South Asia

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South Asia
Austroasiatic, Turkic etc.
ReligionsHinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Irreligion
Demonym (colloquial)
Countries
Dependencies
Languages
Official languages (national level)
Time zones
5 time zones
  • UTC+05:30:
  • UTC+05:45:
    • Nepal
  • UTC+06:00:
  • Internet TLD.af, .bd, .bt, .in, .io, .lk, .mv, .np, .pk
    Calling codeZone 8 & 9
    Largest cities
    UN M49 code034 – Southern Asia
    142 – Asia
    001 – World

    South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethnic-cultural terms. As commonly conceptualized, the modern states of South Asia include Afghanistan,[6] Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.[7] South Asia borders East Asia to the northeast, Central Asia to the northwest, West Asia to the west and Southeast Asia to the east. Topographically, it is dominated by the Indian subcontinent and is bounded by the Indian Ocean in the south, and the Himalayas, Karakoram, and Pamir Mountains in the north.[8]

    The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is an economic cooperation organization in the region which was established in 1985 and includes all eight nations comprising South Asia.[9] South Asia has a total area of 5.2 million sq.km (2 million sq.mi), which is 10% of the Asian continent.[7] The population of the region, under the broader definition, is about 2.04 billion[1] 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.[10]

    In 2022, South Asia had the world's largest populations of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jains, and Zoroastrians.[11] South Asia alone accounts for 90.47% of Hindus, 95.5% of Sikhs, and 31% of Muslims worldwide, as well as 35 million Christians and 25 million Buddhists.[12][13][14][15]

    Definition

    Various definitions of South Asia, including the definition by the United Nations geoscheme which was created for "statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories."[16]

    The geographical extent is not clear cut as systemic and foreign policy orientations of its constituents are quite asymmetrical.[17] 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.[18][19][20][21] 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.[22]

    The common definition of South Asia is largely inherited from the administrative boundaries of the Indian Empire,[23] with several exceptions. The current territories of Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan which were the core territories of the British Empire from 1857 to 1947 also form the core territories of South Asia.[24][25] The mountain countries of Nepal and Bhutan, two independent countries that were not under the British Raj but were protectorates of the Empire,[26] and the island countries of Sri Lanka and Maldives are generally included.[27] By various definitions based on substantially different reasons, the British Indian Ocean Territory and the Tibet Autonomous Region may be included as well.[28][29][30][31][32][33] Myanmar (Burma), a former British colony and now largely considered a part of Southeast Asia, is also sometimes included.[17][19][34] Afghanistan is also included by some sources.[17][19][35][36]

    United Nations map of South Asia.[37] However, the United Nations does not endorse any definitions or area boundaries.[note 2]

    The

    South Asia Free Trade Agreement admitted Afghanistan in 2011.[42]

    The

    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.[51][52] 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,[53] and which extends southward into the Indian Ocean with the Arabian Sea to the southwest and the Bay of Bengal to the southeast.[54][55]

    While South Asia had never been a coherent geopolitical region, it has a distinct geographical identity[34][53]

    The terms "Indian subcontinent" and "South Asia" are sometimes used interchangeably.[27][54][56][57][58] The Indian subcontinent is largely 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.[59] 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.[60]

    The use of the term Indian subcontinent began in the British Empire, and has been a term particularly common in its successors.

    Zia ul Haq.[62] This region has also been labelled as "India" (in its classical and pre-modern sense) and "Greater India".[34][53]

    According to Robert M. Cutler – a scholar of political science at Carleton University,[63] 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, and Greater 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 southern Uzbekistan.[63]

    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.[64]

    History

    Pre-history

    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.[65] 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 3] as well as neolithic times.[note 4]

    Ancient era

    Indus Valley civilisation
    during 2600–1900 BCE, the mature phase

    The

    Mature Harappan period, from 2600 to 1900 BCE.[67] 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.[68]

    Maurya Empire in 250 BCE
    The Trimurti is the trinity of supreme divinity in Hinduism, typically Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer

