South Asia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
South Asia
South Asia (orthographic projection).svg
Countries and Territories[1]
Population 1.749 billion (2013)[2]
Population rank 1st (World)[3]
GDP (Nominal) $2.9 trillion[4]
GDP (PPP) $9.9 trillion[4]
Languages Primarily Indo-Aryan but also, Dravidian, Iranian, Austroasiatic and Sino-Tibetan languages, as well as some others
Time zones UTC+04:30, UTC+05:00, UTC+5:30, UTC+5:45, UTC+06:00
Capital cities
Other major cities

South Asia or Southern Asia is a term used to represent the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan SAARC countries and, for some authorities, adjoining countries to the west and east. Topographically, it is dominated by the Indian Plate, which rises above sea level as Nepal and northern parts of India situated south of the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush. South Asia is bounded on the south by the Indian Ocean and on land (clockwise, from west) by West Asia, Central Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia.

The current territories of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka form the countries of South Asia.[5] The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is an economic cooperation organisation in the region which was established in 1985 and includes all eight nations comprising South Asia.[6]

South Asia covers about 5.1 million km² (1.9 million mi²), which is 11.51% of the Asian continent or 3.4% of the world's land surface area.[5] The population of South Asia is about 1.749 billion or about one fourth of the world's population, making it both the most populous and the most densely populated geographical region in the world.[3] Overall, it accounts for about 39.49% of Asia's population (or over 24% of the world's population) and is home to a vast array of peoples.[7][8][9]

In 2010, South Asia had the world's largest population of Hindus, Jains and Sikhs, the largest population of Muslims in Asia-Pacific region at 507 million,[10] as well as over 25 million Buddhists and 35 million Christians.[11]

Definitions[edit]

United Nations cartographic map of South Asia.[12] However, the United Nations does not endorse any definitions or area boundaries.[note 1]

The area of South Asia and its geographical extent is not clear cut as systemic and foreign policy orientations of its constituents are quite asymmetrical.[13] Aside from the central region of South Asia, formerly part of the British Empire, there is a high degree of variation as to which other countries are included in South Asia.[14][15][16][17]

Modern definitions of South Asia are consistent in including Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives as the constituent countries.[18][19][20][21][22][23] Myanmar is included by some scholars in South Asia, but in Southeast Asia by others.[15][24] Some do not include Afghanistan,[15] others question whether Afghanistan should be considered a part of South Asia or the Middle East.[25][26]

The current territories of Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, which were the core of the British Empire prior to 1947, form the central region of South Asia, in addition to Afghanistan,[18][19][20][21][22][23] which was a British protectorate until 1919, after the Afghans lost to the British in the Second Anglo-Afghan war. The mountain countries of Nepal and Bhutan, and the island countries of Sri Lanka and Maldives are generally included as well. Myanmar is often added, and by various deviating definitions based on often substantially different reasons, the British Indian Ocean Territory and the Tibet Autonomous Region are included as well.[13][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]

The common concept of South Asia is largely inherited from the administrative boundaries of the British Raj,[35] with several exceptions. The Aden Colony, British Somaliland and Singapore, though administered at various times under the Raj, have not been proposed as any part of South Asia.[36] Additionally Burma was administered as part of the Raj until 1937, but is now considered a part of Southeast Asia and is a member state of ASEAN. The 562 princely states that were protected by but not directly ruled by the Raj became administrative parts of South Asia upon joining Union of India or Dominion of Pakistan.[37][38][39] Geopolitically, it had formed the whole territory of Greater India,[24][40]

The South 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 added Afghanistan as an eighth member in 2006.[41][42] China and Myanmar have also applied for the status of full members of SAARC.[43][44] This bloc of countries include two independent countries that were not part of the British Raj – Nepal, and Bhutan. Afghanistan was a British protectorate from 1878 until 1919, after the Afghans lost to the British in the Second Anglo-Afghan war. The World Factbook, based on geo-politics, people, and economy defines South Asia as comprising Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, British Indian Ocean Territory, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.[45] The South Asia Free Trade Agreement incorporated Afghanistan in 2011, and the World Bank grouping of countries in the region also includes all eight members comprising South Asia and SAARC as well,[46][47] and the same goes for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).[48][49]

Definition by South Asian Studies programs

When the Centre for South Asian Studies at the University of Cambridge was established, in 1964, it promoted the study of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan,[50][51][52][53] the Himalayan Kingdoms (Nepal, Bhutan, and Sikkim[54]), and Burma (now Myanmar). It has since included Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, the Philippines and Hong Kong.[55]

The Centres for South Asian Studies at both the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia include Tibet along with the eight members of SAARC in their research programs, but exclude the Maldives.[56][57] The South Asian Studies Program of Rutgers University and the University of California, Berkeley Centre for South Asia Studies also include the Maldives.[58][59]

The South Asian Studies Program of Brandeis University defines the region as comprising "India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and in certain contexts Afghanistan, Burma, Maldives and Tibet".[60] The similar program of Columbia University includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka in their study and excludes Burma.[61]

See also: Indology

The United Nations Statistics Division's scheme of sub-regions include all eight members of the SAARC as part of Southern Asia, along with Iran[62] only for statistical purposes.[63] Population Information Network (POPIN) includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka as part of South Asia. Maldives, in view of its characteristics, was admitted as a member Pacific POPIN subregional network only in principle.[64] The Hirschman–Herfindahl index of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific for the region includes only the original seven signatories of SAARC.[65]

The British Indian Ocean Territory is connected to the region by a publication of Jane's for security considerations.[66] The region may also include the disputed territory of Aksai Chin, which was part of the British Indian princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, but is now administered as part of the Chinese autonomous region of Xinjiang.[67]

The inclusion of Myanmar in South Asia is without consensus, with many considering it a part of southeast Asia and others including it within South Asia.[15][24] Afghanistan was of importance to the British colonial empire, especially after the Second Anglo-Afghan War over 1878–1880. Afghanistan remained a British protectorate until 1919, when a treaty with Vladimir Lenin included the granting of independence to Afghanistan. Following India's partition, Afghanistan has generally been included in South Asia, with some considering it a part of Southwest Asia.[13] During the Soviet war in Afghanistan (1979–1989) American foreign policy considered Pakistan and Afghanistan in Southwest Asia, while others included it as a part of South Asia.[5] There is no universal agreement among scholars on which countries should be included within South Asia.[15]

In the past, a lack of a coherent definition for South Asia resulted in not only a lack of academic studies, but also in a lack interest for such studies.[68] The confusion existed also because of the lack of a clear boundary – geographically, geopolitical, socio-culturally, economically or historically – between South Asia and other parts of Asia, especially the Middle East and Southeast Asia.[69] Identification with a South Asian identity was also found to be significantly low among respondents in an older two-year survey across Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.[70] However, modern definitions of South Asia are very consistent in including Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives as the constituent countries.[18][19][20][21][22][23]

See also: South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and South Asian Free Trade Area

Indian subcontinent[edit]

Main article: Indian subcontinent

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term "subcontinent" signifies a "subdivision of a continent which has a distinct geographical, political, or cultural identity" and also a "large land mass somewhat smaller than a continent".[71][72] 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.[73] The Indian subcontinent is also a geological term referring to the land mass that drifted northeastwards from ancient Gondwana, 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.[74]

The use of the term Indian subcontinent began in the British Empire, and has been a term particularly common in its successors.[75] This region has also been labelled as "India" (in its classical and pre-modern sense), "Greater India", or as South Asia.[24][40]

According to anthropologist John R. Lukacs, "the Indian Subcontinent occupies the major landmass of South Asia",[76] while the political science professor Tatu Vanhanen states, "the seven countries of South Asia constitute geographically a compact region around the Indian Subcontinent".[77] According to Chris Brewster, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan constitute the Indian subcontinent; with Afghanistan and Maldives included it is more commonly referred to as South Asia.[78] The geopolitical boundaries of Indian subcontinent, according to Dhavendra Kumar, include "India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and other small islands of the Indian Ocean".[79] Maldives, the country consisting of a small archipelago southwest of the peninsula, is considered part of the Indian subcontinent.[80]

The terms "Indian subcontinent" and "South Asia" are sometimes used interchangeably.[27][75] The South Asia term is particularly common when scholars or officials seek to differentiate this region from East Asia.[81] According to historians Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal, the Indian subcontinent has come to be known as South Asia "in more recent and neutral parlance."[82] 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.[24]

There is no globally accepted definition on which countries are a part of South Asia or Indian subcontinent.[15][16][17] While Afghanistan is not considered as a part of the Indian subcontinent, Afghanistan is often included in South Asia.[17] Similarly, Myanmar is included by some scholars in South Asia but not in Indian subcontinent.[24]

Geography[edit]

Further information: Geography of India, Geography of Pakistan, Geography of Afghanistan, Geography of Bangladesh, Geography of Bhutan, Geography of Sri Lanka, Geography of Nepal, and Geography of the Maldives
While South Asia had never been a coherent geopolitical region, it has a distinct geographical identity
The Indian subcontinent, and the Himalayas on the northeast, is the result of the collision of the Indian Plate with the Eurasian Plate through tectonic activity between 20 and 50 million years ago.

