Geography Chapter 12: South Asia

Sanskrit

(Hinduism) an ancient language of India (the language of the Vedas and of Hinduism)

Parsis

-Concentrated in Mumbai, form a tiny but influential religious group. Followers of Zoroastrianism, the ancient faith of Iran, "" refugees fled to India in the 7th century. The "" prospered under British rule, forming some of India's first modern industrial companies, such as the Tata Group. Intermarriage and low fertility, however, now threaten the survival of this small community.

Urdu

A Persian-influenced literary form of Hindi written in Arabic characters and used as a literary language since the 1300s.

Sikhism

A South Asian religion, concentrated in the Indian state of Punjab, that shows some similarities with both Islam and Hinduism.

forward capital

A capital city deliberately positioned near a contested territory, signifying the state's interest and presence in this zone of conflict.

Hinduism

A complicated faith that incorporates diverse forms of worship and lacks any standard system of beliefs. Certain deities are recognized by all believers, as is the notion that these various gods are all manifestations of a single divine entity. All Hindus, moreover, share a set of epic stories, usually written in the sacred language of Sanskrit. One of its hallmarks is a belief in the transmigration of souls from being to being through reincarnation, wherein one's actions in the physical world influences the course of these future lives.

Which of the following best describe(s) the Green Revolution in South Asia?

crops lacking natural resistance to diseases and insects use of large quantities of industrial fertilizers high-yield crop strains of wheat and rice

Hindu nationalism

A contemporary "fundamentalist" religious and political movement that promotes Hindu values as the essential and exclusive fabric of Indian society. As a political movement, it generally has less tolerance of India's large Muslim minority than other political movements.

rain shadow effect

A drier area of precipitation, usually on the leeward or downwind side of a mountain range, that receives less rain and snowfall than the windward or upwind side. A rain shadow is caused by the warming of air as it descends down a mountain range; this warming increases the ability of an air mass to hold moisture.

The Northeast Fringe

A relatively obscure series of ethnic conflicts emerged in the 1980s in India's extreme northeast. Much of this area was not historically part of the South Asian cultural sphere, and many of its peoples want autonomy or independence. Northeastern India is relatively lightly populated and has attracted millions of migrants from Bangladesh and northern India. Many locals view this movement as a threat to their lands and culture. On several occasions, local guerillas have attacked newcomer villagers and, in turn, have suffered reprisals from the Indian military. Northeastern India is a remote area, and relatively little information from it reaches the outside world. After 2000, India's government began to invest more money in the region, hoping to reduce support for separatism. India is also eager to expand trade with Myanmar and has been working with the Myanmar government to secure the border zone. As a result of these initiatives, several rebel movements have signed cease-fires with the Indian government. By 2018, fighting had decreased significantly over the entire region, although tensions remain high. Tensions in the northeast complicate India's relations with Bangladesh. India accuses Bangladesh of giving separatists sanctuary on its side of the border and objects to continuing Bangladeshi emigration. As a result, the Indian government has almost completed building a 2500-mile (4000-km), $1.2 billion, fortified barrier along the border.

Jainism

A religious group in South Asia that emerged as a protest against orthodox Hinduism in the 6th century BCE. Jains are noted for their practice of nonviolence, which prohibits them from taking the life of any animal.

Dravidian language family

A strictly South Asian language family that includes such important languages as Tamil and Telugu. Once spoken through most of the region, Dravidian languages are now largely limited to southern South Asia.

Green Revolution

A term applied to the development of new techniques, starting in the 1960s, that have transformed agriculture in India and many other developing countries; Green Revolution techniques usually involve the use of hybrid seeds that provide higher yields than native seeds when combined with high inputs of chemical fertilizer, irrigation, and pesticides.

Contemporary Geography of Buddhism and Jainism

Although Buddhism virtually disappeared from India, it persisted in Sri Lanka. Among the island's dominant Sinhalese people, Theravada Buddhism developed into a national religion. Meanwhile, in the high valleys of the Himalayas, the Tibetan form of Buddhism emerged as the majority faith. The town of Dharamsala in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh is the seat of Tibet's government-in-exile and of its spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 after an unsuccessful revolt. In the 1950s, a new Buddhist community emerged in central India. Led by B. R. Ambedkar, the chief architect of India's constitution, it is composed of Dalits who reject the caste discrimination viewed as central to Hinduism. This so-called Ambedkarite Buddhist movement continues to grow, and now counts more than 8 million followers. At roughly the same time as the birth of Buddhism (circa 500 bce), another religion emerged in northern India: Jainism. This religion took the creed of nonviolence to its ultimate extreme. Jains are forbidden to kill any living creatures, and the most devout wear gauze masks to prevent them from inhaling small insects. Jainism forbids agriculture because plowing can kill small creatures. As a result, most Jains looked to trade for their livelihoods and today form a relatively prosperous community concentrated in northwestern India.

Urban South Asia

Although South Asia remains largely rural, many of its cities are huge and growing quickly. India alone has more than 53 metropolitan areas with over 1 million inhabitants. Because of this rapid growth, South Asian cities have serious problems with homelessness, poverty, congestion, water shortages, air pollution, and sewage disposal. Throughout the region, sprawling squatter settlements, or bustees, are rapidly expanding, providing meager shelter for many migrants. Clean water and sanitation are major problems in urban slums throughout South Asia. Roughly half of India's city dwellers still do not have access to sewers or other modern sanitation facilities. In Bangladesh, a 2015 report claimed that the country's slum dwellers, those living without piped water or other basic amenities, had increased by 60 percent in the previous 17 years. Urban air pollution is another huge problem, resulting in an estimate 1.1 million early deaths in 2016 alone. Yet progress is being made; between 2000 and 2018, over 300 million Indians gained access to clean water.

Wildlife Protection

Although the environmental situation in South Asia is worrisome, wildlife protection inspires some optimism. The region has managed to retain a diverse assemblage of wildlife despite population pressure and intense poverty. The only remaining Asiatic lions, for example, live in India's Gujarat state; and even Bangladesh retains a viable population of tigers in the Sundarbans, the mangrove forests of the southern Ganges Delta. Wild elephants still roam several large reserves in India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. Extensive governmental intervention is needed to protect wildlife in South Asia. India's Project Tiger, which currently operates more than 53 preserves, is credited with saving the country's tiger population. India is now estimated to be home to more than 2200 wild tigers, representing some 60 percent of the global population. Maintaining tiger habitat, however, is never easy, as growing human populations seek to convert remaining wildlands to farmlands. Moreover, wild animals, particularly tigers and elephants, often threaten crops, livestock, and even people living near the reserves. When a rogue elephant herd ruins a crop or a tiger kills livestock, government agents are usually forced to destroy the animal.

Energy in South Asia

An adequate response to the challenge of climate change in South Asia will require major changes to the region's energy systems, which remain underdeveloped. Most recent energy investment goes toward fossil-fuel power plants. India mines more coal than any country except China, yet it still imports large quantities from Indonesia. Pakistan is just now beginning to tap into its massive coal deposits in the Thar Desert. Renewable energy, however, is now gaining ground. India is now the world's fourth largest producer of wind power and the seventh largest producer of solar power. According to current projections, more than two-thirds of India's new electricity installation will come from a mix of solar and wind generation by 2030. The construction of hydroelectric dams in the Himalayan region is also delivering increasing amounts of carbon-free power, although this creates other environmental problems.

Buddhism

Ancient India's caste system was challenged from within by Buddhism. Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, was born in 563 bce in an elite caste. He rejected the life of wealth and power, however, and sought instead to attain enlightenment, or mystical union with the universe. He preached that the path to such enlightenment (or nirvana) was open to all, regardless of social position. His followers eventually established Buddhism as a new religion. Buddhism spread throughout South Asia and later expanded into East, Southeast, and Central Asia (and is further discussed in Chapter 13). But in India, Buddhism essentially disappeared by 800 ce as its main ideas were reabsorbed back into Hinduism.

Indian Christians

Are more numerous than either Parsis or Jains. Their religion arrived some 1700 years ago as missionaries from Southwest Asia brought Christianity to India's southwestern coast. Today roughly 20 percent of the people of Kerala follow Christianity. Several Christian sects are represented, with the largest affiliated with the Syrian Christian Church of Southwest Asia. Another Christian stronghold is the small Indian state of Goa, a former Portuguese colony, where Roman Catholics make up roughly half of the population. During the colonial period, British missionaries went to great efforts to convert South Asians to Christianity. They had little success, however, in Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist communities. The remote tribal districts of northeastern India proved receptive to missionary activity, and the states of Nagaland, Meghalaya, and Mizoram now have Christian majorities, with more than 75 percent of the people of Nagaland belonging to the Baptist Church.

Environmental Issues

As is true in other poor and densely settled world regions, serious ecological issues plague South Asia, including the usual environmental problems of water and air pollution that accompany early industrialization. All countries in the region, however, are making major efforts to address the environmental crisis.

