64.85.191.162 (talk) |
Thegreyanomaly (talk | contribs) flags in the beginning are ok. They are present in similar sections on other region pages |
||
| Line 88: | Line 88: | ||
=== Environment === |
=== Environment === |
||
:) |
|||
== Economy == |
== Economy == |
||
{{see|Economy of India|Economy of Pakistan|Economy of Bangladesh|Economy of Sri Lanka|Economy of Nepal}} |
{{see|Economy of India|Economy of Pakistan|Economy of Bangladesh|Economy of Sri Lanka|Economy of Nepal}} |
||
Revision as of 05:00, 11 February 2009
South Asia
| Countries | 7 to 10 (see page) |
|---|---|
| Territories | 1 or 2 (see page) |
| GDP | |
| GDP per capita | |
| Languages | Assamese/Asomiya, Bengali, Bodo, Burmese, 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 |
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is a southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities (see below), also includes the adjoining countries on the west and the east. It is surrounded (clockwise, from west to east) by Western Asia, Central Asia, Eastern Asia, and Southeastern Asia.
South Asia typically consists of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, and British Indian Ocean Territory. Some definitions may also include Afghanistan, Myanmar, Tibet, and even Iran.
South Asia is home to around a fifth of world population. The region has often seen conflicts and political instability, including wars between the region's two nuclear-armed states, Pakistan and India. South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation an economic cooperation organization in the region.
Definitions and usage
South Asia consists of the following countries and territories:
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.
Some academic and/or cultural institutions from the United States and the United Kingdom also classify the following countries and territories as South Asian:
- Afghanistan[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)
- Myanmar --"especially in the period when Burma was under British colonial rule"[18] (Prior to 1 April 1937, for nearly a century, it was part of the British Raj region of South Asia proper. Otherwise considered part of Southeast Asia.[19])
- Tibet[5][6][11][12][13][14][15][16][20] (Otherwise considered Central Asian[21] or East Asian[22][23]) (PRC is an observer member of SAARC)
The United Nations also includes Iran, but not Tibet or Burma, as part of Southern Asia:[24]
- Iran (Iran is an observer nation in SAARC) (Otherwise considered Southwest Asia)
Differences in definitions
South Asia is defined in various different ways in literature. 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 George W. Bush administration'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".[25]
Geography
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.[citation needed] As in the case of the Hindukush mountains, everything to the south-east of the Iranian Plateau is considered South Asia.[citation needed] But, geo-politically, 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.
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
The climate of this vast region varies considerably from area to area and 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 period(s). 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 Himalyan ranges. As the Himalayas block the north-Asian bitter cold winds, the temperatures are considerably moderate in the plains down below.
Environment
Economy
Sri Lanka has the highest GDP per capita in the region, while Nepal, Afghanistan, and Burma have the lowest. India is the largest economy in the region; it is the world's 12th largest or 4th largest by purchasing power adjusted exchange rates. Pakistan has next largest economy, followed by Bangladesh. If Iran is counted, it is the richest economy and the second largest in region. According to a World Bank report in 2007, South Asia is the least integrated region in the world; trade between South Asian states is only 2% of the region's combined GDP, compared to 20% in East Asia.[26]
According to the Global Hunger Index, South Asia has the highest child malnutrition rate of world's regions.[27] India contributes to about 5.6 million child deaths every year, more than half the world's total.[28] The 2006 report mentioned that "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" and was concerned that South Asia has "inadequate feeding and caring practices for young children".[28]
Media
The media plays an important role in every country in the region.[citation needed] All countries in SAARC have television, radio and the print media.[citation needed] Sri Lanka created broadcasting history by being the first country in South Asia to inaugurate broadcasting services in 1925, just three years after the launching of broadcasting in Europe. Radio Ceylon is the oldest radio station in South Asia. The station ruled the airwaves in the 1950s and 1960s and had a listener base running into millions.[29]
History
The remote pre-history of South Asia culminates in the Indus Valley Civilization, which is followed by the legends of ancient Vedic period and the sketchy references to the rise and fall of Mahajanapadas - the precursors of regional kingdoms and later ancient empires - ending in the historical accounts of medieval empires and the arrival of European traders who later became the rulers.
Almost all South Asian countries were under direct or indirect European Colonial subjugation at some point. Much of modern India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar were gradually occupied by Great Britain - starting from 1757, reaching their zenith in 1857 and ruling till 1947. Nepal and Bhutan were to some extent a protectorate of Great Britain until after World War II. The network of means of transportation and communication as well as banking and training of requisite workforce, and also the existing rail, post, telegraph, 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. Tibet at times has governed itself as an independent state and at other times has had various levels of association with China[30][31], it became under Chinese control in the 18th century[32][33][34][31] in spite of British efforts to seize possession of this Chinese protectorate at the beginning of the 20th century. [35] Tibetan and Chinese views on the Sino-Tibetan relation vary significantly. The Tibetans saw the Dalai Lama's relation with the Manchu emperor in more of a religious light than what would be considered political.[33]
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.