    The Vedic period, named after the Vedic religion of the Indo-Aryans,[note 5] lasted from c. 1900 to 500 BCE.[70][71] The Indo-Aryans were Indo-European pastoralists[72] who migrated into north-western India after the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization,[69][73] Linguistic and archaeological data show a cultural change after 1500 BCE,[69] with the linguistic and religious data clearly showing links with Indo-European languages and religion.[74] By about 1200 BCE, the Vedic culture and agrarian lifestyle were established in the northwest and northern Gangetic plain of South Asia.[72][75][76] Rudimentary state-forms appeared, of which the Kuru-Pañcāla union was the most influential.[77][78] The first recorded state-level society in South Asia existed around 1000 BCE.[72] In this period, states Samuel, emerged the Brahmana and Aranyaka layers of Vedic texts, which merged into the earliest Upanishads.[79] These texts began to ask the meaning of a ritual, adding increasing levels of philosophical and metaphysical speculation,[79] or "Hindu synthesis".[80]

    Increasing urbanisation of South Asia between 800 and 400 BCE, and possibly the spread of urban diseases, contributed to the rise of ascetic movements and of new ideas which challenged the orthodox

    Buddha (c. 563 – c. 483), founder of Buddhism, was the most prominent icons.[82]

    The Greek army led by

    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.[83][84][85] The Theravada school spread south from India in the 3rd century BCE, to Sri Lanka, later to Southeast Asia.[86] Buddhism, by the last centuries of the 1st millennium BCE, was prominent in the Himalayan region, Gandhara, Hindu Kush region and Bactria.[87][88][89]

    From about 500 BCE through about 300 CE, the Vedic-Brahmanic synthesis or "Hindu synthesis" continued.

    Nalanda.[93][94][95] 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.[96][97][98]

    Medieval era

    Outreach of influence of early medieval Chola dynasty

    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.[99] By 962 CE, Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms in South Asia were under a wave of raids from Muslim armies from Central Asia.[100] 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.[101] Mahmud of Ghazni raided the treasuries but retracted each time, only extending Islamic rule into western Punjab.[102][103]

    Sultan 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.

    Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad began a systematic war of expansion into North India in 1173.[105] He sought to carve out a principality for himself by expanding the Islamic world,[101][106] and thus laid the foundation for the Muslim kingdom that became the Delhi Sultanate.[101] 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.[107]

    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.[108] A Sunni Sultan, Muhammad bin Tughlaq persecuted non-Muslims such as Hindus, as well as non-Sunni Muslims such as Shia and Mahdi sects.[109][110][111]

    Revolts against the Delhi Sultanate sprang up in many parts of South Asia during the 14th century.[citation needed] In the northeast, the Bengal Sultanate became independent in 1346 CE. It remained in power through the early 16th century. The state religion of the sultanate was Islam.[112][113] In South India, the Hindu Vijayanagara 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 Muslim Deccan sultanates at the battle of Talikota.[114][115]

    About 1526, the Punjab governor Dawlat Khan Lodī reached out to the Mughal

    Battle of Panipat in 1526. The death of Ibrahim Lodi ended the Delhi Sultanate, and the Mughal Empire replaced it.[116]

    Modern era

    Emperor Shah Jahan and his son Prince Aurangzeb in Mughal Court, 1650

    The modern history period of South Asia, that is 16th-century onwards, witnessed the establishment of the Mughal empire, with Sunni Islam theology. The first ruler was Babur had Turco-Mongol roots and his realm included the northwest and Indo-Gangetic Plain regions of South Asia. The southern and northeastern regions of South Asia were largely under Hindu kings such as those of Vijayanagara Empire and Ahom kingdom,[117] with some regions such as parts of modern Telangana and Andhra Pradesh under local Sultanates namely Deccan sultanates.[118][119]

    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.[120] 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.[121][119][122]

    However, this time also marked an extended period of religious persecution.[123] Two of the religious leaders of Sikhism, Guru Arjan and Guru Tegh Bahadur were arrested under orders of the Mughal emperors after their revolts and were executed when they refused to convert to Islam.[124][125][126] 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.[127][128][129][130]

    British India is shaded pink, the princely states
    yellow.

