Block 1-South Asia: An Introduction, Unit 1-South Asia as Region

Abstract

South Asia as a region, exemplifies the classical definition of what constitutes a region. As per the conventional interpretation, a region refers to a landmass consisting of several nation states, which are bound together by a common or contiguous geography, connected through historical and civilizational linkages, overlapping linguistic and cultural identity and institutionalized form of a regional cooperation mechanism. Such a region has the capacity to show itself as distinct from other regions and does not preclude the existence of sub-regions within. Not only has South Asia had contiguous and common geographical characteristics that have shaped its internal and external political geography, overlapping of different ethnic, linguistic and cultural identities have made modern South Asia what it is. Constituted of countries including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, India,Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, while the region is weak in its institutionalized cooperative linkages, the nations by and large stand at similar levels of human development and economic growth indicators. While earlier the region was known more as 'Indian subcontinent' in the colonial context or 'Southern Asia' implying region to the south of Asia, it got its current usage at a much later date. The term 'South Asia' in terms of its academic genesis lies in area study departments developed in the west (primarily US) to study Indic thought and culture as well as connotation by the US state department of regions based on their strategic calculations. However now, the term is routinely used as a sub-regional entity in multilateral institutions (IMF, World Bank, WTO, UN etc.) and got further formalized with the creation of South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC).