Indian subcontinent

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Indian subcontinent
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Geopolitical coverage of the subcontinent
Area4,440,000 km2 (1,710,000 sq mi)
Populationc. 1.9 billion
Countries
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Dependencies
Languages
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Time zones
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Largest cities
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The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan.[1] Although the terms Indian subcontinent and South Asia are often also used interchangeably to denote a wider region which includes, in addition, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, the Indian subcontinent term is more geophysical, whereas South Asia is more geopolitical.[2] South Asia is also frequently defined to include Afghanistan, which is not considered part of the subcontinent even in extended usage.[3]

Name

The region surrounding and southeast of the Indus River was often simply referred to as India in many historical sources. Even today, historians use India to denote the entire Indian subcontinent when discussing history up until the era of the British Raj. Over time, however, the term India evolved to refer to a distinct political entity that eventually became a nation-state.[4]

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term subcontinent signifies a "subdivision of a continent which has a distinct geographical, political, or cultural identity" and also a "large land mass somewhat smaller than a continent".[5][6] Its use to signify the Indian subcontinent is evidenced from the early twentieth century when most of the territory was either part of the British Empire or allied with them.[7][8] It was a convenient term to refer to the region comprising both British India and the princely states.[9][10]

The term has been particularly common in the British Empire and its successors,[11] while the term South Asia is the more common usage in Europe and North America as well as in most countries in South Asia itself sometimes.[12][13] According to historians Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal, the Indian subcontinent has come to be known as South Asia "in more recent and neutral parlance".[14] Indologist Ronald B. Inden argues that the usage of the term South Asia is becoming more widespread since it clearly distinguishes the region from East Asia.[15]

Since the Partition of India, citizens of Pakistan (which became independent of British India in 1947) and Bangladesh (which became independent of Pakistan in 1971) often perceive the use of Indian subcontinent as offensive and suspicious because of the dominant placement of India in the term.[16] As such it is being increasingly less used in those countries.[note 7] Meanwhile, many Indian analysts prefer to use the term because of the socio-cultural commonalities of the region.[16] The region has also been called the "Asian subcontinent",[18][19] the "South Asian subcontinent",[20][21][22][23] as well as "India" or "Greater India" in the classical and pre-modern sense.[24][3][25][26]

The sport of cricket, introduced to the region by the British, is notably popular in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Within a cricket context, these countries are sometimes referred to simply as the subcontinent e.g. "Australia's tour of the subcontinent".[27] The term is also sometimes used adjectivally in cricket e.g. "subcontinental conditions".[28][29]

Geology

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File:230 Ma plate tectonic reconstruction.png
Cimmeria, having rifted from Gondwana shown drifting towards Eurasia, closing the Paleo-Tethys Ocean above, opening the Neo-Tethys Ocean below, and carrying parts of what is today the Tibetan Plateau
File:Karakoram Kohistan Ladakh Gangdese Belt.jpg
The accretions of the Karakoram, the Kohistan-Ladakh island arc, and the Gangdese belt to Eurasia preceded the final India-Eurasia collision. The stars mark the syntaxis-causing obtrustions.

Before the Indian plate rifted from Gondwana and drifted northward toward Eurasia, two other landmasses, the Qiangtang terrane and Lhasa terrane,[note 8] had accreted to Eurasia.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. The Qiantang and Lhasa terranes were part of the string of microcontinents Cimmeria, today constituting parts of Turkey, Iran, Pakistan (including the Karakoram[30]), China, Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia, which closed the Paleo-Tethys Ocean above them and opening the Neo-Tethys Ocean between them and Gondwana, eventually colliding with Eurasia, and creating the Cimmerian Orogeny.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.

After the Lhasa terrane had adjoined Eurasia, an active continental margin opened along its southern flank, below which the Neo-Tethys oceanic plate had begun to subduct. Magmatic activity along this flank produced the Gangdese batholith in what is today the Tibetan trans-Himalaya. Another subduction zone opened to the west, in the ocean basin above the Kohistan-Ladakh island arc. This island arc—formed by one oceanic plate subducting beneath another, its magma rising and creating continental crust—drifted north, closed its ocean basin and collided with Eurasia.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Ladakh is today in the Indian-administered region of Kashmir and Kohistan in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, both on the Indian subcontinent.

The collision of India with Eurasia closed the Neo-Tethys Ocean.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. The suture zone (in this instance, the remnants of the Neo-Tethys subduction zone pinched between the two continental crusts), which marks India's welding to Eurasia, is called the Indus-Yarlung suture zone.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. It lies north of the Himalayas. The headwaters of the Indus River and the Yarlung Tsangpo (later in its course, the Brahmaputra) flow along this suture zone.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. These two Eurasian rivers, whose courses were continually diverted by the rising Himalayas, define the western and eastern limits, respectively, of the Himalayan mountain range.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.

