Honestly, India probably becomes a much larger geopolitical player because modern Indian geopolitics are so Pakistan-focused. Which makes sense, hostile neighbors with nuclear weapons tend to take your mind off of other things. No matter how much of an internal ****show India is, Indian diplomacy is going to look very different with essentially no major geopolitical threats.
A common AH trope is a Sino-Indian war, but it's hard to see a sustained conflict just because India and China don't really border each other. The Himalayas are very difficult to pass and the vast majority of deaths in the Sino-Indian War were from frostbite. Historically, Sino-Indian cultural contact has taken place through Central Asia or Southeast Asia. So yeah, India's only real neighbors are Burma, Afghanistan, Iran, and Sri Lanka.
A common AH trope is a Sino-Indian war, but it's hard to see a sustained conflict just because India and China don't really border each other. The Himalayas are very difficult to pass and the vast majority of deaths in the Sino-Indian War were from frostbite. Historically, Sino-Indian cultural contact has taken place through Central Asia or Southeast Asia. So yeah, India's only real neighbors are Burma, Afghanistan, Iran, and Sri Lanka.