South Asia in the World: An Introduction

An Introduction

Susan S Wadley

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317459583
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politique et relations internationales
• Subtopic: Politique

This first book in the new Foundations in Global Studies series offers a fresh, comprehensive, multidisciplinary introduction to South Asia. The variations in social, cultural, economic, and political life in this diverse and complex region are explored within the context of the globalising forces affecting all regions of the world. In a simple strategy that all books in the series employ, the volume begins with foundational material (including chapters on history, language, and, in the case of South Asia, religion), moves to a discussion of globalisation, and then focuses the investigation more specifically through the use of case studies. The cases expose the student to various disciplinary lenses that are important in understanding the region and are meant to bring the region to life through subjects of high interest and significance to today's readers. Resource boxes, an important feature of the book, are included to maintain currency and add utility. They offer links that point readers to a rich archive of additional material, connections to timely data, reports on recent events, official sites, local and country-based media, visual material, and so forth. A website developed by Syracuse University's South Asia Center will feature additional graphic, narrative, and case study material to complement the book.

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Introducing South Asia

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SUSAN SNOW WADLEY

South Asia is a region of contrasts, ranging from the world’s tallest point, Mount Everest in Nepal, to the country with the lowest “high” point, the island nation of the Maldives (see topographical map). Located in the Indian Ocean off the southwest coast of India, the Maldives reaches only 8 feet (2.4 meters) above sea level at its highest point. South Asia has deserts in the northwest and heavy rain forests in the eastern regions. The climate ranges from extreme cold in the north to tropical in the south. Some areas face yearly droughts, while others have some of the world’s heaviest rainfalls. In this age of global warming, the northern areas face the loss of snowmelt and glaciers, creating problems for agriculture and populations downstream. The islanders of the Maldives face the loss of their lands due to rising oceans. Two South Asian nations have a nuclear bomb, and two have Maoist insurgencies. The glitz and dance styles of Bollywood movies are now better known across the globe than the poverty of the region’s rural farmers.

South Asia is composed of eight countries with a wide range of demographic features (Table 1.1). India is by far the most populous nation in the region. Indeed, it is the world’s second-largest country by population, with 1.2 billion inhabitants, whereas the Maldives ranks as the 176th country by population, with not quite 400,000 inhabitants. Literacy ranges from almost 94 percent in the Maldives to barely 28 percent in Afghanistan. Afghanistan and Nepal are the poorest nations, based on gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Both have suffered from recent wars and instability, and their mountainous terrains hinder everything from transport to education, making development initiatives difficult. The small nations of Bhutan and the Maldives are the most prosperous, the former because of its hydroelectric dams, and the latter due to tourism.

Climate and Monsoons

The South Asian climate is influenced by the yearly monsoons, the seasonal changes in winds and rain. The western, or summer, monsoon arrives in June, sometimes lasting through October. Coming from the south across the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea, it flows across the western regions, around the tip of India, and along the coastline of the Bay of Bengal, eventually reaching the northern and central parts of the country. Newspapers in the region give daily reports on the position of the monsoons and the all-important rains. In the northeast regions, the monsoon has been known to dump more than 400 inches (10,000 centimeters) of rain in a month, while some western desert regions often receive only 4 inches (10 centimeters) of rain a year. The southern regions receive their rainfall during the winter, or dry, monsoon, which is based on air flows coming across the Asian landmass and the Bay of Bengal. Over the bay, the winds pick up moisture, which provides the rainfall for Sri Lanka and southern India.

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Table 1.1

Selected Demographic Factors, Countries of South Asia, Compared to the United States

Country	Population (2012)	Literacy (percent of total population)	Population under age 25 (percent of total)	Population growth rate (percent)
India	1,205,073,612	61.0	47.5	1.312
Pakistan	190,291,129	54.9	56.4	1.551
Bangladesh	161,083,804	56.8	52.4	1.579
Afghanistan	30,419,928	28.1	64.8	2.220
Nepal	29,890,686	60.3	56.0	1.768
Sri Lanka	21,481,334	91.2	40.2	.913
Bhutan	716,896	47.0	49.4	1.175
Maldives	394,451	93.8	46.1	−.127
United States	313,847,465	99.0	33.8	.900

Source: Compiled from the CIA World Factbook, h­t­t­p­s­:­/­/­w­w­w­.c­i­a­.g­o­v­/­l­i­b­r­a­r­y­/­p­u­b­l­i­c­a­t­i­o­n­s­/­t­h­e­-­w­o­r­l­d­-­f­a­c­t­b­o­o­k­/­w­f­b­E­x­t­/­r­e­g­i­o­n­_­s­a­s­.h­t­m­l­, accessed February 14, 2013.

