South Asia

Map of South Asia

Countries	7 to 10 (see page)
Territories	1 or 2 (see page)
GDP
GDP per capita
Languages	Assamese/Asomiya, Bengali, Bodo, Burmese, Chinese, Dari[1], Dhivehi, Dogri, Dzongkha, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Marathi, Manipuri, Nepali, Oriya, Pashto, Persian, Punjabi, Urdu, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Sinhala, Siraiki, Tamil, Telugu, Tibetan, and others
Time Zones	UTC +8:00 (Tibet) to UTC +3:30 (Iran)
Largest Cities	Colombo, Dhaka, Diego Garcia, Kabul, Karachi, Kathmandu, Lhasa, Malé, Mumbai, Tehran, Thimpu, and Yangon

Various definitions of South Asia.

UN Subregion of Southern Asia.

Definitions and usage

South Asia consists of the following countries and territories:

• ^[2][3][4]

These countries, except the British Indian Ocean Territory, are also currently members of a regional co-operation group, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), which was jointly formed by them. For assumed geographic, cultural, and/or historical reasons, the following countries and territories are often included in South Asia:

• ^{[1][5][6][7][3][4][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]}(Otherwise considered Central Asian or Middle-Eastern^[17]) (Now a member of SAARC)
• , (Prior to August 1947, for nearly a century, it was part of the British Raj region of South Asia proper.) (Otherwise considered Southeast Asian)
• Tibet^{[5][6][11][12][13][14][15][16][18]} (Otherwise considered Central Asian^[19]) (The People's Republic of China, which governs Tibet, is an observer member of SAARC)

The United Nations also includes Iran, but not Tibet or Burma, as part of Southern Asia:^[20]

• (Iran is an observer nation in SAARC) (Otherwise considered Southwest Asia)

Geophysically, the term Indian subcontinent is used to describe those regions which lie on the Indian Plate, bordered on the north by the Eurasian Plate. However, a good proportion of the Pakistani land mass is not on the Indian plate, but on the fringes of the Iranian plateau. As in the case of the Hindukush mountains, everything to the south-east of the Iranian Plateau is considered South Asia. But, geopolitically, Southern Asia subsumes the Indian subcontinent and includes both, the territories found internal to the Indian Plate and those in proximity to it. Afghanistan, for instance, is sometimes grouped in this region due to socio-political, historical, and ethnic (Pashtun) ties to neighbouring Pakistan.

Differences in definitions

The definition of South Asia can vary greatly from person to person. Most sources accept Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Chagos Islands, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka as South Asian. Most of the controversy originates over Afghanistan, Iran, and Tibet. Afghanistan and Tibet are often considered South Asian by the Departments of South Asian Studies of several universities, especially those referred to above; but this definition is by no means universal. Another controversy grows over Iran, for Iran is considered South Asian by the UN on the one hand, but none of those departments above on the other. The G8's definition of the Greater Middle East further obfuscates matters by including both Pakistan and Afghanistan. See: Middle East and Greater Middle East. Controversial race researcher Richard Lynn has defined Southern Asia as "from Bangladesh in the east through India, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, the Gulf states, the near East, and Turkey".^[21]

Geography

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Boundaries

The boundaries of South Asia vary based on how South Asia is defined. South Asia's north, east, and west boundaries vary based on definitions used. South Asia's southern border is the Indian Ocean. The UN subregion of Southern Asia's northern boundary would be the Himalayas, its western boundary would be made up of the Iraq-Iran border, Turkey-Iran border, Georgia-Iran border, and the Azerbaijan-Iran border. Its eastern boundary would be the India-Myanmar border and the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

Climate

Mostly hot summers and rain, some parts are snowy and cold.

Environment

Economy

The South Asian economy is characterised by chronic poverty, and inequality of wealth. While some elites in South Asia are incredibly rich and wealthy, more than 40 percent of their populations live below the Poverty Line, that is, just managing to survive, without the basic amenities of life. Corruption at all levels is highest among South Asian countries. While India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are emerging economies, Nepal, Myanmar and Iran are stagnating economies, marked by high inflation as a result of international isolation. Almost all South Asian countries were under direct or indirect Colonial subjugation at some point. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar were colonies of Great Britain from 1757 to 1947, almost 200 years. Iran was under direct American control from 1945 to 1979, and Nepal was a protectorate and sub-colony of Great Britain from 1840 to 1950. Tibet too was under the British Empire's sphere of influence until the People's Republic of China invaded, divided, and annexed it.

History

The peoples of the region possess several distinguishing features that set them apart network of means of transportation and communication as well as banking and training of requisite workforce; the existing rail, post, telegraph, bank and education facilities have evolved out of the base established in the colonial era, often called the British Raj. Most of the region gained independence from Europe by the late 1940s.

