South Asia: Defining the Realm

WHERE? [sswor]

South Asia is often called the "Indian Subcontinent". This world realm is made up of seven countries [sscountries] : India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and the island State of The Maldives. In this lesson you should identify the physical, cultural, economic, and historical criteria which define the realm. By "define" I mean two things:

(1) what are the characteristics of the realm? AND

(2) how does this realm differ from its neighbors?

Be sure to look for physical barriers at all realm boundaries. Finally, remember that ALL regional boundaries are transition zones. That is, the characteristics do not all of a sudden change once you get to the regional (or realm) boundary, but rather there are areas which display the characteristics of both regions.

REALM OF GIANTS [ssmeacnt.htm]

South Asia is often called "the realm of giants". Of the world's ten most populous countries [top10pop.htm], three are in this realm. [ww10pop]

REGIONAL CRITERIA:

Physical Barriers [phys] [climate] [wwclimat]

Physically this is a well defined realm [phys] - i.e. there are clear physical features or barriers at the realm boundaries.

• northern boundary = Himalayan Mtn., Karakoram Range, Hindu Kush Mts.
• eastern boundary = mountains and thick forests along Myanmar (Burma) border
• southern boundary = Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea
• western boundary [climate] = a bit more open, deserts and mountains
• Why there? [india] [uswortec] In the section on the physical geography of South Asia we'll discuss the role that plate tectonics played in determining these physical features.

Cultural Geography [sslang] [ssrelig]

The realm is culturally very diverse. India has 14 "national" languages [sslang], and hundreds of languages and dialects in all [sspeoind]. The Hindu religion dominates in India [sspeoind], and Pakistan and Bangladesh are Islamic [sspeopak] [sspeoban].

Why include Pakistan? [muslmwor] [nwrelig]

On the basis of this information we might think that Pakistan should be included in the North Africa and Southwest Asia realm [nwrealmp.htm], but virtually all geographers include Pakistan in the South Asian realm [ssrealmp.htm]. WHY?

1. There are strong ETHNIC similarities between Pakistan and India.
2. Furthermore, there are strong historic connections going back to the Indus River Valley and Ganges River Valley culture hearths [wwhearth] and continuing through the period of British colonization [sscolony] .
3. English is the lingua franca in Pakistan and India.
4. Finally, although Islam is the dominate religion in Pakistan and Hindu is the dominate religion in India, there are 115 million Muslims living in India and another 110 million in Bangladesh. This far surpasses the number of Muslims in Pakistan.

For these reasons, Pakistan belongs in the South Asian realm.

Economic Geography [ssmeasur.htm] [ssmeacnt.htm] [sstrans] [sshdi] [wbgnpmap] [wwhdi] [wrurban]

After examining the data and maps above you can see that South Asia is one of the least developed world geographic realms. These countries have very low GNP per capita [ssmeacnt.htm] and very little urbanization [wrurban]. The great majority of the people in these countries live in rural areas and are poor.

Historical Geography [sshearth] [sscolony]

As we mentioned above, Pakistan is included in this realm because of strong physical, ethnic, and historical reasons. There was interaction between the ancient civilizations [wwhearth] in the Indus and Ganges river valleys. Also, the realm was united under British colonial rule [sscolony]. Therefore despite the cultural (especially religious [ssrelig]) differences, it makes geographic sense to include Pakistan in the South Asian Realm.

Population Clusters [ssecumene] [wwecumen] [sspopden]

Examine these maps looking at the boundaries of the realm. We expect to see sparse populations along realm boundaries.