South Asia Region Essay Example for Free

southeast Asia do main Essay southwestward Asia, which consists of the nations of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, is ethnically diverse, with more than 2,000 ethnic entities with races ranging from hundreds of millions to small tribal groups. southbound Asia has been invaded and settled by many ethnic groups over the centuries including various Dravidian, Indo-Aryan and Iranian groups and amalgamation of Dravidian, Indo-Aryan and native societies has produced complicated cultures with many common traditions and beliefs. But, the traditions of different ethnic groups in reciprocal ohm Asia have diverged throughout earlier times, sometimes giving rise to strong local traditions such(prenominal) as the distinct South Indian culture. some otherwise ethnic groups, successively streaming in later mainly from Central Asia and Iran, e.g. Sakas, Kushans, Huns etc. influenced pre-existing South Asiatic cultures. Among the last of these new ar rivals were the Arabs followed by the Turks, the Pashtuns and the Moghuls. How eer, Arab influence remained relatively limited in comparison to that of the Turks, Pashtuns and Moghuls, who brought in overmuch cultural influence and contributed to the birth of Urdu, a syncretic language of combined Indo-Persian heritage, which is astray verbalize today. Ethnic Englishmen and other Britons are now practically absent after their two centuries long compound presence, although they have left an imprint of western culture in the elite group society.LanguagesSee also Languages of South AsiaThe largest spoken language in this region is now Hindustn, its speakers numbering al just about 422 million75 the spot largest spoken language is Bengali, with about 210 million speakers.76 Urdu is also a major(ip) language spoken in the subcontinent, especially in Pakistan and India, and is akin linguistically to Hindi Hindi and Urdu together make up Hindustn. Although Hindi is spoken in some stat es of India, many people are not aware of the fact that most of the Indians speak local languages and are not familiar with Hindi. Other languages of this region fall into a few major linguistic groups the Dravidian languages and the Indo-Aryan languages, a sub-branch of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages.The other great sub-branch of Indo-Iranian, the Iranian languages, also have significant minority representation in South Asia, with Pashto and Balochi being widely spoken along the northwestern fringes of the region, in modern-day Pakistan. Many Tibeto-Burman ethnic groups, who are speakers of their language-group, are arrange in northeast India, Tibet, Nepal, and Bhutan. Other small groups, speaking Austro-Asiatic languages, are also present in South Asia. English is another language which dominates South Asia, especially as a medium of advanced command and authorities administration.Most of South Asia writes using various abugidas of Brhm origin while lan guages such as Urdu, Pashto, and Sindhi use derivatives of the Perso-Arabic script. Not all languages in South Asia follow this strict dichotomy though. For example, Kashmiri is compose in both the Perso-Arabic script and in the Devanagari script. The same can be said for Punjabi, which is written in both Shahmukhi and Gurmukh. Dhivehi is written in a script called Tna that shows characteristics of both the Arabic alphabet and of an abugida. trustsFurther information Religion in Bangladesh, Religion in Bhutan, Religion in India, Religion in Nepal, Religion in Pakistan, and Religion in Sri LankaHindu priest saluting the sun in the Ganges, Varanasi, India Jama Masjid, the main mosque in Delhi, India.About 64% of the South Asia universe is Hindu, 33% is Islamic, 2% is Buddhist and 1% is Christians.74In South Asia Hinduism and Islam and in some of its countries Buddhism are the dominant religions. Other Indian religions and Christianity are practiced by significant number of people.Hi storically, fusion of Indo-Aryan Vedic religion with native South Asian non-Vedic Shramana traditions and other Dravidian and local tribal beliefs gave rise to the ancient religions of Hinduism and Jainism. As a consequence, these two religions share many similar cultural practices, festivals and traditions.Arabs brought the Abrahamic religion of Islam to South Asia, first in the present day Kerala, Sri Lanka and the Maldive Islands and later in Sindh, Balochistan and much of Punjab. Subsequently, Muslim Turks/Pashtuns/Moghuls furthered it not only among the Punjabi and Kashmiri people but also throughout the Indo-Gangetic plains and distantther east, and thick-skulled south up to the Deccan.Afghanistan1Islam (99%), Hinduism, Sikhism and Christianity (1%) Bangladesh77Islam (89.5%), Hinduism (9.5%), Buddhism (0.7%), Christianity (0.3%) British Indian Ocean Territory78Christianity (45.55%), Hinduism (38.55%), Islam (9.25%), Others (6.65%) Bhutan79Buddhism (75%), Hinduism (25%)Burma8 0Theravada