The sound rose to new heights as a young man, barely in his 20s, slowly made his way to the stage with a confident smile on his face and humbly accepted the certificate as well as the scholarship amounting anywhere from 100 Varaha to 1,000 Varaha, which was given to top-ranking students.

This is a significant amount of money considering that for the topmost rankers of the examination, their scholarship could amount to the annual income of a brigadier general, which is only 1,280 Varaha per annum.

This alone signifies the importance of higher education in the Bharatiya Empire.

___ The director waved his hand, motioning everyone to calm down.

“My dear students, on this auspicious occasion, we have a guest from A distant nation who has come a long way to visit our university.

Please show your hospitality to the guest.” Saying that the director left the spotlight and retreated backstage.

At the same time, as the students looked around from the back of the auditorium, the door opened and a white teenager, who looked taller than most of the people in the auditorium, walked in with curiosity and amazement on his face.

Beside this young man was a middle-aged man who appeared to be a local citizen.

Both of them walked towards the stage.

The students spontaneously got up from their seats and began clapping their hands rhythmically to welcome the guests.

*ClapX3* ClapX3* *Clap* *Clap* *Clap* Peter, who had seen much larger scenes and had spoken to thousands of soldiers at a time, was startled by the sudden and spontaneous sounds of the students.

The sound immediately brought a visual to his mind.

The highly disciplined and synchronized clapping reminded him of an army marching in high unity.

He immediately understood that these students, who were highly disciplined and well-educated, Once put into the military, could make excellent team captains and officers for the army.

Remembering how many such students were produced every quarter, a shiver ran down Peter’s spine.

‘Fortunately, we are not close by, and the enmity between us is highly unlikely,’ he thought, letting out a sigh of relief.

Noticing both sides of the room, Peter asked his guide something that had been bothering him.

“There are so many women sitting here.

Are they all educated?” The guide had a confused expression on his face, as he did not understand what Peter meant.

“Ah, I mean, are they students and graduates of the university too?” Peter decisively rephrased his question, as he had already guessed that the common sense of the Bharatiya people and his own were very different.

“Oh, you mean that?

Yes, all these women sitting here are graduates of the university this semester.” Then, thinking about something, he smiled and replied, “Oh, you asked the prior question because you thought so many women pursuing education is unusual, didn’t you?” Peter nodded, as the man had brought up the topic himself.

The guide smiled, as he had expected this reaction.

“Initially, we all thought so too, but after women were allowed to pursue education just like men, the earnings of a family increased drastically.

Moreover, women performing very well in the war as nurses in the field hospitals caused people’s impressions of them to change little by little.” Peter nodded his head.

“But will this make everyone willing to send their daughters to colleges like this, which are far away from home?” The guide shook his head and explained, “Of course not, Your Highness.

The reason why the university is nearly half filled with women is that the university has a quota of 50% women to fulfil.

Otherwise, the aid the university receives from the government will decrease severely, and the director will be removed.

For this reason, active recruitment and convincing have been taking place, giving women more opportunities.” “Truth be told, a lot of these women will go home, marry, and start families.

However, there is a small minority among these women who stand on their own, join the employment system, and become prominent figures in society.” “I have to say His Majesty’s plans are so forward-looking; he always thinks ahead,” the guide said with a look of reverence on his face.

Peter was still not convinced that letting women into the field of education was such a good thing.

On the other hand, he was not entirely opposed to it either, As he was greatly influenced by his tough and strong sister Sophia Alekseyevna, so his opinion was somewhat neutral.

If the same question were asked of traditional nobles, their answer would be entirely different.

Anyway, by the time this conversation ended, Peter was already on the stage, looking at the students present before him.

“Hello, dear friends.

My name is Pyotr Alekseevich Romanov.

I come from the great nation of Russia, and I have to say, after all, that I have seen, I am greatly impressed by your nation and have a very high regard for your education system.” All the students who listened to the translated message straightened their backs, their faces filled with pride.

“I know we have a language barrier between us, so I will not take too much of your time.

All I have to say is you are all great talents and are welcome to Russia.” “And here I announce that the Class of 1657 is officially graduated, and I wholeheartedly wish you all the best in your future endeavours.” “May the light of the Lord shine upon you.” Thinking about something, Peter added, “May the Lord you believe in make your journey smooth and safe.” “Thank you for your time.

Thank you.” Saying that Peter got off the stage, and loud cheers quickly erupted from the students, who spontaneously took out their pagadis and threw them up in the air.

Peter was initially startled, thinking that these students were throwing their hats at him out of dissatisfaction, but he was soon informed by the guide that this was a form of celebration done after graduation, introduced by His Majesty Vijay Devaraya himself.

Peter was becoming increasingly curious about this emperor, who was not too far from his own age, and he was looking forward to meeting the man.

P.S.

Thank You DaoSlayer, for the IceCola CREATORS’ THOUGHTS Mithun_ReddyGaru Like it ?

Add to library！