South Asia has a total area of 5.2 million sq.km (2 million sq.mi), which is 10% of the Asian continent.[30] The population of South Asia is estimated to be 2.04 billion[8] or about one-fourth of the world's population, making it both themost populous and themost densely populated geographical region in the world.[31]
In 2022, South Asia had the world's largest populations ofHindus,Muslims,Sikhs, Jains, and Zoroastrians.[32] South Asia alone accounts for 90.47% of Hindus, 95.5% of Sikhs, and 31% of Muslims worldwide, as well as 35 millionChristians and 25 million Buddhists.[33][34][35][36]
Various definitions of South Asia, including the definition by theUnited Nations geoscheme which was created for "statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories."[38]
The geographical extent is not clear cut as systemic and foreign policy orientations of its constituents are quite asymmetrical.[39] Beyond the core territories of the Indian Empire (territories of the British Empire which were under the system of British Raj), there is a high degree of variation as to which other countries are included in South Asia.[40][41][42][43] There is no clear boundary – geographical, geopolitical, socio-cultural, economical, or historical – between South Asia and other parts of Asia, especially Southeast Asia and West Asia.[44] Most of this region is peninsular, resting on theIndian Plate and being isolated from the rest of Asia by mountain barriers;[45][46] it resembles a diamond which is delineated by the Himalayas on the north, theHindu Kush in the west, and theArakanese in the east,[47] and which extends southward into the Indian Ocean with theArabian Sea to the southwest and theBay of Bengal to the southeast.[48][49]
Thenorthwestern boundary of South Asia is debated, with Afghanistan being variously described as South or Central Asian
The common definition of South Asia is largely inherited from the administrative boundaries of the Indian Empire,[50] with several exceptions. The current territories ofBangladesh,India, and Pakistan which were the core territories of theBritish Empire from 1857 to 1947 also form the core territories of South Asia.[51][52] The mountain countries ofNepal andBhutan, two independent countries that were not under the British Raj but were protectorates of the Empire,[53] and theisland countries of Sri Lanka and the Maldives are generally included.[54] By various definitions based on substantially different reasons, theBritish Indian Ocean Territory and theTibet Autonomous Region may be included as well.[55][56][57][58][59][60]Myanmar (Burma), a former British colony and now largely considered a part of Southeast Asia, is also sometimes included.[39][41][61]Afghanistan is also included by some sources.[39][41][62][6]
Organisational definitions
United Nations map of South Asia.[63] However, the United Nations does not endorse any definitions or area boundaries.[note 2]
TheSouth Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), a contiguous block of countries, started in 1985 with seven countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka – and admitted Afghanistan as an eighth member in 2007.[64][37] China and Myanmar have also applied for the status of full members of SAARC.[65][66] TheSouth Asia Free Trade Agreement admitted Afghanistan in 2011.[67]
The region as described in a 1992 work about the geography of Asia:"This greater India is well defined in terms of topography; it is the Indian peninsula, hemmed in by the Himalayas on the north, the Hindu Khush in the west and the Arakanese in the east."[61][47]
The terms "Indian subcontinent" and "South Asia" are sometimes used interchangeably.[54][48][75][76][77] The Indian subcontinent is largely a geological term referring to the land mass that drifted northeastwards from ancientGondwana, colliding with the Eurasian plate nearly 55 million years ago, towards the end of Palaeocene. This geological region largely includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.[78] 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.[79]
The use of the termIndian subcontinent began in the British Empire, and has been a term particularly common in its successors.[75] South Asia as the preferred term is particularly common when scholars or officials seek to differentiate this region from East Asia.[80] According to historiansSugata Bose andAyesha Jalal, the Indian subcontinent has come to be known as South Asia "in more recent and neutral parlance."[76] 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.[61] However, in Pakistan, the term "South Asia" is considered too India-centric and was banned until 1989 after the death ofZia ul Haq.[81] This region has also been labelled as "India" (in its classical andpre-modern sense) and "Greater India".[61][47]
According to Robert M. Cutler – a scholar of political science atCarleton University, the terms South Asia, Southwest Asia, and Central Asia are distinct, but the confusion and disagreements have arisen due to the geopolitical movement to enlarge these regions into Greater South Asia,Greater Southwest Asia, andGreater Central Asia. The frontier of Greater South Asia, states Cutler, between 2001 and 2006 has been geopolitically extended to eastern Iran and western Afghanistan in the west, and in the north to northeastern Iran, northern Afghanistan, and southernUzbekistan.[82]
Identification with a South Asian identity was found to be significantly low among respondents in an older two-year survey across Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.[83]
The history of core South Asia begins with evidence of human activity ofHomo sapiens, as long as 75,000 years ago, or with earlier hominids includingHomo erectus from about 500,000 years ago.[84] The earliest prehistoric culture have roots in theMesolithic sites as evidenced by the rock paintings ofBhimbetka rock shelters dating to a period of 30,000 BCE or older,[note 3] as well as Neolithic times.[note 4]
TheIndus Valley Civilisation, which spread and flourished in thenorthwestern part of South Asia fromc. 3300 to 1300 BCE in present-dayPakistan,North India, andAfghanistan, was the first major civilisation in South Asia.[85] A sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture developed in theMature Harappan period, from 2600 to 1900 BCE.[86] According to anthropologistPossehl, the Indus Valley civilisation provides a logical, if somewhat arbitrary, starting point for South Asian religions, but these links from the Indus religion to later-day South Asian traditions are subject to scholarly dispute.[87]
Maurya Empire in 250 BCE
