Flocculencio
Donor
How could one arrange for the Mongols to turn south after defeating Kwarizm instead of going due west? The problem, as I see it, is that when the Mughals went for India they were thoroughly Islamicized, and had picked up the religious hang-ups of converts to Abrahamic creeds; but their Mongol predecessors were pragmatic to a fault when it came to religion, and only cared for political submission. Could one have a gradual Mongol conquest of the Indian subcontinent mirrorring that of China to the east? Then, when the Mongol empire breaks up, India would remain under a single ruler (who would in all likelihood convert to Hinduism). An added bonus would be that, since conquest of the subcontinent would take decades, in the meantime the southern kingdoms could expand seaward in an attempt to boost revenue so as to fund their defence.
This is the thing- getting the Mongols into India. IOTL this took quite a bit of time since forcing the Khyber pass is actually quite hard with a horse archer army- if you were a Mongol Khan, after crushing Khwarazem the next logical target is Baghdad which is at least a relatively easy sweep across the Iranian plateau and then down into Mesopotamia. India has a harder shell.