Demographics
Ethnic groups
South Asia, which consists of the nations of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, is ethnically diverse, with more than 2,000 ethnic entities with populations ranging from hundreds of millions to small tribal groups. South Asia has been invaded and settled by many ethnic groups over the centuries including various Dravidian, Indo-Aryan and Iranian groups. The amalgamation of Dravidian, Indo-Aryan and local tribal cultures over the centuries created common culture, traditions and beliefs. The Vedic Sanskrit language and Vedic religion combined Indo-Aryan, Dravidian and local tribal beliefs to give rise to the ancient South Asian religions of Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and also Sikhism, even though Sufi tradition of Islam had also significantly influenced nascent Sikhism and its holiest scripture. As a consequence, they share many similar cultural practices, festivals, and traditions. Throughout time, the traditions of different ethnic groups in South Asia have diverged, sometimes giving rise to strong local traditions, such as South Indian culture in earlier times. Other ethnic groups, successively streaming in later mainly from Central Asia and Iran, e.g. Sakas, Kushans, Huns etc. influenced pre-existing south Asian cultures. The last of these new arrivals were the Turks and Pathans, who brought in much cultural influence and the Abrahamic religion of Islam to the western and northern parts of South Asia - the Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashtun, Baloch and Kashmiri people in areas principally located in the northern highlands and the Balochistan plateau in Pakistan and the Indo-Gangetic plains in Pakistan and India - and contributed to the birth of Urdu, a syncretic language of combined Indic-Persian-Turkic-Arabic heritage, which is widely spoken today.
Languages
The largest spoken language in this region is now Hindi, its speakers numbering almost 422 million[36]; the second largest spoken language is Bengali, with 240 million[citation needed] speakers. Urdu is also a major language spoken in the subcontinent, especially in Pakistan and India, and is similar linguistically to Hindi; Hindi and Urdu together make up Hindustānī. 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 Brāhmī 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 Gurmukhī. Dhivehi is written in a script called Tāna that shows characteristics of both the Arabic alphabet and of an abugida.
Religions
| Afghanistan[1] | Sunni Muslim (80%), Shi'a Muslim (19%), other (1%) |
| Bangladesh[37] | Muslim (89.8%), Hindu (9.2%), Buddhist (1.6%), Christian (1.3%),Believers in tribal faiths (0.1%) |
| British Indian Ocean Territory[38] | Christian (45.55%), Hindu (38.55%), Muslim (9.25%), Non-Religious (6.50%), Atheist (0.10%), Other (0.05%) |
| Bhutan[2] | Buddhist (75%), Hindu (25%) |
| India[39][40] | Hindu (80.5%), Muslim (13.4%), Christian (2.3%), Sikh (1.9%), Buddhist (0.8%), Jain (0.4%), Others (0.6%) |
| Iran[41] | Shi'a Muslim (89%), Sunni Muslim (9%), Zoroastrian, Jewish, Christian, and Baha'i (2%) |
| Maldives[42] | Sunni Muslim (100%) (One must be a Sunni Muslim to be a citizen on the Maldives[43][44]) |
| Myanmar[45] | Theravada Buddhism (89%), Muslim (4%), Christian (4%) (Baptist 3%, Roman Catholic 1%), Animist (1%), others (including Hinduism) (2%) |
| Nepal[46] | Hindu (80.6%), Buddhist (10.7%), Muslim (4.2%), Kirat (3.6%) |
| Pakistan[47] | Muslim (96.28%), Hindu (1.85%), Christian (1.59%), Ahmadi (0.22%) |
| Sri Lanka[48] | Theravada Buddhist (70.42%), Hindu (10.89%), Muslim (8.78%), Catholic (7.77%), Other Christian (1.96%), Other (0.13%) |
| Tibet | Tibetan Buddhism, Bön, Others |
Territory and region data
See also
- History of South Asia
- South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
- South Asian Economic Union
- Greater India
- Indology
- India (disambiguation)
- Islamic conquest of South Asia
- List of South Asian stock exchanges
- South Asian cuisine
Other subregions in Asia
Notes and References
- ^ a b c d "Afghanistan". The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. December 13, 2007. Cite error: The named reference "AfgCIA" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ a b CIA - The World Factbook
- ^ a b South Asia: Data, Projects, and Research [1]
- ^ a b MAPS SHOWING GEOLOGY, OIL AND GAS FIELDS AND GEOLOGICAL PROVINCES OF SOUTH ASIA [2] Includes Afghanistan and Bhutan
- ^ a b Center for South Asia Studies: University of California, Berkeley [3]; Archive.org [4] (site under reconstruction)
- ^ a b Center for South Asia Outreach UW-Madison [5]
- ^ Department of South Asia Studies: University of Pennsylvania [6]
- ^ Afghanistan-Tajikistan Bridge Links Central, South Asia [7] Refers to Afghanistan as South Asian and Tajikistan as Central Asian
- ^ University of Washington Jackson School of International Studies: The South Asia Center http://jsis.washington.edu/advise/catalog/soasia-b.html
- ^ Syracruse University: The South Asia Center http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/moynihan/programs/sac/
- ^ a b Center for South Asian Studies
- ^ a b http://www.brandeis.edu/registrar/catalog/one-subject.php?subject_id=6550 this sources admits in certain contexts that Tibet and Afghanistan are South Asian
- ^ a b http://www.britac.ac.uk/institutes/SSAS/about.htm Tibetan and Afghan flag shown
- ^ a b Organization - Center for South Asian Studies - Oscar
- ^ a b University of Hawaii at Manoa | South Asia Collection
- ^ a b Rutgers, SAS South Asian Studies: - Home
- ^ The 2007 Middle East & Central Asia Politics, Economics,and Society Conference University of Utah "Regional Economic Outlook: Middle East & Central Asia" May 2006, International Monetary Fund Middle East Network Information Center (MENIC), University of Texas at Austin Afghanistan Profile, National Geographic (accessed 20 January 2006) Afghanistan, Middle East Institute (accessed 20 January 2006)
- ^ http://www.international.ucla.edu/idps/southasia/ UCLA South Asian Studies
- ^ "Southeast Asian Studies Major and Minor". Retrieved 2009-01-01.
- ^ South Asian Studies at Emory
- ^ Tibet - Britannica Online Encyclopedia
- ^ Plateaus, National Geographic Society
- ^ アジア情報機関ダイレクトリー : 所蔵資料の言語から探す : 東アジア言語, National Diet Library of Japan
- ^ Composition of macro geographical (continental) regions, geographical sub-regions, and selected economic and other groupings, United Nations website
- ^ Race Differences in Intelligence by Richard Lynn pg 79, 2006
- ^ A special report on India: India elsewhere: An awkward neighbour in a troublesome neighbourhood Dec 11th 2008 The Economist
- ^ "2008 Global Hunger Index Key Findings & Facts". 2008.
- ^ a b "'Hunger critical' in South Asia". BBC. 2006.
- ^ "When Ceylon ruled the airwaves". Retrieved 2008-04-16.
- ^ MSN Encarta - Tibet
- ^ a b Encyclopedia Britannica - "China, Asia", 1911, read in part: "CHINA, a country of eastern Asia, the principal division of the Chinese empire. In addition to China proper the Chinese Empire includes Manchuria, Mongolia, Tibet and Sin-kiang (East Turkestan, Kulja, Dzungaria, &c., i.e. all the Chinese dependencies lying between. Mongolia on the north and Tibet on the south)."
- ^ In the Heart of Tibet, New York Times, 1903
- ^ a b Goldstein, M.C., A History of Modern Tibet: The Demise of the Lamaist State, University of California Press, 1989, p44: "While the ancient relationships between Tibet and China are complex and beyond the scope of this study, there can be no question regarding the subordination of Tibet to Manchu-ruled China following the chaotic era of the 6th and 7th Dalai Lamas in the first decades of the eighteenth century....Sino-Tibetan relations are further complicated by Tibetan political theory, which conceived of the linkage with China as chöyön, a term that refers to the symbiotic relationship between a religious figure and a lay patron....Thus for the Tibetans, the Dalai Lama and the Manchu emperor stood respectively as spiritual teacher and a lay patron rather than subject and lord"
- ^ Petech L.,China and Tibet in the Early XVIIIth Century: History of the Establishment of Chinese Protectorate in Tibet, 1972, p260: "In 1751 the organization of the protectorate took its final shape, which it maintained, except for some modifications in 1792, till its end in 1912. The ambans were given rights of control and supervision and since 1792 also a direct participation in the Tibetan government."
- ^ Gernet, J., Foster, J.R. & Hartman C., A History of Chinese Civilization, Cambridge University Press, 1982, p481, reads in part: "From 1751 onwards Chinese control over Tibet became permanent and remained so more or less ever after, in spite of British efforts to seize possession of this Chinese protectorate at the beginning of the twentieth century."
- ^ http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/Statement1.htm
- ^ Bangladesh : AT A GLANCE
- ^ The Association of Religion Data Archives | National Profiles
- ^ CIA - The World Factbook
- ^ Indian Census
- ^ CIA - The World Factbook
- ^ Maldives - maldives religion
- ^ Maldives
- ^ Maldives - Religion, countrystudies.us
- ^ CIA - The World Factbook - Burma
- ^ NEPAL
- ^ Population by religions, Statistics Division of the Government of Pakistan
- ^ [8]
- ^ ICL - Iran - Constitution
- ^ "Population by Mother Tongue" (PDF). Population Census Organization, Government of Pakistan. Retrieved 2008-05-31.
External links
- World Bank, South Asia Region
- BBC News South Asia
- Birding in South Asia
- South Asian Awareness Network Conference Website
- Digital South Asia Library
Template:Countries of South Asia