The Southern Islands

At the southern tip of peninsular India lies Sri Lanka. This island is ringed by extensive coastal plains and low hills, but mountains reaching more than 8000 feet (2400 meters) occupy the southern interior, providing a cool, moist climate. Because the main monsoon winds arrive from the southwest, that portion of the island is much wetter than the rain-shadow areas of the north and east. The Maldives, a chain of more than 1200 islands off the southwestern tip of India, has a combined area of only 116 square miles (290 square kilometers), and only one-quarter of the islands are inhabited. Like many South Pacific islands, the Maldives are low coral atolls, with a maximum elevation slightly more than 6 feet (2 meters) above sea level.

The Himalayan Countries

Both Nepal and Bhutan are disadvantaged by their rugged terrain and remote locations. Until recently, Bhutan remained purposely disconnected from the modern world economy, allowing its small population to live in a relatively pristine natural environment. Although it now allows direct international flights, cable television, and the Internet, Bhutan still charts its own course, emphasizing "gross national happiness" over economic growth. Bhutan has also invested heavily in hydropower dams and exports large amounts of electricity to India, boosting its economic growth. Nepal, on the other hand, is more heavily populated and suffers much more severe environmental degradation. Nepal has long relied heavily on international tourism, but its tourist industry has contracted due to political instability.

The Caste System

Caste is one of the historically unifying features of South Asia, as certain aspects of caste organization are found even among the region's Muslim and Christian populations. Caste is actually a rather clumsy term for a complex social order. It combines two distinct concepts: varna and jati. Varna refers to the ancient fourfold social hierarchy, which distinguishes the Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (merchants), and Sundras (farmers and craftspeople), in declining order of ritual purity. Standing outside this traditional order are the so-called untouchables, now called Dalits, whose ancestors held "impure" jobs, such as leather working or trash collection. Jati, on the other hand, refers to the hundreds of local endogamous ("marrying within") groups that exist at each varna level. Different jati groups are often called subcastes. India's caste system is in a state of flux today. Its original occupational structure has been undermined by the necessities of a modern economy, urbanization reduces the power of caste enforcers, and social reforms have chipped away at its inherent discrimination. The Dalit community itself has produced several notable national leaders who have waged partially successful political struggles. Owing to such efforts, the very concept of "untouchability" is illegal in India. India's central government also reserves a significant percentage of university seats and government jobs for applicants from low-caste backgrounds, while several Indian states have set higher quotas. Such "reservations," as they are called, are controversial, as many people believe they unfairly penalize people of higher-caste background. Despite such changes, caste remains an important feature of Indian social organization, and an estimated 90-95 percent of marriages still occur within caste groups. Dalits continue to suffer from many forms of oppression, particularly in the poor, rural areas of north-central India. Radical Hindu activists also pressure Dalit communities by trying to coerce Christians and Muslims of Dalit backgrounds to reconvert to Hinduism.

caste system

Complex division of South Asian society into different hierarchically ranked hereditary groups. Most explicit in Hindu society, the caste system is also found in other South Asian cultures to a lesser degree.

The China Question

During the global Cold War, Pakistan allied itself with the United States, while India leaned slightly toward the Soviet Union. Such alliances began to fall apart with the end of the superpower conflict in the early 1990s. Since then, Pakistan has moved closer to China, while India has done the same with the United States. China's military connection with Pakistan is rooted in its own tensions with India. In 1962, China defeated India in a brief war, gaining control over the virtually uninhabited territory of Aksai Chin in northern Kashmir. The fact that China claims the entire northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh helps ensure that relations between the two massive countries remain frosty. In 2017, conflict intensified when Indian troops stopped a Chinese construction project in a highland area claimed by both China and Bhutan. India is also concerned about China's development of ports around the Indian Ocean, which potentially could be used as naval bases. A particular worry is Pakistan's massive new port of Gwadar, constructed, financed, and managed by Chinese firms. India is also concerned about rising Chinese influence in Nepal. Tensions between India and Chine eased a little in early 2018, when the leaders of the two countries met to discuss geopolitical and economic issues. But India has also been slowly developing military relations with other countries. In 2017, it joined the United States, Japan, and Australia in reinitiating the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue. The "Quad," as this informal alliance is called, seeks to promote and defend an "Asian arc of democracy."

orographic rainfall

Enhanced precipitation over uplands that results from lifting (and cooling) of air masses as they are forced over mountains.

Sri Lanka

Ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka stems from both religious and linguistic differences. Northern Sri Lanka is dominated by Hindu Tamils, whereas the island's majority group is Buddhist in religion and Sinhalese in language. Relations between the two communities historically have been fairly good, but tensions mounted after independence. Sinhalese nationalists have favored a centralized government, with some calling for an officially Buddhist state. Most Tamils want political and cultural autonomy and have accused the government of discriminating against them. In 1983, war erupted when the rebel force informally known as the "Tamil Tigers" attacked the Sri Lankan army. By the 1990s, most of northern Sri Lanka was under the control of Tamil rebels. In 2007, Sri Lanka's government abandoned negotiations and launched an all-out offensive, crushing the rebel army and killing its leaders. Afterward, more than 100,000 Sri Lankan troops, almost entirely Sinhalese, were stationed in the Tamil areas. Local residents have complained bitterly that the military has grabbed land for itself, often to develop it for tourism. In early 2018, however, Sri Lanka announced that it would reduce its number of military camps in the former rebel stronghold from 17 to 3 and return the lands back to their former owners.

Peninsular India

Extending southward from the river lowlands is peninsular India, made up primarily of the Deccan Plateau, which is bordered on each side by narrow coastal plains backed by north-south mountain ranges. The higher Western Ghats are generally about 5000 feet (1500 meters) in elevation, while the Eastern Ghats are lower and less continuous. On both coastal plains, fertile soils and adequate rainfall support population densities comparable to those of the Ganges lowland to the north. Soil quality ranges from fair to poor over much of the Deccan Plateau; but in the state of Maharashtra, lava flows have produced particularly fertile black soils. Unfortunately, the semiarid western portion of the plateau does not provide reliable rainfall for agriculture.

Pakistan

For several decades after independence, Pakistan maintained a more productive economy than did India, due to a strong agricultural sector and a large textile industry, based on its huge cotton crop. Pakistan's economy, however, is less dynamic than India's; and, as a result, it has lagged behind, burdened by high levels of defense spending, political instability, and ethnic unrest. A woefully inadequate power supply results in long brownouts that often force factories to shut down. In addition, a small but powerful landlord class controls much of its best agricultural lands yet pays virtually no taxes. Recent reform efforts, however, have boosted Pakistan's economy, which is now growing at a respectable pace. Beijing is currently investing $60 billion in the country through its China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project, focusing on ports, roads, railroads, and gas pipelines. Much of this investment targets Pakistan's impoverished Balochistan province. Baloch activists, however, claim that few of the benefits have gone to locals; and, as a result, Pakistan's military must guard area construction projects from Balochi insurgents.

Forests and Deforestation

Forests and woodlands once covered most of South Asia outside of the northwestern deserts; but in most places, tree cover has disappeared as a result of human activities. The Ganges Valley and coastal plains of India were largely deforested thousands of years ago for agriculture. More recently, hill slopes in the Himalayas and in the remote lands of eastern India have been heavily logged for commercial purposes. Beginning in the 1970s, India embarked on several reforestation projects. The central government claims that India's forest coverage actually increased by 2266 square miles (5871 square kilometers) in the early 2000s, but most Indian environmentalists are skeptical, pointing out that many existing forests are being degraded. Reforested areas in India, moreover, are often covered by nonnative trees like eucalyptus that support little wildlife. As a result of deforestation, most villages of South Asia suffer from a shortage of fuelwood for household cooking, forcing people to burn dung cakes from cattle. This low-grade fuel provides adequate heat but diverts nutrients that could be used as fertilizers, and produces high levels of air pollution, both indoors and outside. Where wood is available, collecting it involves many hours of female labor, as the remaining sources of wood are often far from the villages. Villagers in India's forested areas are increasingly banding together to protest deforestation and to demand their own rights to land and resources in wooded areas.

Kolkata

Formerly Calcutta, symbolizes the problems faced by rapidly growing cities in developing countries. About 1 million people here sleep on the streets every night. And with approximately 15 million people in its metropolitan area, Kolkata falls far short of supplying the rest of its residents with water, electricity, and sewage treatment. Power is woefully inadequate, and during the wet season many streets are routinely flooded. With rapid growth as migrants pour in from the countryside, a mixed Hindu-Muslim population that generates ethnic tension, a decayed economic base, and an overloaded infrastructure, Kolkata faces a troubled future. Yet it remains a culturally vibrant city, noted for its fine educational institutions, theaters, and publishing firms. Kolkata is currently trying to nurture an information technology industry, but the success of this effort remains to be seen.

Mumbai

Formerly called Bombay, Mumbai is India's financial, industrial, and commercial center. The city itself contains roughly 14 million people, while its metropolitan area is home to as many as 22 million. Mumbai is responsible for much of India's foreign trade, has long been a manufacturing center, and is the focus of India's film industry. This economic vitality draws people from all over India, resulting in simmering ethnic tensions. Limited space means that most of Mumbai's growth extends to the north and east of the historic city. Building restrictions in the downtown area have led to skyrocketing commercial and residential rents, which are some of the highest in the world. Hundreds of thousands of less-fortunate immigrants live in "hutments," crude shelters built on formerly busy sidewalks. The least fortunate sleep on the street or in simple plastic tents, often placed along busy roadways. The Mumbai Metro, an ambitious rapid-transit system scheduled for completion in 2021, promises improved access across the sprawling city.

Grameen Bank

Founded by Muhammad Yunus to provide very small loans to poor individuals, particularly women.

India's Less Developed Areas

Given its massive population and huge area, India is the region's economic giant. It also has much more internal variation in economic development than the other countries of the region. The most basic economic division is that between the more prosperous south and west and the poorer districts in the north and east. In some respects, however, India's biggest divide is between its rural and urban areas, as the countryside lags behind the cities. A recent survey found that roughly half of rural Indian households own little or no land, relying on poorly paid casual labor to survive. India's least developed area has long been Bihar, a state of 109 million people located in the lower Ganges Valley. Bihar's per capita level of economic production is less than one-third that of India as a whole. Neighboring Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, is also extremely poor. Both states are also noted for their socially conservative outlooks and caste tensions. Other north-central states, including Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha, also lag behind India as a whole. In recent years, however, economic growth has picked up in most of these states, leading to renewed hope for genuine development. High levels of corruption have hindered development across most of South Asia, but the problem is especially severe in the poorer states of north-central India. A massive grassroots anticorruption campaign, however, has become increasingly influential. India is also battling corruption by deploying a massive database of all of its residents called Aardhaar, which uses biometric information and assigns a unique identification number to each person. A major controversy erupted in 2018, however, when a private firm gained access to Aardhaar data for its own purposes. India quickly added new levels of security, promising to protect the identities of the 1.19 billion citizens who have signed up with the system.

Greater Delhi

Greater Delhi vies with Mumbai as India's largest city. Delhi itself is a congested city of tight neighborhoods burdened by extreme air pollution; in contrast, nearby New Delhi is noted for its wide boulevards, monuments, parks, and expensive residential areas. The national capital, New Delhi was born as a planned city when the British moved the colonial capital from Kolkata in 1911. Located here are embassies, luxury hotels, government office buildings, and airline offices necessary for a vibrant political capital. According to a 2018 UN report, greater Delhi could be the world's largest metropolitan area by 2028, with a population of 37 million.

Which of the following groups was/were behind the formation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)?

Hindu Nationalists

Maharaja

Historical term for Hindu royalty, usually a king or prince, who ruled specific areas of South Asia before independence, but who was usually subject to overrule by British colonial advisers.

Cultural Coherence and Diversity: A Common Heritage Undermined by Religious Rivalries

Historically, South Asia is a well-defined cultural region. A thousand years ago, virtually the entire area was united by the Hindu faith. The subsequent arrival of Islam added a new religious element, but it did not undermine the region's cultural unity. British imperialism later brought other cultural features, from the widespread use of English to a passion for cricket. Religious tensions are pronounced over much of South Asia. India has been a secular state since its creation, but since the 1980s, this political tradition has come under pressure from the growth of Hindu nationalism, which promotes Hindu values as the foundation of Indian society. In several high-profile cases, Hindu mobs demolished Muslim mosques that had allegedly been built on the sites of ancient Hindu temples. Since 2000, however, the Hindu nationalist movement has moderated somewhat. Bitter divisions persist, but efforts are being made to promote religious understanding. In the explicitly Muslim country of Pakistan, Islamic fundamentalism has emerged as a highly divisive issue.

Milk in the Northwest; Meat in the Northeast

Many South Asians receive inadequate protein, and meat consumption is extremely low. Due primarily to religious restrictions, vegetarianism is widespread in India. In the northwest, milk and other dairy products provides much of the necessary protein. India is the world's largest milk producer, and Pakistan ranks fourth. But dairy consumption is less pronounced in southern South Asia and is relatively rare in the northeast. This difference is partially based on genetics, as many people in the northeast are lactose intolerant and cannot digest milk as adults. In this area, the need for protein is partly made up by consuming meat, eggs, and fish. India, the world's leading producer of milk, is struggling to modernize its dairy production system. This worker is keeping records of freshly collected milk at Patanjali's Cow Dairy farm, located in the state of Uttarakhand.

Geographies of Language

In northern South Asia, most languages belong to the Indo-European language family, the world's largest. The languages of southern India, on the other hand, belong to the Dravidian language family, which is found only in South Asia. Along the region's mountainous northern rim, a third linguistic family, Tibeto-Burman, dominates. Within these broad divisions are many different languages, each associated with a distinct culture. In many parts of South Asia, several languages are spoken within the same area, and the ability to speak several languages is common everywhere. Each of India's major languages is associated with an Indian state, as the country deliberately structured its political subdivisions along linguistic lines following independence. As a result, the Gujarati language is spoken in Gujarat, Marathi in Maharashtra, Oriya in Odisha, and so on. Two languages, Punjabi and Bengali, extend into Pakistan and Bangladesh, respectively, as the political borders were established on religious rather than linguistic lines. Dialects closely related to Nepali, the national language of Nepal, are also spoken in many of the mountainous areas of northern India. Minor languages abound in most of the more remote areas.

South Asia recently surpassed East Asia as the world's most populated region. Which of the following South Asian countries would rank among the world's 10 most populated countries?

India Bangladesh Pakistan

Bollywood

Indian version of Hollywood (film industry), centered in Mumbai (formerly Bombay)

Which provides irrigation waters to Pakistan's deserts?

Indus provides irrigation waters to Pakistan's deserts. The broad band of cultivated land in central and southern Pakistan watered by the Indus is highly fertile and densely populated.

Gender Relations and the Status of Women

It is often argued that South Asian women generally have a very low social position. Throughout most of India, women traditionally leave their own families shortly after puberty to join those of their husbands. As outsiders, often in distant villages, young brides have little freedom and few opportunities. In Pakistan, Bangladesh, and such northern Indian states as Rajasthan, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh, female literacy lags well behind male literacy. A more disturbing statistic is that of gender ratios, the relative proportion of males and females in the population. India alone has an excess of some 37 million men. Some of this imbalance stems from the practice of poor families of providing young boys with better nutrition and medical care than girls. Such customs are much more prevalent in the middle and lower Ganges Valley than in the rest of the region. But the gender disparity, in fact, begins before birth, due to sex-selective abortions. The number of Indian girls born per 1000 boys dropped from an extremely low figure of 906 in 2012-2014 to under 900 by 2016; in parts of northern India, the number is as low as 824. Economics plays a major role in this situation. In rural households, boys are usually viewed as a blessing because they typically remain with and work for the well-being of their families. Among the poor, elderly people subsist largely on what their sons provide, with most elder care provided by daughters-in-law. Girls, however, are seen as economic liabilities, marrying out of their families at an early age and requiring a substantial dowry. The benefit of having sons, however, is falling, as many young men are unable to marry, given the shortage of women. Efforts to improve India's sex ratio include sting operations to catch doctors who perform illegal sex-selective abortions. In 2015, Punjab launched a program in which officials greet the parents of newborn girls in the most male-dominated districts and provide them with valuable gifts. Some of these initiatives have achieved significant results at the local level. Sexual harassment and violence is another huge problem, especially in north-central India. Each year, India counts some 25,000 incidents of rape, yet activists estimate that up to 95 percent of rapes go unreported. Women from low-caste backgrounds are the most common victims, but all social groups are vulnerable. Social protests over sexual violence in South Asia have recently been gaining strength, as have several women's empowerment movements. One such organization is the Gulabi Gang, whose members wear pink saris and carry bamboo sticks for self-protection. In 2018, in response to several horrific cases of rape and murder, India moved to increase penalties and fast-track legal action against alleged rapists. In the same year, the government of the state of Uttar Pradesh, noted for high rates of sexual violence, began testing panic buttons on mobile phones that could immediately alert the local police, family members, and community safety volunteers. The social position of women is improving throughout South Asia, especially in the more prosperous urban areas where employment opportunities outside the family are emerging. But even in many middle-class households, women still experience deep discrimination. Indeed, dowry demands have increased in some areas, and murders of young brides sometimes occur after their families failed to deliver an adequate supply of goods. But it is also important to remember that the social bias against women is much less evident in southern South Asia, especially Kerala and Sri Lanka, than in the north, particularly India's Ganges Valley.

cyclones

Large storms, marked by well-defined air circulation around a low-pressure center. Tropical cyclones are typically called hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean and typhoons in the western Pacific.

Contemporary Geography of Hinduism

Less than 1 percent of the people of Pakistan are Hindu; and in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, Hinduism is a minority religion. However, in India and Nepal, Hinduism is clearly the majority faith. In most of central India, more than 90 percent of the population is Hindu. But Hinduism is itself a geographically complicated religion, with different aspects of faith varying across India. Members of some sects claim that their faiths constitute separate religions, generating controversies with other Hindu groups. In 2018, the Indian state of Karnataka granted separate religious status to the Lingayat sect, an anti-caste Hindu offshoot that has roughly 35 million followers and runs more than 3000 monasteries.

Climate Change in South Asia

Many areas of South Asia are highly vulnerable to global climate change. Even a minor rise in sea level will inundate large areas of the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta in Bangladesh. If the most severe sea-level forecasts come to pass, the atoll nation of the Maldives will vanish beneath the waves. The loss of glaciers in the Himalayas would severely imperil the water supplies of northern South Asia. Arid Pakistan is particularly exposed to this threat. One recent study found that the lower-elevation glaciers in this region lost as much as 67 percent of their volume between 1984 and 2012. Another problem is warming water temperatures in the Arabian Sea, which could intensify tropical storms. In December 2017, a damaging typhoon hit the southwestern Indian state of Kerala, the first such storm to strike the region since 1941. South Asian agriculture is likely to suffer from several problems linked to global climate change. Winter temperature increases, along with decreased rainfall, could threaten the vital wheat crop of Pakistan and northwestern India. In some parts of South Asia, however, climate change could lead to more rainfall due to an intensified summer monsoon. Unfortunately, the new precipitation regime will likely be characterized by more intense cloudbursts coupled with fewer episodes of gentle, prolonged rain.

Bollywood and Film Controversies

More recently, India's film industry—the world's largest—has gained a global audience. Foreign observers usually equate Indian cinema with Bollywood, the Hindi-language film business centered in Mumbai (formerly Bombay, hence "Bollywood," a play on "Hollywood"). But movies made in other cities using India's regional languages generate more money overall than those of Bollywood. The Tamil-language films of "Kollywood" and the Telugu-language movies of "Tollywood" have recently become influential both in India and abroad. Bollywood films have been widely viewed in foreign markets for decades. They gained popularity in the former Soviet Union during the Cold War, when Western films were seldom shown. West Africa, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia have long been important markets. More recently, many Germans have taken to Indian films, inspired in part by the publication of Ishq, a glossy German-language Bollywood magazine. In 2015, a video of German girls doing a dubsmash of Bollywood dialogue became a viral sensation in India. Yet cultural globalization has brought severe tensions to the region. Religious leaders often view Western films and television shows as immoral. Although India is a relatively free country, both the national and the state governments periodically ban films and books. Controversy erupted in 2018, for example, when India banned the film Love, Simon due to its homosexual themes. In Pakistan, fundamentalist religious pressure severely undermined the national film industry, which had been based in the city of Lahore. More recently, Pakistani movies have begun to bounce back, with production moving to more cosmopolitan Karachi. Despite such controversies, the pressures of internationalization are hard to resist. In the tourism-oriented Indian state of Goa, such tensions are on full display. There German and British sun worshipers often wear nothing but skimpy swimwear, whereas Indian women tourists go into the ocean fully clothed. Young Indian men, for their part, often simply walk the beach and gawk at the semi-naked foreigners.

Linguistic Dilemmas

Multilingual Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and India are troubled by linguistic conflicts. Such problems are most complex in India, simply because India is so large and has so many different languages. Indian nationalists have long dreamed of a national language that could help unify their country. But such linguistic nationalism has been resisted by others. The obvious choice for a national language is Hindi, and Hindi was indeed declared as such in 1947. Politically elevating Hindi, however, angered many non-Hindi speakers, especially in the Dravidian south. It was eventually decided that both Hindi and English would serve as official languages of India as a whole, but that each Indian state could select its own official language. As a result, 23 separate Indian languages now have official status. The use of Hindi is expanding, especially in northern India, where local languages are closely related to it. Hindi is spreading through education as well as television and movies, which are primarily produced in Hindi. In a poor but modernizing country such as India, where many people experience the wider world largely through moving images, the influence of a national film and television culture can be huge. Despite its spread, Hindi remains foreign to much of India, and protests occasionally erupt over plans to expand its use in non-Hindi-speaking areas. National-level communication is thus conducted mainly in English. Although many Indians want to deemphasize English, others advocate it as a neutral national language. Furthermore, English gives substantial international benefits. English-medium schools abound throughout South Asia, and many children of the elite learn this global language well before they begin school.

The Maoist Challenge

Not all of South Asia's conflicts are rooted in ethnic or religious differences. Poverty, inequality, and environmental degradation in east-central India, for example, have fueled a revolutionary movement inspired by former Chinese leader Mao Zedong. Mao, unlike most communist leaders, thought that peasant farmers and not just industrial workers could constitute a revolutionary force. In the area impacted by this Maoist movement, fighting is sporadic but persistent. As many as 14,000 people lost their lives in this struggle between 1996 and early 2018. But after peaking in 2010 at 1177, the annual death toll declined to 333 in 2017. Maoism has been an even greater challenge to the government of Nepal. Nepalese Maoists, infuriated by the lack of development in rural areas, emerged as a significant force in the 1990s. By 2005, they controlled over 70 percent of the country. At the same time, Nepal's urban population turned against the country's monarchy, launching massive protests. In 2008, the king stepped down and Nepal became a republic, with the leader of the former Maoist rebels stepping in as prime minister. The end of the monarchy has not brought stability to Nepal. Several governments have been formed and then disbanded since 2008. Although now part of the government, the former Maoist rebels continue to feud with other political parties, even those of Marxist orientation. Much of this tension stems from a federalist plan to divide Nepal into ethnically based states, which is strongly supported by some but opposed by others. The indigenous people of Nepal's southern lowlands are particularly distressed by the migration of settlers from the more densely populated hill country and are therefore pushing for local autonomy.

Hindi

Official language of India

South Asian Poverty

One of the clearest measures of human well-being is nutrition; and by this measure, South Asia ranks very low. No other region has so many chronically undernourished people. According to a 2015 report, 39 percent of India's children suffer from stunted growth due mainly to poor diets. More than half of the people of India live on less than $3.10 a day, and Bangladesh is poorer still. Sanitation is another major problem in the region. As of 2015, an estimated 70 percent of rural Indians had no access to toilets or even latrines and thus relieve themselves in open fields, a practice that spreads disease. Despite such deep and widespread poverty, South Asia's living standards have improved greatly in recent years. In Bangladesh, the number of people living in extreme poverty dropped from over 40 percent in 1991 to 14 percent by 2018. India has seen a similar decline in dire poverty, and its small elite population has done very well. Unfortunately, India generating a mass middle class has been more difficult; according to a recent study, well-off Indians now have 10 times more money than they had in 1980, but people in the middle of the income distribution have not quite doubled their assets. But if the Indian economy continues its brisk pace of expansion, its middle class will expand. In 2017, it grew by almost 8 percent, the third highest rate in the world. Across South Asia, moreover, major campaigns are under way to improve nutrition, education, and sanitation. The "Clean India Mission," for example, spent $29 billion to build more than 46 million latrines by 2017. It has promised to build another 64 million by 2019, and to effectively end the practice of open defecation.

What is the term for the increased precipitation that results from uplifting and cooling of moist air over mountains?

Orographic rainfall is caused by the uplifting and cooling of moist monsoon winds over South Asia's mountains.

Karachi and Islamabad

Pakistan's largest urban area and commercial core, Karachi is one of the world's fastest-growing cities. Its metropolitan population, already over 20 million, is expanding at about 5 percent per year. Karachi served as Pakistan's capital until 1963, when the new city of Islamabad was created in the northeast. Despite this loss of capital status, Karachi is still Pakistan's most cosmopolitan and economically vibrant city. Karachi suffers, however, from political and ethnic tensions that have periodically turned parts of the city into armed camps. In the early decades of Pakistan's independence, Karachi's main conflict was between the Sindis, the region's native inhabitants, and the Muhajirs, Muslim refugees from India who settled in the city after Pakistan's separation from India in 1947. More recently, clashes between Sunni and Shiite Muslims have intensified, as have those between Pashtun migrants from northwestern Pakistan and other residents. Although its rate of violence declined by 45 percent between 2016 and 2017, Karachi is still Pakistan's most violent city. The national capital makes a statement through its name—Islamabad—about Pakistan's religious foundation. Located close to the contested region of Kashmir, it also makes a geopolitical statement. Such a city is termed a forward capital, one that signals—both symbolically and geographically—a country's intentions. By building its new capital in the north, Pakistan sent a message that it would not abandon its claims to the portion of Kashmir controlled by India. To avoid congestion, planners designed Islamabad around self-sufficient sectors, each with its own government buildings, residences, and shops.

British East India Company

Private trade organization with its own army that acted as an arm of Britain in monopolizing trade in South Asia until 1857, when it was abolished and replaced by full governmental control.

Maoism

The version of Marxism advocated by the Chinese revolutionary and political leader Mao Zedong in which the peasantry is regarded as the main revolutionary class. In east-central India, a Maoist insurgency has been fighting against the government for decades.

Kashmir

Relations between India and Pakistan were hostile from the start, and the situation in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir has kept the conflict burning. During British rule, Kashmir was a large princely state with a primarily Muslim core joined to a Hindu district in the south (Jammu) and a Tibetan Buddhist district in the northeast (Ladakh). Kashmir was ruled by a Hindu maharaja, a local king subject to British advisors. During partition, Kashmir came under severe pressure from both India and Pakistan. After troops linked to Pakistan gained control of western Kashmir, the maharaja decided to join India. But neither Pakistan nor India would accept the other's control over any portion of Kashmir, and they have fought several wars over the issue. Although the Indo-Pakistani boundary has remained fixed, fighting in Kashmir has continued, reaching a peak in the 1990s. Many Kashmiris would like to join their homeland to Pakistan, others prefer that it remain a part of India, but the majority would rather see it become independent. Indian nationalists are determined to keep Kashmir, while militants from Pakistan continue to cross the border to fight the Indian army. The conflict intensified in 2017, when Indian security forces cracked down hard on massive protests and killed more than 200 suspected militants. All told, the Kashmir conflict has claimed over 40,000 lives and displaced one out of every six inhabitants of the state. The lush valley of Kashmir was once one of India's main tourist destinations, but today it is known mainly as a place of conflict.

