The History Book Club discussion
HISTORY OF SOUTHERN ASIA
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HISTORY OF SOUTHERN ASIA -INTRODUCTION
Here is a recent release covering some military aspects to this area:
by John PemblePublishers blurb:
The British love affair with the Gurkhas began during the early nineteenth century clash of the expanding English East India Company and Nepalese hillmen.
The remarkable fighting abilities of the Nepalese contrasted against the most incredible British ineptitude. But on both sides, the war was harder fought than either the Afghan War or even the struggle with the Sikhs. And on both sides, the most colourful characters were involved - such as the drinker, dicer, duellist Rollo Gillespie or the legendary Gurkha hero Bhakti Thapa.
In the end, the British wrested key hill tracts from the Gurkhas. As Sir David Ochterlony - perhaps the only figure who saved the British reputation - was poised to attack Kathmandu, the Gurkhas prudently made peace which maintained their kingdom as an independent state.
John Pemble's account is a comprehensive history of the conflict, detailing the origins of the war, the consequences of strategic errors, and the enduring impact of the final victory. Even before the campaign had finished, the nucleus of the Gurkha Bridgade had joined the East India Company's Forces.
This is a thrilling telling of a little-known war. John Pemble has fully authenticated his work from original sources and on-the-spot research, all presented in a lively, engaging style.
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Thank you for the add.
Here is a book I picked up today and it looks very interesting:
by Fergus NicollDescription:
Shah Jahan was the ruler of the Mughal empire, his name translating literally from the Persian as ‘King of the World’. After ruthlessly suppressing his rivals, he went on to promote Mughal artistic and architectural achievements to the zenith of their creativity. He is responsible not only for the Taj Mahal - the tomb to his beloved wife Mumtaz - but also for the Pearl Mosque, the Red Fort, Jama Masid in Delhi, the Shalimar Gardens of Kashmir and the priceless Peacock Throne.
Review:
"But his [Nicoll's] real claim to novelty is in providing the first book-length study of this remarkable emperor since R. N. Saksena in 1932, and doing so in manner which deserves to bring a new following to Mungal history." - Francis Robinson (TLS)
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However, please be mindful that we have a standard for citations: always the book cover (which you have done, thank you), then the author's photo if available, and always the author's link which is the author's name in linkable text.
Your citation should look like this: (all three were available)
by
Sun Tzu
This has some military bent to it, but it sounds good:Arc of Empire: America's Wars in Asia from the Philippines to Vietnam
Synopsis
Although conventionally treated as separate, America's four wars in Asia were actually phases in a sustained U.S. bid for regional dominance, according to Michael H. Hunt and Steven I. Levine. This effort unfolded as an imperial project in which military power and the imposition of America's political will were crucial. Devoting equal attention to Asian and American perspectives, the authors follow the long arc of conflict across seventy-five years from the Philippines through Japan and Korea to Vietnam, tracing along the way American ambition, ascendance, and ultimate defeat. They show how these wars are etched deeply in eastern Asia's politics and culture.
The authors encourage readers to confront the imperial pattern in U.S. history with implications for today's Middle Eastern conflicts. They also offer a deeper understanding of China's rise and Asia's place in today's world.
I know nothing about this part of the world but am intrigued. The Cage: The Fight for Sri Lanka & the Last Days of the Tamil Tigers
by Gordon WeissSynopsis
“An excellent account . . . scrupulously fair.”—Economist
“This powerful book is a haunting reminder of the price countries in the developing world pay for the flawed choices of their founders.” —Wall Street Journal
“The Cage is a tightly-written and clear-eyed narrative about one of the most disturbing human dramas of recent years. . . . a riveting, cautionary tale about the consequences of unchecked political power in a country at war. A must-read.” —JON LEE ANDERSON, New Yorker staff writer and author of The Fall of Baghdad
“This shattering, heartbreaking tale of savagery and suffering not only lifts the veil that conceals one of the most awful tragedies of the current era, but also helps us understand what should be done, not just in this sad and beautiful land, but long before other such horrors spiral out of control.” —NOAM CHOMSKY, Institute Professor & Professor of Linguistics, MIT, and author of Hopes and Prospects
In the closing days of the thirty-year Sri Lankan civil war, tens of thousands of civilians were killed, according to UN estimates, as government forces hemmed in the last remaining Tamil Tiger rebels on a tiny sand spit, dubbed “The Cage.” Gordon Weiss, a journalist and UN spokesperson in Sri Lanka during the final years of the war, pulls back the curtain of government misinformation to tell the full story for the first time. Tracing the role of foreign influence as it converged with a history of radical Buddhism and ethnic conflict, The Cage is a harrowing portrait of an island paradise torn apart by war and the root causes and catastrophic consequences of a revolutionary uprising caught in the crossfire of international power jockeying.
