Indian subcontinent

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This article is about the geographical location. For the larger geopolitical entity, see South Asia.

Template:Infobox continent

The Indian subcontinent, or simply the subcontinent, is a physiographical region in Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas. Geopolitically, it includes the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan,[lower-alpha 1] and Sri Lanka.[1][2][3][4] The terms Indian subcontinent and South Asia are often used interchangeably to denote the region, although the geopolitical term of South Asia frequently includes Afghanistan, which may otherwise be classified as Central Asian.[5] Sometimes, the British Indian Ocean Territory is also included. The United Nations geoscheme also includes Iran in Southern Asia, a geographical subregion.

Geologically, the Indian subcontinent is related to the landmass that rifted from the supercontinent of Gondwana during the Cretaceous and merged with the landmass of Eurasia nearly 55 million years ago.[6] Historically, as well as to the present day, it is and has been the most populated region in the world, holding roughly 20–25 percent of the global population at all times in history. Geographically, it is the peninsular region in South–Central Asia, delineated by the Himalayas in the north, the Hindu Kush in the west, and the Arakan in the east.[7] The neighbouring geographical regions around the subcontinent include the Tibetan Plateau to the north, the Indochinese Peninsula to the east, and the Iranian Plateau (or Greater Iran) to the west.

Name

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".[8][9] Its use to signify the Indian subcontinent is evidenced from the early twentieth century when most of the territory was part of British India,[10][11][12] as it was a convenient term to refer to the region comprising both British India and the princely states under British Paramountcy.[13][14]

Indian subcontinent as a term has been particularly common in the British Empire and its successors,[15] while the term South Asia is the more common usage in Europe and North America.[16][17] 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."[18] 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.[19] While South Asia, a more accurate term that reflects the region's contemporary political demarcations, is replacing the Indian subcontinent, a term closely linked to the region's colonial heritage, as a cover term, the latter is still widely used in typological studies.[20][21]

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 the Indian subcontinent as offensive and suspicious because of the dominant placement of India in the term. As such it is being increasingly less used in those countries. Meanwhile, many Indian analysts prefer to use the term because of the socio-cultural commonalities of the region.[22] The region has also been called the "Asian subcontinent",[23][24] the "South Asian subcontinent",[25][26][27] as well as "India" or "Greater India" in the classical and pre-modern sense.[5][28][29]

Geology

From left to right, rifting of the Indian subcontinent away from Gondwana at 150 million years ago (Ma), 120 Ma, 80 Ma and during the Paleocene.
Due to plate tectonics, the Indian Plate split from Madagascar and collided (c. 55 Mya) with the Eurasian Plate, resulting in the formation of the Himalayas.

The Indian subcontinent was formerly part of Gondwana, a supercontinent formed during the late Neoproterozoic and early Paleozoic.[6] Gondwana began to break up during the Mesozoic, with the Indian subcontinent separating from Antarctica 130-120 million years ago[30] and Madagascar around 90 million years ago.[31] during the Cretaceous. The Indian subcontinent subsequently drifted northeastwards, colliding with the Eurasian Plate nearly 55 million years ago, towards the end of Paleocene.[6] The zone where the Eurasian and Indian subcontinent plates meet remains geologically active, prone to major earthquakes.[32][33]

Physiographically, it is a peninsular region in south-central Asia delineated by the Himalayas in the north, the Hindu Kush in the west, and the Arakanese in the east.[7][34] It extends southward into the Indian Ocean with the Arabian Sea to the southwest and the Bay of Bengal to the southeast.[1][35] Most of this region rests on the Indian Plate and is isolated from the rest of Asia by large mountain barriers.[36] Laccadive Islands, Maldives and the Chagos Archipelago are three series of coral atolls, cays and Faroes on the Indian plate along with the Chagos–Laccadive Ridge, a submarine ridge that was generated by the northern drift of the Indian Plate over the Réunion hotspot during the Cretaceous and early Cenozoic times.[37][38][39] The Maldives archipelago rises from a basement of volcanic basalt outpourings from a depth of about 2000 m forming the central part of the ridge between Laccadives and the Great Chagos Bank.[39]

Geography

The Indus defines much of the ecosystem on the Indian subcontinent

According to anthropologist John R. Lukacs, "the Indian Subcontinent occupies the major landmass of South Asia."[40] According to historian B. N. Mukherjee, "The subcontinent is an indivisible geographical entity."[41] According to geographer Dudley Stamp, "there is perhaps no mainland part of the world better marked off by nature as a region or a 'realm' by itself than the Indian subcontinent."[42]

This natural physical landmass in South Asia is the dry-land portion of the Indian Plate, which has been relatively isolated from the rest of Eurasia.[43] The Himalayas (from Brahmaputra River in the east to Indus River in the west), Karakoram (from Indus River in the east to Yarkand River in the west) and the Hindu Kush mountains (from Yarkand River westwards) form its northern boundary.[41][44] In the west it is bounded by parts of the mountain ranges of Hindu Kush, Spīn Ghar (Safed Koh), Sulaiman Mountains, Kirthar Mountains, Brahui range, and Pab range among others,[41] with the Western Fold Belt along the border (between the Sulaiman Range and the Chaman Fault) is the western boundary of the Indian Plate,[45] where, along the Eastern Hindu Kush, lies the Afghanistan–Pakistan border.[46] In the east, it is bounded by Patkai, Naga, Lushai and Chin hills.[41] The Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea forms the boundary of the Indian subcontinent in the south, south-east and south-west.[41]

The rocky interiors of the Himalayas

Given the difficulty of passage through the Himalayas, the sociocultural, religious and political interaction of the Indian subcontinent has largely been through the valleys of Afghanistan in its northwest,[47] the valleys of Manipur in its east, and by maritime routes.[43] More difficult but historically important interaction has also occurred through passages pioneered by the Tibetans. These routes and interactions have led to the spread of Buddhism out of the Indian subcontinent into other parts of Asia. And the Islamic expansion arrived into the Indian subcontinent in two ways, through Afghanistan on land and to the Indian coast through the maritime routes on the Arabian Sea.[43]

Geopolitics

In terms of modern geopolitical boundaries, the Indian subcontinent constitutes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Pakistan, besides, by convention, the island country of Sri Lanka and other nearby island nations of the Indian Ocean, such as Maldives and the British Indian Ocean Territory.[2][3][48][49][50] According to Chris Brewster and Wolfgang Mayrhofer, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan constitute the Indian subcontinent. Brewster and Mayrhofer also maintain that with Afghanistan and Maldives included the region is referred to as South Asia.[51] The periphery of the subcontinent, including Pakistan, Bangladesh and the island chains of the Maldives, features large Muslim populations, while the heartland, including most of India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, are overwhelmingly Hindu or Buddhist.[52] Since most of these countries are located on the Indian Plate, a continuous landmass, the borders between countries are often either a river or a no man's land.[53]

The precise definition of an "Indian subcontinent" in a geopolitical context is somewhat contested as there is no globally accepted definition on which countries are a part of South Asia or the Indian subcontinent.[54][55][56][4] Whether called the Indian subcontinent or South Asia, the definition of the geographical extent of this region varies.[28][29] Afghanistan, despite often considered as a part of South Asia, is usually not included in the Indian subcontinent.[54] Even when some parts of Afghanistan are sometimes included in the Indian subcontinent as a boundary territory between Central Asia and northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent, the socio-religious history of Afghanistan is more closely related to Turkic-influenced Central Asia.[57][58] Maldives, an island country consisting of a small archipelago southwest of the peninsula, while largely considered a part of the Indian subcontinent,[3] sometimes is mentioned by sources, including the International Monetary Fund, as a group of islands away from the Indian subcontinent in a south-western direction.[59][60]