Agricultural Regions and Activities: Crop Zones

Rice is the main crop and foodstuff in the lower Ganges Valley, along India's coastal lowlands, in the delta lands of Bangladesh, along Pakistan's lower Indus Valley, and in Sri Lanka. This distribution reflects the large volume of irrigation water needed to grow the crop. The amount of rice grown in South Asia is impressive: India ranks behind only China in world rice production, and Bangladesh is the fourth largest producer. Wheat is the principal crop in the northern Indus Valley and in the western half of India's Ganges Valley. South Asia's "breadbasket" includes the northwestern Indian states of Haryana and Punjab and adjacent areas in Pakistan. Here the so-called Green Revolution has been particularly successful in increasing grain yields. In less fertile areas of central India, millet and sorghum are the main crops, along with root crops such as manioc. Wheat and rice are the preferred staples throughout South Asia, but poorer people must often subsist on rougher crops.

Population and Settlement: The Demographic Dilemma

South Asia has recently surpassed East Asia to become the world's most populous region, and India will probably overtake China to become the world's most populous country in 2022. South Asia fertility levels have dropped markedly in recent years, but population growth continues. And although the region has made remarkable agricultural gains since the 1960s, there is still widespread concern about its ability to feed its expanding population. India's total fertility rate (TFR) has dropped rapidly, from 6 in the 1950s to the current rate of 2.3. In western and southern India, fertility rates are now generally at or below replacement level. In much of northern India, however, birth rates remain high; the average woman in the poor state of Bihar gives birth to 3.3 children. A distinct cultural preference for male children is found in most of South Asia, a tradition that further complicates family planning. Pakistan's TFR has fallen rapidly in recent years, but at 3.1 it is still well above replacement level. As a result, by 2050 Pakistan's population will probably top 250 million, a worryingly high number considering the country's arid environment, underdeveloped economy, and political instability. Bangladesh has been much more successful than Pakistan in reducing its birth rate. As recently as 1975, its TFR was 6.3, but it has now dropped to 2.1. The success of family planning can be partly attributed to strong government support, advertised through radio, billboards, and even postage stamps.

Social Development

South Asia has relatively low levels of health and education, which is not surprising considering its poverty. When comparing the different countries of the region, social indicators generally correlate closely with economic indicators. Pakistan, however, tends to underperform, particularly in regard to education. Most Pakistani students drop out of school by age nine, and only 3 percent of its public-school students complete the 12th grade. A major reform drive initiated in 2016 in Pakistan's Punjab province has shown some promising results. Conversely, Bangladesh has experienced faster social progress than its neighbors despite its poverty. In 1973, the average life expectancy in Bangladesh was 47 years, compared to 50 in India and 54 in Pakistan; by 2018, Bangladesh had reached 72 years, well ahead of India's 69 years and Pakistan's 68 years. In India, people in the more economically developed western and southern parts of the country are healthier, live longer, and are better educated, on average, than people in poorer north-central zone. Bihar, with a female literacy rate of only 53 percent, is at the bottom of most social-development rankings, while Kerala, Punjab, and Maharashtra are near the top. Several oddities stand out when we compare India's map of economic development with its map of social well-being. Parts of the impoverished northeast, for example, show high literacy rates, largely because of the educational efforts of Christian missionaries. Overall, however, southern India tends to outpace other parts of the region in social development.

The Educated South

Southern South Asia's higher levels of social welfare are also visible in Sri Lanka. Despite its widespread poverty and prolonged civil war, Sri Lanka is a social-development success, with an average life expectancy of 77 years and nearly universal literacy. The Sri Lankan government achieved these results through universal primary education and inexpensive medical clinics. In recent years, however, Sri Lanka's lead has decreased; in 1973, the average Sri Lankan lived 18 years longer than the average Bangladeshi, but by 2018 that lead had been cut to 5 years. On the mainland, Kerala in southwestern India has also realized impressive social development. Kerala is extremely crowded and long had difficulty feeding its people. Despite strong economic growth in recent years, its per capita economic output is only a little above average for India. But in terms of social development, Kerala is India's leading state. Almost all of its residents are literate; average life expectancy is 75 years; and several diseases, such as malaria, have been eliminated. Some researchers attribute Kerala's social successes mainly to its educational and health care policies. Others point to the relatively high social position of women in the state.

Defining South Asia

South Asia is easily defined in terms of physical geography. Most of the region forms the Indian subcontinent, separated from the rest of Asia by formidable mountain ranges. Located here are India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, as well as the mountainous states of Nepal and Bhutan. The Indian Ocean island countries of Sri Lanka and the Maldives, and the Indian territories of Lakshadweep and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, are also part of South Asia. This region is the second most populated in the world, primarily because of India's more than 1.2 billion residents. Bordering India on the west and east are Pakistan and Bangladesh, two large countries with predominantly Muslim populations. The two Himalayan countries, Nepal and Bhutan, along with the island nations of Sri Lanka and the Maldives, round out the region. India is by far the region's largest country, both in size and in population. Covering more than 1 million square miles (2,590,000 square km), India is the world's seventh largest country in area and, with more that 1.3 billion inhabitants, second only to China in population. Pakistan and Bangladesh are the next most populous countries, with more than 197 and 164 million inhabitants, respectively; compact Bangladesh is also one of the most densely populated parts of the world. Bangladesh shares a short border with Myanmar (Burma), but it is otherwise bordered entirely by India. South Asia is historically united by deep cultural commonalities. Religious ideas associated with Hinduism and Buddhism once dominated the region, but Islam has also played a major role for the past millennia, and South Asia has a larger Muslim population than any other world region. Religious tensions have influenced geopolitical conflicts, some spanning decades. Since independence from Britain in 1947, mostly Hindu India and mostly Muslim Pakistan have fought several wars and remain locked in a bitter dispute over the territory of Kashmir. Other forms of religious and ethnic tension are found elsewhere in the region. Paralleling these geopolitical tensions are demographic and economic concerns. Although fertility levels have dropped dramatically in recent years, they remain elevated in some parts of the region, particularly north-central India and Pakistan. As a result, some experts worry about how South Asia will sustain its population. Agricultural production has kept pace with population growth, but many South Asian environments are experiencing pronounced stress. Poverty compounds such problems. Along with Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia is the poorest part of the world. We first turn to the region's physical and environmental geography to understand these challenges.

Migration and the Settlement Landscape

South Asia is one of the least urbanized world regions, with around one-third of its people living in cities. Most South Asians reside in compact rural villages, but increased mechanization of agriculture, along with the expansion of large farms at the expense of subsistence cultivation, pushes as many people to the region's rapidly growing urban areas as are drawn by employment opportunities in the city. The most densely settled areas in South Asia are those with fertile soils and dependable water supplies. The highest rural population densities are found in the core area of the Ganges and Indus river valleys and on India's coastal plains. Settlement is less dense on the Deccan Plateau and is relatively sparse in the highlands of the far north and the arid lands of the northwest. Many South Asians have migrated in recent years from poor rural districts to wealthier urban areas. Migrants are often attracted to huge cities such as Mumbai (Bombay) in India and Karachi in Pakistan. Although some experts believe that such cities are growing too rapidly, leading to sprawling, unmanageable slums, others argue that the growth of megacities is economically beneficial. In Bangladesh, a pilot program helped some 140,000 villagers, mostly men, move to city of Dhaka in 2017 alone. As researchers discovered, not only did such migrants make far more money in the city than they could at home, but back in the villages, agricultural wages jumped significantly. Migration in South Asia is sometimes linked to conflicts. When people move from more densely to less densely populated rural areas, local residents often object. Movement from Bangladesh to northeastern India has generated particularly severe ethnic tensions. Elsewhere, migrants have been forced out of their homelands by war; a large number of both Hindus and Muslims from Kashmir, for example, have sought security away from their battle-scarred homeland. According to a 2018 UN report, Pakistan has the world's largest refugee population, at 1.45 million. Most of these people fled from conflicts in neighboring Afghanistan, but many been displaced by Pakistan's own insurgencies.

Himalayas

South Asia is separated from the rest of the Eurasian continent by a series of sweeping mountain ranges, including the "".

Responses to the Climate Change

South Asia ranks low in per capita carbon output, trailed only by Sub-Saharan Africa, but its emissions are rapidly increasing. India is now the world's third largest carbon emitter, following China and the United States. Rapid industrialization, coupled with its reliance on coal for much of its electricity, means that India's carbon dioxide output will continue to increase for some time. But Indian leaders, like those of other South Asian countries, are concerned about climate change and are willing to reduce carbon emissions after achieving higher levels of economic development. They also insist that the greatest responsibility for action lies with the world's wealthy, industrialized countries. India signed the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, pledging that it would derive 40 percent of its power from renewables by 2030.

