The trick is changing Indian political science. The reason none of the Indian Empires managed to create a sense of nationhood, so to speak, is that they weren't centralised polities like Rome or China. Essentially an Indian Empire consisted of the domains ruled directly by the Emperor and lots and lots of vassal kingdoms and decentralised provinces (where governors ruled essentially as local kings). This sort of setup means that the moment you get a few weak emperors in a row everyone breaks away. The relationship to the centre was always one of vassalage, not one of a divine right to rule, so to speak. In China when a dynasty fell there was always a sense that it had to be replaced by a single centralised power not lots of local powers which meant that everyone with an army to back him fought not to maintain independence but to subjugate all the other contenders.