Gordon Weiss has lived in New York and worked in numerous conflict and natural disaster zones including Bosnia, Afghanistan, Darfur, and Haiti. Employed by the United Nations for over twelve years, he is now a visiting scholar at Sydney University and a correspondent for Australia’s Global Mail, where he continues his investigative reporting on Sri Lanka.
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Bangladesh has had a rather sad history, beginning as East Pakistan and struggling to find its identity as an independent nation in spite of poverty and starvation.A History of Bangladesh
by Willem Van Schendel (no photo)Synopsis:
Bangladesh is a new name for an old land whose history is little known to the wider world. A country chiefly famous in the West for media images of poverty, underdevelopment, and natural disasters, Bangladesh did not exist as an independent state until 1971. Willem van Schendel's history reveals the country's vibrant, colourful past and its diverse culture as it navigates the extraordinary twists and turns that have created modern Bangladesh. The story begins with the early geological history of the delta which has decisively shaped Bangladesh society. The narrative then moves chronologically through the era of colonial rule, the partition of Bengal, the war with Pakistan and the birth of Bangladesh as an independent state. In so doing, it reveals the forces that have made Bangladesh what it is today. This is an eloquent introduction to a fascinating country and its resilient and inventive people.
Quite a diverse region!It includes the most densely populated countries in the world (at least, if you exclude tiny city states and islands) and one of the least. Per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_... Bangladesh has 2678 people per square mile while Bhutan has 50.
It includes a stable (well, fairly stable) democracy (India), some very unstable democracies, some states that are emerging into democracy, and some dictatorships.
And I haven't added it up, but I think it includes about 1/4 of the world's population
I did not realize that it was that heavily populated. I can still remember those pictures of starving children but it appears that it has stabilized somewhat. No matter what country it is, there is always a period of total confusion when one becomes independent. I remember Quebec voting on independence and suddenly realizing what it involved.........not an easy process.
Here is a blog I've started about my recent travels to northern areas of Pakistan on a motor bike. Came across some amazing landscapes n historical places. Sharing it for all. Have a lookhttp://travelcrazypakistan.blogspot.com
The mostly unknown land of Tibet is beautifully described in this history by an author who loves the country.Tibet, Tibet: A Personal History of a Lost Land
by
Patrick FrenchSynopsis:
At different times in its history Tibet has been renowned for pacifism and martial prowess, enlightenment and cruelty. The Dalai Lama may be the only religious leader who can inspire the devotion of agnostics. Patrick French has been fascinated by Tibet since he was a teenager. He has read its history, agitated for its freedom, and risked arrest to travel through its remote interior. His love and knowledge inform every page of this learned, literate, and impassioned book.
Talking with nomads and Buddhist nuns, exiles and collaborators, French portrays a nation demoralized by a half-century of Chinese occupation and forced to depend on the patronage of Western dilettantes. He demolishes many of the myths accruing to Tibet–including those centering around the radiant figure of the Dalai Lama. Combining the best of history, travel writing, and memoir, Tibet, Tibet is a work of extraordinary power and insight.
Written by the grandson of the late UN Secretary General U Thant, this book adds a personal touch to the history of Burma as experienced by his family.The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma
by
Thant Myint-USynopsis:
For nearly two decades Western governments and a growing activist community have been frustrated in their attempts to bring about a freer and more democratic Burma--through sanctions and tourist boycotts--only to see an apparent slide toward even harsher dictatorship. But what do we really know about Burma and its history? And what can Burma's past tell us about the present and even its future?