Notes

  1. ↑ Geographically, the subcontinent does not include western Pakistan (most of Balochistan and some parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) as they fall under the Iranian Plateau and not the Indian Plate.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Indian subcontinent". New Oxford Dictionary of English (ISBN 0-19-860441-6) New York: Oxford University Press, 2001; p. 929: "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. Historically forming the whole territory of Greater India, the region is now divided into three countries named Bangladesh, India and Pakistan."
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Dhavendra Kumar (2012). Genomics and Health in the Developing World. Oxford University Press. p. 889. ISBN 978-0-19-537475-9.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Mariam Pirbhai (2009). Mythologies of Migration, Vocabularies of Indenture: Novels of the South Asian Diaspora in Africa, the Caribbean, and Asia-Pacific. University of Toronto Press. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-8020-9964-8.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Michael Mann (2014). South Asia's Modern History: Thematic Perspectives. Taylor & Francis. pp. 13–15. ISBN 978-1-317-62445-5.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 John McLeod, The history of India, page 1, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002, ISBN 0-313-31459-4; note: McLeod does not include Afghanistan in Indian subcontinent or South Asia;
    Jim Norwine & Alfonso González, The Third World: states of mind and being, pages 209, Taylor & Francis, 1988, ISBN 0-04-910121-8 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, ISBN 0-19-856817-7; 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, ISBN 0-674-04979-9 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, ISBN 0-19-513798-1
    Sugata Bose & Ayesha Jalal, Modern South Asia, pages 3, Routledge, 2004, ISBN 0-415-30787-2
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Robert Wynn Jones (2011). Applications of Palaeontology: Techniques and Case Studies. Cambridge University Press. pp. 267–271. ISBN 978-1-139-49920-0.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Baker, Kathleen M.; Chapman, Graham P. (11 March 2002), The Changing Geography of Asia, Routledge, pp. 10–, ISBN 978-1-134-93384-6, This greater India is well defined in terms of topography; it is the Indian sub-continent, hemmed in by the Himalayas on the north, the Hindu Khush in the west and the Arakanese in the east.
  8. ↑ 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 | "
  9. ↑ Subcontinent, Oxford English Dictionaries (2012). Retrieved 6 December 2016; Quote: "A large distinguishable part of a continent..."
  10. ↑ McLeod, John (1 January 2002). The History of India. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780313314599 – via Google Books.
  11. ↑ Milton Walter Meyer, South Asia: A Short History of the Subcontinent, pages 1, Adams Littlefield, 1976, ISBN 0-8226-0034-X
  12. ↑ "Indian subcontinent" is used by Henry D. Baker, British India With Notes On Ceylon Afghanistan And Tibet (1915), p. 401.
  13. ↑ "subcontinent". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. Template:OEDsub
  14. ↑ "Indian subcontinent". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. Template:OEDsub
  15. ↑ Milton Walter Meyer, South Asia: A Short History of the Subcontinent, pages 1, Adams Littlefield, 1976, ISBN 0-8226-0034-X
    Jim Norwine & Alfonso González, The Third World: states of mind and being, pages 209, Taylor & Francis, 1988, ISBN 0-04-910121-8
    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, ISBN 0-7506-2050-1
    Raj S. Bhopal, Ethnicity, race, and health in multicultural societies, pages 33, Oxford University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-19-856817-7
    Lucian W. Pye & Mary W. Pye, Asian Power and Politics, pages 133, Harvard University Press, 1985, ISBN 0-674-04979-9
    Mark Juergensmeyer, The Oxford handbook of global religions, pages 465, Oxford University Press US, 2006, ISBN 0-19-513798-1
    Sugata Bose & Ayesha Jalal, Modern South Asia, pages 3, Routledge, 2004, ISBN 0-415-30787-2
  16. ↑ Judith Schott & Alix Henley, Culture, Religion, and Childbearing in a Multiracial Society, pages 274, Elsevier Health Sciences, 1996, ISBN 0750620501
  17. ↑ Raj S. Bhopal, Ethnicity, race, and health in multicultural societies, pages 33, Oxford University Press, 2007, ISBN 0198568177
  18. ↑ Sugata Bose & Ayesha Jalal, Modern South Asia, pages 3, Routledge, 2004, ISBN 0415307872
  19. ↑ Ronald B. Inden, Imagining India, page 51, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2000, ISBN 1850655200
  20. ↑ Tom McArthur, Oxford Guide to World English, page 309, Oxford University Press, 2003, ISBN 9780198607717