    After the death of Aurangzeb and the collapse of the Mughal Empire, which marks the beginning of modern India, in the early 18th century, it provided opportunities for the

    Mysoreans and Nawabs of Bengal to exercise control over large regions of the Indian subcontinent.[131][132] By the mid-18th century, India was a major proto-industrializing region.[133][119]

    Maritime trading between South Asia and European merchants began after the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama returned to Europe. British, French, Portuguese colonial interests struck treaties with these rulers and established their trading ports. In northwest South Asia, a large region was consolidated into the Sikh Empire by

    Nawab of Bengal and Tipu Sultan and his French allies, the British Empire expanded their control to the Hindu Kush region. By the 19th century, British traders had conquered much of South Asia using divide-and-rule tactics, with the region experiencing significant de-industrialisation in its first few decades of British rule.[136] Control of the region was transferred to the British government after the Indian Rebellion of 1857, with the British cracking down to some extent afterwards.[137] 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.[138][136] Introduction of Western political thought inspired a growing Indian intellectual movement. By the 20th century, the British rule begin to be challenged by the Indian National Congress under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi to seek full independence from the British rule.[139][140]

    Britain, under pressure from Indian freedom fighters, increasingly gave self-rule to British India. By the 1940s, two rival camps emerged among independence activists: those who favored a separate nation for Indian Muslims, and those who wanted a united India. As World War II raged, over 2 million Indians fought for Britain.[141] After the war, the process of independence took place and Britain granted independence to the vast majority of South Asians in 1947,[142] though this coincided with the partition of India into a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan, which resulted in significant violence and hardened religious divides in the region for some months.[143]

    Contemporary era

    India and Pakistan clashed several times in the decades after Independence, with disputes over Kashmir playing a significant role.[144] In 1971, the eastern half of Pakistan seceded with help from India and became the People's Republic of Bangladesh after the traumatic Bangladesh Liberation War.[145] This, along with India and Pakistan gaining nuclear weapons soon afterwards, increased tensions between the two countries.[146] The Cold War decades also contributed to the divide, as Pakistan aligned with the West and India with the Soviet Union; modern legacies of this divide include the majority of India's modern-day weaponry being Russian in origin.[147][148]

    Pakistan has been beset with

    GDP per capita.[155][156] Afghanistan has gone through several 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 as cricket.[157][158] Religious nationalism has grown across the region, with human rights violations causing millions of Hindus and Christians to flee Pakistan and Bangladesh,[159][160] and Hindu nationalism having grown in India with the election of the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2014.[161] A recent phenomenon has been that of India and China fighting on their border, as well as vying for dominance of South Asia, with China able to use its superior economy to attract countries surrounding India.[162]

    Geography

    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.[163] 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.[164]

    Indian Plate

    Most of this region is resting on the

    Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet is situated at the outside the border of the regional structure, while the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan are situated inside that border.[170]

    The

    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

    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 the

    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 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 of jute, tea, rice, and various vegetables in this region.

    South Asia is largely divided into four broad climate zones:[172]

    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%.[172] Climate of South Asia is largely characterized by monsoons. South Asia depends critically on monsoon rainfall.[173] Two monsoon systems exist in the region:[174]

    • 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 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.[172]

    ambient temperature and precipitation patterns.[175]

    Regions

    Land and water area

    This list includes

    total internal area
    (TIA) which includes land and internal waters.

    Country Area in km2 EEZ Shelf EEZ+TIA
     Afghanistan 652,864 0 0 652,864
     Bangladesh 148,460 86,392 66,438 230,390
     Bhutan 38,394 0 0 38,394
     India 3,287,263 2,305,143 402,996 5,592,406
     Nepal 147,181 0 0 147,181
     Maldives 298 923,322 34,538 923,622
     Pakistan 881,913 290,000 51,383 1,117,911
     Sri Lanka 65,610 532,619 32,453 598,229
    Total 5,221,093 4,137,476 587,808 9,300,997

    Society

    Population

    The population of South Asia is about 1.938 billion which makes it the

    most populated region in the world.[176] 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.[177]

    Country
    Population
    in thousands

    (2023)[178][1]

    % of South Asia % of world[179]
    Density
    (per km2)
    Population growth rate[180] Population projection (in thousands)[178][1]
    2005–10 2010–15 2015–20 1950 1975 2000 2025 2050 2075 2100
     Afghanistan 42,240 2.17% 0.525% 61.8 2.78 3.16 2.41 7,752 12,689 20,779 44,516 74,075 98,732 110,855
     Bangladesh 172,954 8.92% 2.15% 1301 1.18 1.16 1.04 37,895 70,066 127,658 170,937 203,905 201,891 176,366
     Bhutan 787 0.04% 0.00978% 20.3 2.05 1.58 1.18 177 348 591 797 874 803 654
     India 1,428,628 73.7% 17.5% 473.4 1.46 1.23 1.10 376,325 623,103 1,056,576 1,454,607 1,670,491 1,676,035 1,529,850
     Maldives 521 0.03% 0.00647% 1738.2 2.68 2.76 1.85 74 136 279 515 570 543 469
     Nepal 30,897 1.59% 0.384% 204.1 1.05 1.17 1.09 8,483 13,420 23,941 31,577 37,401 38,189 33,770
     Pakistan 240,486 12.4% 2.98% 300.2 2.05 2.09 1.91 37,542 66,817 142,344 249,949 367,808 453,262 487,017
     Sri Lanka 21,894 1.13% 0.272% 347.2 0.68 0.50 0.35 7,971 13,755 18,778 22,000 21,815 19,000 14,695
    South Asia 1,938,407 100% 24.094% 377.5 - - - 476,220 800,335 1,390,946 1,974,898 2,376,939 2,488,455 2,353,676
    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 approaching replacement rates fast, population growth in South Asia is facing steep decline and may turn negative in mid 21st century.[178][1]