The Vedic period, named after the Vedic religion of theIndo-Aryans,[note 5] lasted fromc. 1900 to 500 BCE.[89][90] The Indo-Aryans wereIndo-European-speaking pastoralists[91] who migrated into north-western India after the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization.[88][92] Linguistic and archaeological data show a cultural change after 1500 BCE,[88] with the linguistic and religious data showing links with Indo-European languages and religion.[93] By about 1200 BCE, the Vedic culture and agrarian lifestyle were established in the northwest and northern Gangetic plain of South Asia.[91][94][95] Rudimentary state-forms appeared, of which theKuru-Pañcāla union was the most influential.[96][97] The first recordedstate-level society in South Asia existed around 1000 BCE.[91] In this period, states Samuel, emerged the Brahmana and Aranyaka layers of Vedic texts, which merged into the earliest Upanishads.[98] These texts began to ask the meaning of a ritual, adding increasing levels of philosophical and metaphysical speculation,[98] or "Hindu synthesis".[99]
The Greek army led byAlexander the Great stayed in theHindu Kush region of South Asia for several years and then later moved into the Indus valley region. Later, theMaurya Empire extended over much of South Asia in the 3rd century BCE. Buddhism spread beyond south Asia, through northwest into Central Asia. TheBamiyan Buddhas of Afghanistan and theedicts of Aśoka suggest that the Buddhist monks spread Buddhism (Dharma) in eastern provinces of theSeleucid Empire, and possibly even farther into West Asia.[102][103][104] The Theravada school spread south from India in the 3rd century BCE, to Sri Lanka, later to Southeast Asia.[105] Buddhism, by the last centuries of the 1st millennium BCE, was prominent in the Himalayan region, Gandhara, Hindu Kush region, and Bactria.[106][107][108]
From about 500 BCE through about 300 CE, the Vedic-Brahmanic synthesis or "Hindu synthesis" continued.[99] Classical Hindu and Sramanic (particularly Buddhist) ideas spread within South Asia, as well as outside South Asia.[109][110][111] TheGupta Empire ruled over a large part of the region between the 4th and 7th centuries, a period that saw the construction of major temples, monasteries and universities such as theNalanda.[112][113][114] During this era, and through the 10th century, numerous cave monasteries and temples such as theAjanta Caves,Badami cave temples, andEllora Caves were built in South Asia.[115][116][117]
Outreach of influence of early medievalChola dynasty
Islam came as a political power in the fringe of South Asia in 8th century CE when the Arab generalMuhammad bin Qasim conqueredSindh, andMultan in southern Punjab, in modern-day Pakistan.[118] By 962 CE, Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms in South Asia were under a wave of raids from Muslim armies from Central Asia.[119] Among them wasMahmud of Ghazni, who raided and plundered kingdoms in north India from east of the Indus river to west of Yamuna river seventeen times between 997 and 1030.[120] Mahmud of Ghazni raided the treasuries but retracted each time, only extending Islamic rule into western Punjab.[121][122]
Timur defeats theSultan of Delhi, Nasir-u Din Mehmud, in the winter of 1397–1398
The wave of raids on north Indian and western Indian kingdoms by Muslim warlords continued after Mahmud of Ghazni, plundering and looting these kingdoms.[123] The raids did not establish or extend permanent boundaries of their Islamic kingdoms. The Ghurid SultanMu'izz al-Din Muhammad began a systematic war of expansion into North India in 1173.[124] He sought to carve out a principality for himself by expanding the Islamic world,[120][125] and thus laid the foundation for the Muslim kingdom that became theDelhi Sultanate.[120] 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.[126]
The Delhi Sultanate covered varying parts of South Asia and was ruled by a series of dynasties: Mamluk, Khalji, Tughlaq, Sayyid, and Lodi dynasties.Muhammad bin Tughlaq came to power in 1325, launched a war of expansion and the Delhi Sultanate reached it largest geographical reach over the South Asian region during his 26-year rule.[127] A Sunni Sultan, Muhammad bin Tughlaq persecuted non-Muslims such as Hindus, as well as non-Sunni Muslims such as Shia and Mahdi sects.[128][129][130]
Revolts against the Delhi Sultanate sprang up in many parts of South Asia during the 14th century.[citation needed] In the northeast, theBengal Sultanate became independent in 1346 CE. It remained in power through the early 16th century. The state religion of the sultanate was Islam.[131][132] InSouth India, the HinduVijayanagara Empire came to power in 1336 and persisted until the middle of the 16th century. It was ultimately defeated and destroyed by an alliance of the MuslimDeccan sultanates at theBattle of Talikota.[133][134]
About 1526, the Punjab governor Dawlat Khan Lodī reached out to the MughalBabur and invited him to attack the Delhi Sultanate.Babur defeated and killed Ibrahim Lodi in theBattle of Panipat in 1526. The death of Ibrahim Lodi ended the Delhi Sultanate, and theMughal Empire replaced it.[135]
Themodern history period of South Asia, that is the 16th century onwards, witnessed the establishment of the Mughal Empire, with Sunni Islam theology. The first ruler was Babur hadTurco-Mongol roots and his realm included the northwestern andIndo-Gangetic Plain regions of South Asia. Several regions of South Asia were largely underHindu kings such as those of the Vijayanagara Empire and theKingdom of Mewar.[136] Parts of modernTelangana andAndhra Pradesh were under local Muslim rulers, namely those of the Deccan sultanates.[137][138]
The Mughal Empire continued its wars of expansion after Babur's death. With the fall of the Rajput kingdoms and Vijayanagara, its boundaries encompassed almost the entirety of the Indian subcontinent.[139] The Mughal Empire was marked by a period of artistic exchanges and a Central Asian and South Asian architecture synthesis, with remarkable buildings such as theTaj Mahal.[140][138][141]
However, this time also marked an extended period ofreligious persecution.[142] Two of the religious leaders ofSikhism,Guru Arjan, andGuru Tegh Bahadur were arrested under orders of the Mughal emperors after their revolts and were executed when they refused to convert to Islam.[143][144][145] Religious taxes on non-Muslims calledjizya 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.[146][147][148][149]
The death of Aurangzeb and the collapse of the Mughal Empire, which marks the beginning of modern India, in the early 18th century, provided opportunities for theMarathas,Sikhs,Mysoreans, andNawabs of Bengal to exercise control over large regions of the Indian subcontinent.[150][151] By the mid-18th century, India was a majorproto-industrializing region.[152][138]
