Singh Is King — Flash Game Brings Humor to Indian Political Issues

He's smarter than your average PM — that's the tagline for an Indian Flash game called Singh Is King, whose cartoonish graphics and simple, runner-game mechanics harbor some dark moments in Indian politics.

Singh Is King is one of thousands of casual games that have exploded out of India's burgeoning game industry. Although they lack the resources to compete at the AAA console-gaming level, Indian developers have prodigiously populated portals like Games2Win.com with every conceivable take on Indian culture. There are arranged marriage games, Bollywood games, and an entire genre of games based around India's obsession with cricket.

Singh Is King puts players in control of the country's Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh. Chased by political opponents threatening to scoop the PM up in a bulldozer's bucket, Singh must leap political hurdles (literally) and slide beneath others in a mad dash for political cover.

Though the game's mechanics are incredibly simple, the game is worth a playthrough. The sliding move is surprisingly fun and has a good feel to it.

Singh Is King's charm and goofball mood belies the black humor behind the game's obstacles. There's the obvious, such as a grinning President Bush floating in air with an outstretched arm, but there are also references to the PM's frequent clashes with India's communist party, the CPI, as well as India's failure to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Perhaps the darkest token, however, are the Indian farmers that Singh is occasionally forced to leap. In 2003 alone, more than 17,000 farmers committed suicide in India, swallowing pesticides to avoid the shame of debt and family financial ruin brought on by an agricultural economic crisis. The issue became a political fulcrum in India and actually contributed to the ouster of the government that preceded Singh. Continued increases in despair and suicide among the nation's farmers also threatened Singh's administration.

The game's farmer sprites also touch on growing dissatisfaction among Indian voters with American multinational companies that sell expensive, genetically modified seeds to rural farms. The high price of the crop seeds, such as those used to grow cotton with less pesticides, pushed farmers to take on ever-larger loans, putting them further in debt. In 2006, more than 40% of the nation's agricultural workers said they'd quit farming if they could.

Singh Is King is, therefore, worth a look on two fronts. It's a reasonable way to pass a few errant minutes and gives a peek at how politics are penetrating game culture around the world.