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 distinct geopolitical region separated from other nearby geostrategic realms, one that is geographically diverse.[83] The region is home to a variety of geographical features, such as glaciers, rainforests, valleys, deserts, and grasslands that are typical of much larger continents. It is surrounded by three water bodies — the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea — and has acutely varied climate zones. The tip of the Indian Peninsula had the highest quality pearls.[84]

Boundary[edit]

The boundaries of South Asia vary based on how the region is defined. South Asia's northern, eastern, and western boundaries vary based on definitions used, while the Indian Ocean is the southern periphery. Most of this region rests on the Indian Plate and is isolated from the rest of Asia by mountain barriers.[85][86] Much of the region consists of a peninsula in south-central Asia, rather resembling a diamond which is delineated by the Himalayas on the north, the Hindu Kush in the west, and the Arakanese in the east,[87] and which extends southward into the Indian Ocean with the Arabian Sea to the southwest and the Bay of Bengal to the southeast.[27][29]

According to Robert M. Cutler – a scholar of Political Science at Carleton University,[88] the terms South Asia, Southwest Asia and Central Asia are distinct, but the confusion and disagreements have arisen because of geopolitical movement to enlarge these regions into Greater South Asia, Greater Southwest Asia and Greater Central Asia. The frontier of Greater South Asia, states Cutler, between 2001–2006 has been geopolitically extended to eastern Iran and western Afghanistan in the west, and in the north to northeastern Iran, northern Afghanistan, and southern Uzbekistan.[88]

Indian plate[edit]

Main article: Indian plate

Most of this region is a subcontinent resting on the Indian Plate, the northerly portion of the Indo-Australian Plate, separated from the rest of the Eurasian Plate. The Indian Plate includes most of South Asia, forming a land mass which extends from the Himalayas into a portion of the basin under the Indian Ocean, including parts of South China and Eastern Indonesia, as well as Kunlun and Karakoram ranges,[89][90][91] and extending up to but not including Ladakh, Kohistan, the Hindu Kush range and Balochistan.[92][93][94] It may be noted that geophysically the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet is situated at the outside of the border of the Subcontinental structure, while the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan are situated inside that border.[95]

It was once a small continent before colliding with the Eurasian Plate about 50–55 million years ago and giving birth to the Himalayan range and the Tibetan plateau. It is the peninsular region south of the Himalayas and Kuen Lun mountain ranges and east of the Indus River and the Iranian Plateau, extending southward into the Indian Ocean between the Arabian Sea (to the southwest) and the Bay of Bengal (to the southeast).

Climate[edit]

South Asia’s Köppen climate classification map[96] is based on native vegetation, temperature, precipitation and their seasonality.
  (Af) Tropical rainforest
  (Am) Tropical monsoon
  (Aw) Tropical savanna, wet & dry
  (BWh) Hot desert
  (BWk) Cold desert
  (BSh) Hot semi arid
  (BSk) Cold semi arid
  (Csa) Mediterr. dry, hot summ.
  (Cwa) Subtropical humid summ, dry winter
  (Cwb) Subtropical highland, dry wint
  (Cfa) Subtropical humid summ (no dry)
  (Dsa) Continental hot summ
  (Dsb) Continental warm summ
  (Dwb) Continental dry wint
  (Dwc) Contin subarctic, dry wint

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 sea coast and the seasonal impact of the monsoons. Southern parts are mostly hot in summers and receive rain during monsoon periods. The northern belt of Indo-Gangetic plains also is hot in summer, but cooler in winter. The mountainous north is colder and receives snowfall at higher altitudes of Himalayan ranges.

As the Himalayas block the north-Asian bitter cold winds, the temperatures are considerably moderate in the plains down below. For 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 of jute, tea, rice, and various vegetables in this region.

South Asia is largely divided into four broad climate zones:[97]

Maximum relative humidity of over 80% has been recorded in Khasi and Jaintia Hills and Sri Lanka, while the area adjustment to Pakistan and western India records lower than 20%–30%.[97] Climate of South Asia is largely characterized by monsoons. South Asia depends critically on monsoon rainfall.[98] Two monsoon systems exist in the region:[99]

  • The summer monsoon: Wind blows from southwest to most of parts of the region. It accounts for 70%–90% of the annual precipitation.
  • The winter monsoon: Wind blows from northeast. Dominant in Sri Lanka and Maldives.

The warmest period of the year precedes the monsoon season (March to mid June). In the summer the low pressures are centered over the Indus-Gangetic Plain and high wind from the Indian Ocean blows towards the center. The monsoons are second coolest season of the year because of high humidity and cloud covering. But, at the beginning of June the jetstreams vanish above the Tibetan Plateau, low pressure over the Indus Valley deepens and the Intertropical 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.[97]

Statistical data[edit]

Country
[100][100][101][102][101]		 Capital
[102][103][104]		 Area
(km²)
[105]		 Population
(2012)[106]		 Density
(per km²)		 Nominal GDP
(2012)		 Per capita
(2012)		 Currency Government Official languages
 Afghanistan Kabul 652,864 32,564,342 43.5 $19.654 billion $600 Afghan afghani presidential Islamic republic Pashto, Dari
 Bangladesh Dhaka 147,570 171,700,000 1,319 $205.327 billion $1,284 Bangladeshi taka parliamentary republic Bengali, English
 Bhutan Thimphu 38,394 742,737 18.0 $2.209 billion $2,836 Bhutanese ngultrum, Indian Rupee Constitutional monarchy Dzongkha
 India New Delhi 3,287,263 1,276,267,000 387.7 $2.183 trillion $1,688 Indian rupee Federal republic English, Hindi, & 21 other Officially Recognized Languages
 Maldives Malé 298 393,500 1,102.5 $3.228 billion $9,126 Maldivian rufiyaa constitutional republic Maldivian
   Nepal Kathmandu 147,181 26,494,504 180 $74.020 billion $2,794 Nepalese Rupee Federal republic Nepali
 Pakistan Islamabad 881,913 199,085,847 260.8 $270.961 billion $1,427 Pakistani Rupee Federal republic English, Urdu
 Sri Lanka Colombo 65,610 20,277,599 323 $80.591 billion $3,818 Sri Lankan rupee semi-presidential republic Sinhalese, Tamil

History[edit]

Main articles: History of South Asia and History of India

Ancient era[edit]

The history of core South Asia begins with evidence of human activity of Homo sapiens, as long as 75,000 years ago, or with earlier hominids including Homo erectus from about 500,000 years ago.[107] The Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the northwestern part of South Asia from c. 3300 to 1300 BCE in present-day Northern India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, was the first major civilization in South Asia.[108] A sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture developed in the Mature Harappan period, from 2600 to 1900 BCE.[109]

The earliest prehistoric culture have roots in the mesolithic sites as evidenced by the rock paintings of Bhimbetka rock shelters dating to a period of 30,000 BCE or older,[note 2] as well as neolithic times.[note 3] According to anthropologist Possehl, the Indus Valley Civilization 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.[110]

The Vedic period, named after the Vedic religion of the Indo-Aryans,[note 4] lasted from c. 1900 to 500 BCE.[112][113] The Indo-Aryans were pastoralists[114] who migrated into north-western India after the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization,[111][115] Linguistic and archaeological data show a cultural change after 1500 BCE,[111] with the linguistic and religious data clearly showing links with Indo-European languages and religion.[116] By about 1200 BCE, the Vedic culture and agrarian lifestyle was established in the northwest and northern Gangetic plain of South Asia.[114][117][118] Rudimentary state-forms appeared, of which the Kuru-Pañcāla union was the most influential.[119][120] The first recorded state-level society in South Asia existed around 1000 BCE.[114] In this period, states Samuel, emerged the Brahmana and Aranyaka layers of Vedic texts, which merged into the earliest Upanishads.[121] These texts began to ask the meaning of a ritual, adding increasing levels of philosophical and metaphysical speculation,[121] or "Hindu synthesis".[122]

The Indo-Aryans brought with them their language[123] and religion.[124][125] The Vedic beliefs and practices of the pre-classical era were closely related to the hypothesised Proto-Indo-European religion and the Indo-Iranian religion,[126] the latter being "a syncretic mixture of old Central Asian and new Indo-European elements".[127] The Vedic religion history is unclear and "heavily contested", states Samuel.[128]

Increasing urbanisation of India 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 orthodox Brahmanism.[129] These ideas led to Sramana movements, of which Mahavira (c. 549–477 BCE), proponent of Jainism, and Buddha (c. 563-483), founder of Buddhism, were the most prominent icons.[130]

The Greek army led by Alexander the Great stayed in the Hindu Kush region of South Asia for several years and then later moved into the Indus valley region. Later, the Maurya Empire extended over much of South Asia in the 3rd century BCE. Buddhism spread beyond the Indian subcontinent, through northwest into Central Asia. The Bamiyan Buddhas of Afghanistan and the edicts of Aśoka suggest that the Buddhist monks spread Buddhism (Dharma) in eastern provinces of the Seleucid Empire, and possibly even farther into West Asia.[131][132][133] The Theravada school spread south from India in the 3rd century BCE, to Sri Lanka, later to southeast Asia.[134] Buddhism, by the last centuries of the 1st millennium BCE, was prominent in the Himalayan region, Gandhara, Hindu Kush region and Bactria.[135][136][137]