  21. ↑ Raymond Hickey (ed), Standards of English: Codified Varieties around the World, page 256, Cambridge University Press, 2012, ISBN 9781139851213
  22. ↑ B.H. Farmer, An Introduction to South Asia, page 1, Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1983, ISBN 9780416726008, "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, ISBN 9789041122148 "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, ISBN 9781134593224
    S K Shah, India and Its Neighbours: Renewed Threats and New Directions, page 26, Vij Books India Pvt Ltd, 2017, ISBN 9789386367501 "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."
  23. ↑ Lizzie Crouch and Paula McGrath, "Humanity's global battle with mosquitoes", Health check, BBC World Service
  24. ↑ K. Alan Kronstadt, Terrorist Attacks in Mumbai, India, and Implications for U. S. Interests, page 7, Diane Publishing, 2011, ISBN 9781437929539
  25. ↑ Aijazuddin Ahmad, Geography of the South Asian subcontinent: A Critical Approach, page 17, Concept Publishing Company, 2009, ISBN 9788180695681
  26. ↑ Ayesha Jalal, Partisans of Allah: Jihad in South Asia, page xiii, Harvard University Press, 2009, ISBN 9780674039070
  27. ↑ K. D. Kapur, Nuclear Non-proliferation Diplomacy: Nuclear Power Programmes in the Third World, page 365, Lancers Books, 1993, ISBN 9788170950363|Daya Nath Tripathi (ed), Discourse on Indo European Languages and Culture, page 193, Indian Council of Historical Research, 2005, ISBN 9788178271200
    Muhammad Akram Khan, What Is Wrong with Islamic Economics?: Analysing the Present State and Future Agenda, page 183, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013, ISBN 9781782544159
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby, Religions of South Asia: An Introduction, page 3, Routledge, 2006, ISBN 9781134593224
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Kathleen M. Baker and Graham P. Chapman, The Changing Geography of Asia, page 10, Routledge, 2002, ISBN 9781134933846
  30. ↑ Gaina, Carmen; Müller, R. Dietmar; Brown, Belinda; Ishihara, Takemi; Ivanov, Sergey (July 2007). "Breakup and early seafloor spreading between India and Antarctica". Geophysical Journal International. 170 (1): 151–169. Bibcode:2007GeoJI.170..151G. doi:10.1111/j.1365-246X.2007.03450.x.
  31. ↑ Torsvik, T.H.; Tucker, R.D.; Ashwal, L.D.; Carter, L.M.; Jamtveit, B.; Vidyadharan, K.T.; Venkataramana, P. (October 2000). "Late Cretaceous India-Madagascar fit and timing of break-up related magmatism". Terra Nova. 12 (5): 220–224. Bibcode:2000TeNov..12..220T. doi:10.1046/j.1365-3121.2000.00300.x. ISSN 0954-4879. S2CID 128896193.
  32. ↑ Bethany D. Rinard Hinga (2015). Ring of Fire: An Encyclopedia of the Pacific Rim's Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and Volcanoes. ABC-CLIO. pp. 89–90. ISBN 978-1-61069-297-7.
  33. ↑ Alexander E. Gates; David Ritchie (2006). Encyclopedia of Earthquakes and Volcanoes. Infobase. pp. 116–118. ISBN 978-0-8160-7270-5.
  34. ↑ Dhavendra Kumar (2012). Genomics and Health in the Developing World. Oxford University Press. pp. 889–890. ISBN 978-0-19-537475-9.
  35. ↑ John McLeod, The history of India, page 1, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002, ISBN 0-313-31459-4
  36. ↑ "Asia" > Geologic history – Tectonic framework. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2009: "The paleotectonic evolution of Asia terminated some 50 million years ago as a result of the collision of the Indian subcontinent with Eurasia. Asia's subsequent neotectonic development has largely disrupted the continents pre-existing fabric. The neotectonic units of Asia are Stable Asia, the Arabian and Indian cratons, the Alpide plate boundary zone (along which the Arabian and Indian platforms have collided with the Eurasian continental plate), and the island arcs and marginal basins."
  37. ↑ E. Bredow, R. Gassmöller, J. Dannberg and B. Steinberger, Geodynamic Models of Plume-Ridge Interaction in the Indian Ocean and its Effect on the Crustal Thickness of the Réunion Hotspot Track (abstract), Astrophysics Data System (ADS), Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
  38. ↑ T.R. McClanahan, C.R.C. Sheppard and D.O. Obura, Coral Reefs of the Indian Ocean: Their Ecology and Conservation, page 327, Oxford University Press, 2000, ISBN 9780195352177
  39. ↑ 39.0 39.1 Rudie H. Kuiter and Timothy Godfrey, Fishes of the Maldives – Indian Ocean, page 1, Atoll Editions, 2014, ISBN 9781876410971
  40. ↑ John R. Lukacs, The People of South Asia: the biological anthropology of India, Pakistan, and Nepal, page 59, Plenum Press, 1984, ISBN 9780306414077
  41. ↑ 41.0 41.1 41.2 41.3 41.4 Bratindra Nath Mukherjee, Nationhood and Statehood in India: A historical survey, page 4, Regency Publications, 2001, ISBN 9788187498261
  42. ↑ L. Dudley Stamp (1957). India, Pakistan, Ceylon and Burma. London: Methuen. p. 185. OCLC 213547929.