    Languages

    Nastaliq. 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 the Language 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 from Brahmi script for Indo-European languages and non-Brahmi scripts for Dravidian languages and others.[181][182]

    The

    adopted writing systems in the world.[186] The Devanagari script is also used for classical Sanskrit texts.[184]

    The largest spoken language in this region is

    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.[188]

    Tshangla, Thakali and Sikkimese are also spoken in Bhutan, Nepal and Sikkim, and Ladakhi is spoken in Ladakh.[190] Both Buddhism and Bon are often predominant in areas where these languages are present.[190][189] Some areas in Gilgit-Baltistan also speak Balti language, however speakers write with the Urdu script.[189] The Tibetan script fell out of use in Pakistani Baltistan hundreds of years ago upon the region's adoption of Islam[189]

    English, with British spelling, is commonly used in urban areas and is a major economic lingua franca of South Asia.[191]

    Religions

    Religious Diversity in South Asia by National Subdivision

    Religion in British India 1871–1872 Census (includes modern-day India, Bangladesh, most of Pakistan and coastal Myanmar))[192]

      Hinduism (73.07%)
      Islam (21.45%)
      Sikhism (0.62%)
      Christianity (0.47%)
      Others (2.68%)
      Religion not known (0.22%)

    In 2010, South Asia had the world's largest population of

    Buddhists.[12] Hindus make up about 68 percent or about 900 million and Muslims at 31 percent or 510 million of the overall South Asia population,[193] 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%).[14]
    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.

    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.[195][196] About one-third of the world's Muslims are from South Asia.[13][15][11]

    Country State religion Religious population as a percentage of total population
    Buddhism Christianity Hinduism Islam
    Kiratism
    Sikhism Others Year reported
     Afghanistan Islam 99.7% 0.3% 2019[197]
     Bangladesh Islam 0.6% 0.4% 9.5% 90.4% 2011[198]
     Bhutan Vajrayana Buddhism 74.8% 0.5% 22.6% 0.1% 2% 2010[199][200]
     India Secular
    0.7%
    2.3% 79.8% 14.2% 1.7% 1.3% 2011[201][202]
     
    Maldives
    Islam 100% [203][204][205]
     Nepal Secular 9% 1.3% 81.3% 4.4% 3% 0.8% 2013[206]
     Pakistan Islam 1.59% 1.85% 96.28% 0.07% 2010[207]
     Sri Lanka Theravada Buddhism 70.2% 6.2% 12.6% 9.7% 1.4% 2011[208]

    Largest urban areas

    South Asia is home to some of the most populated urban areas in the world. According to the 2023 edition of Demographia World Urban Areas, the region contains 8 of the world's 35 megacities (urban areas over 10 million population):[209]

    Rank Urban Area State/Province Country Skyline Population[209] Area (km2)[209] Density (/km2)[209]
    1 Delhi National Capital Region  India
    31,190,000 2,344 13,307
    2 Mumbai Maharashtra  India
    25,189,000 1,046 24,073
    3 Kolkata West Bengal  India
    21,747,000 1,352 16,085
    4 Karachi Sindh  Pakistan
    20,249,000 1,124 18,014
    5 Dhaka Dhaka Division  Bangladesh
    19,134,000 619 30,911
    6 Bangalore Karnataka  India
    15,257,000 1,743 8,753
    7 Lahore Punjab  Pakistan
    13,504,000 945 14,285
    8 Chennai Tamil Nadu  India
    11,570,000 1,225 9,444
    9 Hyderabad Telangana  India
    9,797,000 1,689 5,802
    10 Ahmedabad Gujarat  India
    8,006,000 505 15,852