In "The River of Lost Footsteps," Thant Myint-U tells the story of modern Burma, in part through a telling of his own family's history, in an interwoven narrative that is by turns lyrical, dramatic, and appalling. His maternal grandfather, U Thant, rose from being the schoolmaster of a small town in the Irrawaddy Delta to become the UN secretary-general in the 1960s. And on his father's side, the author is descended from a long line of courtiers who served at Burma's Court of Ava for nearly two centuries. Through their stories and others, he portrays Burma's rise and decline in the modern world, from the time of Portuguese pirates and renegade Mughal princes through the decades of British colonialism, the devastation of World War II, and a sixty-year civil war that continues today and is the longest-running war anywhere in the world.
"The River of Lost Footsteps" is a work both personal and global, a distinctive contribution that makes Burma accessible and enthralling.
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by
John KeaySynopsis:
Dispersed across India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, Midnight’s Descendants—the generations born since the 1947 midnight hour partition of British India—are the world’s fastest growing population. This vast region and its peoples wield an enormous influence over global economics and geopolitics, yet their impact is too often simplified by accounts that focus solely on one nation and ignore the intricate web of affiliations that shape relations among British India’s successor states. Now, in Midnight Descendants, celebrated historian John Keay presents the first comprehensive history of this complex and interconnected region, delving deep into the events that have shaped its past and continue to guide its future.
The 1947 partition was devastating to the larger of the newly created states, and it continues to haunt them to this day. Joined by their common origin and the fear of further partition, the five key nations of South Asia have progressed in tandem to a large degree. These countries have been forced to grapple with common challenges, from undeveloped economies and fractured societies to foreign interventions and the fraught legacy of imperialism, leaving them irrevocably intertwined. Combining authoritative historical analysis with vivid reportage, Keay masterfully charts South Asia’s winding path toward modernization and democratization over the past sixty years. Along the way, he unravels the volatile India-Pakistan relationship; the rise of religious fundamentalism; the wars that raged in Kashmir and Sri Lanka; and the fortunes of millions of South Asia migrants dispersed throughout the world, creating a full and nuanced understanding of this dynamic region.
Expansive and dramatic, Midnight’s Descendants is a sweeping narrative of South Asia’s recent history, from the aftermath of the 1947 partition to the region’s present-day efforts to transcend its turbulent past and assume its rightful role in global politics.
British Indian Ocean Territory
The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) or Chagos Islands is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean halfway between Tanzania and Indonesia. The territory comprises the six atolls of the Chagos Archipelago with over 1,000 individual islands – many tiny – amounting to a total land area of 60 square kilometres (23 sq mi).
The largest island is Diego Garcia, 44 km2 (17 sq mi), the site of a joint military facility of the United Kingdom and the United States. Following the eviction of the native population (Chagossians) in the 1960s, the only inhabitants are US and British military personnel and associated contractors, who collectively number around 4,000 (2004 figures).
Mauritius sought to regain sovereignty, lost to the UK in 1965, over the Chagos Archipelago. Between 1968 and 1973, the Chagossians, then numbering about 2,000 people, were expelled by the British government to Mauritius and Seychelles to allow the United States to establish a military base on the island. Today, the exiled Chagossians are still trying to return, claiming that the forced expulsion and dispossession was illegal
I am searching for good, objective (if that's possible) biography of Zulfikhar Ali Bhutto. Can anyone give me some recommendations ?
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Libby. Thanks so much for your suggestions. I am fairly fascinated by Pakistani politics which I think makes it essential to learn more about Bhutto. I will be starting with just his biography for now though. Also I have read Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within. Its dry but very informative if you are interested.
It seems to me that any list of current history of South Asia, especially Pakistan and Afghanistan, has got to include the work of Ahmed Rashid, for several reasons.1) He has access to the players that no other reporter on Spaceship Earth can claim.