From about 500 BCE through about 300 CE, the Vedic-Brahmanic synthesis or "Hindu synthesis" continued.[122] Classical Hindu and Sramanic (particularly Buddhist) ideas spread within Indian subcontinent, as well outside South Asia.[138][139][140] The Gupta Empire ruled over a large part of the subcontinent between 4th and 7th centuries, a period that saw the construction of major temples, monasteries and universities such as the Nalanda.[141][142][143] During this era, and through the 10th century, numerous cave monasteries and temples such as the Ajanta Caves, Badami cave temples and Ellora Caves were built in South Asia.[144][145][146]

Medieval era[edit]

Islam came as a political power in the fringe of South Asia in 8th century CE when the Arab general Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Sindh and Multan in southern Punjab in modern-day Pakistan.[147] By 962 CE, Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms in South Asia were under a wave of raids from Muslim armies from Central Asia.[148] Among them was Mahmud 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.[149] Mahmud of Ghazni raided the treasuries but retracted each time, only extending Islamic rule into western Punjab.[150][151]

The wave of raids on north Indian and western Indian kingdoms by Muslim warlords continued after Mahmud of Ghazni, plundering and looting these kingdoms.[152] The raids did not establish or extend permanent boundaries of their Islamic kingdoms. The Ghurid Sultan Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad began a systematic war of expansion into north India in 1173.[153] He sought to carve out a principality for himself by expanding the Islamic world.[149][154] Mu’izz sought a Sunni Islamic kingdom of his own extending east of the Indus river, and he thus laid the foundation for the Muslim kingdom that became the Delhi Sultanate.[149] 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.[155] The Delhi Sultanate covered varying parts of South Asia, and was ruled by a series of dynasties, called Mamluk, Khalji, Tughlaq, Sayyid and Lodi dynasties. Muhammad bin Tughlaq came to power in 1325, launched a war of expansion and the Delhi Sultanate reached it largest geographical reach over the Indian subcontinent during his 26-year rule.[156] A Sunni Sultan, Muhammad bin Tughlaq persecuted non-Muslims such as Hindus, as well as non-Sunni Muslims such as Shia and Mahdi sects.[157][158][159]

Revolts against the Delhi Sultanate sprang in many parts of South Asia during the 16th century. After the death of Muhammad bin Tughlaq, the Bengal Sultanate came to power in 1352 CE, as Delhi Sultanate began disintegrating. The Bengal Sultanate remained in power through early 16th century. It was reconquered by the armies of the Mughal Empire. The state religion of the Bengal Sultanate was Islam, and the region under its rule saw a growth of a syncretic form of Islam, a region that ultimately emerged as the modern nation of Bangladesh.[160][161] In the Deccan region, the Hindu kingdom Vijayanagara Empire came to power in 1336 and remained in power through the 16th century, after which it too was reconquered and absorbed into the Mughal Empire.[162][163]

About 1526, the Punjab governor Dawlat Khan Lodī reached out to the Mughal Babur and invited him to attack Delhi Sultanate. Babur defeated and killed Ibrahim Lodi in the Battle of Panipat in 1526. The death of Ibrahim Lodi ended the Delhi Sultanate, and the Mughal Empire replaced it.[164]

Modern era[edit]

The modern history period of South Asia, that is 16th-century onwards, witnessed the start of the Central Asian dynasty named the Mughals, with Turkish-Mongol roots and Sunni Islam theology. The first ruler was Babur, whose empire extended the northwest and Indo-Gangetic Plain regions of South Asia. The Deccan and northeastern region of the South Asia was largely under Hindu kings such as those of Vijayanagara Empire and Ahom kingdom,[165] with some regions such as parts of modern Telangana and Andhra Pradesh under local Sultanates such as the Shia Islamic rulers of Golconda Sultanate.[166]

The Mughal Empire continued its wars of expansion after Babur's death. With the fall of Rajput kingdoms and Vijayanagara, its boundaries reached all of west, as well as the Marathi and Kannada speaking regions of the Deccan peninsula. 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 the Taj Mahal.[167] It also marked an extended period of religious persecution.[168][169][170] Two of the religious leaders of Sikhism, Guru Arjan and Guru Tegh Bahadur were arrested under orders of the Mughal emperors, asked to convert to Islam, and executed when they refused.[171][172][173] Religious taxes on non-Muslims called jizya were 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.[174] After his death, the persecution of non-Muslims in South Asia returned. The persecution and religious violence in South Asia peaked during Aurangzeb era, with him issuing orders in 1669, to all his governors of provinces to "destroy with a willing hand the schools and temples of the infidels, and that they were strictly enjoined to put an entire stop to the teaching and practice of idolatrous forms of worship".[175][176][177] In Aurangzeb's time, almost all of South Asia was claimed by the Mughal Empire. However, this claim was violently challenged in various regions of South Asia, particularly by the Sikh Guru Gobind Singh in the northwest,[178] and by Shivaji in the Deccan regions.[179]

Maritime trading between South Asia and European merchants began after the Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama returned to Europe. After the death of Aurangzeb and the collapse of the Mughal Empire, the region came under the rule of many small Islamic sultanates and Hindu kingdoms. British, French, Portuguese colonial interests struck treaties with these rulers, and established their trading ports. In the northwest South Asia, a large region was consolidated into the Sikh Empire by Ranjit Singh.[180][181] After his death, the British Empire expanded their interests till the Hindu Kush region. In the east, the Bengal region was split into Muslim East Bengal and Hindu West Bengal, by the colonial British empire, in early 1900s, a split that was reversed. However, after the World War II, at the eve of India's independence, the region was split again into East Pakistan and West Bengal. East Pakistan became Bangladesh in 1971.[citation needed]

Regional groups of countries[edit]

Name of country/region, with flag Area
(km²)		 Population* Population density
(per km²)		 Capital or Secretariat Currency Countries included Official languages Coat of Arms
Core Definition (above) of South Asia 5,220,460 1,726,907,000 330.79 N/A N/A Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka N/A N/A
UNSD of South Asia 6,778,083 1,702,000,000 270.77 N/A N/A Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka N/A N/A
SAARC 4,637,469 1,626,000,000 350.6 Kathmandu N/A Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka English
BBIN 3,499,559 1,465,236,000 418.69 N/A N/A Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal N/A N/A
SASEC 3,565,467 1,485,909,931 416.75 N/A N/A Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives N/A N/A

Demographics[edit]

The population of South Asia is about 1.749 billion which makes it the most populated region in the world.[182] 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.[183]

Largest urban areas[edit]

South Asia is home to some of the most populated cities in the world. Delhi, Karachi, Mumbai, and Dhaka are four of the world's largest megacities.

Rank City Country Population[184] Area
(km2)[184]		 Density
(/km2)[184]
1 Delhi  India 24,998,000 2,072 12,100
2 Karachi  Pakistan 24,300,000[185][186] 945 23,400
3 Mumbai  India 17,712,000 546 32,400
4 Dhaka  Bangladesh 15,669,000 360 43,500
5 Kolkata  India 14,667,000 1,204 12,200
6 Lahore  Pakistan 10,052,000 790 12,700
7 Bengaluru  India 9,807,000 1,116 8,400
8 Chennai  India 9,714,000 375 25,900
9 Hyderabad  India 8,754,000 971 10,000
10 Ahmedabad  India 7,186,000 464 20,600

Languages[edit]

Main article: Languages of South Asia
Ethno-linguistic distribution map of South Asia.

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 Persian Nastaliq. Till 1971, Muslim Bangladesh (then known as East Pakistan) too mandated only Nastaliq script, but thereafter has adopted regional scripts and particularly Bengali. Non-Muslims of South Asia, and some Muslims in India, on the other hand use their traditional ancient heritage scripts such as those derived from Brahmi script for Indo-European languages and non-Brahmi scripts for Dravidian languages and others.[187]

The Nagari script has been the primus inter pares of the traditional South Asian scripts.[188] The Devanagari script is used for over 120 South Asian languages,[189] including Hindi,[190] Marathi, Nepali, Pali, Konkani, Bodo, Sindhi and Maithili among other languages and dialects, making it one of the most used and adopted writing systems in the world.[191] The Devanagari script is also used for classical Sanskrit texts.[189]

The largest spoken language in this region is Hindi, followed by Bengali, Tamil , Telugu and Gujarati and Punjabi.[187] In the modern era, new syncretic languages developed in the region such as Urdu that is used by Muslim community of northern Indian subcontinent (particularly Pakistan and northern states of India).[192] The Punjabi language spans three religions: Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism. The spoken language is similar, but it is written in three scripts. The Sikh use Gurmukhi alphabet, Muslim Punjabis in Pakistan use the Nastaliq script, while Hindu Punjabis in India use the Gurmukhi or Nāgarī script. The Gurmukhi and Nagari scripts are distinct but close in their structure, but the Persian Nastaliq script is very different.[193]