    Diaspora

    The South Asian diaspora, also known as the Desi diaspora,[210] is the group of people whose ancestral origins lie in South Asia (the Indian subcontinent), but who live outside the region.[211] There are about 40 million members of the diaspora.[212]

    Culture

    Sports

    kho-kho, which are played across the region and officially at the South Asian Games and Asian Games;[215][216][217] the leagues created for these traditional sports (such as Pro Kabaddi League and Ultimate Kho Kho) are some of the most-watched sports competitions in the region.[218][219]

    Cinema

    Cinema is prominent in South Asia, with the
    Bollywood (representing the most-spoken language in the region of Hindi) and South Indian film industries being the most dominant. Pakistan's Lollywood also is growing, while historically, Bengali cinema
    was highly acclaimed by international film circles.

    Music

    Cuisine

    Economy

    Mumbai is the financial capital of India with GDP of $400 billion[220]
    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 the

    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 7.2% in FY 2022–23.[222]

    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 the Next Eleven countries. It is also one of the fastest-growing middle-income countries. It has the world's 33rd largest GDP in nominal terms and is the 25th largest by purchasing power adjusted exchange rates ($1.476 trillion). Bangladesh's economic growth was 6.4% in 2022.[223] The next one is Pakistan, which has an economy of ($340 billion). Next is Sri Lanka, which has the 2nd highest GDP per capita and 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 became the fastest-growing region in the world.[224]

    Certain parts of South Asia are significantly wealthier than others; the four Indian states of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Karnataka are projected to account for almost 50% of India's GDP by 2030, while the five South Indian states comprising 20% of India's population are expected to contribute 35% of India's GDP by 2030.[225]

    Country
    [226][227][228]
    GDP Inflation

    (2022)[229]

    HDI
    Nominal GDP
    (in millions) (2022) (%Share)[230]
    GDP per capita

    (2022)[231]

    GDP (PPP)
    (in millions) (2022) (%Share)
    GDP (PPP) per capita (2022) GDP growth

    (2022)[232]

    HDI

    (2019)[233]

    Inequality-adjusted HDI (2019)[234]
     Afghanistan[235] $20,136 (2020) $611 (2020) $80,912 (2020) $2,456 (2020) -2.4% (2020) 5.6% (2020) Increase0.478 (low) No data
     Bangladesh $460,751 (10.41%) $2,734 $1,345,646 (8.97%) $7,985 7.2% 6.1% Increase0.661 (medium) Increase0.465 (low)
     Bhutan $2,707 (0.06%) $3,562 $9,937 (0.07%) $13,077 4.0% 7.7% Increase0.666 (medium) Increase0.450 (low)
     India $3,468,566 (78.35%) $2,466 $11,665,490 (77.74%) $8,293 6.8% 6.9% Increase0.633 (medium) Increase0.538 (low)
     Maldives $5,900 (0.13%) $15,097 $12,071 (0.08%) $30,888 8.7% 4.3% Increase0.747 (high) Increase0.568 (medium)
       Nepal $39,028 (0.88%) $1,293 $141,161 (0.94%) $4,677 4.2% 6.3% Increase0.602 (medium) Increase0.430 (low)
     Pakistan $376,493 (8.50%) $1,658 $1,512,476 (10.08%) $6,662 6.0% 12.10% Increase0.544 (low) Increase0.386 (low)
     Sri Lanka $73,739 (1.67%) $3,293 $318,690 (2.12%) $14,230 -8.7% 48.2% Increase0.782 (high) Increase0.686 (medium)
    South Asia[236] $4,427,184 (100%) $2,385 $15,005,471 (100%) $8,085 6.4% 8.1% Increase0.639 (medium) -

    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.[237] 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.[238]

    51.7% of Afghanistan's population was under the MPI poverty threshold in 2019,[239] while 24.1% of Bangladesh's population was under the threshold in 2021.[240] 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.[152] 10% of India's population was under the international poverty line of $2.15/day in 2021.[241]