2) He writes directly. Where the bulk of writing by western journalists is anecdotal in an attempt to appeal to readers, it's straight up with Rashid. No wading through hundreds of pages on how people's intestines felt when they found out about events.
3) He's from the area and knows it like no interloper can.
by
Ahmed Rashid
Also top-drawer worthy is Peter Hopkirk's work, especially The Great Game, the first history of the region I read at the behest of a friend who'd worked in the state department. It's not only good history of the 19th century dynamics underlying current events, but at times the exploits of the intelligence officers puts Ian Flemming's James Bond to shame.
by
Peter Hopkirk
by
SYNOPSIS
Intrigue and subterfuge combine with bad luck and good in this darkly comic debut about love, betrayal, tyranny, family, and a conspiracy trying its damnedest to happen.
Ali Shigri, Pakistan Air Force pilot and Silent Drill Commander of the Fury Squadron, is on a mission to avenge his father's suspicious death, which the government calls a suicide. Ali's target is none other than General Zia ul-Haq, dictator of Pakistan. Enlisting a rag-tag group of conspirators, including his cologne-bathed roommate, a hash-smoking American lieutenant, and a mango-besotted crow, Ali sets his elaborate plan in motion. There's only one problem: the line of would-be Zia assassins is longer than he could have possibly known.
Although this is a novel, it's excellent. I've seen it recommended as an essential read about Pakistan (I think that was in an article in New York Review of Books, but I'm not certain).
Of the several single volume histories of India that I've read, I have found John Keay's India to be the best, if for no other reason he demonstrates how India as we know it today never existed until the modern era. In great detail for a single volume, he describes the various migrations and conquests by tribes, principalities, and Muslim conquers that lead up to India as we understand it today.
by
John Keay
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Did you mean to add a Harry Potter book cover - last time I checked that was not shot in Pakistan and was not the location of the events. (smile).
If you get that fixed and add the author's photo which you may have and the author's link then I can work with you to get it right.
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Libby wrote: "Peter wrote: " by SYNOPSIS
Intrigue and subterfuge combine with bad luck and good in this darkly comic debut a..."
Yes. To the extent that nything is planned or engineered in that country (at least as portrayed in the novel).
Libby wrote: "Peter wrote: "Libby wrote: "Peter wrote: " by SYNOPSIS
Intrigue and subterfuge combine with bad luck and good ..."
I have not seen Bhutto
Some really good recommendations, Martin and Peter. Thanks.
Libby - thanks for catching the errant title. A little to chaotic with so many books with the same title. Rashid's wasn't even on the first page of books entitled Descent Into Chaos.I'd forgotten about the exploding mangoes. I've been meaning to read that one.
Explosions, mangoes what's not to like?
In addition to previously mentioned access to leaders in the region, he has some interesting insights into Dick Cheney's contributions to armed conflict policy in the area.
A site with colorful murals in India that I discovered while participating in the India challenge.http://sobadsogood.com/2013/07/26/bol...
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by Hamish McDonald (no photo)Synopsis:
Indonesia, a nation of thousands of islands and almost 250 million people, straddles the junction of the Pacific and Indian oceans. Current President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has presided over 6 per cent average yearly growth of its economy, to surpass $1 trillion. If this rate continues, Indonesia will join the world’s ten biggest economies in a decade or so, just behind the so-called BRIC countries. The much-discussed recent documentary The Act of Killing revived some of its darker past, and Barack Obama’s reminiscences about the childhood years he spent there briefly shone the spotlight on a country many Americans know little about. Yet as Indonesia approaches its 2014 parliamentary and presidential elections, its future is wide open. Though the largest Muslim nation by population, it remains a receiver of wisdom from the Arab world, rather than a messenger of multi-religious tolerance. Its pursuit of trade agreements with Japan and South Korea have burnished its economic ambitions, but its diplomacy is long on so-called “soft power,” and short on sanctions or force.
So what does the future hold for this pivotal place? Award-winning Asia-Pacific journalist Hamish McDonald’s Demokrasi is an accessible and authoritative introduction to the modern history and politics of this fascinating country.