English, with British spelling, is commonly used in urban areas and is a major economic lingua franca of South Asia.[194]

Religions[edit]

A map of major denominations and religions of the world

In 2010, South Asia had the world's largest population of Hindus, Jains and Sikhs, the largest population of Muslims in Asian and Pacific regions,[10] as well as over twenty five million Buddhists and thirty five million Christians.[11] Hindus make up about 63 percent or about 1 billion and Muslims at 31 percent or 507 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%).[10]

Indian religions are the religions that originated in the Indian subcontinent; namely Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism.[195] The Indian religions are distinct yet share terminology, concepts, goals and ideas, and from the Indian subcontinent spread into East Asia and southeast Asia.[195] Early Christianity and Islam were introduced into coastal regions of South Asia by merchants who settled among the local populations. Later Sindh, Balochistan, and parts of the Punjab region saw conquest by the Arab caliphates along 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.[196][197]

Afghanistan[198] Islam (99%), Hinduism, Sikhism and Christianity (1%)
Bangladesh[199] Islam (90%), Hinduism (9%), Buddhism (0.6%), Christianity (0.3%), Others (0.1%)
Bhutan[200] Buddhism (75%), Hinduism (25%)
India[200][201] Hinduism (79.5%), Islam (14.5%), Christianity (2.3%), Sikhism (1.7%), Buddhism (0.7%), Jainism (0.4%), Others (0.9%)
Maldives[202] Sunni Islam (100%) (One must be a Sunni Muslim to be a citizen on the Maldives[203][204])
Nepal[205] Hinduism (82%), Buddhism (9.0%), Islam (4.4%), Kirat (3.1%), Christianity (1.4%), Others (0.8%)
Pakistan[206] Islam (96.28%), Hinduism (2%), Christianity (1.59%), Ahmaddiyya (0.22%)
Sri Lanka[207] Buddhism (70.19%), Hinduism (12.61%), Islam (9.71%), Christianity (7.45%).
Further information: Religion in Afghanistan, Religion in Bangladesh, Religion in Bhutan, Religion in India, Religion in Nepal, Religion in Pakistan, and Religion in Sri Lanka

Economy[edit]

Further information: Economy of Afghanistan, Economy of Bangladesh, Economy of India, Economy of Nepal, Economy of Pakistan, and Economy of Sri Lanka
Countries under the South Asian Free Trade Area

India is the largest & fastest growing economy in the region (US$2.180 trillion) and makes up almost 82% of the South Asian economy; it is the world's 7th largest in nominal terms and 3rd largest by purchasing power adjusted exchange rates (US$8.020 trillion).[208] India is the only member of powerful G-20 major economies and BRICS from the region. It is the fastest growing major economy in the world and one of the world's fastest registering a growth of 7.3% in FY 2014–15. Pakistan has the next largest economy($250 billion) and the 5th highest GDP per capita in the region,[209] followed by Bangladesh and then by Sri Lanka which has the 2nd highest per capita and is the 4th largest economy in the region. According to a World Bank report in 2015, driven by a strong expansion in India, coupled with favorable oil prices, from the last quarter of 2014 South Asia become the fastest-growing region in the world[210]

The Major Market stock exchanges in the region are Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) with market Capitalization of $1.68 trillion (11th largest in the world), National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) with market capitalization of $1.64 trillion (12th largest in the world), and Karachi Stock Exchange with market capitalization of $60 billion.[211]

Economic data is sourced from the International Monetary Fund, current as of April 2015, and is given in US dollars.[212]

Country Population(Million) GDP
(Nominal)		 GDP
(PPP)
 Afghanistan 19394688632.007 $21.3 bn $63.5 bn
 Bangladesh 143369806159.857 $205.3 bn $572.6 bn
 Bhutan 12101934220.779 $2.2 bn $6.3 bn
 India 13540400001,276.2 $2308.0 bn $7996.6 bn
 Maldives 517705600.38 $3.0 bn $5.2 bn
   Nepal 5177056028.4 $21.6 bn $70.7 bn
 Pakistan 51770560190.4 $250 bn $928.0bn
 Sri Lanka 5177056021.7 $80.4 bn $233.7 bn

Health and nutrition[edit]

Bangladesh Bhutan India Maldives Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka
Population undernourished(2015)[213] 16.4% N/A 15.2 % 5.2% 7.8% 22% 22%
Population below Poverty Line (CIA FACTBOOK)[214] 31.5% 12% 29.8% 16% 25.2% 22.3% 8.9%

According to 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.[215] 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 immunization teams have claimed 78 lives since December 2012.[216]

According to the World Bank's 2011 report, based on 2005 ICP PPP, about 24.6% of the South Asian population falls below the international poverty line of $1.25/day.[217] Afghanistan and Bangladesh rank the highest, with 30.6% and 43.3% of their respective populations below the poverty line. Bhutan,Maldives and Sri Lanka have the lowest number of people below the poverty line, with 2.4%, 1.5% and 4.1% respectively. India has lifted the most people in the region above the poverty line between 2008 and 2011, around 140 million. As of 2011, 21.9% of India's population lives below the poverty line, compared to 41.6% in 2005. [218][219]

The World Bank estimates that India is one of the highest ranking countries in the world for the number of children suffering from malnutrition. The prevalence of underweight children in India is among the highest in the world, and is nearly double that of Sub Saharan Africa with dire consequences for mobility, mortality, productivity and economic growth.[220]

According to the World Bank, 70% of the South Asian population and about 75% of South Asia's poor live in rural areas and most rely on agriculture for their livelihood[221] according to the UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation. In 2015, approximately 281 million people in the region were malnourished. The 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.[213] 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 percent of the population. While the number of malnourished people in neighborhood 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.[213][222]

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 the Green Revolution in South Asia, there is concern that South Asia has "inadequate feeding and caring practices for young children".[223]

Governance[edit]

Country Capital Currency Government Official languages Coat of arms
 Afghanistan Kabul Afghani Presidential Islamic republic
Emblem of Afghanistan
 Bangladesh Dhaka Taka Unitary Parliamentary Constitutional Republic Bengali Coat of arms of Bangladesh
 Bhutan Thimphu Ngultrum
Indian rupee		 Unitary Parliamentary Constitutional Monarchy Dzongkha Emblem of Bhutan
 India New Delhi Indian rupee Federal Parliamentary Constitutional Republic Hindi

English

 Emblem of India
 Maldives Malé Rufiyaa Unitary Presidential Constitutional Republic Dhivehi Coat of arms of Maldives
   Nepal Kathmandu Nepalese rupee Federal Parliamentary Republic Nepali Coat of arms of Nepal
 Pakistan Islamabad Pakistani rupee Federal Parliamentary Islamic republic Urdu

English

 Coat of arms of Pakistan
 Sri Lanka Colombo Sri Lankan rupee Unitary Semi-presidential Constitutional Republic
Coat of arms of Sri Lanka

Countries and territories from extended definitions[edit]

country or region Capital Currency Government Official languages Coat of Arms
 British Indian Ocean Territory Diego Garcia US Dollar British Overseas Territory English Coat of arms of the British Indian Ocean Territory (Shield).svg
 Burma Naypyidaw Burmese kyat Presidential Constitutional republic Burmese State seal of Myanmar.svg
 Tibet Autonomous Region Lhasa Chinese yuan Autonomous region of China
National Emblem of the People's Republic of China.svg

India[224][225][226] and Pakistan[227][228] are the dominant political powers in the region. India is by far the largest country in the area covering around three-fourths the land area of the subcontinent.[citation needed] India has the largest population of around three times the combined population of the 6 other countries in the subcontinent.[229] India is also the world's largest democracy[230] India's annual defence budget for 2013–14 is $39.2 Billion[231] which is equal to the whole Pakistan's Federal budget of $39.3 billion for 2014–15.[232]

Bangladesh is a unitary state and parliamentary democracy.[233] 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 to violent extremism in a very troubled part of the world”, said Dan Mozena, the U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh. Although Bangladesh’s legal code is secular, more citizens are embracing a conservative version of Islam, with some pushing for sharia 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 in Persian Gulf countries.[234]

Diplomacy among the countries of South Asia has been mainly driven by populist politics, with the centre-stage taken by India-Pakistan conflict ever since their independence in 1947, and then the creation of Bangladesh under tense circumstances in 1971. During the height of Cold war, the elite political leaders of Pakistan aligned with the US, while India played crucial role in forming the Non-Aligned Movement and while maintaining goodwill relations with the USSR.

