South Asia

South Asiais the southernsubregionofAsiathat is defined in both geographical andethnic-culturalterms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's population. As commonly conceptualised, the modernstatesof South Asia includeBangladesh,Bhutan,India, theMaldives,Nepal,Pakistan, andSri Lanka, withAfghanistanalso often included, which may otherwise be classified as part ofCentral Asia.South Asia bordersEast Asiato the northeast, Central Asia to the northwest,West Asiato the west andSoutheast Asiato the east. Apart from Southeast Asia,Maritime South Asiais the only subregion of Asia that lies partly within theSouthern Hemisphere. TheBritish Indian Ocean Territoryand two out of26 atollsof the Maldives in South Asia lie entirely within theSouthern Hemisphere. Topographically, it is dominated by theIndian subcontinentand is bounded by theIndian Oceanin the south, and theHimalayas,Karakoram, andPamir Mountainsin the north.
Settled lifeemerged on the Indian subcontinent in the western margins of theIndus RiverBasin9,000 years ago, evolving gradually into theIndus Valley Civilisationof the third millennium BCE.By 1200BCE, anarchaic formofSanskrit, anIndo-European language, haddiffusedinto India from the northwest,with theDravidian languagesbeing supplanted in the northern and western regions.By 400BCE,stratificationandexclusionbycastehad emerged withinHinduism,andBuddhismandJainismhad arisen, proclaimingsocial ordersunlinked to heredity.
In the early medieval era,Christianity,Islam,Judaism, andZoroastrianismbecame established on South Asia's southern and western coasts.Muslim armies from Central Asia intermittently overran the plains of northern India,eventually founding theDelhi Sultanatein the 13th century, and drawing the region into the cosmopolitannetworks of medieval Islam.The IslamicMughal Empire, in 1526, ushered in two centuries of relative peace,leaving a legacy of luminous architecture.Gradually expandingrule of the British East India Companyfollowed, turning most of South Asia into a colonial economy, but also consolidating itssovereignty.British Crown rulebegan in 1858. The rights promised to Indians were granted slowly,buttechnological changeswere introduced, and modern ideas of education and the public life took root.In 1947 the British Indian Empire waspartitionedinto two independentdominions,a Hindu-majorityDominion of Indiaand a Muslim-majorityDominion of Pakistan, amid large-scale loss of life and an unprecedented migration.The 1971Bangladesh Liberation War, aCold Warepisode resulting inEast Pakistan's secession,was the most recent instance of a new nation being formed in the region.
South Asia has a total area of 5.2 million sq.km (2 million sq.mi), which is 10% of the Asian continent.The population of South Asia is estimated to be 2.04 billionor about one-fourth of the world's population, making it both themost populousand themost densely populatedgeographical region in the world.
In 2022, South Asia had the world's largest populations ofHindus,Muslims,Sikhs, Jains, and Zoroastrians.South Asia alone accounts for 90.47% of Hindus, 95.5% of Sikhs, and 31% of Muslims worldwide, as well as 35 millionChristiansand 25 million Buddhists.
TheSouth Asian Association for Regional Cooperation(SAARC) is an economic cooperation organisation in the region which was established in 1985 and includes all the nations comprising South Asia.
The geographical extent is not clear cut as systemic and foreign policy orientations of its constituents are quite asymmetrical.Beyond the core territories of the Indian Empire (territories of the British Empire which were under the system of British Raj), there is a high degree of variation as to which other countries are included in South Asia.There is no clear boundary – geographical, geopolitical, socio-cultural, economical, or historical – between South Asia and other parts of Asia, especially Southeast Asia and West Asia.Most of this region is peninsular, resting on theIndian Plateand being isolated from the rest of Asia by mountain barriers;it resembles a diamond which is delineated by the Himalayas on the north, theHindu Kushin the west, and theArakanesein the east,and which extends southward into the Indian Ocean with theArabian Seato the southwest and theBay of Bengalto the southeast.
The common definition of South Asia is largely inherited from the administrative boundaries of the Indian Empire,with several exceptions. The current territories ofBangladesh,India, and Pakistan which were the core territories of theBritish Empirefrom 1857 to 1947 also form the core territories of South Asia.The mountain countries ofNepalandBhutan, two independent countries that were not under the British Raj but were protectorates of the Empire,and theisland countriesof Sri Lanka and the Maldives are generally included.By various definitions based on substantially different reasons, theBritish Indian Ocean Territoryand theTibet Autonomous Regionmay be included as well.Myanmar(Burma), a former British colony and now largely considered a part of Southeast Asia, is also sometimes included.Afghanistanis also included by some sources.
TheSouth Asian Association for Regional Cooperation(SAARC), a contiguous block of countries, started in 1985 with seven countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka – and admitted Afghanistan as an eighth member in 2007.China and Myanmar have also applied for the status of full members of SAARC.TheSouth Asia Free Trade Agreementadmitted Afghanistan in 2011.
TheWorld BankandUnited Nations Children's Fund(UNICEF) recognises the eight SAARC countries as South Asia,TheHirschman–Herfindahl indexof theUnited Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacificfor the region excludes Afghanistan from South Asia.Population Information Network (POPIN) excludes Maldives which is included as a member Pacific POPIN subregional network.The United Nations Statistics Division'sscheme of subregions, for statistical purpose,includesIranalong with all eight members of the SAARC as part ofSouthern Asia.
The terms "Indian subcontinent" and "South Asia" are sometimes used interchangeably.The Indian subcontinent is largely a geological term referring to the land mass that drifted northeastwards from ancientGondwana, colliding with the Eurasian plate nearly 55 million years ago, towards the end of Palaeocene. This geological region largely includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.Historians Catherine Asher and Cynthia Talbot state that the term "Indian subcontinent" describes a natural physical landmass in South Asia that has been relatively isolated from the rest of Eurasia.