Maritime trading between South Asia and European merchants began at the turn of the 16th century after thePortuguese discovery of the sea route to India. British, French, and Portuguese colonial interests struck treaties with these rulers and established their trading ports. In northwestern South Asia, a large region was consolidated into the Sikh Empire byRanjit Singh.[153][154] After the defeat of theNawab of Bengal andTipu Sultan and hisFrench allies,British traders went on to dominate much of South Asia throughdivide-and-rule tactics by the early 19th century. The region experienced significantde-industrialisation in its first few decades of British rule.[155] Control over the subcontinent was thentransferred to the British government after theIndian Rebellion of 1857, with the British cracking down to some extent afterwards.[156]
An increase of famines and extreme poverty characterised the colonial period, though railways built with British technology eventually provided crucial famine relief by increasing food distribution throughout India.[157][155] Millions of South Asians began to migratethroughout the world, impelled by the economic/labour needs and opportunities presented by the British Empire.[158][159][160] The introduction ofWestern political thought inspired a growing Indian intellectual movement, and so by the 20th century, British rule began to be challenged by theIndian National Congress, which sought full independence under the leadership ofMahatma Gandhi.[161][162]
Britain, under pressure from Indian freedom fighters, increasingly gave self-rule to British India. By the 1940s, two rival camps had emerged among independence activists: those whofavored a separate nation for Indian Muslims, and those whowanted a united India. AsWorld War II raged, over 2 million Indians fought for Britain;[163] by the end of the war, Britain was greatly weakened, and thus decided to grant independence to the vast majority of South Asians in 1947,[163][164] though this coincided with thePartition of India into a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan, which resulted in significant displacement and violence and harder religious divides in the region.[165]
Contemporary era
Indian (brown) and Pakistani (green) territory on 15 August 1947, upon independence.
India and Pakistan consolidated their territory in the mid-20th century, but have an ongoing dispute overKashmir.
In 1947, the newly independent India and Pakistan had to decide how to deal with the hundreds ofprincely states that controlled much of the subcontinent, as well as what to do with the remaining European (non-British) colonies.[166] A combination of referendums, military action, and negotiated accessions took place in rapid succession, leading to the political integration of thevast majority of India andPakistan within a few years.[167][168]
India and Pakistanclashed several times in the decades after Independence, withdisputes over Kashmir playing a significant role.[169] In 1971, the eastern half of Pakistan seceded with help from India and became the People's Republic of Bangladesh after the traumaticBangladesh Liberation War.[170] This, along with India and Pakistan gaining nuclear weapons soon afterwards, increased tensions between the two countries.[171] TheCold War decades alsocontributed to the divide, as Pakistan aligned with the West and India with theSoviet Union;[172][173] other factors include the time period after the 1962Sino-Indian War, which saw India and China move apart while Pakistan and China built closer relations.[174]
Pakistan has been beset withterrorism,economic issues, andmilitary dominance of its government since Independence,[175] with none of its Prime Ministers having completed a full 5-year term in office.[176] India has grown significantly,[177] having slashed its rate of extreme poverty to below 20%[178] and surpassed Pakistan's GDP per capita in the 2010s due toeconomic liberalisation from the 1980s onward.[179] Bangladesh, having struggled greatly for decades due to conflict with and economic exploitation by Pakistan,[180][181] is now one of the fastest-growing countries in the region, beating India in terms ofGDP per capita.[182][183] Afghanistan has gone throughseveral invasions and Islamist regimes, with many of its refugees having gone to Pakistan and other parts of South Asia and bringing back cultural influences such ascricket.[184][185]Religious nationalism has grown across the region,[186][187] with persecution causing millions of Hindus and Christians to flee Pakistan and Bangladesh,[188][189] andHindu nationalism having grown in India with the election of theBharatiya Janata Party in 2014.[187]
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 distinctgeopolitical region separated from other nearby geostrategic realms, one that is geographically diverse.[192] The region is home to a variety of geographical features, such asglaciers,rainforests,valleys,deserts, andgrasslands that are typical of much larger continents. It is surrounded by three water bodies – theBay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean and theArabian Sea – and has acutely varied climate zones. The tip of the Indian Peninsula had the highest quality pearls.[193]
The climate of this vast region varies considerably from area to area from tropical monsoon in the south to temperate in the north. The variety is influenced by not only the altitude but also by factors such as proximity to the seacoast and the seasonal impact of themonsoons. Southern parts are mostly hot in summers and receive rain during monsoon periods. The northern belt ofIndo-Gangetic 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 theHimalayas block the north-Asian bitter cold winds, the temperatures are considerably moderate in the plains down below. For the most part, the climate of the region is called the monsoon climate, which keeps the region humid during summer and dry during winter, and favours the cultivation ofjute, tea, rice, and various vegetables in this region.
South Asia is largely divided into four broad climate zones:[201]
The northern Indian edge and northern Pakistani uplands have a dry subtropicalcontinental climate
The far south of India and southwest Sri Lanka have anequatorial climate
Most of the peninsula has a tropical climate with variations:
Maximum relative humidity of over 80% has been recorded inKhasi and Jaintia Hills and Sri Lanka, while the area adjustment to Pakistan and western India records lower than 20%–30%.[201] Climate of South Asia is largely characterised by monsoons. South Asia depends critically on monsoon rainfall.[202] Two monsoon systems exist in the region:[203]
The summer monsoon: Wind blows from the southwest to most parts of the region. It accounts for 70%–90% of the annual precipitation.
