My point about the Mughals is that while the empire itself existed for hundreds of years, it did not cover the whole of the continent for hundreds of years. Your points about China is a good one though.

I do feel like you've missed my overall point however, so I'll explain it more clearly. India was not a homogenous entity when Europeans arrived there. It was a bunch of different people all slammed together by foreign empires. The Mughals were as foreign to a Mysorean or Bengali as the British were. We as westerners (meaning your average Redditor, I don't know you specifically) would do well to imagine them as complexly as they deserve.