Unit 8: South Asia
South Asia is the birthplace of two of the world's largest religions: Hinduism and Buddhism. Today, South Asia also includes a large Muslim population and many followers of other religions. South Asia is an active region tectonically and home to Earth's highest mountains. It is also known for its monsoon winds. Like the other regions we have explored, South Asia has its own history of colonization that is still evident today. Religious and ethnic conflicts also characterize this region.
In this unit, we explore and analyze the diverse physical, cultural, political, and economic characteristics of South Asia. First, we look at the physical geography of the region, paying special attention to its climate and the monsoon weather pattern. Then, we explore the region's population growth, including the pattern of urbanization and the impact of megacities.
Balancing natural capital and population growth remains a major issue in the region. South Asia is highly populated, with about 1.8 billion people across a wide range of ethnic and cultural groups. We close out this unit by analyzing its globalizing forces.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 5 hours.
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- describe the physical geography of South Asia, including processes associated with natural hazards and groundwater resources;
- describe the patterns of human settlement in South Asia and the challenges associated with rapid population growth and urbanization;
- explain how Britain's colonization of South Asia affected the evolution of the region's borders;
- explain why Buddhism and Hinduism are tied to South Asia and how these religious ties have affected it; and
- identify the reasons for ethnic and religious conflict in South Asia and barriers that have impeded economic development.
8.1: Maps of South Asia
Let's begin our examination of South Asia by studying a map of the region.
Study this map of South Asia so you are familiar with the locations of the countries and some of the major geographic features.
8.2: South Asia's Physical Geography
Let's look at the physical geography of South Asia, including the dynamic forces behind the monsoon weather pattern and the Himalayas mountains. The topographic relief of the region ranges from Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth with an elevation of 8,848 m, to the Maldives, the country with the lowest elevation on Earth at less than one meter high.
The variation in precipitation is also dramatic, with deserts in India and Pakistan and monsoon conditions in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. The two rainiest places on Earth are in India along the northeast border of Bangladesh, the country with the tenth-highest average annual precipitation.- The dramatic nature of this realm includes hazards from earthquakes and flooding. South Asia also has some of the world's most famous rivers. The Indus River rises in the Himalayas and empties into the Arabian Sea near Karachi, Pakistan. It has been the center of human civilization for thousands of years.
The Indus River is also sacred to Hindus. The Ganges River rises in the Himalayas and empties into the Bay of Bengal and is the third largest river in the world, after the Amazon and Congo Rivers, in terms of discharge. The Ganges is the most sacred river to the Hindus.
In addition to their religious importance, these rivers are vital to the physical survival of Pakistanis, Indians, and Bangladeshis.
Read this text to learn more about these and the other geographic features that define this region. Watch this video. Figure 8.1 displays many of the features mentioned in the reading and video. The Thar Desert, also known as the Great Indian Desert, is not labeled on the map. It extends from northwest India into eastern Pakistan.
You can easily identify the Thar Desert and Deccan Plateau, the arid and semi-arid areas of the region, in Figure 8.2, the climate map that is also displayed in the video. Remember that Afghanistan is not part of South Asia, although it is included in the climate map.This map shows the Köppen climate classifications in South Asia and Afghanistan.
The Himalayan Mountains were a product of the collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates. This collision of the two tectonic plates continues to produce destructive forces in the form of earthquakes. Nepal was struck particularly hard on April 25, 2015 – the Gorkha earthquake (magnitude 7.8) was the strongest earthquake to strike Nepal since 1934. See Figure 8.3 for the location of the earthquake's epicenter, about 80 km northwest of the capital, Kathmandu.
The Gorkha earthquake triggered landslides and avalanches, killing nearly 9,000 people and injuring almost 18,000 others. More than 750,000 houses were destroyed or damaged. The village of Langtang, shown in Figure 8.3, was almost completely destroyed when a landslide deposited an estimated 40 million tons of rock and ice onto the village. Many of the dead and injured lived in Langtang or were tourists visiting the Langtang National Park.
The earthquake originated 8.2 km below the surface of the Earth on or near the main thrust interface between the Indian and Eurasia plates. Figure 8.4 illustrates the convergence of these two plates.On May 12, 2015, an aftershock with a magnitude of 7.3, shown in Figure 8.3, triggered an avalanche that killed 20 and injured 120 at the Mount Everest Base Camp. People were killed and injured in China, Bangladesh, and India.