International Geopolitics

South Asia's major international geopolitical problem is the continuing cold war between India and Pakistan. The stakes are extremely high, as both India and Pakistan have around 100 nuclear weapons. The leaders of both countries, however, have worked to reduce tensions. After a series of military clashes along their border in Kashmir, India and Pakistan agreed to a new 15-year cease-fire in 2018. In the past, however, cease-fire violations have been relatively common on both sides.

Mountains of the North

South Asia's northern rim is dominated by the great Himalayan range, forming the northern borders of India, Nepal, and Bhutan. More than two dozen peaks exceed 25,000 feet (7600 meters), including the world's highest mountain, Everest, on the Nepal-China (Tibet) border. To the east are the lower Arakan Yoma Mountains, forming the border between India and Myanmar and separating South Asia from Southeast Asia. These mountain ranges are a result of the dramatic collision of northward-moving peninsular India with the Asian landmass. The entire region is geologically active, putting northern South Asia in serious earthquake danger. Nepal's April 2015 earthquake took more than 9000 lives and resulted in economic losses roughly equal to 25 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). It also caused a series of avalanches on Mount Everest that killed at least 19 climbers. Although most of South Asia's northern mountains are too rugged and high to support dense human settlement, major population clusters are found in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, situated at 4400 feet (1300 meters), and the Valley, or Vale, of Kashmir in northern India, at 5200 feet (1600 meters).

Indus-Ganges-Brahmaputra Lowlands

South of the mountain rim lie large lowlands created by three major river systems, which have deposited sediments to build huge alluvial plains of fertile and easily farmed soils. These densely settled lowlands constitute the core population areas of Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. The Indus River, which flows from the Himalayas through Pakistan to the Arabian Sea, provides much-needed irrigation for Pakistan's southern deserts. More famous, however, is the Ganges, which flows southeasterly before emptying into the Bay of Bengal. The Ganges provides the fertile alluvial soil that has made northern India one of the world's most densely settled areas. Given the central role of this river throughout Indian history, it is understandable why Hindus consider the Ganges sacred. Finally, the Brahmaputra River, which rises on the Tibetan Plateau, joins the Ganges in central Bangladesh before spreading out over the world's largest river delta.

bustees

Sprawling squatter settlements in Kolkata and other Indian cities that appear in and around urban areas, providing temporary shelter for many urban migrants.

Sri Lanka and the Maldives

Sri Lanka's economy is by several measures the most highly developed in South Asia, with exports concentrated in textiles and agricultural products such as rubber and tea. By global standards, however, Sri Lanka is still a poor country, its progress hampered by ethnic strife and political struggles. But Sri Lanka does enjoy high levels of education, abundant natural resources, and tremendous tourist potential. The end of its civil war in 2009 has boosted growth in recent years, as have investments from China. China's development of a major port facility prompted India to invest in a major airport. Local critics, however, are concerned that Sri Lanka is falling deeply in debt to India and especially to China. The Maldives is the most prosperous South Asian country based on per capita economic output; but its total economy, like its population, is extremely small. Most of its revenues come from fishing and international tourism. Money from the tourist economy, however, goes to a small segment of the population, and tourism is vulnerable to sea-level rise and political tensions. In 2018, India, China, and several other countries issued tourist warnings about the Maldives when a political struggle intensified between the country's current and former presidents, who happen to be estranged half-brothers.

Mughal Empire

The Muslim-dominated state that covered most of South Asia from the early 16th to late 17th centuries. The last vestiges of the Mughal dynasty were dissolved by the British following the rebellion of 1857.

Salinization

The accumulation of salts in the upper layers of soil, often causing a reduction in crop yields, resulting from irrigation with water of high natural salt content and/or irrigation of soils that contain a high level of mineral salts.

Pakistan's Complex Geopolitics

The conflict between India and Pakistan became more complex after the attacks of September 11, 2001. Although Pakistan had supported Afghanistan's Taliban regime, it soon agreed to help the United States in its struggle against the Taliban in exchange for military and economic aid. This decision came with large risks, as the Taliban was supported by many of the Pashtun people of northwestern Pakistan. Before long, an Islamist-inspired insurgency broke out over much of the region. Militants launched numerous attacks on U.S. forces in Afghanistan and gained control over large parts of northwestern Pakistan. In 2016, a major military operation brought these areas back under the control of Pakistan, but rebel activity persists. The United States has responded by using drone aircraft to attack insurgent leaders, resulting in many civilian casualties and generating strong anti-American sentiment throughout the country. Despite such tensions, the United States continues to count Pakistan as a "Major Non-NATO Ally." It is uncertain, however, if this relationship is sustainable. In early 2018, President Trump accused Pakistan of engaging in "lies and deceit," and shortly afterward the U.S. government lobbied a major international financial organization to list Pakistan as a country not doing enough to combat terrorism. But later in the same year, Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to enhance joint efforts to fight terrorist organizations.

South Asia's Monsoon Climates

The dominant climatic factor for most of South Asia is the monsoon, the seasonal change of wind direction that corresponds to wet and dry periods. During the winter, a large high-pressure system forms over the cold Asian landmass. Cool winds flow outward from this high-pressure center across South Asia, generating a dry season that extends from November until February. As these winds diminish, a hot, dry season sets in, extending from March through May. Eventually, the buildup of heat over South Asia and Southwest Asia produces a large low-pressure cell. By early June, this low-pressure center is strong enough to cause a shift in wind direction, bringing in moist air from the Indian Ocean. This event signals the onset of the warm and rainy season of the southwest monsoon that lasts from June through October. Orographic rainfall is caused by the uplifting and cooling of moist monsoon winds over the Western Ghats and the Himalayan foothills. As a result, some areas receive more than 200 inches (508 cm) of rain during the four-month wet season. Cherrapunji, in northeastern India, is one of the world's wettest places, with rainfall averaging 450 inches (1130 cm). On the Deccan Plateau, however, rainfall is dramatically reduced by a strong rain shadow effect. As winds move downslope, the air becomes warmer, and dry conditions usually prevail.

The South Asian Diaspora

The expansion of South Asian culture abroad has been accompanied by the spread of South Asians themselves. Migration from South Asia during the time of the British Empire led to the establishment of large communities in such distant places as eastern Africa, Fiji, and the southern Caribbean. Subsequent migration has been aimed more at the developed world; several million people of South Asian origin now live in Britain, and a similar number are found in North America. Many present-day migrants to the United States are doctors, software engineers, and members of other professions, making Indian Americans the country's wealthiest and most highly educated ethnic group. As South Asian people have spread around the world, so has South Asian food. More than 15,000 South Asian eateries are now found in the United Kingdom, and London has more Indian restaurants than either Mumbai or Delhi. Chicken tikka masala has become so popular that it is widely considered Britain's "new national dish." Tellingly, while chicken tikka masala is classified as Indian food, it was probably invented in Britain by either a Bangladeshi or a Pakistani chef.

Languages of the South

The four main Dravidian languages are confined to southern India and northern Sri Lanka. As in the north, each language is closely associated with one or more Indian states: Kannada in Karnataka, Malayalam in Kerala, Telugu in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and Tamil in Tamil Nadu. Tamil is often considered the most important member of the family because it has the longest history and the largest literature. Tamil poetry dates back to the 1st century ce, making it one of the world's oldest written languages. Sri Lanka's majority population, the Sinhalese, speak an Indo-European language. Apparently, the Sinhalese migrated from northern South Asia several thousand years ago. These same people also migrated to the Maldives, where the national language, Dhivehi, is essentially a Sinhalese dialect. The drier north and east of Sri Lanka, on the other hand, were settled mainly by Tamils from southern India. Some Tamils later moved to the central highlands, where they were employed as tea-pickers on British-owned estates.

Independence and Partition

The framework of British India began to unravel in the early 20th century, as South Asians increasingly demanded independence. The British, however, were determined to stay; and by the 1920s, South Asia was caught up in massive political protests. The leaders of the rising nationalist movement faced a dilemma in imagining independence. Many leaders, including Mohandas Gandhi, favored a unified state that would include all British mainland territories. Most Muslim leaders, however, argued for dividing British South Asia into a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan. In several places, however, Muslims and Hindus were settled in roughly equal numbers. Another problem was the clear Muslim majorities on opposite sides of the subcontinent, in present-day Pakistan and Bangladesh. When the British finally withdrew in 1947, South Asia was indeed divided into India and Pakistan. Partition was a horrific event. Not only were some 14 million people displaced, but also roughly 1 million were killed. Hindus and Sikhs fled from Pakistan, to be replaced by Muslims fleeing India. The Pakistan that emerged from partition was for several decades a clumsy two-part country, with its western section in the Indus Valley and its eastern portion in the Ganges Delta. The Bengalis occupying the poorer eastern section complained that they were treated as second-class citizens. In 1971, they launched a rebellion and, with the help of India, quickly prevailed. Bangladesh then emerged as a new country. This second partition did not solve Pakistan's problems, however, as the country remained politically unstable and prone to military rule. Pakistan retained the British policy of allowing almost full autonomy to the Pashtun tribes living along its border with Afghanistan in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), a relatively lawless area marked by clan fighting. This area would later lend much support to Afghanistan's Taliban regime and to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda organization.