The use of the termIndian subcontinentbegan in the British Empire, and has been a term particularly common in its successors.South Asia as the preferred term is particularly common when scholars or officials seek to differentiate this region from East Asia.According to historiansSugata BoseandAyesha Jalal, the Indian subcontinent has come to be known as South Asia "in more recent and neutral parlance."This "neutral" notion refers to the concerns of Pakistan and Bangladesh, particularly given the recurring conflicts between India and Pakistan, wherein the dominant placement of "India" as a prefix before the subcontinent might offend some political sentiments.However, in Pakistan, the term "South Asia" is considered too India-centric and was banned until 1989 after the death ofZia ul Haq.This region has also been labelled as "India" (in its classical andpre-modernsense) and "Greater India".
According to Robert M. Cutler – a scholar of political science atCarleton University, the terms South Asia, Southwest Asia, and Central Asia are distinct, but the confusion and disagreements have arisen due to the geopolitical movement to enlarge these regions into Greater South Asia,Greater Southwest Asia, andGreater Central Asia. The frontier of Greater South Asia, states Cutler, between 2001 and 2006 has been geopolitically extended to eastern Iran and western Afghanistan in the west, and in the north to northeastern Iran, northern Afghanistan, and southernUzbekistan.
Identification with a South Asian identity was found to be significantly low among respondents in an older two-year survey across Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
The history of core South Asia begins with evidence of human activity ofHomo sapiens,as long as 75,000 years ago, or with earlier hominids includingHomo erectusfrom about 500,000 years ago.The earliest prehistoric culture have roots in the mesolithic sites as evidenced by the rock paintings ofBhimbetka rock sheltersdating to a period of 30,000 BCE or older,as well as neolithic times.
TheIndus Valley civilisation, which spread and flourished in thenorthwestern partof South Asia fromc.3300to 1300 BCE in present-dayPakistan,North India, andAfghanistan, was the first major civilisation in South Asia.A sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture developed in theMature Harappanperiod, from 2600 to 1900 BCE.According to anthropologistPossehl, the Indus Valley civilisation provides a logical, if somewhat arbitrary, starting point for South Asian religions, but these links from the Indus religion to later-day South Asian traditions are subject to scholarly dispute.
The Vedic period, named after the Vedic religion of theIndo-Aryans,lasted fromc.1900to 500 BCE.The Indo-Aryans wereIndo-European-speaking pastoralistswho migrated into north-western India after the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization.Linguistic and archaeological data show a cultural change after 1500 BCE,with the linguistic and religious data showing links with Indo-European languages and religion.By about 1200 BCE, the Vedic culture and agrarian lifestyle were established in the northwest and northern Gangetic plain of South Asia.Rudimentary state-forms appeared, of which theKuru-Pañcāla union was the most influential.The first recordedstate-level societyin South Asia existed around 1000 BCE.In this period, states Samuel, emerged the Brahmana and Aranyaka layers of Vedic texts, which merged into the earliest Upanishads.These texts began to ask the meaning of a ritual, adding increasing levels of philosophical and metaphysical speculation,or "Hindu synthesis".
Increasing urbanisation of South Asia between 800 and 400 BCE, and possibly the spread of urban diseases, contributed to the rise of ascetic movements and of new ideas which challenged the orthodoxBrahmanism.These ideas led toSramanamovements, of which Mahavira (c.549–477 BCE), proponent ofJainism, andBuddha(c.563– c.483), founder ofBuddhism, was the most prominent icons.
The Greek army led byAlexander the Greatstayed in theHindu Kushregion of South Asia for several years and then later moved into the Indus valley region. Later, theMaurya Empireextended over much of South Asia in the 3rd century BCE. Buddhism spread beyond south Asia, through northwest into Central Asia. TheBamiyan Buddhasof Afghanistan and theedicts of Aśokasuggest that the Buddhist monks spread Buddhism (Dharma) in eastern provinces of theSeleucid Empire, and possibly even farther into West Asia.The Theravada school spread south from India in the 3rd century BCE, to Sri Lanka, later to Southeast Asia.Buddhism, by the last centuries of the 1st millennium BCE, was prominent in the Himalayan region, Gandhara, Hindu Kush region, and Bactria.
From about 500 BCE through about 300 CE, the Vedic-Brahmanic synthesis or "Hindu synthesis" continued.Classical Hindu and Sramanic (particularly Buddhist) ideas spread within South Asia, as well as outside South Asia.TheGupta Empireruled over a large part of the region between the 4th and 7th centuries, a period that saw the construction of major temples, monasteries and universities such as theNalanda.During this era, and through the 10th century, numerous cave monasteries and temples such as theAjanta Caves,Badami cave temples, andEllora Caveswere built in South Asia.
Islam came as a political power in the fringe of South Asia in 8th century CE when the Arab generalMuhammad bin QasimconqueredSindh, andMultanin southern Punjab, in modern-day Pakistan.By 962 CE, Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms in South Asia were under a wave of raids from Muslim armies from Central Asia.Among them wasMahmud of Ghazni, who raided and plundered kingdoms in north India from east of the Indus river to west of Yamuna river seventeen times between 997 and 1030.Mahmud of Ghazni raided the treasuries but retracted each time, only extending Islamic rule into western Punjab.
The wave of raids on north Indian and western Indian kingdoms by Muslim warlords continued after Mahmud of Ghazni, plundering and looting these kingdoms.The raids did not establish or extend permanent boundaries of their Islamic kingdoms. The Ghurid SultanMu'izz al-Din Muhammadbegan a systematic war of expansion into North India in 1173.He sought to carve out a principality for himself by expanding the Islamic world,and thus laid the foundation for the Muslim kingdom that became theDelhi Sultanate.Some historians chronicle the Delhi Sultanate from 1192 due to the presence and geographical claims of Mu'izz al-Din in South Asia by that time.