Pakistan's governance is one of the most conflicted in the region. The military rule and the unstable government in Pakistan has become a concern for the South Asian region. In Nepal, the governance has struggled to come in the side of democracy and it only showed signs in the recent past, basically in the 21st century, to support the democratic system. The political situation in Sri Lanka has been dominated by an increasingly assertive Sinhalese nationalism, and the emergence of a Tamil separatist movement under LTTE, which was suppressed in May 2009. Burma's politics is dominated by a military Junta, which has sidelined the democratic forces led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

Governance Index ranking for core countries
Bangladesh Bhutan India Maldives Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka
Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (2015)[235] (global ranking of 187) 142 132 130 104 145 147 73
Corruption Perception Index (2015)[236] (global ranking of 168) 139 27 76 N/A 130 117 83
The Worldwide Governance Indicators (2012)[237] Government Effectiveness (percentile rank) 22.49 67.46 47.37 48.33 16.75 23.44 45.93
Rule of law (percentile rank) 19.43 59.24 52.61 38.39 26.54 30.96 52.13
Political stability and absence of violence/terrorism (percentile rank) 9 72.51 11.85 86.97 8.53 0.95 22.75
Voice and accountability (percentile rank) 34.12 38.86 58.29 32.23 27.96 23.70 29.86
Population below Poverty Line[238] 31.5% 23.7% 21.9% 16% 25.2% 21.4% 8.9%
Primary School Enrollment[239] 92% 91% 94% N/A 98% 72% 94%
Secondary School Enrollment[240] 54% 78% 71% N/A 67% 38% 99%