    Country
    [226][227][228]
    Population below poverty line (at $1.9/day) Global Hunger Index (2021)[242] Population under-nourished (2015)[243] Life expectancy (2019)[244] (global rank) Global wealth report (2019)[245][246][247]
    World Bank[248] (year) 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index Report (MPI source year)[249] Population in Extreme poverty (2022)[250] CIA Factbook (2015)[251] Total national wealth in billion USD (global rank) Wealth per adult in USD Median wealth per adult in USD (global rank)
     Afghanistan 54.5% (2016) 55.91% (2015–16) 18% 36% 28.3 (103rd) 26.8% 63.2 (160th) 25 (116th) 1,463 640 (156th)
     Bangladesh 24.3% (2016) 24.64% (2019) 4% 31.5% 19.1 (76th) 16.4% 74.3 (82nd) 697 (44th) 6,643 2,787 (117th)
     Bhutan 8.2% (2017) 37.34% (2010) 4% 12% No data No data 73.1 (99th) No Data No Data No Data
     India 21.9% (2011) 16.4% (2019–21) 3% 29.8% 27.5 (101st) 15.2% 70.8 (117th) 12,614 (7th) 14,569 3,042 (115th)
     Maldives 8.2% (2016) 0.77% (2016–17) 4% 16% No data 5.2% 79.6 (33rd) 7 (142nd) 23,297 8,555 (74th)
       Nepal 25.2% (2010) 17.50% (2019) 8% 25.2% 19.1 (76th) 7.8% 70.9 (116th) 68 (94th) 3,870 1,510 (136th)
     Pakistan 24.3% (2015) 38.33% (2017–18) 5% 12.4% 24.7 (94th) 22% 69.3 (144th) 465 (49th) 4,096 1,766 (128th)
     Sri Lanka 4.1% (2016) 2.92% (2016) 5% 8.9% 16 (65th) 22% 76.9 (54th) 297 (60th) 20,628 8,283 (77th)

    The major stock exchanges in the region are

    9th largest in the world), Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE), and Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) with market capitalization of $72 billion.[252]
    Economic data is sourced from the International Monetary Fund, current as of April 2017, and is given in US dollars.[253]

    Education

    Durbar High School, oldest secondary school of Nepal, established in 1854 CE
    Lower class school in Sri Lanka
    College 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.[254] 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.[255]

    According to UNESCO, 241 million children between six and fourteen years or 81 percent 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.[256][257] 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.[258][257] 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.[257]

    In South Asia, classrooms are teacher-centred and rote-based, while children are often subjected to corporal punishment and discrimination.[255] 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 centralized to a decentralized system.[254] 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.[259]

    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.[254] Their capacity to deliver inclusive and equitable quality education is limited by low levels of public finance for education,[255] 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.[254]

    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.[255] 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.[254]

    According to UNICEF, girls face incredible hurdles to pursue their education in the region,[255] while UNESCO estimated in 2005 that 24 million girls of primary-school age in the region were not receiving any formal education.[260][261] 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 percent to 56 percent in ten years.[262][263]

    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 percent 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 percent in Pakistan and Afghanistan to above 20 percent in India, much below the global average of 31 percent.[264]

    IInstitute of Engineering, Pulchowk Campus, Nepal
    Parameters Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan India Maldives Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka
    Primary School Enrollment[265] 29% 90% 85% 92% 94% 96% 73% 98%
    Secondary School Enrollment[266] 49% 54% 78% 68% N/A 72% 45% 96%

    Health and nutrition

    Expanded Programme on Immunization
    (EPI)

    According to World 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.[267] 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.[268]

    The

    Sub Saharan Africa with dire consequences for mobility, mortality, productivity, and economic growth.[269]

    A weekly child examination performed at a hospital in Farah, Afghanistan

    According to the World Bank, 64% of South Asians lived in rural areas in 2022.[270] In 2008, about 75% of South Asia's poor lived in rural areas and most relied on agriculture for their livelihood[271] according to the UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation.

    In 2021, approximately 330 million people in the region were malnourished.[272] 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.[243] 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 the 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.[243][273]

    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".[274]