The Delhi Sultanate covered varying parts of South Asia and was ruled by a series of dynasties: Mamluk, Khalji, Tughlaq, Sayyid, and Lodi dynasties.Muhammad bin Tughlaqcame to power in 1325, launched a war of expansion and the Delhi Sultanate reached it largest geographical reach over the South Asian region during his 26-year rule.A Sunni Sultan, Muhammad bin Tughlaq persecuted non-Muslims such as Hindus, as well as non-Sunni Muslims such as Shia and Mahdi sects.
Revolts against the Delhi Sultanate sprang up in many parts of South Asia during the 14th century.In the northeast, theBengal Sultanatebecame independent in 1346 CE. It remained in power through the early 16th century. The state religion of the sultanate was Islam.InSouth India, the HinduVijayanagara Empirecame to power in 1336 and persisted until the middle of the 16th century. It was ultimately defeated and destroyed by an alliance of the MuslimDeccan sultanatesat theBattle of Talikota.
About 1526, the Punjab governor Dawlat Khan Lodī reached out to the MughalBaburand invited him to attack the Delhi Sultanate.Baburdefeated and killed Ibrahim Lodi in theBattle of Panipatin 1526. The death of Ibrahim Lodi ended the Delhi Sultanate, and theMughal Empirereplaced it.
Themodern history periodof South Asia, that is the 16th century onwards, witnessed the establishment of the Mughal Empire, with Sunni Islam theology. The first ruler was Babur hadTurco-Mongol rootsand his realm included the northwestern andIndo-Gangetic Plainregions of South Asia. Several regions of South Asia were largely underHindu kingssuch as those of the Vijayanagara Empire and theKingdom of Mewar.Parts of modernTelanganaandAndhra Pradeshwere under local Muslim rulers, namely those of the Deccan sultanates.
The Mughal Empire continued its wars of expansion after Babur's death. With the fall of the Rajput kingdoms and Vijayanagara, its boundaries encompassed almost the entirety of the Indian subcontinent.The Mughal Empire was marked by a period of artistic exchanges and a Central Asian and South Asian architecture synthesis, with remarkable buildings such as theTaj Mahal.
However, this time also marked an extended period ofreligious persecution.Two of the religious leaders ofSikhism,Guru Arjan, andGuru Tegh Bahadurwere arrested under orders of the Mughal emperors after their revolts and were executed when they refused to convert to Islam.Religious taxes on non-Muslims calledjizyawere imposed. Buddhist, Hindu, and Sikh temples were desecrated. However, not all Muslim rulers persecuted non-Muslims.Akbar, a Mughal ruler for example, sought religious tolerance and abolished jizya.
The death of Aurangzeb and the collapse of the Mughal Empire, which marks the beginning of modern India, in the early 18th century, provided opportunities for theMarathas,Sikhs,Mysoreans, andNawabs of Bengalto exercise control over large regions of the Indian subcontinent.By the mid-18th century, India was a majorproto-industrializingregion.
Maritime trading between South Asia and European merchants began at the turn of the 16th century after thePortuguese discovery of the sea route to India. British, French, and Portuguese colonial interests struck treaties with these rulers and established their trading ports. In northwestern South Asia, a large region was consolidated into the Sikh Empire byRanjit Singh.After the defeat of theNawab of BengalandTipu Sultanand hisFrench allies,British traderswent on to dominate much of South Asia throughdivide-and-ruletactics by the early 19th century. The region experienced significantde-industrialisationin its first few decades of British rule.Control over the subcontinent was thentransferredto the British government after theIndian Rebellion of 1857, with the British cracking down to some extent afterwards.
An increase of famines and extreme poverty characterised the colonial period, though railways built with British technology eventually provided crucial famine relief by increasing food distribution throughout India.Millions of South Asians began to migratethroughout the world, impelled by the economic/labourneeds and opportunities presented by the British Empire.The introduction ofWestern political thoughtinspired a growing Indian intellectual movement, and so by the 20th century, British rule began to be challenged by theIndian National Congress, which sought full independence under the leadership ofMahatma Gandhi.
Britain, under pressure from Indian freedom fighters, increasingly gave self-rule to British India. By the 1940s, two rival camps had emerged among independence activists: those whofavored a separate nationfor Indian Muslims, and those whowanted a united India. AsWorld War IIraged, over 2 million Indians fought for Britain;by the end of the war, Britain was greatly weakened, and thus decided to grant independence to the vast majority of South Asians in 1947,though this coincided with thePartition of Indiainto a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan, which resulted in significant displacement and violence and harder religious divides in the region.
In 1947, the newly independent India and Pakistan had to decide how to deal with the hundreds ofprincely statesthat controlled much of the subcontinent, as well as what to do with the remaining European (non-British) colonies.A combination of referendums, military action, and negotiated accessions took place in rapid succession, leading to the political integration of thevast majority of IndiaandPakistanwithin a few years.
India and Pakistanclashed several timesin the decades after Independence, withdisputes over Kashmirplaying a significant role.In 1971, the eastern half of Pakistan seceded with help from India and became the People's Republic of Bangladesh after the traumaticBangladesh Liberation War.This, along with India and Pakistan gaining nuclear weapons soon afterwards, increased tensions between the two countries.TheCold Wardecades alsocontributed to the divide, as Pakistan aligned with the West and India with theSoviet Union;other factors include the time period after the 1962Sino-Indian War, which saw India and China move apart while Pakistan and China built closer relations.
