1. South Asia EU and Morocco Review of North Africa & SW Asia Questions
Scope and Features
Major Qualities

3. THE REALM Five Regions India Pakistan Bangladesh Mountainous North
Southern Islands

4. Major Geographic Qualities of South Asia
Well defined physiographically
Monsoon climate
The world’s second largest population cluster
1.4 billion
Grinding poverty
22% of world’s population, 3% of land area
Population concentrated in villages
North Indian Plain – Uttar Pradesh
British colonial legacy, India, a federal state
Religion and nationalism
Boundary issues
Kashmir

5. WHAT CLIMATE VARIABLES
HELP TO EXPLAIN
THIS DISTRIBUTION?

6. Aw: The World’s monsoon climates

7. MONSOONS Monsoon Seasonal reversal of winds
India is the ‘textbook example’
50% of arable land irrigated by monsoon
Over half world’s population is in monsoonal regions
It is a wind, not the rain
Seasonal reversal of winds
General onshore movement in summer
General offshore flow in winter

8. Monsoons

9. Impact of the Monsoon Impact exacerbated by deforestation
Regional variation
Vital to rice production in India
But:
Widespread flooding and property damage
Transportation
Housing
Erosion and destruction of agricultural land
Disease
Malnutrition
Death
Impact exacerbated by deforestation

10. Culture Religion Islam is dominant in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
But 150 million Muslims in India
Hinduism is dominant in India.
Sikhism in northern India, Punjab
Buddhism is dominant in Sri Lanka.

11. Culture Hearth: The Indus River
Early agriculture & hydraulic civilizations
Arts and trade routes emerged from isolated tribes and villages to towns and beyond.
Hinduism emerged from the beliefs and practices brought to India by the Indo-Europeans c. 600 BC
Buddhism – Prince Siddhartha 300 BC
Diffusion of Islam CE

12. Two more Early Culture Hearths

13. LANGUAGES

14. RELIGION

15. HINDUISM The world’s oldest religion
Culture hearth of the Indus River Valley
Diffused south and east down the Ganges

16. HINDUISM
Intricate web of religious, philosophical, social, economic, and artistic elements
No common creed
No single doctrine
No direct divine revelation
No rigid narrow moral code
Caste system: rigid social stratification

17. Colonial Transformation 1
East India Company – 1599
Benefits from factionalization
Warring principalities
Islam-Hinduism-Buddhism
Drives out French, Dutch and Spanish rivals
Indian Mutiny (Sepoy Rebellion) of 1856
British Viceroy assumes control

18. Colonial Transformation 2
Benefits of Colonial Era
British civil service and public administration
Centralization of political control of rival states
Railway network
Irrigation canal network
Discouraged suttee, infanticide, child marriage
Costs of colonial era
Dependency and indignity
Resources extracted for Britain’s benefit
Independence and partition, 1947

19. Independence and Partition
ISLAM
Independence and Partition
15 million refugees