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ According to the UN cartographic section website disclaimers, "DESIGNATIONS USED: The depiction and use of boundaries, geographic names and related data shown on maps and included in lists, tables, documents, and databases on this web site are not warranted to be error free nor do they necessarily imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations."[12]
  2. ^ Doniger 2010, p. 66: "Much of what we now call Hinduism may have had roots in cultures that thrived in South Asia long before the creation of textual evidence that we can decipher with any confidence. Remarkable cave paintings have been preserved from Mesolithic sites dating from c. 30,000 BCE in Bhimbetka, near present-day Bhopal, in the Vindhya Mountains in the province of Madhya Pradesh."
  3. ^ Jones & Ryan 2006, p. xvii: "Some practices of Hinduism must have originated in Neolithic times (c. 4000 BCE). The worship of certain plants and animals as sacred, for instance, could very likely have very great antiquity. The worship of goddesses, too, a part of Hinduism today, may be a feature that originated in the Neolithic."
  4. ^ Michaels: "They called themselves arya ("Aryans," literally "the hospitable," from the Vedic arya, "homey, the hospitable") but even in the Rgveda, arya denotes a cultural and linguistic boundary and not only a racial one."[111]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "The World Factbook: South Asia". Retrieved 2 March 2015. 
  2. ^ http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Excel-Data/population.htm
  3. ^ a b "South Asia Regional Overview". South Asian Regional Development Gateway. Archived from the original on 21 November 2008. 
  4. ^ a b IMF
  5. ^ a b c "Afghanistan". Regional and Country Profiles South Asia. Institute of Development Studies. ;
    "Composition of macro geographical (continental) regions, geographical sub-regions, and selected economic and other groupings: Southern Asia". United Nations Statistics Division. ;
    Arnall, A (24 September 2010). "Adaptive Social Protection: Mapping the Evidence and Policy Context in the Agriculture Sector in South Asia". Institute of Development Studies (345). ;
    "The World Bank". ;
    "Institute of Development Studies: Afghanistan". ;
    "Harvard South Asia Institute: "Afghanistan"". ;
    "The BBC. "Afghanistan"". ;
    "The Brookings Institution". ;
    "CIA "The World Factbook"". 
  6. ^ SAARC Summit. "SAARC". SAARC Summit. Retrieved 17 December 2013. 
  7. ^ Desai, Praful B. 2002. Cancer control efforts in the Indian subcontinent. Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology. 32 (Supplement 1): S13-S16. "The Indian subcontinent in South Asia occupies 2.4% of the world land mass and is home to 16.5% of the world population...."
  8. ^ "Asia" > Overview. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2009: "The Indian subcontinent is home to a vast diversity of peoples, most of whom speak languages from the Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-European family."
  9. ^ "Indian Subcontinent". Encyclopedia of Modern Asia. Macmillan Reference USA (Gale Group), 2006: "The area is divided between five major nation-states, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and includes as well the two small nations of Bhutan and the Maldives Republic... The total area can be estimated at 4.4 million square kilometres, or exactly 10 percent of the land surface of Asia... In 2000, the total population was about 22 percent of the world's population and 34 percent of the population of Asia."
  10. ^ a b c http://www.pewforum.org/2011/01/27/future-of-the-global-muslim-population-regional-asia/
  11. ^ a b Religion population totals in 2010 by Country Pew Research, Washington DC (2012)
  12. ^ a b United Nations Cartographic Centre Retrieved 18 June 2015
  13. ^ a b c Ghosh, Partha Sarathy (1989). Cooperation and Conflict in South Asia. Technical Publications. pp. 4–5. ISBN 978-81-85054-68-1. 
  14. ^ Bertram Hughes Farmer, An Introduction to South Asia, pages 1, Routledge, 1993, ISBN 0-415-05695-0
  15. ^ a b c d e f Jona Razzaque (2004). Public Interest Environmental Litigation in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Kluwer Law International. pp. 3 with footnotes 1 and 2. ISBN 978-90-411-2214-8. 
  16. ^ a b Michael Mann (2014). South Asia’s Modern History: Thematic Perspectives. Taylor & Francis. pp. 13–15. ISBN 978-1-317-62445-5. 
  17. ^ a b c Ewan W. Anderson; Liam D. Anderson (2013). An Atlas of Middle Eastern Affairs. Routledge. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-136-64862-5. , Quote: "To the east, Iran, as a Gulf state, offers a generally accepted limit to the Middle East. However, Afghanistan, also a Muslim state, is then left in isolation. It is not accepted as a part of Central Asia and it is clearly not part of the Indian subcontinent".
  18. ^ a b c "The World Bank". 
  19. ^ a b c "Institute of Development Studies: Afghanistan". 
  20. ^ a b c "Harvard South Asia Institute: "Afghanistan"". 
  21. ^ a b c "The BBC. "Afghanistan"". 
  22. ^ a b c "The Brookings Institution". 
  23. ^ a b c "CIA "The World Factbook"". 
  24. ^ a b c d e f Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby, Religions of South Asia: An Introduction, page 3, Routledge, 2006, ISBN 9781134593224
  25. ^ Keith Robbins (2012). Transforming the World: Global Political History since World War II. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 386. ISBN 978-1-137-29656-6. , Quote: "Some thought that Afghanistan was part of the Middle East and not South Asian at all".
  26. ^ Phillip Margulies (2008). Nuclear Nonproliferation. Infobase Publishing. p. 63. ISBN 978-1-4381-0902-2. , Quote: "Afghanistan, which lies to the northwest, is not technically a part of South Asia but is an important neighbor with close links and historical ties to Pakistan."
  27. ^ a b c McLeod, John (2002). The History of India. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-313-31459-9. 
  28. ^ Arthur Berriedale Keith, A Constitutional History of India: 1600–1935, pages 440–444, Methuen & Co, 1936
  29. ^ a b "Indian subcontinent". New Oxford Dictionary of English (ISBN 0-19-860441-6) New York: Oxford University Press, 2001; p. 929: "the part of Asia south of the Himalayas which forms a peninsula extending into the Indian Ocean, between the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. Historically forming the whole territory of greater India, the region is now divided between India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
  30. ^ N.D. Arora, Political Science for Civil Services Main Examination, page 42:1, Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2010, 9780070090941
  31. ^ Stephen Adolphe Wurm, Peter Mühlhäusler & Darrell T. Tryon, Atlas of languages of intercultural communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, pages 787, International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies, Published by Walter de Gruyter, 1996, ISBN 3-11-013417-9
  32. ^ "Indian subcontinent" > Geology and Geography.
  33. ^ The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Columbia University Press, 2003: "region, S central Asia, comprising the countries of Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh and the Himalayan states of Nepal, and Bhutan. Sri Lanka, an island off the southeastern tip of the Indian peninsula, is often considered a part of the subcontinent."
  34. ^ Haggett, Peter (2001). Encyclopedia of World Geography (Vol. 1). Marshall Cavendish. p. 2710. ISBN 0-7614-7289-4. 
  35. ^ Navnita Chadha Behera, International Relations in South Asia: Search for an Alternative Paradigm, page 129, SAGE Publications India, 2008, ISBN 9788178298702
  36. ^ United Nations, Yearbook of the United Nations, pages 297, Office of Public Information, 1947, United Nations
  37. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica: A New Survey of Universal Knowledge (volume 4), pages 177, Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 1947
  38. ^ Ian Copland, The Princes of pre-India in the Endgame of the British Empire: 1917–1947, pages 263, Cambridge University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-521-89436-0
  39. ^ Ben Cahoon. "Pakistan Princely States". Worldstatesmen.org. Retrieved 2010-08-23. 
  40. ^ a b Kathleen M. Baker and Graham P. Chapman, The Changing Geography of Asia, page 10, Routledge, 2002, ISBN 9781134933846
  41. ^ Sarkar, Sudeshna (16 May 2007). "SAARC: Afghanistan comes in from the cold". Current Affairs – Security Watch. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich. Retrieved 6 April 2011. 
  42. ^ "South Asian Organisation for Regional Cooperation (official website)". SAARC Secretariat, Kathmandu, Nepal. Retrieved 6 April 2011. 
  43. ^ Chatterjee Aneek, International Relations Today: Concepts and Applications, page 166, Pearson Education India, ISBN 9788131733752
  44. ^ "SAARC Membership: India blocks China's entry for the time being". Retrieved 17 March 2015. 
  45. ^ "South Asia". Retrieved 20 March 2015. 
  46. ^ South Asia: Data, Projects and Research, The World Bank
  47. ^ "SAFTA Protocol". Retrieved 20 March 2015. 
  48. ^ "South Asia". Unicef.org. Retrieved 16 December 2016. 
  49. ^ "UNICEF ROSA". Unicef.org. Retrieved 16 December 2016. 
  50. ^ "Cambridge University: Centre of South Asian Studies". 
  51. ^ "Cambridge Centre of South Asian Studies: Links to South And Southeast Asian resources". 
  52. ^ "Cambridge South Asian Archive: Afghanistan" (PDF). 
  53. ^ "Cambridge Centre of South Asian Studies: Library". 
  54. ^ Grolier Incorporated, The Encyclopedia Americana (volume 14), pages 201, Grolier, 1988, ISBN 0-7172-0119-8
  55. ^ About Us, Centre for South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge
  56. ^ CSAS, Centre for South Asian Studies, University of Michigan
  57. ^ About Us, Centre for South Asian Studies, University of Virginia
  58. ^ South Asian Studies Program, Rutgers University
  59. ^ "Center for South Asia Studies: University of California, Berkeley". Southasia.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2012-08-19. 
  60. ^ South Asian Studies, Brandeis University
  61. ^ South Asia Institute, Columbia University
  62. ^ Geographical region and composition, Composition of macro geographical (continental) regions, geographical sub-regions, and selected economic and other groupings, United Nations
  63. ^ "Standard Country or Area Codes for Statistical Use". Millenniumindicators.un.org. Retrieved 2012-08-25.  Quote: "The assignment of countries or areas to specific groupings is for statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories by the United Nations."
  64. ^ Asia-Pacific POPIN Consultative Workshop Report, Asia-Pacific POPIN Bulletin, Vol. 7, No. 2 (1995), pages 7–11
  65. ^ Mapping and Analysis of Agricultural Trade Liberalization in South Asia, Trade and Investment Division (TID), United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
  66. ^ Territories (British Indian Ocean Territory), Jane's Information Group
  67. ^ Dale Hoiberg and Indu Ramchandani, Students' Britannica India (vol. 1), page 45, Popular Prakashan, 2000, ISBN 978-0-85229-760-5
  68. ^ Vernon Marston Hewitt, The international politics of South Asia, page xi, Manchester University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-7190-3392-6