Buddhism (89%), Islam (4%), Christianity (Baptist and Roman Catholic) (4%), Animism (1%), Others (including Hinduism) (2%) India7981Hinduism (80.5%), Islam (13.4%), Christianity (2.3%), Sikhism (1.9%), Buddhism (0.8%), Jainism (0.4%), Others (0.6%) Maldives82Sunni Islam (100%) (One must be a Sunni Muslim to be a citizen on the Maldives8384) Nepal85Hinduism (80.6%), Buddhism (10.7%), Islam (4.2%), Kirat (1.5%) Pakistan86Islam (96.28%), Hinduism (1.85%), Christianity (1.59%), Ahmaddiyya (0.22%) Sri Lanka87Theravada Buddhism (70.19%), Hinduism (12.61%), ), Islam (9.71%), Christianity ( 7.45%). savingFurther information Economy of Bangladesh, Economy of India, Economy of Nepal, Economy of Pakistan, and Economy of Sri LankaSouth Asia is the poorest region on the earth after Sub-Saharan Africa. Three South Asian nations Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal are characterized as least developed country. Poverty is commonly spread within this region. According to the want data of World situate, more than 40% of the population in the region lived on less than the outside(a) Poverty Line of $1.25 per day in 2005, compared to 50% of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa.88Sri Lanka has the highest GDP per capita in the region, while Afghanistan has the lowest. India is the largest parsimoniousness in the region (US$ 1.90 trillion) and makes up almost 82% of the South Asian economy it is the worlds 11th largest in nominal name and 3rd largest by purchasing power adjusted counterchange rates. Pakistan has the next largest economy and the 5th highest GDP per capita in the region,89 followed by Bangladesh. According to a World Bank report in 2007, South Asia is the least integrated region in the world trade surrounded by South Asian states is only 2% of the regions combined GDP, compared to 20% in East Asia. The Economist has beatified this on Indian neglect of its neighbors.90 editGovernanceIndia91 and Pakistan9293 are the dominant political powers in the region. India is by far the largest country in the area covering around three-fourths the land area of the subcontinent.94 It also has the largest population of around three times the combined population of the 6 other countries in the subcontinent.95 India is also the most populous democracy in the world96 and is a nuclear power.The second largest country in the subcontinent in terms of area and population is Pakistan and has traditionally maintained the balance of power in the region due to its strategic relationships with nearby Arab states97 and neighboring China.98 Pakistan is the 6th99 most populous country in the world and is also a nuclear power. Bangladesh is the third largest populous country in the region. The single largest contributor to UN peacekeeping operations is Pakistan.100Diplomacy among the countries of South Asia has been mainly driven by populist politics, with the center stage taken by India-Pakistan conflict ever since their independence in 1947, and then the creat ion of Bangladesh nether tense circumstances in 1971. While the elite rulers of Pakistan chose the USA led bloc during the cold war era, India formed the Non-Aligned Movement.The political situation in Sri Lanka has been dominate by an increasingly assertive Sinhalese nationalism, and the emergence of a Tamil separatist movement under LTTE, which was suppressed recently. Burmas politics is dominated by a military Junta, which has sidelined the democratic forces led by Aung San Suu Kyi. editwellness and nutritionThere are 421 million MPI-poor people in eight Indian states alone Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and westward Bengal while there are 410 million in the 26 poorest African countries combined.101 Roughly 42% of Indian children under age 5 suffer from malnutrition.102According to the World Bank, 70% of the South Asian population and about 75% of South Asias poor live in rural areas and most rely on agriculture for their live lihood.103 According to the Global Hunger Index, South Asia has one of the highest child malnutrition rates in the world.104 In a latest report published by UNICEF in 2008 on global hunger shows that the authentic number of child deaths was around 2.1 million.105 As of 2008 India is ranked 66th on the global hunger index.citation neededThe 2006 report verbalize that the low status of women in South Asian countries and their lack of nutritional knowledge are authoritative determinants of high prevalence of underweight children in the region. Corruption and the lack of initiative on the part of the government has been one of the major problems associated with nutrition in India. Illiteracy in villages has been found to be one of the major issues that need more government attention. The report mentioned that, although there has been a reduction in malnutrition due to the fleeceable Revolution in South Asia, there is concern that South Asia has inadequate feeding and caring practices for newfangled children.106