    Governance and politics

    Systems of government

    Country Capital Form of government Head of state Head of government Legislature Official language Currency Coat of arms / National Emblems
     Afghanistan Kabul
    theocratic Islamic emirate
    Supreme Leader Prime Minister Leadership Council[275] Pashto
    Dari
    ؋ Afghani
     Bangladesh Dhaka Unitary parliamentary constitutional republic President Prime Minister Jatiya Sangsad Bengali
    English
    Taka
     Bhutan Thimphu Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy
    King
    Prime Minister
    National Council
    National Assembly
    Dzongkha Nu. Ngultrum
     India New Delhi Federal parliamentary constitutional republic President Prime Minister Rajya Sabha
    Lok Sabha
    Hindi
    English
    Indian rupee
     Maldives Malé Unitary presidential constitutional republic President People's Majlis Maldivian ރ Rufiyaa
       Nepal Kathmandu Federal parliamentary constitutional republic President
    Prime Minister
    National Assembly
    House of Representatives
    Nepali रु Nepalese rupee
     Pakistan Islamabad Federal parliamentary Islamic republic President Prime Minister Senate
    National Assembly
    Urdu
    English
    Pakistani rupee
     Sri Lanka Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte
    semi-presidential
    constitutional republic
    President Prime Minister Parliament Sinhala
    Tamil
    English
    රු/₨ Sri Lankan rupee
    Sansad Bhavan, New Delhi, India
    Parliament House, Islamabad, Pakistan

    India is a

    Democracy Index. It has a multi-party system in its internal regional politics[281] whereas alternative transfer of powers to alliances of Indian left-wing and right-wing political parties in national government provide it with characteristics of a two-party state.[282] India has been facing notable internal religious conflicts and separatism however consistently becoming more and more stable with time
    .

    The foundation of Pakistan lies in the

    Pakistani Prime ministers, none of them have ever been able to complete a full term in office.[283] The nature of Pakistani politics can be characterized as a multi-party system
    .

    The

    Sinhalese nationalism
    .

    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.[288]

    By the 18th century, the Hindu

    political instability. The country has been ranked one of the poor countries in terms of GDP per capita but it has one of the lowest levels of hunger problem in South Asia.[242] When the stability of the country ensured as late as recent
    , it has also made considerable progress in development indicators outpacing many other South Asian states.

    least developed countries on the planet, leading to the influx of Afghan refugees to neighboring countries like Iran.[197]

    Bhutan is a Buddhist state with a constitutional 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 with Sunni Islam strictly as the state religion.

    Governance and stability
    Parameters Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan India Maldives Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka
    Fragile States Index[289] 102.9 85.7 69.5 75.3 66.2 82.6 92.1 81.8
    Corruption Perceptions Index (2019)[290] (Global rank out of 179 countries) 16 (173rd) 26 (146th) 68 (25th) 41 (80th) 29 (130th) 34 (113th) 32 (120th) 38 (93rd)
    The Worldwide Governance
    Indicators (2015)[291]
    Government Effectiveness 8% 24% 68% 56% 41% 13% 27% 53%
    Political stability and absence
    of violence/terrorism
    1% 11% 89% 17% 61% 16% 1% 47%
    Rule of law 2% 27% 70% 56% 35% 27% 24% 60%
    Voice and accountability 16% 31% 46% 61% 30% 33% 27% 36%

    Regional politics

    India has been the

    emerging superpower primarily attributed to its large and expanding economic and military abilities, India acts as fulcrum of South Asia.[299][300]

    Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are middle powers with sizeable populations and economies with significant impact on regional politics.[301][302]

    During the

    nuclear threat by India.[306] India's nuclear test in 1974 pushed Pakistan's nuclear program[307] who conducted nuclear tests in Chagai-I in 1998, just 18 days after India's series of nuclear tests for thermonuclear weapons.[308]

    The

    .

    While in East Asia, regional trade accounts for 50% of total trade, it accounts for only a little more than 5% in South Asia.[311]

    Populism is a general characteristic of internal politics of India.[312]

    Regional groups of countries

    Name Area
    (km2)
    Population Population density
    (per km2)
    Capital or Secretariat Currency Countries Official language Coat of arms
    Core definition of South Asia 5,220,460 1,726,907,000 330.79 Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
    UNSD definition of Southern Asia 6,778,083 1,702,000,000 270.77 Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
    SAARC 4,637,469 1,626,000,000 350.6 Kathmandu Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka English
    SASEC 3,565,467 1,485,909,931 416.75 Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka
    BBIN 3,499,559 1,465,236,000 418.69 Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal

    See also

    Broader regions

    Notes

    1. ^ Administered by the United Kingdom, claimed by Mauritius as the Chagos Archipelago.
    2. ^ 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."[37]
    3. ^ 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."
    4. ^ 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."
    5. ^ 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."[69]

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    Sources

    Further reading

    • Anthony, David W. (2007), The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World, Princeton University Press
    • Beckwith, Christopher I. (2009), Empires of the Silk Road, Princeton University Press

    External links