The winter monsoon: Wind blows from the 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 theIndus-Gangetic Plain and high wind from the Indian Ocean blows towards the center. The monsoons are the second coolest season of the year because of high humidity and cloud covering. But, at the beginning of June, the jetstreams vanish above theTibetan Plateau, low pressure over theIndus Valley deepens and theIntertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) moves in. The change is violent. Moderately vigorous monsoon depressions form in the Bay of Bengal and make landfall from June to September.[201]
Greater warming increases the amount of moisture in the atmosphere over Asia, which directly leads to extreme precipitation. Probability of 20-year, 50-year and 100-year extremes consistently increases with warming across Asia. In the most affected parts of South Asia, up to a 15-fold average increase for 100-year extremes is possible under 3 °C (5.4 °F) of warming.[204]
South Asian countries are expected to experience more flooding in the future as the monsoon pattern intensifies.[205]: 1459 Across Asia as a whole, 100-year extremes in vapour transport (directly related to extreme precipitation) would become 2.6 times more frequent under 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) of global warming, yet 3.9 and 7.5 times more frequent under 2 °C (3.6 °F) and 3 °C (5.4 °F). In parts of South Asia, they could become up to 15 times more frequent.[204] At the same time, up to two-thirds of glacier ice in the Hindu Kush region may melt by 2100 under high warming, and these glaciers feed the water basin of over 220 million people.[205]: 1487 As glacier meltwater flow diminishes after 2050,Hydropower generation would become less predictable and reliable, while agriculture would become more reliant on the intensified monsoon than ever before.[206][207][208] Around 2050, people living in theGanges andIndus river basins (where up to 60% of non-monsoon irrigation comes from the glaciers[209]) may be faced with severe water scarcity due to both climate and socioeconomic reasons.[205]: 1486
By 2030, major Indian cities such asMumbai,Kolkata,Cuttack, andKochi are expected to end up with much of their territory below the tide level.[210] In Mumbai alone, failing to adapt to this would result in damages of US$112–162 billion by 2050, which would nearly triple by 2070.[205]Sea level rise in Bangladesh will displace 0.9–2.1 million people by 2050 and may force the relocation of up to one third of power plants by 2030.[205]Food security will become more uneven, and some South Asian countries could experience significant social impacts from global food price volatility.[205]: 1494 Infectious diarrhoea mortality anddengue fever incidence is also likely to increase across South Asia.[205]: 1508 Parts of South Asia would also reach "critical health thresholds" forheat stress under all but the lowest-emissionclimate change scenarios.[205]: 1465 Under the high-emission scenario, 40 million people (nearly 2% of the South Asian population) may be driven to internal migration by 2050 due to climate change.[205]: 1469
India is estimated to have the world's highestsocial cost of carbon - meaning that it experiences the greatest impact fromgreenhouse gas emissions.[211] Other estimates describe Bangladesh as the country most likely to be the worst-affected.[212][213][214] In the 2017 edition ofGermanwatch'sClimate Risk Index, Bangladesh and Pakistan ranked sixth and seventh respectively as the countries most affected by climate change in the period from 1996 to 2015, while India ranked fourth among the list of countries most affected by climate change in 2015.[215] Some research suggests that South Asia as a whole would lose 2% of itsGDP to climate change by 2050, while these losses would approach 9% by the end of the century under the most intense climate change scenario.[205]: 1468
Northwestern South Asia is the site of many of the first civilisations of the world, such as theIndus Valley Civilisation.[226][227] It was historically the most-conquered region of South Asia because it is the first region that invading armies coming from the west had to cross to enter the Indian subcontinent;[228] because of these many invasions, Northwestern South Asia has significant influences from various sources outside of South Asia, mainly from theMuslim world.[229]
Historically, governments throughout Southern South Asia adopted Sanskrit for public political expression beginning around 300 CE and ending around 1300, resulting in greater integration into the broaderSouth Asian cultural sphere.[236] This significantly influenced the languages of the region, making all of the major Dravidian languages except for Tamil highlySanskritised.[237][238] Tamil influence in the region is quite significant, with prominent empires such as theChola dynasty takingTamil culture to Sri Lanka and beyond South Asia, and Sri Lanka having an ancientTamil minority and a Dravidian-influenced majority language ofSinhala.[239][240][241]
The population of South Asia is about 1.938 billion which makes it themost populated region in the world.[242] 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.[243]
Population of South Asian countries in 1950, 1975, 2000, 2025, 2050, 2075 and 2100 projection from the United Nations has been displayed in table. The given population projections are based on medium fertility index. With India and Bangladesh approachingreplacement rates fast, population growth in South Asia is facing steep decline and may turn negative in mid 21st century.[244][1]
Ethno-linguistic distribution map of South AsiaA clickable map of the official language or lingua franca spoken in each state/province of South Asia excluding the Maldives. Indo-Aryan languages are in green, Iranic languages in dark green, Dravidian languages in purple, Tibeto-Burman languages in red, and Turkic languages in orange.
There are numerous languages in South Asia. The spoken languages of the region are largely based on geography and shared across religious boundaries, but the written script is sharply divided by religious boundaries. In particular, Muslims of South Asia such as in Afghanistan and Pakistan use the Arabic alphabet and PersianNastaliq. Till 1952, Muslim-majority Bangladesh (then known as East Pakistan) also mandated only the Nastaliq script, but after that adopted regional scripts and particularly Bengali, after theLanguage Movement for the adoption of Bengali as the official language of the then East Pakistan. Non-Muslims of South Asia, and some Muslims in India, on the other hand, use scripts such as those derived fromBrahmi script for Indo-European languages and non-Brahmi scripts forDravidian languages and others.[247][248]
The largest spoken language in this region isHindustani language, followed by Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, and Punjabi.[247][248] In the modern era, new syncretic languages developed in the region such asUrdu that are used by the Muslim community ofnorthern South Asia (particularly Pakistan and northern states of India).[253] The Punjabi language spans three religions: Islam, Hinduism, and Sikhism. The spoken language is similar, but it is written in three scripts. TheSikh useGurmukhi alphabet,Muslim Punjabis inPakistan use the Nastaliq script, whileHindu Punjabis in India use the Gurmukhi orNāgarī script. The Gurmukhi and Nagari scripts are distinct but close in their structure, but the Persian Nastaliq script is very different.[254]
In 2010, South Asia had the world's largest population ofHindus,[35] about 510 millionMuslims,[35] over 27 million Sikhs, 35 million Christians and over 25 millionBuddhists.[33] Hindus make up about 68 per cent or about 900 million and Muslims at 31 per cent or 510 million of the overall South Asia population,[259] 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%).[35] With all major religions practised in the subcontinent, South Asia is known for its religious diversity and one of the most religiously diverse regions on earth.
Indian religions are the religions that originated in the Indian subcontinent; namelyHinduism,Jainism,Buddhism, andSikhism.[260] The Indian religions are distinct yet share terminology, concepts, goals and ideas, and from South Asia spread into East Asia and southeast Asia.[260] Early Christianity and Islam were introduced into coastal regions of South Asia by merchants who settled among the local populations. LaterSindh,Balochistan, and parts of thePunjab region saw conquest by theArab 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.[261][262] Aboutone-third of the world's Muslims are from South Asia.[34][36][32]
Country
State religion
Religious population as a percentage of total population
South Asia is home to some of the most populated urban areas in the world. According to the 2023 edition ofDemographia World Urban Areas, the region contains 8 of the world's 35 megacities (urban areas over 10 million population):[275]
TheSouth Asian diaspora, also known as theDesi diaspora,[278] is the group of people whose ancestral origins lie in South Asia, but who live outside the region.[279] There are over 44 million people in this diaspora.[280]
AnAfghan soldier playing cricket. Afghan refugees who lived in Pakistan and India brought the sport back to Afghanistan, and it is now one of the most popular sports in the country.[185]
Cinema is prominent in South Asia, with theBollywood (representing the most-spoken language in the region ofHindi) andSouth Indian film industries being the most dominant. Pakistan'sLollywood also is growing, while historically,Bengali cinema was highly acclaimed by international film circles.
Mumbai is the financial capital of India with GDP of $400 billion[288]GDP per capita development in South Asia
India is the largest economy in the region (US$4.11 trillion) and makes up almost 80% of the South Asian economy; it is theworld's 5th largest in nominal terms and3rd largest by purchasing power adjusted exchange rates (US$14.26 trillion).[289] India is the member ofG-20 major economies andBRICS from the region. It is the fastest-growing major economy in the world and one of the world's fastest registering a growth of 7.2% in FY 2022–23.[290]
India is followed by Bangladesh, which has a GDP of ($446 billion). It has the fastest GDP growth rate in Asia. It is one of the emerging and growth-leading economies of the world, and is also listed among theNext Eleven countries. It is also one of the fastest-growing middle-income countries. It has theworld's 33rd largest GDP in nominal terms and is the25th largest by purchasing power adjusted exchange rates ($1.476 trillion). Bangladesh's economic growth was 6.4% in 2022.[291] The next one is Pakistan, which has an economy of ($340 billion). Next isSri Lanka, which has the 2nd highest GDP per capita and the 4th largest economy in the region. According to aWorld Bank report in 2015, driven by a strong expansion in India, coupled with favourable oil prices, from the last quarter of 2014 South Asia became the fastest-growing region in the world.[292]
Certain parts of South Asia are significantly wealthier than others; the four Indian states ofMaharashtra,Tamil Nadu,Gujarat, andKarnataka are projected to account for almost 50% of India's GDP by 2030, while the fiveSouth Indian states comprising 20% of India's population are expected to contribute 35% of India's GDP by 2030.[293]
According to the World Bank's 2011 report, based on 2005 ICP PPP, about 24.6% of the South Asian population was below the international poverty line of $1.25/day.[305] Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka had the lowest number of people below the poverty line, with 2.4%, 1.5% and 4.1% respectively.
According to the 2023 MPI (multidimensional poverty index) report by the UN, around 20% of South Asians are poor.[306]
51.7% of Afghanistan's population was under the MPI poverty threshold in 2019,[307] while 24.1% of Bangladesh's population was under the threshold in 2021.[308] India lifted 415 million people from MPI-poverty from 2005/06 to 2019/21; 16.4% of India's population was MPI-poor in 2019/2021, compared to 55.1% in 2005/2006.[178] 10% of India's population was under the international poverty line of $2.15/day in 2021.[309]
Durbar High School, oldest secondary school ofNepal, established in 1854 CELower class school in Sri LankaCollege of Natural Resources, Royal University of Bhutan
One of the key challenges in assessing the quality of education in South Asia is the vast range of contextual difference across the region, complicating any attempt to compare between countries.[322] In 2018, 11.3 million children at the primary level and 20.6 million children at the lower secondary level were out-of-school in South Asia, while millions of children completed primary education without mastering the foundational skills of basic numeracy and literacy.[323]
According to UNESCO, 241 million children between six and fourteen years or 81 per cent of the total were not learning in Southern and Central Asia in 2017. Only sub-Saharan Africa had a higher rate of children not learning. Two-thirds of these children were in school, sitting in classrooms. Only 19% of children attending primary and lower secondary schools attain a minimum proficiency level in reading and mathematics.[324][325] According to a citizen-led assessment, only 48% in Indian public schools and 46% of children in Pakistan public schools could read a class two level text by the time they reached class five.[326][325] This poor quality of education in turn has contributed to some of the highest drop-out rates in the world, while over half of the students complete secondary school with acquiring requisite skills.[325]
In South Asia, classrooms are teacher-centred and rote-based, while children are often subjected to corporal punishment and discrimination.[323] Different South Asian countries have different education structures. While by 2018 India and Pakistan has two of the most developed and increasingly decentralised education systems, Bangladesh still had a highly centralised system, and Nepal is in a state of transition from a centralised to a decentralised system.[322] In most South Asian countries children's education is theoretically free; the exceptions are the Maldives, where there is no constitutionally guaranteed free education, as well as Bhutan and Nepal, where fees are charged by primary schools. But parents are still faced with unmanageable secondary financial demands, including private tuition to make up for the inadequacies of the education system.[327]
The larger and poorer countries in the region, like India and Bangladesh, struggle financially to get sufficient resources to sustain an education system required for their vast populations, with an added challenge of getting large numbers of out-of-school children enrolled into schools.[322] Their capacity to deliver inclusive and equitable quality education is limited by low levels of public finance for education,[323] while the smaller emerging middle-income countries like Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Bhutan have been able to achieve universal primary school completion, and are in a better position to focus on quality of education.[322]
