No Islamic conquest of the Subcontinent

[aware of emptiness]

What if India was able to repel the Islamic invasions? Some say that it could have if it was unified at the time (although it hadn't since the Mauryan dynasty fell), and like China, which had less of a problem dealing with the Muslim central Asian invaders.

 

[Keenir]

What if India was able to repel the Islamic invasions? Some say that it could have if it was unified at the time

I find that doubtful....Persia and Byzantium were each unified at the time of the initial invasions, and neither did particularly well against them.

(although it hadn't since the Mauryan dynasty fell), and like China, which had less of a problem dealing with the Muslim central Asian invaders.

China bribed the Central Asians to keep out...and even then, it didn't always work.

 

[Abdul Hadi Pasha]

I find that doubtful....Persia and Byzantium were each unified at the time of the initial invasions, and neither did particularly well against them.




China bribed the Central Asians to keep out...and even then, it didn't always work.

I think in the case of Persia and Byzantium, timing was the issue - both had just been devastated by an incredibly long, brutual war - either should have been able to easily handle the initial Muslim expansion. India on the other hand, had to face the full brunt of an invasion by a huge Islamic-Mongol empire.

 

[carlton_bach]

I think the key would be a religious or sociological change. It's a matter of the exclusivity mechanism. If a Hindu power defeats a Muslim power, it gains a client state until the next round. If a Muslim power conquers a Hindu power, that is a victory for the True Faith and conversions are expected to ensue. After all, the Muslim conquest of (much of) India wasn't a matter of overrun and hold, it was a slow process lasting from the 700s to the 1500s.

 

[Ran Exilis]

I think the key would be a religious or sociological change. It's a matter of the exclusivity mechanism. If a Hindu power defeats a Muslim power, it gains a client state until the next round. If a Muslim power conquers a Hindu power, that is a victory for the True Faith and conversions are expected to ensue. After all, the Muslim conquest of (much of) India wasn't a matter of overrun and hold, it was a slow process lasting from the 700s to the 1500s.

Indeed.

...the muslim conquest of India can roughly be divided in three "episodes";
The first episode was the initial Arab raids, of which the successful raid of Mohalib bin Aby-Suffra in 664 AD is a good example, and the first real Arab muslim invasion under Muhammad bin Qasim Al-Thaqafi, who took Sind, Multan and the Punjab between 710 and 715 AD.

The second episode was the invasion of Islamized Turkish tribes that established many local states and dynasties,
of which the Ghaznavid empire and the Sultanate of Delhi are good examples.

And the third episode is, of course, the Mughal Empire, which was founded by Zahid ud-Din Babur when he conquered large parts of northern India between 1526 and 1530, and the empire he established survived (at least nominally) until 1857.

...and because the muslim conquest of India is such a complex development,
avoiding it will take a lot more than just a POD that turns the tide of a single battle in the favour of the Hindu's.

My guess is that the most propable way to avoid long-lasting muslim dominance in India,
is to prevent the Turkish muslim tribes from successfully invading India.

That is, if also manage to avoid the Mughal invasion as well...