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I hope the title's not too deceptive, but from a historical viewpoint, while both China and India have had long periods of both division and unification, the former tends more towards one or at most a few states while the other tends significantly towards division.

However, is there a way to reverse this? Not necessarily using the same point of divergence for both scenarios, but could there be the emergence of a consistent pattern of dynasties in India in the way that there was a pattern of dynasties in China? That is, after the fall of a major dynasty that controls India, the next dynasty that manages to emerge also manages to control all or most of the subcontinent? What would it take in order to make a unified, centralized empire the norm in Indian governance?

Likewise, how is it possible to get China as consistently divided as possible? In Chinese history, one can point to the Qin, Han, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties as examples of how China (or roughly all of China) was ruled by one dynasty. Would there be a way to remove most of those? How could China's history be consistently more like the Warring States Period, yet also hold for the occasional unification of the country as a whole?

For the sake of the challenge, could both parts of the challenge be accomplished after Chandragupta Maurya forms the Mauryan Empire?
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