Pakistan has been beset withterrorism,economic issues, andmilitary dominance of its governmentsince Independence,with none of its Prime Ministers having completed a full 5-year term in office.India has grown significantly,having slashed its rate of extreme poverty to below 20%and surpassed Pakistan's GDP per capita in the 2010s due toeconomic liberalisationfrom the 1980s onward.Bangladesh, having struggled greatly for decades due to conflict with and economic exploitation by Pakistan,is now one of the fastest-growing countries in the region, beating India in terms ofGDP per capita.Afghanistan has gone throughseveral invasionsand Islamist regimes, with many of its refugees having gone to Pakistan and other parts of South Asia and bringing back cultural influences such ascricket.Religious nationalismhas grown across the region,with persecution causing millions of Hindus and Christians to flee Pakistan and Bangladesh,andHindu nationalismhaving grown in India with the election of theBharatiya Janata Partyin 2014.
A recent phenomenon has been that of India and Chinafighting on their border, as well as vying fordominance of South Asia, with China partnering with Pakistan and using its superior economy to attract countries surrounding India, whileAmerica and other countrieshave strengthened ties with India to counter China in the broaderIndo-Pacific.
According to Saul Cohen, early colonial era strategists treated South Asia with East Asia, but in reality, the South Asia region excluding Afghanistan is a distinctgeopoliticalregion separated from other nearby geostrategic realms, one that is geographically diverse.The region is home to a variety of geographical features, such asglaciers,rainforests,valleys,deserts, andgrasslandsthat are typical of much larger continents. It is surrounded by three water bodies – theBay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean and theArabian Sea– and has acutely varied climate zones. The tip of the Indian Peninsula had the highest quality pearls.
Most of this region is resting on theIndian Plate, the northerly portion of theIndo-Australian Plate, separated from the rest of theEurasian Plate. The Indian Plate includes most of South Asia, forming a land mass which extends from theHimalayasinto a portion of the basin under the Indian Ocean, including parts ofSouth Chinaand EasternIndonesia, as well asKunlunandKarakoramranges,and extending up to but not includingLadakh,Kohistan, theHindu Kushrange, andBalochistan.It may be noted thatgeophysicallytheYarlung Tsangpo Riverin Tibet is situated at the outside the border of the regional structure, while thePamir Mountainsin Tajikistan are situated inside that border.
TheIndian subcontinentformerly formed part of thesupercontinentGondwana, before rifting away during theCretaceousperiod and colliding with the Eurasian Plate about 50–55 million years ago and giving birth to theHimalayan rangeand theTibetan plateau. It is thepeninsularregion south of theHimalayasandKuen Lunmountain ranges and east of theIndus Riverand theIranian Plateau, extending southward into the Indian Ocean between the Arabian Sea (to the southwest) and the Bay of Bengal (to the southeast).
The climate of this vast region varies considerably from area to area from tropical monsoon in the south to temperate in the north. The variety is influenced by not only the altitude but also by factors such as proximity to the seacoast and the seasonal impact of themonsoons. Southern parts are mostly hot in summers and receive rain during monsoon periods. The northern belt ofIndo-Gangetic plainsalso is hot in summer, but cooler in winter. The mountainous north is colder and receives snowfall at higher altitudes of Himalayan ranges.
As theHimalayasblock the north-Asian bitter cold winds, the temperatures are considerably moderate in the plains down below. For the most part, the climate of the region is called the monsoon climate, which keeps the region humid during summer and dry during winter, and favours the cultivation ofjute, tea, rice, and various vegetables in this region.
South Asia is largely divided into four broad climate zones:
Maximum relative humidity of over 80% has been recorded inKhasi and Jaintia Hillsand Sri Lanka, while the area adjustment to Pakistan and western India records lower than 20%–30%.Climate of South Asia is largely characterised by monsoons. South Asia depends critically on monsoon rainfall.Two monsoon systems exist in the region:
The warmest period of the year precedes the monsoon season (March to mid June). In the summer the low pressures are centered over theIndus-Gangetic Plainand high wind from the Indian Ocean blows towards the center. The monsoons are the second coolest season of the year because of high humidity and cloud covering. But, at the beginning of June, the jetstreams vanish above theTibetan Plateau, low pressure over theIndus Valleydeepens and theIntertropical Convergence Zone(ITCZ) moves in. The change is violent. Moderately vigorous monsoon depressions form in the Bay of Bengal and make landfall from June to September.
South Asian countries are expected to experience more flooding in the future as the monsoon pattern intensifies.Across Asia as a whole, 100-year extremes in vapour transport (directly related to extreme precipitation) would become 2.6 times more frequent under 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) of global warming, yet 3.9 and 7.5 times more frequent under 2 °C (3.6 °F) and 3 °C (5.4 °F). In parts of South Asia, they could become up to 15 times more frequent.At the same time, up to two-thirds of glacier ice in the Hindu Kush region may melt by 2100 under high warming, and these glaciers feed the water basin of over 220 million people.As glacier meltwater flow diminishes after 2050,Hydropowergeneration would become less predictable and reliable, while agriculture would become more reliant on the intensified monsoon than ever before.Around 2050, people living in theGangesandIndusriver basins (where up to 60% of non-monsoon irrigation comes from the glaciers) may be faced with severe water scarcity due to both climate and socioeconomic reasons.
By 2030, major Indian cities such asMumbai,Kolkata,Cuttack, andKochiare expected to end up with much of their territory below the tide level.In Mumbai alone, failing to adapt to this would result in damages of US$112–162 billion by 2050, which would nearly triple by 2070.Sea level risein Bangladesh will displace 0.9–2.1 million people by 2050 and may force the relocation of up to one third of power plants by 2030.Food securitywill become more uneven, and some South Asian countries could experience significant social impacts from global food price volatility.Infectious diarrhoeamortality anddengue feverincidence is also likely to increase across South Asia.Parts of South Asia would also reach "critical health thresholds" forheat stressunder all but the lowest-emissionclimate change scenarios.Under the high-emission scenario, 40 million people (nearly 2% of the South Asian population) may be driven to internal migration by 2050 due to climate change.