  69. ^ Dallen J. Timothy and Gyan P. Nyaupane, Cultural Heritage and Tourism in the Developing World: A Regional Perspective, page 127, Routledge, 2009, ISBN 9781134002283
  70. ^ Kishore C. Dash, Regionalism in South Asia, pages 172–175, Routledge, 2008, ISBN 0-415-43117-4
  71. ^ "subcontinent". Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. September 2005.  (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  72. ^ "Indian subcontinent". Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. September 2005.  (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  73. ^ Asher, Catherine B.; Talbot, Cynthia (2006-03-16), India Before Europe, Cambridge University Press, pp. 5–8, 12–14, 51, 78–80, ISBN 978-0-521-80904-7 
  74. ^ Robert Wynn Jones (2011). Applications of Palaeontology: Techniques and Case Studies. Cambridge University Press. pp. 267–271. ISBN 978-1-139-49920-0. 
  75. ^ a b John McLeod, The history of India, page 1, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002, ISBN 0-313-31459-4
    Milton Walter Meyer, South Asia: A Short History of the Subcontinent, pages 1, Adams Littlefield, 1976, ISBN 0-8226-0034-X
    Jim Norwine & Alfonso González, The Third World: states of mind and being, pages 209, Taylor & Francis, 1988, ISBN 0-04-910121-8
    Boniface, Brian G.; Christopher P. Cooper (2005). Worldwide destinations: the geography of travel and tourism. Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN 978-0-7506-5997-0. 
    Judith Schott & Alix Henley, Culture, Religion, and Childbearing in a Multiracial Society, pages 274, Elsevier Health Sciences, 1996, ISBN 0-7506-2050-1
    Raj S. Bhopal, Ethnicity, race, and health in multicultural societies, pages 33, Oxford University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-19-856817-7
    Lucian W. Pye & Mary W. Pye, Asian Power and Politics, pages 133, Harvard University Press, 1985, ISBN 0-674-04979-9
    Mark Juergensmeyer, The Oxford handbook of global religions, pages 465, Oxford University Press US, 2006, ISBN 0-19-513798-1
    Sugata Bose & Ayesha Jalal, Modern South Asia, pages 3, Routledge, 2004, ISBN 0-415-30787-2
  76. ^ John R. Lukacs, The People of South Asia: the biological anthropology of India, Pakistan, and Nepal, page 59, Plenum Press, 1984, ISBN 9780306414077
  77. ^ Tatu Vanhanen, Prospects of Democracy: A Study of 172 Countries, page 144, Routledge, 1997, ISBN 9780415144063
  78. ^ Chris Brewster and Wolfgang Mayrhofe, Handbook of Research on Comparative Human Resource Management, page 576, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012, ISBN 9780857938718
  79. ^ Dhavendra Kumar (2012). Genomics and Health in the Developing World. Oxford University Press. p. 889. ISBN 978-0-19-537475-9. 
  80. ^ Mariam Pirbhai (2009). Mythologies of Migration, Vocabularies of Indenture: Novels of the South Asian Diaspora in Africa, the Caribbean, and Asia-Pacific. University of Toronto Press. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-8020-9964-8. 
  81. ^ Ronald B. Inden, Imagining India, page 51, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2000, ISBN 1850655200, Quote:"It is very common today in academic and official circles to speak of the Indian subcontinent as 'South Asia', thereby distinguishing it from an 'East Asia'."
  82. ^ Sugata Bose & Ayesha Jalal, Modern South Asia, pages 3, Routledge, 2004, ISBN 0415307872, Quote:"Indian subcontinent — or South Asia — as it has come to be known in more recent and neutral parlance"
  83. ^ Saul Bernard Cohen, Geopolitics of the world system, pages 304–305, Rowman & Littlefield, 2003, ISBN 0-8476-9907-2
  84. ^ Xinru, Liu, "The Silk Road in World History" (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 40.
  85. ^ "Asia" > Geology and Geography. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Columbia University Press, 2003: "Asia can be divided into six regions, each possessing distinctive physical, cultural, economic, and political characteristics... South Asia (Afghanistan and the nations of the Indian subcontinent) is isolated from the rest of Asia by great mountain barriers."
  86. ^ "Asia" > Geologic history – Tectonic framework. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2009: "The paleotectonic evolution of Asia terminated some 50 million years ago as a result of the collision of the Indian subcontinent with Eurasia. Asia’s subsequent neotectonic development has largely disrupted the continent’s preexisting fabric. The first-order neotectonic units of Asia are Stable Asia, the Arabian and Indian cratons, the Alpide plate boundary zone (along which the Arabian and Indian platforms have collided with the Eurasian continental plate), and the island arcs and marginal basins."
  87. ^ Chapman, Graham P. & Baker, Kathleen M., eds. The changing geography of Asia. (ISBN 0-203-03862-2) New York: Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002; p. 10: "This greater India is well defined in terms of topography; it is the Indian sub-continent, hemmed in by the Himalayas on the north, the Hindu Khush in the west and the Arakanese in the east."
  88. ^ a b Robert M. Cutler (2007). Mehdi Amineh, ed. The Greater Middle East in Global Politics: Social Science Perspectives on the Changing Geography of the World Politics. BRILL. pp. xv, 112. ISBN 978-90-474-2209-9. 
  89. ^ Sinvhal, Understanding Earthquake Disasters, page 52, Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2010, ISBN 978-0-07-014456-9
  90. ^ Harsh K. Gupta, Disaster management, page 85, Universities Press, 2003, ISBN 978-81-7371-456-6
  91. ^ James R. Heirtzler, Indian ocean geology and biostratigraphy, page American Geophysical Union, 1977, ISBN 978-0-87590-208-1
  92. ^ M. Asif Khan, Tectonics of the Nanga Parbat syntaxis and the Western Himalaya, page 375, Geological Society of London, 2000, ISBN 978-1-86239-061-4
  93. ^ Srikrishna Prapnnachari, Concepts in Frame Design, page 152, Srikrishna Prapnnachari, ISBN 978-99929-52-21-4
  94. ^ A. M. Celâl Şengör, Tectonic evolution of the Tethyan Region, Springer, 1989, ISBN 978-0-7923-0067-0
  95. ^ Valentin Semenovich Burtman & Peter Hale Molnar, Geological and Geophysical Evidence for Deep Subduction of Continental Crust Beneath the Pamir, pages 10, Geological Society of America, 1993, ISBN 0-8137-2281-0
  96. ^ Peel, M. C. and Finlayson, B. L. and McMahon, T. A. (2007). "Updated world map of the Köppen–Geiger climate classification". Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 11: 1633–1644. doi:10.5194/hess-11-1633-2007. ISSN 1027-5606.  (direct: Final Revised Paper)
  97. ^ a b c John E. Olive, The Encyclopedia of World Climatology, page 115-117, Springer, 2005, ISBN 9781402032646
  98. ^ Peter D. Tyson, Global-Regional Linkages in the Earth System, page 83, Springer, 2002, ISBN 9783540424031
  99. ^ Peter D. Tyson, Global-Regional Linkages in the Earth System, page 76, Springer, 2002, ISBN 9783540424031
  100. ^ a b "Field Listing :: Names". CIA. Retrieved 28 July 2011. 
  101. ^ a b "UNGEGN List of Country Names" (PDF). United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names. 2007. Retrieved 28 July 2011. 
  102. ^ a b "List of countries, territories and currencies". Europa. 9 August 2011. Retrieved 10 August 2011. 
  103. ^ "Field Listing :: Capital". CIA. Retrieved 3 August 2011. 
  104. ^ "UNGEGN World Geographical Names". United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names. 29 July 2011. Retrieved 3 August 2011. 
  105. ^ "Field Listing :: Area". CIA. Retrieved 7 August 2011. 
  106. ^ "Country Comparison :: Population". CIA. July 2012. Retrieved 2 September 2012. 
  107. ^ G. Bongard-Levin, A History of India (Progress Publishers: Moscow, 1979) p. 11.
  108. ^ Romila Thapar, A History of India (Penguin Books: New York, 1966) p. 23.
  109. ^ Romila Thapar, A History of India, p. 24.
  110. ^ Possehl 2002, p. 141–156.
  111. ^ a b c Michaels 2004, p. 33.
  112. ^ Michaels 2004, p. 32.
  113. ^ Witzel 1995, p. 3-4.
  114. ^ a b c Witzel 1995.
  115. ^ Flood 1996, p. 30-35.
  116. ^ Flood 1996, p. 33.
  117. ^ Samuel 2010, p. 41-48.
  118. ^ Stein 2010, p. 48-49.
  119. ^ Witzel 1995, p. 6.
  120. ^ Samuel 2010, p. 51-53.
  121. ^ a b Samuel 2010, p. 25.
  122. ^ a b Hiltebeitel 2007, p. 12.
  123. ^ Samuel 2010, p. 53-56.
  124. ^ Flood 1996, p. 30.
  125. ^ Hiltebeitel 2007, p. 5-7.
  126. ^ Beckwith 2009, p. 32.
  127. ^ Anthony 2007, p. 462.
  128. ^ Samuel 2010, pp. 26–27, Quote: "In fact the whole question of the early history of the Indo-Aryan and Indo-Iranian speaking peoples is both heavily contested and, at least at this point in time, largely undecidable.".
  129. ^ Flood 1996, pp. 81–82.
  130. ^ Neusner, Jacob (2009), World Religions in America: An Introduction, Westminster John Knox Press, ISBN 978-0-664-23320-4 
  131. ^ Gombrich 2006, p. 135.
  132. ^ Trainor 2004, pp. 103, 119.
  133. ^ Jason Neelis (2010). Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks: Mobility and Exchange Within and Beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia. BRILL Academic. pp. 102–106. ISBN 90-04-18159-8. 
  134. ^ John Guy (2014). Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia. Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 9–11, 14–15, 19–20. ISBN 978-1-58839-524-5. 
  135. ^ Jason Neelis (2010). Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks: Mobility and Exchange Within and Beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia. BRILL Academic. pp. 114–115, 144, 160–163, 170–176, 249–250. ISBN 90-04-18159-8. 
  136. ^ Deborah Klimburg-Salter (1989), The Kingdom of Bamiyan: Buddhist art and culture of the Hindu Kush, Naples – Rome: Istituto Universitario Orientale & Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, ISBN 978-0877737650 (Reprinted by Shambala)
  137. ^ Barbara Crossette (1996). So Close to Heaven: The Vanishing Buddhist Kingdoms of the Himalayas. Vintage. pp. 84–85. ISBN 978-0-679-74363-7. 
  138. ^ HJ Klimkeit; R Meserve; EE Karimov; et al. (2000). History of Civilizations of Central Asia. UNESCO. pp. 79–80. ISBN 978-92-3-103654-5. 
  139. ^ Samuel 2010, pp. 193–228, 339–353, specifically pp. 76–79 and 194–199.
  140. ^ John Guy; Pierre Baptiste; Lawrence Becker, Bérénice Bellina, Robert L. Brown, Federico Carò (2014). Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia. Yale University Press. pp. 10–11. ISBN 978-0-300-20437-7. 
  141. ^ Michell 1977, p. 18, 40.
  142. ^ Hartmut Scharfe (2002). Handbook of Oriental Studies. BRILL Academic. pp. 144–153. ISBN 90-04-12556-6. 
  143. ^ Craig Lockard (2007). Societies, Networks, and Transitions: Volume I: A Global History. Houghton Mifflin. p. 188. ISBN 978-0618386123. 
  144. ^ Walter M. Spink (2005). Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 5: Cave by Cave. BRILL Academic. pp. 1–9, 15–16. ISBN 90-04-15644-5. 
  145. ^ "Ellora Caves – UNESCO World Heritage Centre". Whc.unesco.org. , Quote:"Ellora, with its uninterrupted sequence of monuments dating from A.D. 600 to 1000, brings the civilization of ancient India to life. Not only is the Ellora complex a unique artistic creation and a technological exploit but, with its sanctuaries devoted to Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism, it illustrates the spirit of tolerance that was characteristic of ancient India."