Indian Diaspora

The historical and contemporary movement of people from India to other countries in search of better opportunities. This process has led to large Indian populations in South Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific islands, along with Western Europe and North America.

Indian Subcontinent

The large Eurasian peninsula that extends south of the Himalayan Mountains and that encompasses most of South Asia.

megacities

Urban conglomerations of more than 10 million people.

Which of the following is the term that describes the ancient fourfold social hierarchy of the Hindu world, which has persisted today as India's caste system?

Varna refers to the ancient fourfold social hierarchy of the Hindu world, which distinguishes priests, warriors, merchants, farmers, and craftsmen in declining order of ritual purity.

The Precarious Situation of Bangladesh

The link between population pressure and environmental degradation is nowhere clearer than in Bangladesh, where the search for fertile land has driven people into hazardous areas, putting millions at risk from seasonal flooding and from the powerful tropical cyclones that form over the Bay of Bengal. With continual population growth, people have transformed swamps into highly productive rice fields. For millennia, drenching monsoon rains have eroded and transported huge quantities of sediment from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal, gradually building this low-lying, fertile delta environment. Deforestation of the Ganges and Brahmaputra headwaters magnifies the problem. Forest cover slows runoff to allow rainfall to soak into the ground and replenish groundwater supplies. Thus, deforestation in river headwaters increases flooding in the wet season, as well as lowers water level during the dry season, when groundwater supplements river flow. Although periodic floods are natural, often beneficial events that enlarge deltas by depositing fertile river-borne sediment, flooding is a serious problem for local residents. In an average year, around 18 percent of Bangladesh floods, killing several thousand people and destroying many homes. A particularly intense flood, like that of September 1998, can inundate as much as two-thirds of the country. Bangladesh's water problems are further magnified by the fact that many aquifers are contaminated with arsenic from natural sources, threatening the health of as many as 80 million people.

The Green Revolution

The main reason South Asian agriculture has kept up with population growth is the Green Revolution, which originated during the 1960s in agricultural research stations established by international development agencies. By the 1970s, efforts to breed high-yield varieties of rice and wheat had reached initial goals, transforming South Asia from a region of chronic food deficiency to one of self-sufficiency. India more than doubled its annual grain production between 1970 and the mid-1990s. Although the Green Revolution was an agricultural success, many experts highlight its ecological and social costs. Serious environmental problems result from the chemical dependency of the new crop strains. These crops typically need large quantities of industrial fertilizer, which is both expensive and polluting, as well as frequent pesticide applications because they lack natural resistance to plant diseases and insects. Social problems have also followed the Green Revolution. In many areas, only the more prosperous farmers can afford the new seed strains, irrigation equipment, farm machinery, fertilizers, and pesticides. Poorer farmers have often been forced to serve as wage laborers for their more successful neighbors or to migrate to crowded cities. To purchase the necessary inputs, moreover, most farmers have had to borrow large sums of money. As fluctuating crop prices often prevent them from repaying their debts, many farmers feel trapped. Approximately 12,000 Indian farmers kill themselves every year, representing one of the largest waves of suicides in world history. The Green Revolution has fed South Asia's expanding population, but whether it can continue to do so remains unclear. One alternative is to expand water delivery systems (through either canals or wells), as many fields are not irrigated. Irrigation, however, brings its own problems. In much of Pakistan and northwestern India, where irrigation has been practiced for generations, soil salinization, or the buildup of salt in fields, is a major problem. In addition, groundwater is being depleted, especially in Punjab, India's breadbasket. On the other hand, optimists point out that India's agricultural production continues to grow and that famines, once common, are now a thing of the past.

The Indo-European North

The most widely spoken language of South Asia is Hindi. With more than 500 million native speakers, Hindi is by some measurements the world's second most widely spoken language. It plays a prominent role in present-day India, both because so many people speak it and because it is the main language of the Ganges Valley. Hindi is an official language in 10 Indian states and is widely studied throughout the country. Bengali, the official language of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, is spoken by roughly 200 million people. It also has an extensive literature, as West Bengal has long been one of South Asia's leading literary and intellectual centers. Independence split the Punjabi-speaking zone in the west between Pakistan and the Indian state of Punjab. While almost 100 million people speak Punjabi, this language does not have the significance of Bengali. Punjabi did not become the national language of Pakistan, even though it is the day-to-day language of almost half of the country's population. Instead, that distinction was given to Urdu. Urdu, like Hindi, originated on the plains of northern India, with Hindi becoming the language of the Hindu majority and Urdu that of the Muslim minority. Hindi and Urdu are thus written differently—Hindi in the Devanagari script (derived from Sanskrit) and Urdu in a modified Arabic script. Although Urdu borrows many words from Persian, its basic grammar and vocabulary are almost identical to those of Hindi. With independence in 1947, millions of Urdu-speaking Muslims from the Ganges Valley fled to Pakistan. Because Urdu had a higher status than Pakistan's native tongues, it was established as the new country's official language. Although only about 8 percent of the people of Pakistan learn Urdu as their first language, more than 90 percent are able to speak and understand it.

Arrival of Islam

The next major challenge to Hindu society—Islam—came from the outside. Turkic-speaking Muslims began to enter the region from Central Asia around 1000; and by the 1300s, most of South Asia lay under Muslim power, although Hindu kingdoms persisted in southern India. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Mughal (or Mogul) Empire, the most powerful of the Muslim states, dominated much of the region from its power center in the Indus-Ganges Basin. At first, Muslims formed a small ruling elite, but over time increasing numbers of Hindus converted to the new faith, particularly in the northwest and northeast where the areas now known as Pakistan and Bangladesh became predominantly Muslim.

linguistic nationalism

The promotion of one language over others that is, in turn, linked to shared notions of political identity. In India, some nationalists promote Hindi as the unifying language of the country, yet this is resisted by many non-Hindi-speaking peoples.

monsoon

The seasonal pattern of changes in winds, heat, and moisture in South Asia and other regions of the world that is a product of larger meteorological forces of land and water heating, the resultant pressure gradients, and jet-stream dynamics. The monsoon produces distinct wet and dry seasons.

Dalits

The so-called untouchable population of India; people often considered socially polluting because of their historical connections with occupations classified as unclean, such as leatherworking and latrine-cleaning.

Contemporary Geography of Sikhism

The tension between Hinduism and Islam in northern South Asia gave rise to a new religion, Sikhism, which originated in the 1400s in the Punjab near the modern boundary between India and Pakistan. The new faith combined elements of both Islam and Hinduism. Many orthodox Muslims viewed Sikhism as unacceptable because it incorporated elements of their own religion in a manner contrary to accepted beliefs. Periodic persecution led the Sikhs to adopt a militantly defensive stance. Even today, many Sikh men work as soldiers and bodyguards, both in India and abroad. At present, the Indian state of Punjab is approximately 60 percent Sikh. Small but often influential groups of Sikhs are scattered across the rest of India. Devout Sikh men are immediately visible because they do not cut their hair or beards, but instead wrap their hair in turbans and sometimes tie their beards close to their faces.

The British Conquest

The unsettled conditions of the 1700s provided an opening for European imperialism. The British and French, having largely displaced the Dutch and Portuguese, competed for trading posts. Before the Industrial Revolution, Indian cotton textiles were the finest in the world, and European merchants needed large quantities for their global trading networks. After Britain's victory over France in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), the French retained only a few minor coastal cities. Elsewhere, the British East India Company, the private organization that acted as an arm of the British government, began to carve out its own empire. British control over South Asia was essentially complete by the 1840s, but valuable local allies were allowed to maintain power, provided that they did not threaten British interests. The territories of these indigenous (or "princely") states were gradually reduced, while British advisors increasingly dictated their policies. The continual expansion of British power led to a rebellion in 1856 across much of South Asia. When this uprising (sometimes called the Sepoy Mutiny) was finally crushed, a new political order was implemented. South Asia was now under the authority of the British government, with the British monarch as its head of state. The British Empire enjoyed direct control over the region's most productive and densely populated areas, and ruled indirectly in more remote areas, with native rulers retaining their thrones. British cultural features spread widely across most of the region, including a passion for such sports as cricket and soccer. British officials, concerned about threats to their immensely profitable Indian colony, particularly from the Russians advancing across Central Asia, attempted to secure their boundaries. In some cases, this merely required making alliances with local rulers. In such a manner, Nepal and Bhutan retained their independence. In the extreme northeast, the British Empire took over some small states and tribal territories that had largely been outside of the South Asian cultural sphere.