India is estimated to have the world's highestsocial cost of carbon- meaning that it experiences the greatest impact fromgreenhouse gas emissions.Other estimates describe Bangladesh as the country most likely to be the worst-affected.In the 2017 edition ofGermanwatch'sClimate Risk Index, Bangladesh and Pakistan ranked sixth and seventh respectively as the countries most affected by climate change in the period from 1996 to 2015, while India ranked fourth among the list of countries most affected by climate change in 2015.Some research suggests that South Asia as a whole would lose 2% of itsGDPto climate change by 2050, while these losses would approach 9% by the end of the century under the most intense climate change scenario.
Ethnolinguistically,Northern South Asiais predominantlyIndo-Aryan,along withIranic populationsin Afghanistan andBalochistan, and diverse linguistic communities near the Himalayas.Its borders have been heavily contested (primarilybetween Indiaand its neighboursPakistanandChina, as well asseparatist movementsin Northeast India.)This tension in the region has contributed to difficulties in sharing river waters among Northern South Asian countries;climate change is projected to exacerbate the issue.Dominated by theIndo-Gangetic Plain, the region is home to about half a billion people and is the poorest South Asian subregion.
Northwestern South Asiais the site of many of the first civilisations of the world, such as theIndus Valley Civilisation.It was historically the most-conquered region of South Asia because it is the first region that invading armies coming from the west had to cross to enter the Indian subcontinent;because of these many invasions, Northwestern South Asia has significant influences from various sources outside of South Asia, mainly from theMuslim world.
Eastern South AsiaincludesBangladesh(East Bengal),Bhutan,easternandnortheasternparts of India, andNepal. Major Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms and empires of the region includeKikata,Videha,Vṛji,Magadha,Nanda,Gangaridai,Mauryan,Anga,Kalinga,Kamarupa,Samatata,Kanva,Gupta,Pala,Gauda,Sena,Khadga,Candra, andDeva. Geographically, it lies between theEastern Himalayasand theBay of Bengal. Two of the world's largest rivers, theGangesand theBrahmaputra, flow into the sea through theBengal region. The region includes the world's largest delta, theGanges Delta, and has a climate ranging fromalpineandsubalpinetosubtropicalandtropical. Since Nepal, Bhutan, Northeast India and parts of East India arelandlocked, the coastlines of Bangladesh and East India (inWest BengalandOdisha) serve as the principal gateways to the region. With more than 441 million inhabitants, Eastern South Asia is home to 6%of theworld's populationand 25% of South Asia's population.
Southern South AsiaincludesSouth India, theMaldives, andSri Lanka,and is predominantlyDravidian.Southern South Asia was a hub of global trade in ancient times because of its position in the important Indian Ocean corridor.
Historically, governments throughout Southern South Asia adopted Sanskrit for public political expression beginning around 300 CE and ending around 1300, resulting in greater integration into the broaderSouth Asian cultural sphere.This significantly influenced the languages of the region, making all of the major Dravidian languages except for Tamil highlySanskritised.Tamil influence in the region is quite significant, with prominent empires such as theChola dynastytakingTamil cultureto Sri Lanka and beyond South Asia, and Sri Lanka having an ancientTamil minorityand a Dravidian-influenced majority language ofSinhala.
This list includesdependent territorieswithin theirsovereign states(including uninhabited territories), but does not include claims onAntarctica. EEZ+TIA is exclusive economic zone (EEZ) plustotal internal area(TIA) which includes land and internal waters.
The population of South Asia is about 1.938 billion which makes it themost populated regionin the world.It is socially very mixed, consisting of many language groups and religions, and social practices in one region that are vastly different from those in another.
There are numerous languages in South Asia. The spoken languages of the region are largely based on geography and shared across religious boundaries, but the written script is sharply divided by religious boundaries. In particular, Muslims of South Asia such as in Afghanistan and Pakistan use the Arabic alphabet and PersianNastaliq. Till 1952, Muslim-majority Bangladesh (then known as East Pakistan) also mandated only the Nastaliq script, but after that adopted regional scripts and particularly Bengali, after theLanguage Movementfor the adoption of Bengali as the official language of the then East Pakistan. Non-Muslims of South Asia, and some Muslims in India, on the other hand, use scripts such as those derived fromBrahmi scriptfor Indo-European languages and non-Brahmi scripts forDravidian languagesand others.
TheNagari scripthas been theprimus inter paresof the traditional South Asian scripts.TheDevanagariscript is used for over 120 South Asian languages,includingHindi,Marathi,Nepali,Pali,Konkani,Bodo,Sindhi, andMaithiliamong other languages and dialects, making it one of the most used andadopted writing systemsin the world.The Devanagari script is also used for classical Sanskrit texts.
The largest spoken language in this region isHindustani language, followed by Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, and Punjabi.In the modern era, new syncretic languages developed in the region such asUrduthat are used by the Muslim community ofnorthern South Asia(particularly Pakistan and northern states of India).The Punjabi language spans three religions: Islam, Hinduism, and Sikhism. The spoken language is similar, but it is written in three scripts. TheSikhuseGurmukhi alphabet,Muslim PunjabisinPakistanuse the Nastaliq script, whileHindu Punjabisin India use the Gurmukhi orNāgarī script. The Gurmukhi and Nagari scripts are distinct but close in their structure, but the Persian Nastaliq script is very different.