Children's education in the region is also adversely affected by natural and human-made crises including natural hazards, political instability, rising extremism and civil strife that makes it difficult to deliver educational services.[323] Afghanistan and India are among the top ten countries with the highest number of reported disasters due to natural hazards and conflict. The precarious security situation in Afghanistan is a big barrier in rolling out education programmes on a national scale.[322]
According to UNICEF, girls face incredible hurdles to pursue their education in the region,[323] while UNESCO estimated in 2005 that 24 million girls of primary-school age in the region were not receiving any formal education.[328][329] Between 1900 and 2005, most of the countries in the region had shown progress in girls' education with Sri Lanka and the Maldives significantly ahead of the others, while the gender gap in education has widened in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Bangladesh made the greatest progress in the region in the period increasing girls' secondary school enrolment from 13 per cent to 56 per cent in ten years.[330][331]
With about 21 million students in 700 universities and 40 thousand colleges India had one of the largest higher education systems in the world in 2011, accounting for 86 per cent of all higher-level students in South Asia. Bangladesh (two million) and Pakistan (1.8 million) stood at distant second and third positions in the region. In Nepal (390 thousand) and Sri Lanka (230 thousand) the numbers were much smaller. Bhutan with only one university and Maldives with none hardly had between them about 7000 students in higher education in 2011. The gross enrolment ratio in 2011 ranged from about 10 per cent in Pakistan and Afghanistan to above 20 per cent in India, much below the global average of 31 per cent.[332]
According toWorld Health Organization (WHO), South Asia is home to two out of the three countries in the world still affected by polio, Pakistan and Afghanistan, with 306 & 28 polio cases registered in 2014 respectively.[335] Attempts to eradicate polio have been badly hit by opposition from militants in both countries, who say the program is cover to spy on their operations. Their attacks on immunisation teams have claimed 78 lives since December 2012.[336]
TheWorld Bank estimates that India is one of the highest ranking countries in the world for the number of children suffering frommalnutrition. The prevalence of underweight children in India is among the highest in the world and is nearly double that ofsub-Saharan Africa with dire consequences for mobility, mortality, productivity, and economic growth.[337]
According to the World Bank, 64% of South Asians lived in rural areas in 2022.[338] In 2008, about 75% of South Asia's poor lived in rural areas and most relied on agriculture for their livelihood[339] according to the UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation.
In 2021, approximately 330 million people in the region were malnourished.[340] A 2015 report says that Nepal reached both the WFS target as well as MDG and is moving towards bringing down the number of undernourished people to less than 5% of the population.[311] Bangladesh reached the MDG target with the National Food Policy framework – with only 16.5% of the population undernourished. In India, the malnourished comprise just over 15 per cent of the population. While the number of malnourished people in the neighbourhood has shown a decline over the last 25 years, the number of under-nourished in Pakistan displays an upward trend. There were 28.7 million hungry in Pakistan in the 1990s – a number that has steadily increased to 41.3 million in 2015 with 22% of the population malnourished. Approximately 194.6 million people are undernourished in India, which accounts for the highest number of people suffering from hunger in any single country.[311][341]
The 2006 report stated, "the low status of women in South Asian countries and their lack of nutritional knowledge are important determinants of high prevalence of underweight children in the region." Corruption and the lack of initiative on the part of the government has been one of the major problems associated with nutrition in India. Illiteracy in villages has been found to be one of the major issues that need more government attention. The report mentioned that although there has been a reduction in malnutrition due to theGreen Revolution in South Asia, there is concern that South Asia has "inadequate feeding and caring practices for young children."[342]
India is asecularfederativeparliamentary republic with theprime minister as head of government. With the most populous functional democracy in world[344] and the world's longest written constitution,[345][346][347] India has been stably sustaining the political system it adopted in 1950 with no regime change except that by a democratic election. India's sustained democratic freedoms are unique among the world's newer establishments. Since theformation of its republic abolishingBritish law, it has remained a democracy with civil liberties, an active Supreme Court, and a largely independent press.[348] India leads region inDemocracy Index. It has amulti-party system in its internal regional politics[349] whereas alternative transfer of powers to alliances of Indianleft-wing andright-wing political parties in national government provide it with characteristics of atwo-party state.[350] India has been facing notable internal religious conflicts and separatism howeverconsistently becoming more and more stable with time.
Bangladesh is aunitaryparliamentary republic. The law of Bangladesh defines it as Islamic[353] as well as secular.[354] The nature ofBangladeshi politics can be characterised as amulti-party system. Bangladesh is aunitary state andparliamentary democracy.[355] Bangladesh also stands out as one of the few Muslim-majority democracies. "It is a moderate and generally secular and tolerant — though sometimes this is getting stretched at the moment — alternative toviolent extremism in a very troubled part of the world", saidDan Mozena, the US ambassador to Bangladesh. Although Bangladesh's legal code is secular, more citizens are embracing a conservative version ofIslam, with some pushing forsharia law, analysts say. Experts say that the rise in conservatism reflects the influence of foreign-financed Islamic charities and the more austere version of Islam brought home by migrant workers inPersian Gulf countries.[356]
Bhutan is a Buddhist state with aconstitutional monarchy. The country has been ranked as the least corrupt and most peaceful country in the region, with the most economic freedom, in 2016.