See also

Notes

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  1. ^ Excluding:
  2. ^ a b As island countries, Maldives and Sri Lanka are sometimes not considered parts of the subcontinent, as they lack geographic contiguity with the mainland. They are considered parts of the region in cultural geography or geology instead.
  3. ^ Excluding Upper Mustang and other areas which lie to the north of the Greater Himalayan Mountain Range.
  4. ^ Excluding:
  5. ^ Administered by the United Kingdom, claimed by Mauritius as the Chagos Archipelago.
  6. ^ Template:Kashmir-note
  7. ^ For example, a history book intended for Pakistani B.A. students by K. Ali uses the term "Indo-Pakistan" instead.[17]
  8. ^ Terrane: "A far traveled crustal block accreted to a continent. Due to its remote origin, the terrane shows a different geological evolution compared to adjacent parts of the continent."Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.

References

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  1. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Indian subcontinent (noun)", Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, March 2025, doi:10.1093/OED/1205710598, retrieved 31 March 2025, The part of Asia south of the Himalayas which forms a peninsula extending into the Indian Ocean between the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, now divided between India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. (subscription required)
  2. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Indian subcontinent (noun)", Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, March 2025, doi:10.1093/OED/1205710598, retrieved 31 March 2025, (subsidiary remark) Also used with wider application to include Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. The term is roughly equivalent to South Asia, esp. in the wider use, although Indian subcontinent is sometimes considered to be more of a geophysical description, and South Asia more geopolitical.
  3. ^ a b Jim Norwine & Alfonso González, The Third World: states of mind and being, pages 209, Taylor & Francis, 1988, Template:ISBN Quote: ""The term "South Asia" also signifies the Indian Subcontinent""
    Raj S. Bhopal, Ethnicity, race, and health in multicultural societies, pages 33, Oxford University Press, 2007, Template:ISBN; Quote: "The term South Asian refers to populations originating from the Indian subcontinent, effectively India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka;
    Lucian W. Pye & Mary W. Pye, Asian Power and Politics, pages 133, Harvard University Press, 1985, Template:ISBN Quote: "The complex culture of the Indian subcontinent, or South Asia, presents a tradition comparable to Confucianism."
    Mark Juergensmeyer, The Oxford handbook of global religions, pages 465, Oxford University Press US, 2006, Template:ISBN
    Sugata Bose & Ayesha Jalal, Modern South Asia, page 3, Routledge, 2004, Template:ISBN
  4. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Indian subcontinent Map, Countries, Population, & History". Encyclopædia Britannica. 20 September 2022. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
  5. ^ Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged, Merriam-Webster, 2002. Retrieved 6 December 2016; Quote: "a large landmass smaller than a continent; especially: a major subdivision of a continent ! e Indian subcontinent | "
  6. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."subcontinent - definition of subcontinent in English | Oxford Dictionaries". 20 December 2016. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 26 September 2024. A large distinguishable part of a continent
  7. ^ Milton Walter Meyer, South Asia: A Short History of the Subcontinent, pages 1, Adams Littlefield, 1976, Template:ISBN
  8. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Baker Henry D. (1915). British India With Notes On Ceylon Afghanistan And Tibet (1915). p. 401.
  9. ^ Script error: No such module "template wrapper". (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  10. ^ Script error: No such module "template wrapper". (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  11. ^ Milton Walter Meyer, South Asia: A Short History of the Subcontinent, pages 1, Adams Littlefield, 1976, Template:ISBN
    Jim Norwine & Alfonso González, The Third World: states of mind and being, pages 209, Taylor & Francis, 1988, Template:ISBN
    Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Boniface, Brian G.; Christopher P. Cooper (2005). Worldwide destinations: the geography of travel and tourism. Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN 978-0-7506-5997-0.
    Judith Schott & Alix Henley, Culture, Religion, and Childbearing in a Multiracial Society, pages 274, Elsevier Health Sciences, 1996, Template:ISBN
    Raj S. Bhopal, Ethnicity, race, and health in multicultural societies, pages 33, Oxford University Press, 2007, Template:ISBN
    Lucian W. Pye & Mary W. Pye, Asian Power and Politics, pages 133, Harvard University Press, 1985, Template:ISBN
    Mark Juergensmeyer, The Oxford handbook of global religions, pages 465, Oxford University Press US, 2006, Template:ISBN
  12. ^ Judith Schott & Alix Henley, Culture, Religion, and Childbearing in a Multiracial Society, pages 274, Elsevier Health Sciences, 1996, Template:ISBN
  13. ^ Raj S. Bhopal, Ethnicity, race, and health in multicultural societies, pages 33, Oxford University Press, 2007, Template:ISBN
