1303 Chapter 8 - South Asia

South Asia

• India
• Kashmir
• Pakistan
• Bangladesh
• Nepal
• Bhutan
• Sri Lanka and other islands

South Asia Physiography

• Clearly defined borders (generally) of mountains, deserts, and ocean
• World’s second largest population cluster
• 23% of the world’s population
• Economies crippled by poverty
• 50%+ engaged in subsistence farming
• High population growth rates for entire region
• History of conquest and colonialism
• Indo-Europeans
• Macedonians
• Muslims
• Mongols
• British
• Cultural divisions delineate by religious divisions
• Hinduism and Islam
• Fundamentalist tendencies
• Boundary disputes increase tensions

The Monsoon

• Defines the seasons over most of the region
• Wet Summer
• Dry Winter
• Essential moisture for crops – especially rice
• Seasonal reversal of winds
• Offshore during winter
• Onshore during summer
• Pakistan only receives monsoon rain in its eastern areas
• Does not penetrate to mountainous regions

Negatives of the Monsoon

• Widespread flooding
• Damage to agricultural lands
• Damage to infrastructure and property
• Disease vector
• Contributes to malnutrition (sorta) and death

Indus River Valley

• Cultural Hearth
• Central Pakistan
• Region’s earliest civilization
• 10,000 to 8,000 bp
• Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro
• 3500 bp
• Essentially Indian Civilization
• Indo-European

Religions

Hinduism

• Oldest major, extant religion in the world
• Diffused east and south down the Ganges River (from the Indus River Valley)
• Intricate web of religious, philosophical, social, economic, and artistic elements
• Ethnic Religion
• Based on a complex system of social stratification (Caste System)
• Very restrictive
• High to low castes along with priestly castes
• the Brahmins: teachers and priests
• the Kshatriyas: warriors and kings
• the Vaishyas: farmers, merchants, and businessmen
• the Shudras: servants and labourers
• Based on three basic tenants
• Reincarnation
• Every living thing has a soul
• Souls are reborn in new life after the old body dies
• Karma
• Every action brings results
• No escaping the consequences of one’s actions
• Good actions are rewarded in the next life
• Dharma
• The rules that each person must follow to obtain nirvana
• Each person has an individual Dharma

Buddhism

• Origins around the 6^th Century BCE
• Prince Siddhartha – Buddha
• Reaction to the harsh/restrictive caste system of Hinduism
• Universalizing Religion
• Very philosophical
• Explanations for evil and human suffering.
• Missionaries
• Open to all people and castes
• Spread throughout South Asia and China
• Later spread into North America and Europe
• Mauryan Empire and Emperor Aśoka (Ashoka)
• Rise and spread of Buddhism
• 3^rd Century BC (273-232 BCE)
• Adopted tenants of Buddhism
• Stability and peace
• Decline in India
• Hinduism acceptance of many Buddhist beliefs
• Incorporation of many/most Indian Buddhists into Hinduism
• Arrival of Islam in the 8^th Century CE
• Burning of monasteries and libraries
• Killed monks
• Only about one million Buddhists in India today

Tenants of Buddhism

• The Four Noble Truths
• Sorrow and suffering are part of all life
• People suffer because they desire things they cannot have
• The way to escape suffering is to end desire, to stop wanting, and to reach a stage of not wanting
• To end desire, follow the “middle path,” i.e., the path that avoids the extremes of too much pleasure and desire
• The Eightfold Path
• Right understanding
• Right purpose
• Right speech
• Right conduct
• Right means of earning a living
• Right effort
• Right awareness
• Right meditation

Introduction of Islam

• Late 10^th Century CE
• From Iran and Afghanistan
• Overland through the mountains and deserts
• Through ports along the coast
• Mainly focused in the Indo-European areas
• Control and conversion mainly from the top down
• Attractive to lower caste Indians with little prospect of advancement
• Unable to convert the majority of Southwest Asians
• Mainly in the northwest and western regions
• Uneasy relationship with Hinduism