Maldives is a unitary presidential republic withSunni Islam strictly as the state religion.
A 1959 map showing how most of Asia was communist (in red), with Pakistan (blue) being more aligned with capitalist powers than India.[179] The resultingCold War dynamics impacted South Asian geopolitics in the late 20th century.[372]
While in East Asia, regional trade accounts for 50% of total trade, it accounts for only a little more than 5% in South Asia.[381]
Populism is a general characteristic of internal politics of India.[382]
Regional groups of countries
This section needs to beupdated. The reason given is: Statistics need to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(October 2024)
^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 website are not warranted to be error free nor do they necessarily imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations."[63]
^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 fromc. 30,000 BCE inBhimbetka, near present-day Bhopal, in the Vindhya Mountains in the province of Madhya Pradesh."
^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, maybe a feature that originated in the Neolithic."
^Michaels: "They called themselvesarya ("Aryans," literally "the hospitable," from the Vedicarya, "homey, the hospitable") but even in the Rgveda,arya denotes a cultural and linguistic boundary and not only a racial one."[88]
^"Shah Jahan eventually sent her body 800 km (500 mi) to Agra for burial in the Rauza-i Munauwara ("Illuminated Tomb") – a personal tribute and a stone manifestation of his imperial power. This tomb has been celebrated globally as the Taj Mahal."[19]
^abSaez 2012, p. 58: "Afghanistan is considered to be part of Central Asia. It regards itself as a link between Central Asia and South Asia."
^"South Asia".Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved1 April 2023.
^abBaker, Kathleen M.; Chapman, Graham P. (11 March 2002).The Changing Geography of Asia. Routledge. pp. 10–.ISBN978-1-134-93384-6.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.
^Lowe, John J. (2015).Participles in Rigvedic Sanskrit: The syntax and semantics of adjectival verb forms.Oxford University Press. pp. 1–2.ISBN978-0-19-100505-3.(The Rigveda) consists of 1,028 hymns (suktas), highly crafted poetic compositions originally intended for recital during rituals and for the invocation of and communication with the Indo-Aryan gods. Modern scholarly opinion largely agrees that these hymns were composed between around 1500 BCE and 1200 BCE, during the eastward migration of the Indo-Aryan tribes from the mountains of what is today northern Afghanistan across the Punjab into north India.
^(a)Witzel, Michael (2008)."Vedas and Upanisads". In Gavin Flood (ed.).The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism.John Wiley & Sons. pp. 68–70.ISBN978-0-470-99868-7.It is known from internal evidence that the Vedic texts were orally composed in northern India, at first in the Greater Punjab and later on also in more eastern areas, including northern Bihar, between ca. 1500 BCE and ca. 500–400 BCE. The oldest text, the Rgveda, must have been more or less contemporary with the Mitanni texts of northern Syria/Iraq (1450–1350 BCE); ... The Vedic texts were orally composed and transmitted, without the use of script, in an unbroken line of transmission from teacher to student that was formalised early on. This ensured an impeccable textual transmission superior to the classical texts of other cultures; it is in fact something of atape-recording of ca. 1500–500 BCE. Not just the actual words, but even the long-lost musical (tonal) accent (as in old Greek or in Japanese) has been preserved up to the present. (pp. 68–69) ... The RV text was composed before the introduction and massive use of iron, that is before ca. 1200–1000 BCE. (p. 70)(b)Doniger, Wendy (2014).On Hinduism.Oxford University Press. pp. xviii, 10.ISBN978-0-19-936009-3.A Chronology of Hinduism: ca. 1500–1000 BCE Rig Veda; ca. 1200–900 BCE Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda (p. xviii); Hindu texts began with theRig Veda ('Knowledge of Verses'), composed in northwest India around 1500 BCE (p. 10)(c)Ludden 2014, p. 19, "In Punjab, a dry region with grasslands watered by five rivers (hence 'panch' and 'ab') draining the western Himalayas, one prehistoric culture left no material remains, but some of its ritual texts were preserved orally over the millennia. The culture is called Aryan, and evidence in its texts indicates that it spread slowly south-east, following the course of the Yamuna and Ganga Rivers. Its elite called itself Arya (pure) and distinguished themselves sharply from others. Aryans led kin groups organized as nomadic horse-herding tribes. Their ritual texts are called Vedas, composed in Sanskrit.Vedic Sanskrit is recorded only in hymns that were part of Vedic rituals to Aryan gods. To be Aryan apparently meant to belong to the elite among pastoral tribes. Texts that record Aryan culture are not precisely datable, but they seem to begin around 1200 BCE with four collections of Vedic hymns (Rg, Sama, Yajur, and Artharva)."(d)Dyson 2018, pp. 14–15, "Although the collapse of the Indus valley civilization is no longer believed to have been due to an 'Aryan invasion' it is widely thought that, at roughly the same time, or perhaps a few centuries later, new Indo-Aryan-speaking people and influences began to enter the subcontinent from the north-west. Detailed evidence is lacking. Nevertheless, a predecessor of the language that would eventually be called Sanskrit was probably introduced into the north-west sometime between 3,900 and 3,000 years ago. This language was related to one then spoken in eastern Iran; and both of these languages belonged to the Indo-European language family. ... It seems likely that various small-scale migrations were involved in the gradual introduction of the predecessor language and associated cultural characteristics. However, there may not have been a tight relationship between movements of people on the one hand, and changes in language and culture on the other. Moreover, the process whereby a dynamic new force gradually arose—a people with a distinct ideology who eventually seem to have referred to themselves as 'Arya'—was certainly two-way. That is, it involved a blending of new features which came from outside with other features—probably including some surviving Harappan influences—that were already present. Anyhow, it would be quite a few centuries before Sanskrit was written down. And the hymns and stories of the Arya people—especially the Vedas and the later Mahabharata and Ramayana epics—are poor guides as to historical events. Of course, the emerging Arya were to have a huge impact on the history of the subcontinent. Nevertheless, little is known about their early presence.";(e)Robb 2011, pp. 46–, "The expansion of Aryan culture is supposed to have begun around 1500 BCE. It should not be thought that this Aryan emergence (though it implies some migration) necessarily meant either a sudden invasion of new peoples, or a complete break with earlier traditions. It comprises a set of cultural ideas and practices, upheld by a Sanskrit-speaking elite, or Aryans. The features of this society are recorded in the Vedas."