Sino-Tibetanlanguages are spoken across northern belts of the region in theHimalayanareas, often using theTibetan script.These languages are predominantly spoken in Bhutan and Nepal as well as parts of Burma and northern India in the state ofSikkimand theLadakhregion.The national language of Bhutan isDzongkha, whileLepcha,Limbu,Gurung,Magar,Rai,Newari,Tamang,Tshangla,Thakali, andSikkimeseare also spoken in Bhutan, Nepal and Sikkim, andLadakhiis spoken in Ladakh.BothBuddhismandBonare often predominant in areas where these languages are present.Some areas inGilgit-Baltistanalso speakBalti language, however speakers write with theUrdu script.The Tibetan script fell out of use in PakistaniBaltistanhundreds of years ago upon the region's adoption ofIslam
English, with British spelling, is commonly used in urban areas and is a major economiclingua francaof South Asia (see alsoSouth Asian English).
In 2010, South Asia had the world's largest population ofHindus,about 510 millionMuslims,over 27 million Sikhs, 35 million Christians and over 25 millionBuddhists.Hindus make up about 68 per cent or about 900 million and Muslims at 31 per cent or 510 million of the overall South Asia population,while Buddhists, Jains, Christians, and Sikhs constitute most of the rest. The Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, and Christians are concentrated in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan, while the Muslims are concentrated in Afghanistan (99%), Bangladesh (90%), Pakistan (96%), and Maldives (100%).With all major religions practised in the subcontinent, South Asia is known for its religious diversity and one of the most religiously diverse regions on earth.
Indian religionsare the religions that originated in the Indian subcontinent; namelyHinduism,Jainism,Buddhism, andSikhism.The Indian religions are distinct yet share terminology, concepts, goals and ideas, and from South Asia spread into East Asia and southeast Asia.Early Christianity and Islam were introduced into coastal regions of South Asia by merchants who settled among the local populations. LaterSindh,Balochistan, and parts of thePunjab regionsaw conquest by theArab caliphatesalong with an influx of Muslims from Persia and Central Asia, which resulted in spread of both Shia and Sunni Islam in parts of northwestern region of South Asia. Subsequently, under the influence of Muslim rulers of the Islamic sultanates and the Mughal Empire, Islam spread in South Asia.Aboutone-third of the world's Muslims are from South Asia.
South Asia is home to some of the most populated urban areas in the world. According to the 2023 edition ofDemographia World Urban Areas, the region contains 8 of the world's 35 megacities (urban areas over 10 million population):
Ancient migrations into South Asiashaped the region's unique demographics, and later migrations often corresponded with conquest, as with theBritish diaspora in India.
Contemporary immigration to South Asian countries often takes a uniquely regional form; for example, mostmigrants in Indiaare from other South Asian countries,and 97% ofBangladeshi migrants in Indialive in the Bangladesh-bordering regions of India (East IndiaandNortheast India).
Cricketis themost popular sportin South Asia,with 90% of the sport's worldwide fans being in the Indian subcontinent.There are also sometraditional games, such askabaddiandkho-kho, which are played across the region and officially at theSouth Asian GamesandAsian Games;the leagues created for these traditional sports (such asPro Kabaddi LeagueandUltimate Kho Kho) are some of the most-watched sports competitions in the region.
India is the largest economy in the region (US$4.11 trillion) and makes up almost 80% of the South Asian economy; it is theworld's 5th largestin nominal terms and3rd largestby purchasing power adjusted exchange rates (US$14.26 trillion).India is the member ofG-20 major economiesandBRICSfrom the region. It is the fastest-growing major economy in the world and one of the world's fastest registering a growth of 7.2% in FY 2022–23.
India is followed by Bangladesh, which has a GDP of ($446 billion). It has the fastest GDP growth rate in Asia. It is one of the emerging and growth-leading economies of the world, and is also listed among theNext Elevencountries. It is also one of the fastest-growing middle-income countries. It has theworld's 33rd largestGDP in nominal terms and is the25th largestby purchasing power adjusted exchange rates ($1.476 trillion). Bangladesh's economic growth was 6.4% in 2022.The next one is Pakistan, which has an economy of ($340 billion). Next isSri Lanka, which has the 2nd highest GDP per capita and the 4th largest economy in the region. According to aWorld Bankreport in 2015, driven by a strong expansion in India, coupled with favourable oil prices, from the last quarter of 2014 South Asia became the fastest-growing region in the world.
Certain parts of South Asia are significantly wealthier than others; the four Indian states ofMaharashtra,Tamil Nadu,Gujarat, andKarnatakaare projected to account for almost 50% of India's GDP by 2030, while the fiveSouth Indian statescomprising 20% of India's population are expected to contribute 35% of India's GDP by 2030.
According to the World Bank's 2011 report, based on 2005 ICP PPP, about 24.6% of the South Asian population was below the international poverty line of $1.25/day.Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka had the lowest number of people below the poverty line, with 2.4%, 1.5% and 4.1% respectively.
According to the 2023 MPI (multidimensional poverty index) report by the UN, around 20% of South Asians are poor.
51.7% of Afghanistan's population was under the MPI poverty threshold in 2019,while 24.1% of Bangladesh's population was under the threshold in 2021.India lifted 415 million people from MPI-poverty from 2005/06 to 2019/21; 16.4% of India's population was MPI-poor in 2019/2021, compared to 55.1% in 2005/2006.10% of India's population was under the international poverty line of $2.15/day in 2021.
The major stock exchanges in the region areBombay Stock Exchange(BSE) with market Capitalization of $3.5 trillion (10th largest in the world),National Stock Exchange of India(NSE) with market capitalisation of $3.55 trillion (9th largest in the world),Dhaka Stock Exchange(DSE),Colombo Stock Exchange(CSE), andPakistan Stock Exchange(PSX) with market capitalisation of $72 billion.Economic data is sourced from theInternational Monetary Fund, current as of April 2017, and is given in US dollars.