India's Growth Centers

The west-central states of Gujarat and Maharashtra are noted for their industrial and financial power as well as agricultural productivity. Gujarat was one of the first parts of South Asia to industrialize, and its textile mills are still among the region's most productive. Gujaratis are well known as merchants and overseas traders and are heavily represented in the Indian diaspora, the migration of Indians to foreign countries. Unfortunately, Gujarat also has some of the worst Hindu-Muslim relations in India and lags behind southern India in terms of social development. Maharashtra is usually viewed as India's economic pacesetter, as huge Mumbai has long been India's financial center and media capital. Major industrial zones are located around Mumbai and the state's other cities. In recent years, Maharashtra's economy has grown more quickly than those of most other Indian states; production per capita is roughly 50 percent greater than that of India as a whole. In the northwestern states of Punjab and Haryana, showcases of the Green Revolution, economic output per capita is also relatively high. Their economies depend largely on agriculture, but food processing and other industries are showing strong growth. On Haryana's eastern border lies the National Capital Territory of Delhi, where much of India's political power and wealth is concentrated. India's fast-growing high-technology sector lies farther to the south, especially in Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore) and Hyderabad. The Indian government selected the upland Bengaluru area for technological investments in the 1950s. In the 1980s and 1990s, a quickly growing computer software and hardware industry emerged, earning Bengaluru the label "Silicon Plateau". By 2000, many U.S. software, accounting, and data-processing jobs were being outsourced (transferred) to Bengaluru and other Indian cities. Hyderabad has gained fame for its technical education, with some 500 institutes in the city offering information technology (IT) training to more than 100,000 students. The southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala have also seen rapid growth in recent years, due in part to booming IT industries. India has proved especially competitive in software because software development does not require a sophisticated infrastructure—computer code can be exported by wireless telecommunication systems instead of modern roads or port facilities. The government now stresses Internet connectivity to provide services and enhance electronics manufacturing. India currently boasts more than 900 million wireless connections thanks to heavy investment in mobile phone services.

In India, roughly how many metropolitan areas have more than 1 million inhabitants?

There are actually more than 50 metropolitan areas in India that have more than 1 million inhabitants.

Hindu Civilization

This early Ganges Valley civilization gave birth to Hinduism, a complex faith that lacks a single system of belief. Certain deities are recognized, however, by all believers, as is the notion that these various gods are all expressions of a single divine essence. Hindus also share a common set of epic stories, usually written in Sanskrit, the sacred language of their religion. Hinduism is noted for its mystical tendencies, which have long inspired many to seek an ascetic lifestyle, renouncing property and sometimes all regular human relations. One of its hallmarks is a belief in the transmigration of souls from being to being through reincarnation. Hinduism is also associated with India's caste system, the division of society into hereditary groups that are ranked as ritually superior or inferior to one another.

Contemporary Geography of Islam

Though a minority religion for South Asia as a whole, Islam is still widespread, counting more than 500 million followers. Bangladesh and especially Pakistan are overwhelmingly Muslim. India's Muslim community, constituting only some 15 percent of the country's population, is still roughly 175 million strong. It is also growing faster than India's Hindu population, due to its somewhat higher fertility rate. Muslims live in almost every part of India but are concentrated in four main areas: in most large cities; in Kashmir, particularly in the densely populated Valley of Kashmir; in the central Ganges Plain, where Muslims constitute 15 to 20 percent of the population; and in the southwestern state of Kerala, which is approximately 25 percent Muslim. Interestingly, Kerala was one of the few parts of India that never experienced prolonged Muslim rule. Islam in Kerala was historically connected to trade across the Arabian Sea. Kerala's Malabar Coast supplied spices and other luxury products to Southwest Asia, encouraging many Arab traders to settle there; and gradually, many native residents converted to the new religion. The same trade routes brought Islam to Sri Lanka, which is approximately 9 percent Muslim, and to the Maldives, which is almost entirely Muslim. In predominantly Muslim Pakistan, rising Islamic fundamentalism has led to severe conflicts. Radical fundamentalist leaders want to make Pakistan a fully religious state, a plan rejected by most of the country's citizens. The government has attempted to intercede between the two groups, but it is often viewed as biased toward the Islamists. Anti Blasphemy laws, for example, have been used to persecute members of Pakistan's small Hindu and Christian communities as well as liberal Muslims. Similar conflicts have also occurred in Bangladesh, where radical fundamentalists have attacked and killed a number of secular and liberal Muslim bloggers. Discrimination and violence against Muslims has become a major problem in South Asia's non-Muslim countries. In 2018, deadly anti-Muslim rioting broke out in Sri Lanka, triggered by a road-rage incident. In India, the horrific rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in the same year was widely interpreted as part of an attempt to force a Muslim community out of a primarily Hindu area. Radical Hindu vigilantes periodically attack Muslims suspected of having butchered cows, a sacred animal to Hinduism. Bangladesh has had to cope with a large influx of Muslim Rohingya refugees violently forced out of neighboring Myanmar by Buddhist extremists, which has placed a large burden on the country.

Globalization and South Asia's Economic Future

Throughout most of the second half of the 20th century, South Asia was somewhat isolated from the world economy. Even today the region's volume of foreign trade and its influx of foreign direct investment are still relatively small, especially compared with those of East Asia or Southeast Asia. But globalization is advancing rapidly, particularly in India. Understanding South Asia's low level of globalization requires examining its economic history. After independence, India's economic policy was based on widespread private ownership combined with government control of planning, resource allocation, and heavy industries. High trade barriers also protected the economy from global competition. This mixed socialist-capitalist system encouraged industrial development and allowed India to become nearly self-sufficient. By the 1980s, however, problems with this model were becoming apparent. Slow economic growth meant that the percentage of Indians living in poverty remained almost constant. In response to these difficulties, India's government began to open its economy in 1991 by eliminating many regulations, reducing tariffs, and allowing partial foreign ownership of local businesses. In recent years, India has renewed its commitment to opening its economy to global forces. Other South Asian countries followed a somewhat similar path. Pakistan, for example, began to privatize many of its state-owned industries in 1994. India's globalizing economy has brought substantial benefits, but also problems. Enhanced international connections highlight India's need to improve its infrastructure; but it is not clear how the country will pay for the necessary investments in roads, railroads, and facilities for electricity generation and transmission. The gradual internationalization and deregulation of India's economy has also led to substantial opposition. Cheap manufactured goods from China are seen as an especially serious threat. Moreover, hundreds of millions of Indian peasants and slum dwellers have seen few benefits from their country's rapid economic growth. Although India gets most of the media attention, other South Asian countries have also experienced significant economic globalization in recent years. Besides exporting huge quantities of textiles and other consumer goods, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka send large numbers of their citizens to work abroad, particularly in the Persian Gulf countries. Out of a total population of 21 million, roughly 1.5 million Sri Lankans work abroad. By some measurements, Nepal is the world's most remittance-dependent country, deriving 31 percent of its GDP from this source.

South Asia Before and After Independence

When Europeans first arrived in the 1500s, most of northern South Asia was ruled by the Muslim Mughal Empire, while southern India remained under the control of the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagara. European merchants—eager to obtain spices, textiles, and other products—established coastal trading posts. The Portuguese carved out an enclave in Goa, while the Dutch gained control over much of Sri Lanka, but neither was a significant threat to the Mughals. In the early 1700s, however, the Mughal Empire weakened rapidly, with competing states emerging in its former territories.

Bangladesh

When it gained independence in 1971, Bangladesh was one of the world's poorest countries. Environmental degradation and colonialism contributed to Bangladesh's poverty, as did the partition of British India in 1947. Most of prepartition Bengal's businesses were located in the west, which went to India. Slow economic growth and a rising population in the first several decades after independence kept Bangladesh extremely poor. Economic conditions have, however, improved markedly over the past several decades, especially among the country's poorest communities. Bangladesh is now the world's second largest exporter of apparel, trailing only China. Its garment industry has blossomed in part because its wage rate is extremely low, but wages are gradually rising. Nongovernmental organizations have played a major role in bringing the benefits of development to the poor. Low-interest credit provided by the internationally acclaimed Grameen Bank, for example, has allowed many rural Bangladeshi women to establish small-scale enterprises. Political tensions and environmental degradation, however, cloud the country's economic future.

Dams and reservoirs

Whereas Bangladesh and eastern India often suffer from excess water, Pakistan and much of northwestern and central India more often experience a lack of water. In many areas, farmers have traditionally stored runoff water from the monsoon rains in small reservoirs for use during the dry months. As these storage facilities have proved inadequate to meet the demands of a growing population, villagers have turned to deep wells and powerful pumps to provide groundwater for their crops. Water tables are falling in many areas as a result, requiring ever deeper wells and electricity expenditures. The governments of India and Pakistan have been building large dams both to generate electricity and supply additional water. These dams are controversial, mostly because they displace hundreds of thousands of rural residents. The Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada River in the state of Gujarat has been particularly contentious. India's government has recently increased the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam from its original 260 feet (80 meters) to 535 feet (163 meters), enabling the irrigation of additional 6900 square miles (18,000 square kilometers) in drought-prone western Gujarat. In 2018, India's National Green Tribunal petitioned the government to allow more water to flow out of the dam and into the river rather than into irrigation canals, arguing that the lower course of the Narmada has been reduced to a small stream.

What are the two terms for squatter settlements of temporary, and often illegal, housing found in the cities of India?

bustees and hutments Bustees is the term for sprawling squatter settlements and hutments are squatter settlements built on busy sidewalks.

Which of the following is one of South Asia's four physical subregions?

the Southern Islands Indus-Ganges-Brahmaputra Lowlands Peninsular India mountains of the North NOT: Thar Desert