Would US readers be interested in an alternate history novel based in India?

I think your novel sounds interesting. Someone already mentioned this but most people here (U.S.) don't know much about Indian history. But I think for it to catch on it would have to be a interesting story. Not that the history of your country or any other country is boring, but you can get away with selling a book about U.S. history because people in the U.S. will deal with that. But I think for your book to catch on in the states it will probably need to be a very interesting story or an interesting take on India's history. And from the short description you wrote about your book it sounds pretty interesting so I don't see why it wouldn't catch on. But you know your book so in the end it's going to be up to you to decide but remember while there definitely is work involved to get your book in the kindle store, once it's uploaded it's forever. So I would say give it a try, and I hope whatever you decide to do works out for you. Good luck

I'd say yes, and I offer Steven Pressfield's books as evidence. Also Bernard Cornwell's Richard Sharpe books which are set in India. While many are ignorant of history, there are sufficient numbers who are conversant and would jump at such a book. [Edit: Also Forster's Passage to India.]

Perhaps one could use Afghanistan, which everybody knows about now, as a lead-in promotion and blurb. Maybe start with the destruction of Elphinstone's army? That might grab folks more than Mughals they don't know about.

I know Kipling wouldn't exist in your alternative history, but the following has to fit somewhere in such a book and might key off current awareness of Afghanistan:

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Rudyard Kipling- The Young British Soldier

Thanks a ton everyone for the ideas and suggestions. First of all, I will publish this one on the Kindle- that was a decision which your reactions certainly helped shape. Also, based on your suggestions and some I got on the Amazon boards, I'll do a couple of things:

1. Include a historical note so that any interested reader can get some more background
2. Include a glossary for translations of local terms esp. Mughal military/administrative units since the book is primarily a military thriller set in the period

Also, thanks for some great suggestions on how to make American readers relate more to the theme. Several ideas came to mind:

1. Today the US accounts for more than 25% of Global GDP. In the 1700s, another power accounted for about 23% of Global GDP. That power was what we know today as India under the Mughal Empire.
2. The Mughal Empire looked powerful but had several weaknesses that caused it to rot at the core:
- It got caught up in several of it's own `wars on terror' against the Sikhs and Marathas which had no clear end point. To the Mughals, these were punitive expeditions to get taxes- but to the locals, they became wars of liberation- and these sapped away resources and morale.
- A familiar enemy- the Mughals were blindsided by the threat from Afghan raiders- till the capital Delhi itself was sacked. There was a Mughal Army in Kabul- but it was headed by the most corrupt Prince, and did little to enforce Mughal rule, and chose (perhaps wisely) to not try and do much outside of the city of Kabul. The rest of Afghanistan remained a wild land.
3. Being so internally focused that they totally ignored the threat posed by the British. A turning point was in 1757 when a small force of the East India Company defeated the Nawab of Bengal in a battle over trading privileges. That was the first time the British started dreaming of conquest in India. If the Mughal Empire had intervened in that battle, history would have been very different.

I guess every empire in history, from the Romans to the Mughals to the British after WWII and perhaps the US in modern times suffers similar contradictions and pressures, and if I can weave those threads into the historical note, should hopefully make it more relatable to Western readers.

Thanks a ton folks- now on to the writing!

cheers
Mainak