^Fisher 2018, pp. 173–174: "The partition of South Asia that produced India and West and East Pakistan resulted from years of bitter negotiations and recriminations ... The departing British also decreed that the hundreds of princes, who ruled one-third of the subcontinent and a quarter of its population, became legally independent, their status to be settled later. Geographical location, personal and popular sentiment, and substantial pressure and incentives from the new governments led almost all princes eventually to merge their domains into either Pakistan or India. ... Each new government asserted its exclusive sovereignty within its borders, realigning all territories, animals, plants, minerals, and all other natural and human-made resources as either Pakistani or Indian property, to be used for its national development... Simultaneously, the central civil and military services and judiciary split roughly along religious 'communal' lines, even as they divided movable government assets according to a negotiated formula: 22.7 percent for Pakistan and 77.3 percent for India."
^Chatterji, Joya; Washbrook, David (2013), "Introduction: Concepts and Questions", in Chatterji, Joya; Washbrook, David (eds.),Routledge Handbook of the South Asian Diaspora, London and New York: Routledge,ISBN978-0-415-48010-9,Joya Chatterji describes how the partition of the British Indian empire into the new nation states of India and Pakistan produced new diaspora on a vast, and hitherto unprecedented, scale, but hints that the sheer magnitude of refugee movements in South Asia after 1947 must be understood in the context of pre-existing migratory flows within the partitioned regions (see also Chatterji 2013). She also demonstrates that the new national states of India and Pakistan were quickly drawn into trying to stem this migration. As they put into place laws designed to restrict the return of partition emigrants, this produced new dilemmas for both new nations in their treatment of 'overseas Indians'; and many of them lost their right to return to their places of origin in the subcontinent, and also their claims to full citizenship in host countries.
^Talbot, Ian; Singh, Gurharpal (2009),The Partition of India, Cambridge University Press,ISBN978-0-521-85661-4,archived from the original on 13 December 2016, retrieved15 November 2015,When the British divided and quit India in August 1947, they not only partitioned the subcontinent with the emergence of the two nations of India and Pakistan but also the provinces of Punjab and Bengal. ... Indeed for many the Indian subcontinent's division in August 1947 is seen as a unique event which defies comparative historical and conceptual analysis
^Khan, Yasmin (2017) [2007],The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan (2nd ed.), New Haven and London: Yale University Press, p. 1,ISBN978-0-300-23032-1,South Asians learned that the British Indian empire would be partitioned on 3 June 1947. They heard about it on the radio, from relations and friends, by reading newspapers and, later, through government pamphlets. Among a population of almost four hundred million, where the vast majority live in the countryside, ploughing the land as landless peasants or sharecroppers, it is hardly surprising that many thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, did not hear the news for many weeks afterwards. For some, the butchery and forced relocation of the summer months of 1947 may have been the first that they knew about the creation of the two new states rising from the fragmentary and terminally weakened British empire in India
^"Indian SubcontinentArchived 21 January 2012 at theWayback Machine"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."
^ab"Standard Country or Area Codes for Statistical Use". United Nations.Archived from the original on 11 July 2017. Retrieved25 August 2012. 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."
^Anderson, Ewan W.; Anderson, Liam D. (2013).An Atlas of Middle Eastern Affairs. Routledge. p. 5.ISBN978-1-136-64862-5., 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".
^Dallen J. Timothy and Gyan P. Nyaupane,Cultural Heritage and Tourism in the Developing World: A Regional Perspective, page 127, Routledge, 2009,ISBN978-1-134-00228-3
^"Asia" > Geology and GeographyArchived 23 February 2012 at theWayback Machine.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 Peninsula) is isolated from the rest of Asia by great mountain barriers."
^"Asia" > Geologic history – Tectonic frameworkArchived 1 May 2011 at theWayback Machine.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 Plate 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."
^abcBaker, Kathleen M.; Chapman, Graham P. (2002) [First published 1992].The Changing Geography of Asia. Taylor & Francis. p. 10.ISBN978-1-134-93384-6.: "This greater India is well defined in terms of topography; it is the Indian peninsula, hemmed in by the Himalayas on the north, the Hindu Khush in the west and the Arakanese in the east."
^ab"Indian subcontinent".New Oxford Dictionary of English (ISBN0-19-860441-6) 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."
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^abBose, Sugata;Jalal, Ayesha (2004) [First published 1998].Modern South Asia (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 3.ISBN0-415-30787-2.Indian subcontinent – or South Asia – as it has come to be known in more recent and neutral parlance
^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."
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^"Ellora Caves – UNESCO World Heritage Centre". UNESCO.Archived from the original on 9 December 2016. Retrieved26 December 2016., 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."
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Shokoohy, Mehrdad (1988).Bhadreśvar: The Oldest Islamic Monuments in India. Brill.ISBN978-90-04-08341-7.; see discussion of earliest raids in Gujarat
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^Last update for Afghanistan from the World Economic Outlook is for 2020. Later years are unavailable.
^Individual country percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding. Afghanistan not included in 2022 totals due to year mismatch. World Economic Outlook also does not count Afghanistan in the South Asia subtotals.
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