The monsoon weather pattern is another characteristic of this region that impacts the human landscape. Monsoons are seasonal winds that bring heavy rains in the summer but leave the landmass dry in the winter. In South Asia, when the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) migrates north in the summer, moisture-laden air from the Indian Ocean is drawn to the warmer landmass. Thus, these monsoonal winds bring heavy rains in the summer. When the ITCZ migrates south in the winter, the winds reverse and blow from the cooler landmass to the warmer ocean.
Monsoons bring heavy rains that cause flooding. The people who live along rivers to access the water and fertile soil are especially vulnerable. Every year, monsoonal rains and the ensuing floods displace people, destroy infrastructure, and increase the prevalence of water-borne diseases. If drought conditions precede the rainfall, flooding occurs sooner because the rain runs off the dry, crusty surface directly into streams and rivers. When soils are dry, it takes longer for water to infiltrate the surface.
After this discussion of the rainfall and monsoon winds, it seems ironic that access to fresh water is a problem in some parts of South Asia. For example, urban planners warn that central Pakistan and northwest India are on the brink of a groundwater crisis due to rising population, the effects of climate change, and the natural lag in groundwater response to management interventions.
Central Pakistan's groundwater also suffers from arsenic contamination. Water evaporates quickly in hot, arid climates such as those in the Indus Plain, creating conditions that increase arsenic levels in the groundwater.
Read this article to learn more about groundwater conditions in central Pakistan and its neighbor, northwest India. The conditions in central Pakistan and northwest India have not changed since it was published in 2017. Indeed, these groundwater systems are among the most heavily exploited in the world.Figure 8.6 shows how groundwater levels on March 15, 2021, compared to long-term records for the month of March. Blue areas had more abundant water than usual, and orange and red areas had less. The darkest reds represent dry conditions that should occur only two percent of the time (about once every 50 years). Northern India and parts of Pakistan have conditions that should occur only two percent of the time. There are efforts underway to use data like this to better manage water resources in the region.
The rising sea level is threatening the island country of Maldives. Alex Arnall, the environmental geographer, has found that governments must address issues associated with coastal development if places like the Maldives are to survive. Read this article to learn more about these environmental challenges. We will also examine how island countries in Oceania are also threatened by rising sea levels in Unit 10.
8.3: Human Settlement and Culture in South Asia
How have the residents of South Asia adapted to the changes in their physical environment during the past tens of thousands of years? Climate change in the form of unpredictable monsoon winds, rising sea levels, higher temperatures, and other effects have challenged their existing settlement patterns.
Read this text which introduces the human geography of South Asia, including the evolving patterns of human settlement, the effects of colonization of the region, and the ethnic, linguistic, and religious characteristics that emerged over time.
Finlayson briefly describes some of South Asia's urban and economic issues, including megacities, outsourcing, and economic development. We will consider these and other issues in the next section.Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam are the dominant religions in South Asia. Hinduism and Buddhism, in addition to Sikhism and Jainism, originated in South Asia. Hinduism and Buddhism both originated in northern India and are the world's third- and fourth-largest religions, respectively.
Hindus and Buddhists use some of the same basic vocabularies and incorporate similar symbolism and practices. However, there are substantial differences. For example, Hindus do not have a single founder; they worship deities and have the concept of a soul (Buddhists do not). Buddhists show reverence and devotion to the Buddha rather than recognize a god. They also renounce the caste system.
Different variations of Buddhism developed as it spread from northern India according to geography, the teachings communities followed, and how monks were ordained. The northern branch, Vajrayana Buddhism, is often called Tibetan Buddhism. The southern branch, Theravada Buddhism, is sometimes called Southern Buddhism. The eastern branch, Mahayana Buddhism, is often referred to as East Asian Buddhism.
Read this text. Notice that Figure 8.8 illustrates the distribution of these branches of Buddhism. Regardless of the focus of each branch, all hold to the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path taught by the Buddha.Watch this video where Devdutt Pattanaik, a mythologist, contrasts Indian and Western belief systems, including perspectives of living one life versus infinite lives. He explains how components of Hinduism have influenced business practices in India. He has also created a strategy for applying aspects of cultural sensitivity to avoid and mitigate conflict.