Gary J. Bass (no photo)SYNOPSIS
A riveting history--the first full account--of the involvement of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger in the 1971 atrocities in Bangladesh that led to war between India and Pakistan, shaped the fate of Asia, and left in its wake a host of major strategic consequences for the world today.
Drawing on recently declassified documents, unheard White House tapes, and investigative reporting, Gary Bass gives us an unprecedented chronicle of a crucial but little-known chapter of the Cold War. He shows how Nixon and Kissinger supported Pakistan's military dictatorship as it brutally quashed the results of a historic free election. The Pakistani army launched a crackdown on what was then East Pakistan (today an independent Bangladesh), killing hundreds of thousands of people, and sending ten million refugees fleeing into India--one of the worst humanitarian crises of the twentieth century. It soon sparked a major war. But Nixon and Kissinger remained untroubled by Pakistan's massacres, secretly encouraged China to mass troops on the Indian border, and illegally supplied weapons to the Pakistani military--an unknown scandal that presages Watergate. And Bass makes clear how the United States's embrace of the military dictatorship in Islamabad would affect geopolitics for decades. A revelatory, compulsively readable work of essential recent history.
.....
I reviewed this book in my "50 books" page but, briefly, I concur. This is a great book.
This memoir of an American who chose to live in isolated and mysterious Bhutan gives the reader an armchair traveler's view of a country that is basically unknown to the outside world.Married to Bhutan
by
Linda LeamingSynopsis:
Tucked away in the eastern end of the Himalayas lies Bhutan—a tiny, landlocked country bordering China and India. Impossibly remote and nearly inaccessible, Bhutan is rich in natural beauty, exotic plants and animals, and crazy wisdom. It is a place where people are genuinely content with very few material possessions and the government embraces “Gross National Happiness” instead of Gross National Product.
In this funny, magical memoir, we accompany Linda Leaming on her travels through South Asia, sharing her experiences as she learns the language, customs, and religion; her surprising romance with a Buddhist artist; and her realizations about the unexpected path to happiness and accidental enlightenment.
As one of the few Americans to have lived in Bhutan, Leaming offers a rare glimpse into the quirky mountain kingdom so many have only dreamed of. For over ten years, Leaming has lived and worked in the town of Thimphu, where there are no traffic lights and fewer than 100,000 people. “If enlightenment is possible anywhere,” she writes, “I think it is particularly possible here.”
The Bhutanese way of life can seem daunting to most Westerners, whose lives are consumed with time, efficiency, and acquiring things. But Leaming shows us that we don’t necessarily have to travel around the world to appreciate a little Bhutan in our own lives, and that following our dreams is the way to be truly happy.
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Release date: April 28, 2015
Great Game East: India, China, and the Struggle for Asia's Most Volatile Frontier
by Bertil Lintner (no photo)Synopsis:
Since the 1950s, China and India have been locked in a monumental battle for geopolitical supremacy. Chinese interest in the ethnic insurgencies in northeastern India, the still unresolved issue of the McMahon Line, the border established by the British imperial government, and competition for strategic access to the Indian Ocean have given rise to tense gamesmanship, political intrigue, and rivalry between the two Asian giants.
Former Far Eastern Economic Review correspondent Bertil Lintner has drawn from his extensive personal interviews with insurgency leaders and civilians in remote tribal areas in northeastern India, newly declassified intelligence reports, and his many years of firsthand experience in Asia to chronicle this ongoing struggle. His history of the “Great Game East” is the first significant account of a regional conflict which has led to open warfare on several occasions, most notably the Sino-India border war of 1962, and will have a major impact on global affairs in the decades ahead.
A truly fascinating subject.Sikkim: Requiem for a Himalayan Kingdom
by
Andrew DuffSynopsis
This is the true story of Sikkim, a tiny Buddhist kingdom in the Himalayas that survived the end of the British Empire only to be annexed by India in 1975.