  43. ↑ 43.0 43.1 43.2 Asher, Catherine B.; Talbot, Cynthia (2006), India Before Europe, Cambridge University Press, pp. 5–8, 12–14, 51, 78–80, ISBN 978-0-521-80904-7
  44. ↑ Samiul Hasan, The Muslim World in the 21st Century: Space, Power, and Human Development, page 84, Springer Science & Business Media, 2012, ISBN 9789400726321
  45. ↑ S. Mukherjee, R. Carosi, P.A. van der Beek, B.K. Mukherjee and D.M. Robinson (ed.), Tectonics of the Himalaya, Geological Society of London, 2015, ISBN 9781862397033
  46. ↑ Vijay P. Singh, Pratap Singh and Umesh K. Haritashya, Encyclopedia of Snow, Ice and Glaciers, page 525, Springer Science & Business Media, 2011, ISBN 9789048126415
  47. ↑ John L. Esposito; Emad El-Din Shahin (2016). The Oxford Handbook of Islam and Politics. Oxford University Press. pp. 453–456. ISBN 978-0-19-063193-2.
  48. ↑ Dhavendra Kumar (2012). Genomics and Health in the Developing World. Oxford University Press. p. 889. ISBN 978-0-19-537475-9. Archived from the original on 21 February 2018. Retrieved 9 December 2016. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and other small islands of the Indian Ocean
  49. ↑ John McLeod, The history of India, page 1, Greenwood Publishing fGroup, 2002, ISBN 0-313-31459-4
    Stephen Adolphe Wurm, Peter Mühlhäusler & Darrell T. Tryon, Atlas of languages of intercultural communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, pages 787, International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies, Published by Walter de Gruyter, 1996, ISBN 3-11-013417-9
    Haggett, Peter (2001). Encyclopedia of World Geography (Vol. 1). Marshall Cavendish. p. 2710. ISBN 0-7614-7289-4.
  50. ↑ "the Indian Subcontinent occupies the major landmass of South Asia" John R. Lukacs, The People of South Asia: the biological anthropology of India, Pakistan, and Nepal, page 59, Plenum Press, 1984, ISBN 9780306414077. "the seven countries of South Asia constitute geographically a compact region around the Indian Subcontinent".
    Tatu Vanhanen, Prospects of Democracy: A Study of 172 Countries, page 144, Routledge, 1997, ISBN 9780415144063
  51. ↑ Chris Brewster and Wolfgang Mayrhofer, Handbook of Research on Comparative Human Resource Management, page 576, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012, ISBN 9780857938718
  52. ↑ Salma K. Jayyusi, Renata Holod, Attilio Petruccioli and Andre Raymond, The City in the Islamic World, page 198, BRILL, 2008, ISBN 9789004162402
  53. ↑ Chandra K. Sharma, Geology of Nepal Himalaya and Adjacent Countries, page 14, Sangeeta Sharma Books, 1990, ASIN B0006EWSCI
  54. ↑ 54.0 54.1 Ewan W. Anderson; Liam D. Anderson (4 December 2013). An Atlas of Middle Eastern Affairs. Routledge. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-136-64862-5., Quote: "To the east, Iran, as a Gulf state, offers a generally accepted limit to the Middle East. However, Afghanistan, also a Muslim state, is then left in isolation. It is not accepted as a part of Central Asia and it is clearly not part of the Indian subcontinent".
  55. ↑ Jona Razzaque (2004). Public Interest Environmental Litigation in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Kluwer Law International. pp. 3 with footnotes 1 and 2. ISBN 978-90-411-2214-8.
  56. ↑ Akhilesh Pillalamarri, South Asia or India: An Old Debate Resurfaces in California, The Diplomat, 24 May 2016;
    Ahmed, Mukhtar (2014), Ancient Pakistan – An Archaeological History: Volume II: A Prelude to Civilization, Foursome, p. 14, ISBN 978-1-4959-4130-6
  57. ↑ Ira M. Lapidus (2014). A History of Islamic Societies. Cambridge University Press. pp. 269, 698–699. ISBN 978-0-521-51430-9.
  58. ↑ Louis D Hayes (2014). The Islamic State in the Post-Modern World: The Political Experience of Pakistan. Ashgate. pp. 55–56. ISBN 978-1-4724-1262-1.;
    Robert Wuthnow (2013). The Encyclopedia of Politics and Religion. Routledge. pp. 11–. ISBN 978-1-136-28493-9.
  59. ↑ Ludwig Paul, Persian Origins, page 31, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 2003, ISBN 9783447047319, "Maldive Islands which are scattered about the sea south-west of the Indian subcontinent, extending over more than 1,000km in a north-south direction."
  60. ↑ Legal Department, International Monetary Fund, Maldives: Detailed Assessment Report on Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism, page 15, International Monetary Fund, 2012, ISBN 9781463979676, "[Maldives] is the smallest Asian country in both population and land area. Its closest neighbors to the north are India's Laccadive Islands. To the northeast is the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka. To the south it borders the British Indian Occan Territory. About 2.600 kilometers (1,600 miles) further east, across the Indian Ocean, is Malaysia. To the west, the Horn of Africa is approximatcly 3,000 kilometers (1,300 miles) away."

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