Pattanaik reminds us that imperial powers can change boundaries and official languages, but they can seldom dominate the culture. However, colonies often embrace some cultural changes. For example, cricket has become a national pastime in South Asia since British sailors brought it to India during the 18th century.The British Empire did influence the human landscape of South Asia, although its culture remained largely intact. Britain began establishing colonies in 1857 through the trade activities of the British East India Company. British ruled this region for nearly 100 years. Figure 8.7 shows the extent of Britain's Indian Empire. Note that this map includes the country of Burma (now Myanmar), which we will study in Unit 9.
- By 1947, the British Empire could no longer maintain control of the area due to local resistance and the need to focus on rebuilding Britain after World War II. As the British withdrew, they partitioned British India into India and Pakistan based on their religious differences.
As shown in Figure 8.8, India became the home of the Hindu population, while Pakistan governed the Muslim population. West Pakistan (formerly the northwestern section of India) and East Pakistan (in the far eastern section of India were separated by 1,600 km of Indian territory). West Pakistan administered East Pakistan. After this partition, disputes arose among the Hindus who happened to live in the area now designated as Pakistan (which was primarily Muslim) and the Muslims who lived in what was now India (primarily Hindu). War erupted when the new governments in Pakistan and India were unable to manage the mass migration of people who wanted to move to their country of choice.
Relations between West and East Pakistan were strained from the beginning – their shared religion (Islam) was unable to bridge their cultural differences. The population in East Pakistan is predominantly Bengali. The people of Bengal, the region around the Bay of Bengal, have their own language and cultural designation. The people who lived in East Pakistan felt further alienated when Karachi in West Pakistan was chosen as the first capital of Pakistan, and Urdu became the national language.
Bengali nationalism peaked after the catastrophic 1970 Bhola cyclone, which killed 500,000 people when it struck East Pakistan. The population resented the inadequate support they received from the federal government in response to the disaster. An ensuing war for independence resulted in the new sovereign state of Bangladesh in December of 1971. The previously western portion of Pakistan became the country we call Pakistan today.
The British colonists left several legacies in this region. The official languages in India are Hindu and English, and in Pakistan, they are Urdu and English. The British also created a vast railroad system and a series of port cities to transport the resources they extracted and ship them to Great Britain. However, they did not build this system to serve the Indian population. It consisted of individual lines that linked the resource depots located in the country's interior to the coast. It was not an integrated network to help the Indians travel from city to city.
The British East India Company developed three major port cities along the Indian coast to send and receive goods by ship. Bombay (now Mumbai) on the west coast provided access to the Arabian Sea. Madras (now Chennai) on the southeast coast provided access to the lower Bay of Bengal, and Calcutta (now Kolkata) on the lower Ganges Delta along the northeast coast provided access to the upper Bay of Bengal.
The British moved the capital city of India from Kolkata to New Delhi in 1911. New Delhi's central location made it easier to administer the entire country. Kolkata also harbored anti-colonial sentiment and was the center of India's nationalist movements. Several assassinations of British officials took place in Kolkata. See Figure 8.1 for the locations of these cities.
The island country of Sri Lanka was also part of the British Empire, and its ethnic groups continue to be deeply divided, but the map in Figure 8.7 is not shaded to reflect its colonial status. Finlayson refers to this communal conflict at the end of Section 8.5. The population is temporarily unified as it responds to the economic crisis the COVID-19 pandemic caused and the war in Ukraine, which caused global food and energy prices to spike.
Read this article for more on the competing ethnic groups and the effects British imperialism has had on the conflict. Figure 8.9 shows the distribution of languages and religious groups by district in Sri Lanka. The majority Sinhalese clearly dominate the island, while the Tamils generally occupy the northern and eastern periphery. The Sinhalese are an Indo-Aryan group, whereas the Tamils are a Dravidian ethnolinguistic group. Note that Figure 8.7 of in the article in section 8.3, Cultural Groups in South Asia, shows a group of Tamil speakers in southern India. The orange polygon of Indian Tamils in south-central Sri Lanka coincides with Mount Pidurutalagalahe, a summit of 2,525 m. Muslims are clearly a minority group.This map shows the distribution of languages and religious groups in Sri Lanka.