  14. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Bose, Sugata; Jalal, Ayeha (2004) [First published 1998]. Modern South Asia. Routledge. p. 3. ISBN 0415307872.
  15. ^ Ronald B. Inden, Imagining India, page 51, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2000, Template:ISBN
  16. ^ a b B.H. Farmer, An Introduction to South Asia, page 1, Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1983, Template:ISBN, "The 'Indian sub continent' is a term that certainly recognises the dominant position of India in both area and population. Since the partition of Indian Empire, use of this term becomes offensive to the Pakistanis and the Bangladeshis."
    Jona Razzaque, Public Interest Environmental Litigation in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, page 3, Kluwer Law International, 2004, Template:ISBN "Yet, because citizens of Pakistan (which was carved out of India in 1947 and has had recurring conflicts with India since then) and of Bangladesh (which became separated from Pakistan by civil war in 1971) might find offensive the dominant placement of India in the term "Indian subcontinent", many scholars today prefer the more recently adopted designation 'South Asia.'"
    Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby, Religions of South Asia: An Introduction, page 3, Routledge, 2006, Template:ISBN
    S K Shah, India and Its Neighbours: Renewed Threats and New Directions, page 26, Vij Books India Pvt Ltd, 2017, Template:ISBN "Indian analysts, who talk of the Indian sub-continent, wish to keep in mind, in their analyses, the common historical, political, religious and cultural heritage of these three countries. The term sub-continent is used less and less in Pakistan and Bangladesh. The political leadership and the policy-makers in these two countries do not wish to be reminded of this common heritage. Any highlighting of this common heritage by Indian analysts is viewed by them with suspicion—— as indicating a hidden desire to reverse history and undo the 1947 partition."
  17. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Ali, K. (1980). A New History of Indo-Pakistan up to 1526 (4th ed.). Lahore: Aziz Publishers.
  18. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Crouch, Lizzie; McGrath, Paula (30 March 2014). "Humanity's global battle with mosquitoes". BBC News. Archived from the original on 20 January 2024.
  19. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Kronstadt, K. Alan (2011). Terrorist Attacks in Mumbai, India, and Implications for U. S. Interests. DIANE Publishing. p. 7. ISBN 978-1-4379-2953-9.
  20. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Ahmad, Aijazuddin (2009). Geography of the South Asian Subcontinent: A Critical Approach. Concept Publishing Company. ISBN 978-81-8069-568-1.
  21. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Ayesha Jalal (2008). Partisans of Allah: Jihad in South Asia. Harvard University Press. p. xiii. ISBN 9780674028012.
  22. ^ K. D. Kapur, Nuclear Non-proliferation Diplomacy: Nuclear Power Programmes in the Third World, page 365, Lancers Books, 1993, Template:ISBN|Daya Nath Tripathi (ed), Discourse on Indo European Languages and Culture, page 193, Indian Council of Historical Research, 2005, Template:ISBN
  23. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Khan, Muhammad Akram (1 January 2013). What Is Wrong with Islamic Economics?: Analysing the Present State and Future Agenda. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78254-415-9.
  24. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.John McLeod (2002). The history of India. Greenwood Press. p. 1. ISBN 0-313-31459-4. Note: McLeod does not include Afghanistan in the Indian subcontinent or South Asia.
  25. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Mittal, Sushil; Thursby, Gene (18 April 2006). Religions of South Asia: An Introduction. Routledge. p. 3. ISBN 978-1-134-59322-4.
  26. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Baker, Kathleen M.; Chapman, Graham P. (11 March 2002). The Changing Geography of Asia. Routledge. p. 10. ISBN 978-1-134-93384-6.
  27. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Khawaja in the subcontinent - unselectable to indispensable". ESPNcricinfo. 10 March 2023. Retrieved 19 September 2024.
  28. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Subcontinent lessons for Australia's youngsters". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 19 September 2024.
  29. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."A distinctly sub-continental wicket". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 19 September 2024.
  30. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Zanchi, Andrea; Gaetani, Maurizio (2011). "The geology of the Karakoram range, Pakistan: the new 1:100,000 geological map of Central-Western Karakoram". Italian Journal of Geosciences. 130 (2): 161–262. doi:10.3301/IJG.2011.09. The Tirich Boundary Zone is a complex assemblage of high grade metabasites and gneiss with small remnants of sub-continental peridotites, which separate East Hindu Kush from the Karakoram. Its emplacement has been related to the possible opening of a basin between the two blocks at the end of the Paleozoic, followed by its deformation during the collision of Karakoram with East Hindu Kush, dating to the end of Triassic or beginning of the Jurassic.

Bibliography

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