This document provides an overview of South Asia, including its physical geography, climate, population patterns, religions, colonial history, and current economic and social challenges. It describes the region's monsoon climate, concentration of population in the Indo-Gangetic plain, cultural diversity resulting from historical migrations, impacts of British colonial rule, issues of poverty, rural-urban migration, and environmental concerns around water scarcity and pollution. Key countries discussed include India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.

1. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Chapter 9 Lecture
World Regional
Geography
A Developmental Approach
11th Edition
South Asia

2. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Chapter Learning Outcomes
• Describe the climate characteristics that explain the influence of wet
and dry monsoons.
• Identify the region’s primary environmental and energy challenges.
• Explain how historical movements of peoples and cultures resulted in
South Asia’s current cultural conflicts.
• Link British colonial rule to the current economic contours of South Asia.
• Identify social and economic forces that reinforce gender inequality
in India.
• Describe how the process of globalization affects the lives of India’s
poor rural population.
• Compare India’s urban-industrial regions and link their development to
globalization and the government’s economic policies since 1990.
• Contrast the political and economic constraints to greater levels
of economic development in Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and
Sri Lanka.

3. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Map

4. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
South Asia’s Physical & Human Contexts
• Monsoon climate
• Flat topography with elevated features on its edge
• Hinduism
• Islam introduced through invasions
• Transformation through British imperialism
• Post-World War II independence
• Annual precipitation levels increase west to east
• Much of Indus plain is arid.
• Humid Bangladesh characterized by semideciduous and tropical
rainforest vegetation
• Water supply is seasonal.
• Summer or west monsoon provides 85 percent of annual rainfall
totals.

5. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Population Distribution of South Asia

6. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Summer Rainfall Amounts

7. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Winter Rainfall Amounts

8. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
South Asia Religions

9. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Mountains and Monsoons
• Monsoon climate
• Different climate in each of the three
subregions of Asia
• Mountain-induced orographic precipitation
• Late southwestern monsoon season
sometimes includes cyclones.
• Landforms
– Indo-Gangetic Plain
– Deccan Plateau (Southern India)

10. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Environmental Challenges
• Air pollution is the most serious atmospheric
environmental problem, particularly across
the northern part of the region.
• Sustainable water is the most serious
challenge to economic and social
development.
• India’s thirst for power generation has
initiated plans for a number of upstream dam
projects to generate hydroelectric power.

11. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Indo-Gangetic Plain
• Annual precipitation levels increase west
to east.
• Much of Indus plain is arid.
• Humid Bangladesh characterized by
semideciduous and tropical rainforest
vegetation
• Water supply is seasonal.
• Summer or west monsoon provides 85%
of annual rainfall totals.

12. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Precolonial Heritage
• Greater cultural diversity than China
• Subjected to numerous external influences
from the west
• Early civilizations in Indus River region
• 2000 BC—Aryans invasion produced a
mixed Indo-Aryan civilization.
• Indo-Aryans introduced Hinduism and the
caste system.

13. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Spread of Islam
• Most powerful of all Islamic empires was
Mughal Empire—sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries.
• Lahore became one of the most celebrated
Islamic cities of the world.
• Islam especially attractive to untouchables and
Hindus of lower caste
• Rejection of caste system produced the
blended Hindu and Islamic religion of Sikhism.
• Islam was highly doctrinaire and closely
associated with a nomadic conquering culture.

14. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Colonial Transformation
• Early British influence
– British East India Company
– Indirectly came to control up to two-thirds of
country
– Replaced native administration
– Took actions to decimate textile industry in
nineteenth century
• By 1900s, South Asia was a total colonial
possession.
– Economic contours totally altered
– Industrial development slow-paced

15. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
The British Empire in India

16. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
South Asia Languages

17. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
India Population
• More than one billion people
• Second most populous country in the world
• Population growth rate double that of China
• Quadrupled in past 85 years
• Three-fourths live in rural villages
• Changing age structure
• Growth rates vary between ethnic, religious, and caste
groups.
• In general, Hindus have fewer children than Muslims.
• Unequal gender relationships
• Heading toward stage three of demographic
transformation model

18. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Population Growth of India

19. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Political Units of India

20. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
India Diversity
• Created as a secular state
• Religion has become a predominant
political issue relating to castes.
• Rise of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
– Conservative
– Hindu-based
• Federalism as a political structure
• Hindi—Official language and most
widely spoken

21. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Casteism
• The caste system has been questioned for
centuries, although seriously contesting the
unfair nature of casteism first began under
British rule by both Christian missionaries and
concerned upper-caste Indians.
• Despite laws against discrimination by caste, the
institution remains pervasive, particularly in rural
areas where scheduled castes experience
residential and educational segregation, lack
access to public water wells, and are barred
from entering certain Hindu temples.

22. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Agricultural Regions of India

23. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Agricultural Development in India
• 62 percent of population engaged in some form of
agricultural pursuits.
• 65 percent in rural villages and small towns
• Spatial distribution determined by availability of
water.
• Heavy reliance on livestock
• Various dairy products
• Cattle are primary source of power for plowing and
short-distance transport.

24. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Agricultural Development in India
• Sources of rural poverty are many.
– Lack of health access and other social services
– Lack of meaningful land reform
– Average size of household plot is 6.5 acres.
– Negative impact of Green Revolution
– Negative impact of government economic policies
– Technology impact
– Hasn’t solved problems
– Has exacerbated economic inequalities

25. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Primary Mineral and Industrial Regions of
South Asia

26. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
India’s Industrial Economy
• Strong railroad system
• Strong industrial resource base
• Fossil fuels can adequately power the industrial
base.
• Iron ore counts for 6 percent of world production
and 5 percent of world reserves.
• Government has constructed hydroelectric
facilities to make up for shortages in commercial
energy.
• Carefully planned economy by government

27. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
India’s Industrial Regions
• Diversified industrial sector is emerging—Damodar Valley
• Mumbai is the second most important industrial region.
– Cotton textile manufacturing
– Automobile production
– Aircraft
– Pharmaceuticals
– Plastics
– Chemicals
• Bangalore—“Silicon Valley of India”
– Texas Instruments
– IBM
– Compaq
– Other computer software firms

28. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Urban India, 1901–2011

29. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Urban India
• Stark contrasts between urban and rural world
• Prosperity gap has widened in the postindustrial economy.
• Greater levels of rural-to-urban migration
• Stream of urban migrants has exceeded urban employment opportunities.
• Urbanization levels low into the mid-twentieth century
• Growth indicators
– Rural-to-urban migration
– Natural increase of urban population
• Most population growth in large cities
• Thirty-five cities with more than 1 million population
• Some are megacities, but not “world cities”
– Delhi—17.3 million
– Mumbai—17.3 million
– Kolkata—14.3 million
– Insufficient finance, transport, and telecommunications

30. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
India’s Urban Poor
• First- and second-generation rural-to-urban
migrants see the city as a place for greater
economic opportunity.
• Lack of adequate income to secure durable
housing
• Some in substandard housing
• Bustec— “Village in a city”
– Squatter dwellings
– Dirt floors
– Electricity, sewage, and water rare

31. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Pakistan
• Created in 1947
• 96 percent Islamic
• A west and east formed
– West—Closer to the West
– East—Closer to southeast Asia
– Tenuous from the beginning
– East gained independence in 1971 (renamed Bangladesh).
• Tensions with India
– Jammu and Kashmir
– Joint nuclear ambitions
• Post-9/11/2001 relationship with United States in al Qaeda fight
• Continues to rank as one of the world’s poorest countries
• One of the larger debtor nations
• Agriculture based on wheat, rice, leather products, and carpets
• Located in transitional location between Islamic Middle East and Hindu India
• “Dysfunctional country with little evidence of a civil society”

32. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Nepal
• Landlocked country
• Physical and cultural transition between Tibet in north and
India to south
• Most populated part is central foothills—Kathmandu Valley
• Worldwide success in marketing its natural and cultural
heritage
– Adventure tourism
– Tourism industry creates substantial domestic employment
opportunities.
• 90 percent involved in subsistence agriculture
• Exacerbated demands on women in economy

33. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Bangladesh
• Formerly East Pakistan after 1971 civil war
• Great cyclone in 1971 resulted in a sharply
reduced agriculture economy.
• Economy rests almost completely on
agriculture.
• Poorly developed industrial economy
• Relatively stable government
• Child labor is widespread.
• Half the rural population is landless.
• High illiteracy

34. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Land Utilization in Bangladesh

35. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Sri Lanka

36. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Sri Lanka
• 20 million population
– 74 percent Singhalese
– Tamil-speaking Hindus for the rest
– Cultural conflict
• Gained independence from British in 1948
• Changed name from Ceylon in 1972
• Government programs have significantly improved life.
• Some social indicators on par with developed
countries
• Exports count for about one-third of the economy.

37. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Summary of Chapter
• South Asia is one of the most culturally diverse in terms of religion, ethnicity,
and language, all of which are a byproduct of centuries of migration into
the region.
• Relatively high population growth rates hamper economic and social
development, but are not the cause of poverty.
• The absence of economic opportunities in agriculture has led to substantial
rural-to-urban migration and this movement in part explains the growth of some
of the largest urban regions in the world.
• In India, the unequal spread of the benefits of globalization only exacerbates
these income inequalities as capital-intensive information industries rather than
more traditional and labor-intensive, export-based consumer product industries
have captured the overwhelming attention of state and national governments.
• Equally critical to development growth is the future state of South Asia’s
environment. In part explained by the rapid growth of population, South Asia’s
dwindling water resources pose serious problems to agricultural and industrial
development.