Colonial Period

• Beginning around 1500 CE
• British control of the subcontinent
• British East India Company
• Initial focus on trade (spices, cotton, silk)
• 1856 Sepoy Mutiny
• British government takes direct control of India
• Accentuated divisions between Hindus and Muslims to maintain rule

Colonial Legacies

• Excellent transportation network
• Although focused on interior to coastal ports
• Less attention to interior connections
• Introduced modern irrigation and farming methods
• Industrialization
• Western Education and access to British Universities and knowledge
• English as the Lingua Franca
• Partition – 1950
• Earliest demands for partition date to the 1930’s by Muslim activists
• Strong support from the subcontinent’s Muslim population
• Muslim and Hindu populations heavily intermixed throughout the region
• Minority groups ignored (Sikhs)
• Massive movements of people toward ethnically cleansed regions
• Especially true in the Muslim areas of Pakistan and Bangladesh
• Large minority of Muslims in India
• Disputed borders
• Punjab and Kashmir

Population Crisis

• Demographic Transition Model (Ch 6 for discussion)
• Subcontinent remains on the edge of the Catch-22 of the model
• High birth rates with reduced mortality stretch the limits of the governments and individuals to deal with problems
• Stage 2 and Stage 3 of the model
• Huge increases in mainly impoverished classes (lower castes)
• Not helped by the Catholic Church and Mother Teresa
• Increases in contagious diseases
• Especially Cholera
• Growth focused in the Muslim nations and regions
• Many differences due to the vast economic divide within and between regions and states
• High rates of illiteracy and malnutrition among poor
• Food distribution systems broken
• Governments overwhelmingly influenced by elites
• Food distribution networks antiquated and failing (transportation)
• Outside meddling

Pakistan

• Population of approximately 167 million
• One of the worlds top ten largest countries
• 77% Sunni
• 20% Shi’ite
• 34% Urbanized
• Four major ethnic groups – mirror the political divisions
• Baluchi
• Pashtun (North Western Frontier)
• Punjabi
• Sindhi
• Dependent upon the Indus river for agriculture
• Capital of Islamabad is a Forward Capital
• Split from India at Partition
• Split from Bangladesh in 1971
• English is the Lingua Franca
• Islam is used as a uniting force for the disparate ethnic groups
• Supports a large military – military rule
• Four Provinces
• Punjab
• Pakistan’s Core area
• 60% of the population
• Sind
• Breadbasket of Pakistan
• Baluchistan
• Mainly desert
• Center of Shi’ite power
• Newly discovered oil and gas reserves
• Northwest Frontier
• Border with Afghanistan
• Large refugee Afghan population
• Much movement across the border
• Area of Anocracy
• Tribal and terrorist leaders

Kashmir

• INDEPENDENCE & PARTITION
• JAMMU & KASHMIR FACED WITH THE CHOICE OF JOINING EITHER HINDU INDIA OR MUSLIM PAKISTAN
• KASHMIR – HINDU MAHARAJAH BUT MUSLIM POPULATION
• 1947 – PAKISTANI TRIBESMEN INVADE
• MAHARAJAH FLEES TO DELHI AND ACCEDES TO INDIA
• INDIAN TROOPS DEPLOY – PAKISTANI REGULARS JOIN IN THE FIGHT
• JANUARY 1949 – UN CEASE FIRE
• 1980-88 MUSLIM EXTREMISTS CONTINUE INSURGENCY
• 1990-1995 NEARLY 10,000 DIE DURING SPORADIC FIGHTING

India

• Almost 75% of South Asia’s land area
• World’s most populous democracy
• Federalized Power structure
• 1.1 Billion people
• Indo-Aryan – 72%
• Dravidian – 25%
• Hindu – 81%
• Muslim – 14%
• 28% Urbanized
• 14 Major languages
• Hindi is official language
• English as the Lingua Franca
• Only 60% literacy rate
• Centrifugal Forces
• Languages and Ethnic groups
• Religion (Hindu and Muslim)
• Hindu nationalism
• Caste tensions
• Outright rebellion (central states)
• Border conflicts
• Devolutionary pressures generally confined to within state boundaries instead of against the nation
• Many states formed to accommodate smaller ethnic minorities
• Centripetal Forces
• Democracy
• Flexibility and accommodation to minority groups and problems
• Common education system
• Nationalistic leaders
• Economically impoverished
• Inefficient and corrupt government
• Poor planning
• Large population growth
• Handicapped by Caste System
• 38% of population below poverty line
• Mix of traditional subsistence farming and modern methods
• Mix of traditional industries and modern industrial and post-industrial
• High tech computer industry
• Nuclear power
• Electricity and THE BOMB

