WI: Mongol India?

What if Genghis Kahn, instead of pushing West, pushed South into India. Could the Mongols meet success in the terrain of India? If so how would Mongol rule change the culture of the area? What would any Mongol successor states in India look like?
 
One of the first obstacles would be the terrain, which is very tropical.This could cause many diseases such as Malaria to spread. But it could be a fertile place for income.If under Mongol control India would be a hotspot.
 
I feel like they perhaps could in the northern and western portions of the Indo-Gangetic Plains but would have trouble elsewhere unless they break into the Deccan Plateau
 
Just a generation ago, in 1192, the Mohammedans had also been strangers and newcomers in tropical India. They had come, stayed and conquered.

What stopped Mongols from following to do the same?
 

Kaze

Banned
There was a Mongol India under Genghis' descendant - Babur. If Babur could be successful, who is to say Genghis would not succeed in the conquest of India? The problem Genghis had was he had a dream - reaching the Far western sea, India did not factor in it.
 
There was a Mongol India under Genghis' descendant - Babur. If Babur could be successful, who is to say Genghis would not succeed in the conquest of India? The problem Genghis had was he had a dream - reaching the Far western sea, India did not factor in it.

More systematic use of Gunpowder weapons by Babur.
 
I feel like they perhaps could in the northern and western portions of the Indo-Gangetic Plains but would have trouble elsewhere unless they break into the Deccan Plateau

Could they take areas like Gujarat, Punjab, Kashmir and as far as Bengal along with possibly Nepal?

If so, could the Mongols then go through north Burma linking up with the rest of the Mongol Empire via the recently conquered Dali Kingdom?
 
Mongols had tried to attack India multiple times. But it is true that their major force was in the West. North India was most united in this time under the Sultans of Delhi, who held considerable power. But there was usually much dispute within the royal family. Suppose that causes a civil war.Other kingdom also begin waging wars against each other. That lasts a considerable time, several years. Then, the Mongols could attack through the western frontier of India.
13763506_f520.jpg

 
A Mongol invasion of India is not only possible but in fact a historical oddity, one which I am surprised that lasted until the Khalji dynasty in the 1300s. If Genghis had appointed a more able commander like Ogedei or Baychu Noyan or even postponed it till he could have dedicated more tumens to fight the fleeing Jalal ad-Din we might have seen the Mongols at least making inroads as for as modern day Gwalior and Badaun. In fact they did install a Kashmiri protectorate, one which actually allowed Buddhism to flourish in the region once again despite constant vandalism by local Sultans made upon temples.

And what is even more surprising is that if Jalal ad-Din was crushed at the Battle of the Indus rather than successfully fording it, Genghis’ opposition would have been the ilk of Muhammad bin Tughlaq and Firuz Tughlaq, both pitiful commanders and even worse military administrators. Even though Muhammad had made the foresight of mongol invasion he literally tried to make Delhi, the largest and most prestigious of the Sultanates scities into a ghost town and marched them hundreds of miles into the Deccan into a barely functioning city before marching them back.

Had Genghis survived at least half a decade longer than he did or if Ogedei had managed to inherit a more stable realm Mongol India would have been an inevitability.
 
Last edited:
Top