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The monsoons and temperature changes produce three seasons, each about four months long, in most of South Asia: the hot, wet, and humid rainy season; the cold winters in the northern regions (New Delhi, the capital of India, reaches temperatures of 35 degrees Fahrenheit [1.67 C] in December and January, while Kabul and the Himalayas get snow); and a dry, very hot summer, with temperatures reaching daytime highs of 120 degrees Fahrenheit (49 C) in many regions. Farming also has three seasons: in the north there are the wet-season (July–October) crops of rice and corn; winter-season (November–February) crops of wheat, barley, and mustard seed; and hot-season (March–June) crops of melons and cucumbers. Most agriculture is still heavily dependent on the rains, though irrigation is important, especially since many of the new seeds used for wheat and other crops demand more water and chemical fertilizers than traditional seeds. Irrigation, however, produces other long-term effects. In particular, the water table in areas of heavy irrigation is falling significantly, requiring deeper wells to be dug and raising questions about the long-term sustainability of these irrigation and farming practices.

Population Diversity

The northern mountain barriers and the long seacoast have significantly influenced the history of South Asia. While there was trading between South Asia and the Middle East by 2500 BCE, as well as across the Bay of Bengal to Southeast Asia by 500 BCE, the most significant early human incursions came from across the mountains to the northwest. The earliest human populations were those whose descendants now make up the so-called tribal populations of the area. They were followed by populations speaking Dravidian languages, whose descendants now live primarily in the southern portions of the subcontinent. By 2500 BCE there was an active literate civilization (whose script is yet to be deciphered), known as the Indus Valley Civilization, in the northwestern regions, with cities, trade via sea and overland routes to the Middle East, and agricultural surpluses.

Traditional forms of irrigation included step wells, often built by local rulers as a social service for their subjects, such as this one in the Indian state of Rajasthan. Water was channeled into the well during the monsoon, and as it was used and evaporated over the ensuing months, the steps provided access to the water for those willing to climb down and then up again with their heavy pots. (Photo by Victor Yu-Juei Tzen. Used by permission.)

As seen in Chapter 3, the passes through the mountains were also the routes taken by the Aryans and Alexander the Great in the period before the Common Era and by the various Muslim invaders after the ninth century CE. Only with oceangoing technologies of the Europeans in the sixteenth century were the coasts opened up to significant incursions from outsiders. Nevertheless, Jews and Christians as well as Arabs from East Africa and the Middle East reached the southwestern coasts long before the Europeans, bringing with them religious traditions still present in the subcontinent.

Approximately 31 percent of the world’s Muslims live in South Asia, and 99 percent of the world’s Hindus. Two countries, Sri Lanka and Bhutan, have majority Buddhist populations. Religious violence remains a major issue in several countries. In India, this takes the form of communal conflicts between Hindus and Muslims. In other countries, sectarian violence occurs, such as that prevalent in Pakistan between Sunni and Shia Muslims, and in Afghanistan between the Taliban and more moderate Muslims. Both Nepal and Sri Lanka recently emerged from long civil wars (in 2006 and 2009, respectively), with the Sri Lankan war fought between Tamil-speaking Hindus and Sinhalese-speaking Buddhists, while the Nepal war was a Maoist-led insurgency.

Except for two years of “Emergency Rule” in the 1970s, India has had an actively functioning democracy, with high voter turnouts in elections, since the nation won its independence in 1947. Other countries have faced invasions, as in Afghanistan; shifts between democratic and military rule, as in Pakistan and Bangladesh; and coups, as in the Maldives in 2012. Bhutan, long a monarchy, instituted democratic institutions beginning in 2007.

For an interactive site with information on South Asia, including its geography, populations, economies, and more, see the online CIA publication The World Factbook (h­t­t­p­s­:­/­/­w­w­w­.c­i­a­.g­o­v­/­l­i­b­r­a­r­y­/­p­u­b­l­i­c­a­t­i­o­n­s­/­t­h­e­-­w­o­r­l­d­-­f­a­c­t­b­o­o­k­/­w­f­b­E­x­t­/­r­e­g­i­o­n­_­s­a­s­.h­t­m­l­).

Core Social Patterns

Most of South Asia shares several features of social structure, including a strong focus on hierarchy. Much of the region retains a system of patriarchy, with joint family structures and the resulting oppression of women, and often a feudal-like land system, with large landholdings and tenant farmers. The Hindu caste system is the most dominant form of hierarchy in the subcontinent, while the Muslim hierarchy is focused on where and how and when a person became a Muslim (with descendants of those who converted to Islam having the lowest status, and those claiming to be descended from the Prophet Muhammad having the highest). Many Dalits (formerly “untouchables”) have sought to escape the caste system completely by converting to Buddhism, although the realities of daily life make this escape all but impossible.

Male dominance is pervasive in South Asia, although females in Hinduism are given powers as goddesses. The male gods in Hinduism are thought to be inert and powerless without their female consorts, who control the Shakti, or powers, of the universe. In the human realm, Hindu brides are considered to be Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity, so that any good—or bad—that comes to that family after the marriage is attributed to its women. In the 1970s, before the Emergency in India, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was thought to be the somewhat benevolent goddess Durga, but after she invoked emergency powers in 1977, she was envisioned as the malevolent goddess Kali.

Box 1.1

Female Heads of State in South Asia

Bangladesh	Kaleda Zia, 1991–1996, 2001–2006
	Sheikh Hasina Wazed, 1996–...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• About This Book
• Part One: Overview
• Part Two: Fundamentals
• Part Three: The Global Context
• Part Four: Case Studies
• About the Editor and the Contributors
• Index