Urbanization

• 28% Urbanized
• 310 million people…
• Increasing at 5% a year
• Generally more similar to the Latin American City Model
• Roots in the colonial period of regional trading centers and ports
• Mumbai (Bombay)
• 19 million people
• Closest port to Britain
• Kolkata (Calcutta)
• 15 million people
• Former British colonial capital
• On the edge of the nation’s largest population cluster
• Easy access to interior transportation networks
• 500,000 homeless squatters
• Delhi
• 16 million people
• Colonial and current capital
• Forward capital
• Chennai (Madras)
• 7 million people
• Key fortified port

Industrialization

• British began industrialization during Colonial period
• Cotton
• World War II
• Very slow improvement and expansion of industry
• Concentrated around the largest cities
• Eastern Industrial Region
• Bihar-Bengal District
• Jute manufacture
• Cotton
• Engineering and chemical industries
• Close to coal, iron, and steal mining and manufacturing areas
• Western Industrial Region
• Mumbai and Ahmadabad
• Cotton and chemicals
• Southern Industrial Region
• Chennai
• Textile and light engineering
• High tech industries
• Concentrated in the larger urban areas
• English language proficiency
• College educations
• Lower wages than in Silicon Valley
• Global economy
• Sluggish industrial growth
• Infrastructure problems
• Government owned utilities and industry
• Bureaucratic inefficiency
• Impoverished economy

Bangladesh

• Independent since 1971
• Formerly East Pakistan following Partition
• Population of 147.3 million people
• 98% Bengali
• 83% Muslim
• 13% Hindu
• Population density of 3913 per sq mile
• One of the poorest and least economically developed nations
• Capital is the mega-city of Dhaka with 13.3 million people
• Overwhelmingly agricultural
• Predominately rice
• Located on the delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers
• Much of the country is flood plain very little above sea level
• Very susceptible to damage from cyclones
• Over 150,000 died in 1991

Mountain States

• Nepal
• Constitutional monarchy (1951)
• Maoist Insurgency
• Presently at peace
• Nation may be considered an Anocracy
• Population of 28 million
• Many ethnic groups
• 81% Hindu
• 10% Buddhist
• Lingua franca is English
• Bhutan
• Land of the Thunder Dragons…
• Landlocked mountainous nation
• Monarchy becoming a Constitutional Monarchy
• Population of 2.2 million
• 50-65% Bhote or other indigenous tribe
• 35% Nepalese
• 75% Buddhist
• Half(?) of GDP comes from selling hydroelectric power
• Fertile land only in the “lower” southeast corner
• Very isolationist – anti-globalization
• Major border disputes with China

Southern Islands

• Maldives
• Portuguese, Dutch, and then British Colony
• Republic – quasi-democratic
• Population of 360,000
• Sunni Muslim
• Economy based on tourism and fishing
• Highest Point is 2.4 meters amsl
• Heavily damaged by tsunamis in 2004
• Sri Lanka
• Ceylon (prior to 1972)
• Part of major Indian empires
• Population of around 20 million
• Sinhalese 74%
• Tamil 8-9%
• Buddhist 70%
• Hindu 7%
• Muslim 8%
• Christian 6%
• English as the Lingua Franca
• Plantation economy
• Civil War since 1983
• Tamil Tigers vs. Government forces
• Insurgent state
• Tamils first to use female suicide bombers
• Brief pause following 2004 tsunamis violence has resurged since 2006
• Heavily damaged by the 2004 tsunamis