8.4: South Asia's Modern Landscape and Future Challenges
It is appropriate to take a moment to discuss population geography since South Asia has such a high rate of population growth. Population geography is a specialization within the subdiscipline of human geography. Population geographers study the spatial distribution and characteristics of communities and the density of their settlements. In addition to GIS and the other geospatial technologies we described in Unit 1, population geographers use a variety of characteristics, measures, and tools to learn about the spatial variations of populations. Let's consider just a few of them as we learn how high population growth is straining the resources of South Asia.
The population density, or number of people who live per square mile, in the countries in South Asia is staggering. Many people live in overcrowded conditions. The physiologic density, or number of people who live per square mile of arable land, is even higher. As we saw in North Africa and Southwest Asia, deserts and mountainous terrain dominate the physical landscapes of many South Asian countries. Consequently, the arable land is limited to river valleys and lowlands. In addition to physical geography, other countries, such as Bhutan and Maldives, are limited by geographic area.
South Asia's countries continue to grow to the point that the region's population will double in approximately 50 years. Remember the stages of economic development we studied in Section 4.3 of this course. It is more difficult for countries that have a lower doubling time to transition through the stages of economic development.
Make sure you can respond to these questions after you complete the next reading and video.- Why is South Asia's population so ethnically and linguistically diverse?
- Why is South Asia overpopulated, and why is this their biggest challenge?
- What specific challenges does South Asia face?
- What is the difference between arithmetic density and physiologic density?
- What is agricultural density?
- Read this text to learn more about why there are so many people in South Asia and why it is a problem.
Make sure you can answer these questions after you have reviewed the following readings and videos in this section.
- What is the sex ratio? For example, what does it mean if Bhutan has a sex ratio of 1.08:1?
- Why is violence against women so high in parts of South Asia?
- How has India's transition to a free market economy affected poverty?
- What stages of economic development have South Asia's countries reached?
- Where is urbanization increasing?
- How are Bhutan and Nepal isolated?
- What has been the impact of English on the economic and cultural landscape of the region?
- What is outsourcing, and how has it affected South Asia's economy?
- How does Maldives compare to other South Asian countries in terms of GDP and education?
- What is the Green Revolution? What are the pros and cons associated with it? What are the megacities of this region? Note that Rueschhoff refers to them as supercities.
Watch this video. Note that Rueschhoff corrects a statement he makes in the video that Bangladesh is the most densely populated country in the world. He writes that the population density in Bangladesh is roughly 2,900 per square mile, making it the tenth most densely-populated country (seventh by some measures).
Finlayson and Rueschhoff mention the Green Revolution. Watch this video to learn more about the Green Revolution and its impact on this region and others.
Consider the 2022 population pyramid for Bhutan in Figure 8.10 to make sure you interpret a population pyramid. Notice how there are more males than females and that fertility rates are decreasing. Recall that Finlayson cites a preference for males in this region.
Watch these videos to get a quick feel for what it is like to walk down the street in two megacities, Old Dhaka and New Delhi.
While poverty characterizes much of the region of South Asia, remember Figure 4.13 World Map of Gini Coefficients by Country in Section 4.5 and Figure 4.16 Total Gross Domestic (GDP) in 2022 in Section 4.6. We find that Gini coefficients and GDP are generally moderate for South Asia. This is a useful reminder that single measures do not tell the whole story.
Read this article where Tista Kundu, an economist, writes that many Indians experience inequality due to its prevailing caste system. Kundu cites World Inequality Report 2022, another method to measure inequality that does not use Gini coefficients in which India scores even worse.
Note that gross domestic product (GDP) is not one of those measures – GDP only tells us only about overall production, not value or well-being. In 2021, Japan had the third-highest GDP in the world, but it had a low inequality rating.Read this article to learn how economists in Bhutan created a rating system called gross national happiness (GNH) as a way to mitigate its isolation from the global economy. The GNH focuses on defining what constitutes happiness rather than how to achieve it. While GNH does not tell the whole story, there is some value to looking beyond GDP.
For example, in 1972, Bhutan's legislators began to take good governance, sustainable development, preservation and promotion of culture, and environmental conservation into account during their policymaking process.
Unit 8 Assessment
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