  146. ^ Lisa Owen (2012). Carving Devotion in the Jain Caves at Ellora. BRILL Academic. pp. 1–10. ISBN 978-9004206298. 
  147. ^ "History in Chronological Order". Government of Pakistan. Retrieved 2008-01-09. 
  148. ^ See:
    • M. Reza Pirbha, Reconsidering Islam in a South Asian Context, ISBN 978-9004177581, Brill
    • The Islamic frontier in the east: Expansion into South Asia, Journal of South Asian Studies, 4(1), pp. 91–109
    • Sookoohy M., Bhadreswar – Oldest Islamic Monuments in India, ISBN 978-9004083417, Brill Academic; see discussion of earliest raids in Gujarat
  149. ^ a b c Peter Jackson (2003), The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0521543293, pp 3–30
  150. ^ T. A. Heathcote, The Military in British India: The Development of British Forces in South Asia:1600–1947, (Manchester University Press, 1995), pp 5–7
  151. ^ Barnett, Lionel (1999), Antiquities of India: An Account of the History and Culture of Ancient Hindustan, p. 1, at Google Books, Atlantic pp. 73–79
  152. ^ Richard Davis (1994), Three styles in looting India, History and Anthropology, 6(4), pp 293–317, doi:10.1080/02757206.1994.9960832
  153. ^ MUHAMMAD B. SAM Mu'izz AL-DIN, T.W. Haig, Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. VII, ed. C.E.Bosworth, E.van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs and C. Pellat, (Brill, 1993)
  154. ^ C.E. Bosworth, The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 5, ed. J. A. Boyle, John Andrew Boyle, (Cambridge University Press, 1968), pp 161–170
  155. ^ History of South Asia: A Chronological Outline Columbia University (2010)
  156. ^ Muḥammad ibn Tughluq Encyclopedia Britannica
  157. ^ Firoz Shah Tughlak, Futuhat-i Firoz Shahi – Autobiographical memoirs, Translated in 1871 by Elliot and Dawson, Volume 3 – The History of India, Cornell University Archives, pp 377–381
  158. ^ Vincent A Smith, The Oxford History of India: From the Earliest Times to the End of 1911, p. 217, at Google Books, Chapter 2, pp 249–251, Oxford University Press
  159. ^ Annemarie Schimmel, Islam in the Indian Subcontinent, ISBN 978-9004061170, Brill Academic, pp 20–23
  160. ^ David Lewis (31 October 2011). Bangladesh: Politics, Economy and Civil Society. Cambridge University Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-1-139-50257-3. 
  161. ^ Hussain, Syed Ejaz (2003). The Bengal Sultanate: Politics, Economy and Coins, A.D. 1205–1576. Manohar. ISBN 978-81-7304-482-3. 
  162. ^ Kulke and Rothermund, Hermann and Dietmar (2004) [2004]. A History of India. Routledge (4th edition). pp. 187–188. ISBN 0-415-32919-1. 
  163. ^ Nilakanta Sastri, K. A. (1955) [reissued 2002]. A history of South India from prehistoric times to the fall of Vijayanagar. New Delhi: Indian Branch, Oxford University Press. pp. 216, 239–250. ISBN 0-19-560686-8. 
  164. ^ Lodi Dynasty Encyclopædia Britannica (2009)
  165. ^ Guptajit Pathak (2008). Assam's history and its graphics. Mittal. p. 124. ISBN 978-81-8324-251-6. 
  166. ^ C. E Bosworth (2014). New Islamic Dynasties. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 179–180. ISBN 978-0-7486-9648-2. 
  167. ^ Catherine Blanshard Asher (1992). Architecture of Mughal India. Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–2. ISBN 978-0-521-26728-1. 
  168. ^ Hardy, Peter (1972). The Muslims of British India. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521097833. 
  169. ^ Gaborieau, Marc (June 1985). "From Al-Beruni to Jinnah: Idiom, Ritual and Ideology of the Hindu-Muslim Confrontation in South Asia". Anthropology Today. Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 1 (3): 7–14. doi:10.2307/3033123. JSTOR 3033123. 
  170. ^ John F. Richards (1995). The Mughal Empire. Cambridge University Press. pp. 97–101. ISBN 978-0-521-56603-2. 
  171. ^ Pashaura Singh (2005), Understanding the Martyrdom of Guru Arjan, Journal of Punjab Studies, 12(1), pages 29–62; Quote (p. 29): "most of the Sikh scholars have vehemently presented this event as the first of the long series of religious persecutions that Sikhs suffered at the hands of Mughal authorities.";
    Pashaura Singh (2006). Life and Work of Guru Arjan: History, Memory, and Biography in the Sikh Tradition. Oxford University Press. pp. 23, 217–218. ISBN 978-0-19-567921-2. 
  172. ^ Seiple, Chris (2013). The Routledge handbook of religion and security. New York: Routledge. p. 96. ISBN 978-0-415-66744-9. 
  173. ^ Pashaura Singh and Louis Fenech (2014). The Oxford handbook of Sikh studies. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 236–238, 442–445. ISBN 978-0-19-969930-8. 
  174. ^ Annemarie Schimmel; Burzine K. Waghmar (2004). The Empire of the Great Mughals: History, Art and Culture. Reaktion. pp. 35, 115–121. ISBN 978-1-86189-185-3. 
  175. ^ Vincent Smith (1919), The Oxford History of India, Oxford University Press, page 437
  176. ^ John Bowman (2005). Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture. Columbia University Press. pp. 282–284. ISBN 978-0-231-50004-3. 
  177. ^ Matthew White (2011), Aurangzeb in Atrocities: The 100 Deadliest Episodes in Human History, W.W. Norton & Co., ISBN 978-0393081923
  178. ^ Cole, W. Owen; Sambhi, Piara Singh (1978). The Sikhs: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. Routledge. pp. 36–37. ISBN 0-7100-8842-6. 
  179. ^ Lisa Balabanlilar (2012). Imperial Identity in Mughal Empire: Memory and Dynastic Politics in Early Modern Central Asia. I.B.Tauris. pp. 97, 180–181. ISBN 978-1-84885-726-1. 
  180. ^ Grewal, J. S. (1990). "Chapter 6: The Sikh empire (1799–1849)". The Sikh empire (1799–1849). The New Cambridge History of India. The Sikhs of the Punjab. Cambridge University Press. 
  181. ^ Patwant Singh (2008). Empire of the Sikhs: The Life and Times of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Peter Owen. pp. 113–124. ISBN 978-0-7206-1323-0. 
  182. ^ United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2014). World Urbanization Prospects: The 2014 Revision, custom data acquired via website. http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Excel-Data/population.htm
  183. ^ Baten, Jörg (2016). A History of the Global Economy. From 1500 to the Present. Cambridge University Press. p. 249. ISBN 9781107507180. 
  184. ^ a b c Cox, Wendell (January 2015). "Demographia World Urban Areas" (PDF). Demographia. Retrieved 26 November 2015. 
  185. ^ Brinkhoff, Thomas. "The Principal Agglomerations of the World". citypopulation.de. City Population. Retrieved 8 April 2015. 
  186. ^ "Population explosion: Put an embargo on industrialisation in Karachi". Karachi: The Express Tribune. 6 October 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2014. 
  187. ^ a b Braj B. Kachru; Yamuna Kachru; S. N. Sridhar (2008). Language in South Asia. Cambridge University Press. pp. 122–127, 419–423. ISBN 978-1-139-46550-2. 
  188. ^ George Cardona and Danesh Jain (2003), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415772945, pages 75–77
  189. ^ a b Devanagari (Nagari), Script Features and Description, SIL International (2013), United States
  190. ^ Hindi, Omniglot Encyclopedia of Writing Systems and Languages
  191. ^ David Templin. "Devanagari script". omniglot.com. Retrieved 5 April 2015. 
  192. ^ Shamsur Rahman Faruqi (2008), Urdu Literary Culture: The Syncretic Tradition, Shibli Academy, Azamgarh
  193. ^ Peter T. Daniels; William Bright (1996). The World's Writing Systems. Oxford University Press. p. 395. ISBN 978-0-19-507993-7. 
  194. ^ Braj B. Kachru; Yamuna Kachru; S. N. Sridhar (2008). Language in South Asia. Cambridge University Press. pp. 391–394. ISBN 978-1-139-46550-2. 
  195. ^ a b Adams, C. J., Classification of religions: Geographical, Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007. Accessed: 15 July 2010; Quote: "Indian religions, including early Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism, and sometimes also Theravāda Buddhism and the Hindu- and Buddhist-inspired religions of South and Southeast Asia".
  196. ^ Alberts, Irving, T., . D. R. M. (2013). Intercultural Exchange in Southeast Asia: History and Society in the Early Modern World (International Library of Historical Studies). I.B. Tauris.
  197. ^ Lisa Balabanlilar (2012). Imperial Identity in Mughal Empire: Memory and Dynastic Politics in Early Modern Central Asia. I.B.Tauris. pp. 1–2, 7–10. ISBN 978-1-84885-726-1. 
  198. ^ "CIA – The World Factbook – Afghanistan". Cia.gov. Retrieved 2012-03-27. 
  199. ^ "Bangladesh : AT A GLANCE". Banbeis.gov.bd. Retrieved 2010-08-23. 
  200. ^ a b "CIA – The World Factbook". Cia.gov. Retrieved 2012-03-27. 
  201. ^ "Indian Census". Censusindia.gov.in. Retrieved 2010-08-23. 
  202. ^ "religion". Maldives. Retrieved 2010-08-23. 
  203. ^ "Maldives". Law.emory.edu. 1920-02-21. Retrieved 2010-08-23. 
  204. ^ Maldives – Religion, countrystudies.us
  205. ^ "NEPAL" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-08-23. 
  206. ^ Population by religions, Statistics Division of the Government of Pakistan
  207. ^ "Table 1". Web.archive.org. 2007-05-13. Archived from the original on 2007-05-13. Retrieved 2010-08-23. 
  208. ^ IMF
  209. ^ "Welcome to WorldBank Group". Web.worldbank.org. Retrieved 2010-08-23. 
  210. ^ World Bank
  211. ^ [1]
  212. ^ [2]
  213. ^ a b c UN
  214. ^ CIA Factbook
  215. ^ GPEI
  216. ^ The Dawn
  217. ^ World Bank
  218. ^ [3]
  219. ^ India,World Bank
  220. ^ "World Bank Report". Source: The World Bank (2009). Retrieved 2009-03-13. World Bank Report on Malnutrition in India 
  221. ^ "Agriculture in South Asia". World Bank. 
  222. ^ The Dawn
  223. ^ Pandey, Geeta (2006-10-13). "'Hunger critical' in South Asia". BBC. Retrieved 2010-01-04. 
  224. ^ "The Eu'S External Relations". Europarl.europa.eu. Retrieved 2010-08-23. 
  225. ^ http://www.theindianrepublic.com/tbp/foreign-policy-seizing-initiative-maintaining-momentum-100037338.html
  226. ^ http://m.niticentral.com/2014/05/23/why-invitation-to-saarc-countries-is-modis-master-stroke-226470.html
  227. ^ Barry Buzan (2004). The United States and the great powers: world politics in the twenty-first century. Polity. pp. 71, 99. ISBN 978-0-7456-3374-9. Retrieved 27 December 2011. 
  228. ^ Hussein Solomon. "South African Foreign Policy and Middle Power Leadership". Retrieved 27 December 2011. 
  229. ^ "Area and Population of Countries (mid-2006 estimates)". Infoplease. Retrieved 2010-08-23. 
  230. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/india-worlds-largest-democracy/10104.html
  231. ^ http://m.economictimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/indias-defence-budget-is-one-third-of-china-pentagon/articleshow/36129618.cms
  232. ^ http://www.dawn.com/news/1110324/federal-cabinet-approves-budget-2014-15
  233. ^ "The world factbook-Bangladesh". The CIA. 
  234. ^ Gowen, Annie. "Bangladesh's political unrest threatens economic gains, democracy". Washington Post. Retrieved 6 June 2014. 
  235. ^ [4] (2015), UNDP
  236. ^ [5] (2015), Transparency International
  237. ^ The Worldwide Governance Indicators (2012), World Bank
  238. ^ UNDP
  239. ^ World Bank
  240. ^ World Bank

Bibliography[edit]

External links[edit]

 Central Asia
Middle East		 Central Asia, East Asia East Asia
Middle East South East Asia
  South Asia  
Arabian Sea Indian Ocean Bay of Bengal
Indian Ocean


Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=South_Asia&oldid=763820937"