One of the key challenges in assessing the quality of education in South Asia is the vast range of contextual difference across the region, complicating any attempt to compare between countries.In 2018, 11.3 million children at the primary level and 20.6 million children at the lower secondary level were out-of-school in South Asia, while millions of children completed primary education without mastering the foundational skills of basic numeracy and literacy.
According to UNESCO, 241 million children between six and fourteen years or 81 per cent of the total were not learning in Southern and Central Asia in 2017. Only sub-Saharan Africa had a higher rate of children not learning. Two-thirds of these children were in school, sitting in classrooms. Only 19% of children attending primary and lower secondary schools attain a minimum proficiency level in reading and mathematics.According to a citizen-led assessment, only 48% in Indian public schools and 46% of children in Pakistan public schools could read a class two level text by the time they reached class five.This poor quality of education in turn has contributed to some of the highest drop-out rates in the world, while over half of the students complete secondary school with acquiring requisite skills.
In South Asia, classrooms are teacher-centred and rote-based, while children are often subjected to corporal punishment and discrimination.Different South Asian countries have different education structures. While by 2018 India and Pakistan has two of the most developed and increasingly decentralised education systems, Bangladesh still had a highly centralised system, and Nepal is in a state of transition from a centralised to a decentralised system.In most South Asian countries children's education is theoretically free; the exceptions are the Maldives, where there is no constitutionally guaranteed free education, as well as Bhutan and Nepal, where fees are charged by primary schools. But parents are still faced with unmanageable secondary financial demands, including private tuition to make up for the inadequacies of the education system.
The larger and poorer countries in the region, like India and Bangladesh, struggle financially to get sufficient resources to sustain an education system required for their vast populations, with an added challenge of getting large numbers of out-of-school children enrolled into schools.Their capacity to deliver inclusive and equitable quality education is limited by low levels of public finance for education,while the smaller emerging middle-income countries like Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Bhutan have been able to achieve universal primary school completion, and are in a better position to focus on quality of education.
Children's education in the region is also adversely affected by natural and human-made crises including natural hazards, political instability, rising extremism and civil strife that makes it difficult to deliver educational services.Afghanistan and India are among the top ten countries with the highest number of reported disasters due to natural hazards and conflict. The precarious security situation in Afghanistan is a big barrier in rolling out education programmes on a national scale.
According to UNICEF, girls face incredible hurdles to pursue their education in the region,while UNESCO estimated in 2005 that 24 million girls of primary-school age in the region were not receiving any formal education.Between 1900 and 2005, most of the countries in the region had shown progress in girls' education with Sri Lanka and the Maldives significantly ahead of the others, while the gender gap in education has widened in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Bangladesh made the greatest progress in the region in the period increasing girls' secondary school enrolment from 13 per cent to 56 per cent in ten years.
With about 21 million students in 700 universities and 40 thousand colleges India had one of the largest higher education systems in the world in 2011, accounting for 86 per cent of all higher-level students in South Asia. Bangladesh (two million) and Pakistan (1.8 million) stood at distant second and third positions in the region. In Nepal (390 thousand) and Sri Lanka (230 thousand) the numbers were much smaller. Bhutan with only one university and Maldives with none hardly had between them about 7000 students in higher education in 2011. The gross enrolment ratio in 2011 ranged from about 10 per cent in Pakistan and Afghanistan to above 20 per cent in India, much below the global average of 31 per cent.
According toWorld Health Organization(WHO), South Asia is home to two out of the three countries in the world still affected by polio, Pakistan and Afghanistan, with 306 & 28 polio cases registered in 2014 respectively.Attempts to eradicate polio have been badly hit by opposition from militants in both countries, who say the program is cover to spy on their operations. Their attacks on immunisation teams have claimed 78 lives since December 2012.
TheWorld Bankestimates that India is one of the highest ranking countries in the world for the number of children suffering frommalnutrition. The prevalence of underweight children in India is among the highest in the world and is nearly double that ofsub-Saharan Africawith dire consequences for mobility, mortality, productivity, and economic growth.
According to the World Bank, 64% of South Asians lived in rural areas in 2022.In 2008, about 75% of South Asia's poor lived in rural areas and most relied on agriculture for their livelihoodaccording to the UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation.
In 2021, approximately 330 million people in the region were malnourished.A 2015 report says that Nepal reached both the WFS target as well as MDG and is moving towards bringing down the number of undernourished people to less than 5% of the population.Bangladesh reached the MDG target with the National Food Policy framework – with only 16.5% of the population undernourished. In India, the malnourished comprise just over 15 per cent of the population. While the number of malnourished people in the neighbourhood has shown a decline over the last 25 years, the number of under-nourished in Pakistan displays an upward trend. There were 28.7 million hungry in Pakistan in the 1990s – a number that has steadily increased to 41.3 million in 2015 with 22% of the population malnourished. Approximately 194.6 million people are undernourished in India, which accounts for the highest number of people suffering from hunger in any single country.
The 2006 report stated, "the low status of women in South Asian countries and their lack of nutritional knowledge are important determinants of high prevalence of underweight children in the region." Corruption and the lack of initiative on the part of the government has been one of the major problems associated with nutrition in India. Illiteracy in villages has been found to be one of the major issues that need more government attention. The report mentioned that although there has been a reduction in malnutrition due to theGreen Revolutionin South Asia, there is concern that South Asia has "inadequate feeding and caring practices for young children."
India is asecularfederativeparliamentary republicwith theprime ministeras head of government. With the most populous functional democracy in worldand the world's longest written constitution,India has been stably sustaining the political system it adopted in 1950 with no regime change except that by a democratic election. India's sustained democratic freedoms are unique among the world's newer establishments. Since theformation of its republicabolishingBritish law, it has remained a democracy with civil liberties, an active Supreme Court, and a largely independent press.India leads region inDemocracy Index. It has amulti-party systemin its internal regional politicswhereas alternative transfer of powers to alliances of Indianleft-wingandright-wingpolitical parties in national government provide it with characteristics of atwo-party state.India has been facing notable internal religious conflicts and separatism howeverconsistently becoming more and more stable with time.