Since 1947, most South Asian countries have achieved tremendous progress in all spheres. Most notable achievements are in the fields of education; industry; health care; information technology and services based on its applications; research in the fields of cutting edge sciences and technologies; defence related self-reliance projects; international/global trade and business enterprises and outsourcing of human resources. Areas of difficulty remain, however, including religious extremism, high levels of corruption, disagreements on political boundaries, and inequitable distribution of wealth.

Ethnic groups

Map of South Asia in native languages.

Languages

The largest spoken language in this region is now Hindi, its speakers numbering almost 300 million; the second largest spoken language is Bengali, with 240 million speakers. Urdu is also a major language spoken in the subcontinent, especially in Pakistan and India, and is similar linguistically to Hindi. Other languages of this region fall into a few major linguistic groups: the Dravidian languages and the Indo-Aryan languages, a sub-branch of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. Many Tibeto-Burman ethnic groups, who are speakers of their language-group, are found in northeast India, Tibet, Nepal, and Bhutan. Other small groups, speaking Austro-Asiatic languages, are also present in South Asia. English is another language which dominates South Asia, especially as a medium of advanced education and government administration; ethnic Englishmen and other Britons are now practically absent after their two centuries long colonial presence, although they have left an imprint of western culture in the elite society.

Most of South Asia writes using various abugidas of Br?hm?c origin while languages such as Urdu, Pashto, and Sindhi use derivatives of the Perso-Arabic script. Not all languages in South Asia follow this strict dichotomy though. For example, Kashmiri is written in both the Perso-Arabic script and in the Devanagari script. The same can be said for Punjabi, which is written in both Shahmukhi and Gurmukh?. Dhivehi is written in a script called T?na that shows characteristics of both the Arabic alphabet and of an abugida.

Religion

Territory and region data

Name of country/region, with flag	Area (km²)	Population	Population density (per km²)	Capital	GDP (Total)	GDP (Per capita)	Currency	Government	Official languages	Coat of Arms
(see above)	647,500	31,889,923	46	Kabul	$32.4 billion	$1,490	Afghan afghani	Islamic republic	Dari (Persian), Pashto [1]
	144,000	150,448,340	1045	Dhaka	$331.9 billion	$2,245	Taka	Parliamentary republic	Bengali
	47,000	672,425	45	Thimphu	$4.39 billion	$5,477	Ngultrum, Indian rupee	Constitutional monarchy	Dzongkha
	60	3,500	58.3	Diego Garcia			Pound sterling	British Overseas Territory	English
	3,287,590	1,128,808,000	329	New Delhi	$4042.268 billion	$3690	Indian rupee	Federal republic, Parliamentary democracy	Hindi, English and 20 other official languages
(see above)	1,648,195	71,208,000	42	Tehran	$610 billion	$8,887	Iranian rial	Islamic republic	Persian, Constitutional status for regional languages [31]
	298	298,842	1,105	Malé	$2.569 billion	$7,675	Rufiyaa	Republic	Dhivehi
(see above)	676,578	55,400,000	75	Yangon	$93.77 billion	$1,691	Myanmar kyat	Military Junta	Burmese; Jingpho, Shan, Karen, Mon, (Spoken in Myanmar's Autonomous States.)
	147,181	28,901,790	184	Kathmandu	$41.18 billion	$1,500	Nepalese rupee	Interim government	Nepali
	880,940	162,423,000	206	Islamabad	$427.3 billion	$2577.12	Pakistani rupee	Islamic Republic	Urdu, English, Balochi, Pashto, Punjabi, Siraiki, Sindhi[32]
	65,610	19,668,000	310	Sri Jayawardenapura-Kotte	$86.72 billion	$4,600	Sri Lankan rupee	Democratic Socialist Republic	Sinhala, Tamil
Tibet Autonomous Region (see above)(claimed by Tibetan Government in Exile, controlled by China)	1,228,400	2,740,000	2.2	Lhasa	CNY 29.01 billion	CNY 10,322	Chinese yuan	Autonomous region of China	Tibetan

See also

• History of South Asia
• South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
• South Asian Economic Union
• Indosphere
• Greater India
• Indology
• India (disambiguation)
• Islamic conquest of South Asia
• List of South Asian stock exchanges
• South Asian cuisine
• British Indian
• Indian American

Other subregions in Asia

• East Asia
• Southeast Asia
• Central Asia
• North Asia
• West Asia

References

External links

• World Bank, South Asia Region
• BBC News South Asia
• Himal Southasian magazine
• South Asian Note
• Birding in South Asia
• South Asian Awareness Network Conference Website
• Global Media Publications Website
• Digital South Asia Library

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