The foundation of Pakistan lies in thePakistan movementwhich began incolonial Indiabased onIslamic nationalism. Pakistan is afederalparliamentaryIslamic republicand was the world's first country to adoptIslamic republicsystem to modify its republican status under its otherwise secular constitution in 1956. Pakistan's governance is one of the most conflicted in the world. Themilitary rule and the unstable governments in Pakistanhave become a concern for the South Asian region. Out of 22 appointedPakistani Prime ministers, none of them have ever been able to complete a full term in office.The nature ofPakistani politicscan be characterised as amulti-party system.
Theunitarysemi-presidentialconstitutional republic ofSri Lankais the oldest sustained democracy in Asia. Tensions between theSinhaleseand theTamilsled to the emergence of theLiberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatistSri Lankan Tamil militant groupand the outbreak of theSri Lankan Civil War. The war, which ended in 2009, would undermine the country's stability for more than two and a half decades.Sri Lanka, however, has been leading the region inHDIwith per capita GDP well ahead of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Sri Lanka has amulti-party system, and the political situation in Sri Lanka has been dominated by an increasingly assertive ideology ofSinhalese nationalism.
Bangladeshis aunitaryparliamentary republic. The law of Bangladesh defines it as Islamicas well as secular.The nature ofBangladeshi politicscan be characterised as amulti-party system. Bangladesh is aunitary stateandparliamentary democracy.Bangladesh also stands out as one of the few Muslim-majority democracies. "It is a moderate and generally secular and tolerant — though sometimes this is getting stretched at the moment — alternative toviolent extremismin a very troubled part of the world", saidDan Mozena, the US ambassador to Bangladesh. Although Bangladesh's legal code is secular, more citizens are embracing a conservative version ofIslam, with some pushing forsharia law, analysts say. Experts say that the rise in conservatism reflects the influence of foreign-financed Islamic charities and the more austere version of Islam brought home by migrant workers inPersian Gulfcountries.
By the 18th century, the HinduGorkha Kingdomachieved theunification of Nepal. Hinduism became the state religion and Hindu laws were formulated as national policies. A small oligarchic group of Gorkha region basedHindu Thakuri and Chhetri political familiesdominated the national politics, military and civic affairs until the abdication of theRana dynastyregime andestablishment of Parliamentary democratic system in 1951, which was twice suspended by Nepalese monarchs, in 1960 and 2005. It was the last Hindu state in world beforebecoming a secular democratic republicin 2008. The country's modern development suffered due to the various significant events like the1990 Nepalese revolution, 1996–2006Nepalese Civil War,April 2015 Nepal earthquake, and the2015 Nepal blockadeby India leading to the grave2015–2017 Nepal humanitarian crisis. There is also a huge turnover in the office of thePrime Minister of Nepalleading to serious concerns ofpolitical instability. The country has been ranked one of the poor countries in terms of GDP per capita but it has one of the lowest levels ofhungerproblem in South Asia.When thestability of the country ensured as late as recent, it has also made considerable progress in development indicators outpacing many other South Asian states.
Afghanistanhas been aunitarytheocraticIslamicemiratesince 2021. Afghanistan has been suffering from one of the most unstable regimes on earth as a result ofmultiple foreign invasions, civil wars, revolutions and terrorist groups. Persisting instability for decades have left the country's economy stagnated and torn and it remains one of the most poor andleast developed countrieson the planet, leading to the influx of Afghan refugees to neighbouring countries likeIran.
Bhutanis a Buddhist state with aconstitutional monarchy. The country has been ranked as the least corrupt and most peaceful country in the region, with the most economic freedom, in 2016.
Maldivesis a unitary presidential republic withSunni Islamstrictly as the state religion.
India has been thedominant geopolitical power in the regionand alone accounts for most part of the landmass, population, economy and military expenditure in the region.India is amajor economy, member ofG4, has world'sthird highest military budgetand exerts strongculturalandpolitical influenceover the region.Sometimes referred as agreat poweroremerging superpowerprimarily attributed to its large and expanding economic and military abilities, India acts as fulcrum of South Asia.
Bangladesh,Pakistan, andSri Lankaaremiddle powerswith sizeable populations and economies with significant impact on regional politics.
During thePartition of Indiain 1947, subsequent violence and territorial disputes left relations between India and Pakistan sour and very hostileandvarious confrontations and warswhich largely shaped the politics of the region and contributed to theemergence of Bangladeshas an independent country.WithYugoslavia, India founded theNon-Aligned Movementbut later entered anagreementwith the formerSoviet Unionfollowing Western support for Pakistan.Amid theIndo-Pakistani War of 1971, US sent itsUSSEnterpriseto the Indian Ocean in what was perceived as anuclear threatby India.India'snuclear test in 1974pushed Pakistan's nuclear programwho conducted nuclear tests inChagai-Iin 1998, just 18 days after India'sseries of nuclear testsforthermonuclear weapons.
TheSoviet invasion of Afghanistanin 1979 accelerated efforts to form a union to restrengthen deteriorating regional security.After agreements, the union, known as theSouth Asian Association for Regional Cooperation(SAARC), was finally established in Dhaka in December 1985.However, deterioration ofIndia-Pakistan tieshave led India to emphasise more on sub-regional groupsSASEC,BIMSTEC, andBBIN.
While in East Asia, regional trade accounts for 50% of total trade, it accounts for only a little more than 5% in South Asia.
Populismis a general characteristic of internal politics of India.