It tells the remarkable story of Thondup, the last King of Sikkim, and his American wife Hope Cooke, thrust unwittingly into the spotlight as they sought support for Sikkim's independence after their 'fairytale' wedding in 1963. But as tensions between India and China spilled over into war in the Himalayas, Sikkim became a pawn in the Cold War ideological battle that played out in Asia during the 1960s and 1970s. Rumours circulated that Hope was a CIA spy. Meanwhile a shadowy Scottish adventuress, the Kazini of Chakung, married to Sikkim's leading political figure, coordinated opposition to the Palace. As the geopolitical tectonic plates of the Himalayas ground together forming the political landscape that exists today, Sikkim never stood a chance. On the eve of declaring an Emergency in India, Indira Gandhi brazenly annexed the country. Thondup died a broken man in 1982; Hope returned to New York; Sikkim began a new phase as India's 22nd state.
Based on interviews, archive research as well as a retracing of a journey the author's grandfather made in 1922, this is a thrilling, romantic and informative glimpse of life in Shangri La.
by John Keayjust started reading this (slowly). Not everyone will agree to his archeological story of Aryan times, but it shows he is willing to attack academic orthodoxy in order to make the reader think.
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Release date: October 16, 2018
Fierce Enigmas: A History of the United States in South Asia
by Srinath Raghavan (no photo)Synopsis:
South Asia looms large in American foreign policy. Over the past two decades, we have spent billions of dollars and thousands of human lives in the region, to seemingly little effect. As Srinath Raghavan reveals in Fierce Enigmas, this should not surprise us. For 230 years, America's engagement with India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan has been characterized by short-term thinking and unintended consequences. Beginning with American traders in India in the eighteenth century, the region has become a locus for American efforts--secular and religious--to remake the world in its image.
The definitive history of US involvement in South Asia, Fierce Enigmas is also a clarion call to fundamentally rethink our approach to the region.
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A few of my favorite fictions are about this region, especially Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje, about the Tamil, the civil war, and the complex history of Sri Lanka. I see that his English Patient was a group read, so this would be ideal. However, I also value The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh about India, Myanmar, and Malaysia, and I really like Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen about Nepal. It may seem cliche, but one of my favorites is Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns about the plight of women in Afghanistan.
by
Khaled Hosseini
by
Michael Ondaatje
by
Peter Matthiessen
by
Amitav Ghosh
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by
Khaled Hosseini
Shivaji: The Great Maratha
by Ranjit Desai (no photo)
Synopsis:
Place: Western India, 1630-1680
The Indian sub-continent is ruled by three tyrannical Sultanates (Islamic Kings)... the powerful Mughals in the North, and the Shia rulers – Adilshah and Qutubshah in the South. The native local Hindu population, suppressed for centuries, is subjected to slavery, bigotry, injustice and even torture. Through generations of subservience, the very idea of freedom has been wiped from their minds.
As incessant battles rage between the Sultanates, the soldiers who fight and die on the battlefields are mostly local Hindu Marathas, sons of the soil. Villages and crops are repeatedly razed by the invading armies, men killed in both peacetime and war, tortured and forcefully converted to Islam, their women abducted and forced into slavery, court dance and Harem. Maharashtra, once a prosperous land ruled by competent native rulers and inhabited by peaceful people, has been reduced almost to a wasteland.
In this dark era, the sixteen-year-old boy (Shivaji) who is a son of a minister in a Muslim empire stands up to declare: “I shall not serve, and neither shall my people!” The dream of a free State and an identity for his people smouldering in his heart, he dares to rebel against the powerful King, Adilshah and later the devil himself Emporer Aurangzeb.
He dreams of freeing his land from the clutches of Muslim rule, and though he suffers a few defeats and personal losses along the way, he never gives up his vision of Hindavi Swaraj (Hindu self-rule). Amidst political intrigue and a chain of skirmishes, Shivaji becomes a leader, a warrior and a tactician par excellence, driven by immense pride and love for his religion & motherland.
He begins with nothing... no army, no weapons and an empty treasury. Yet he achieves what no soldier, chieftain or king has ever achieved in defiance of the imperialists who ruled in India.
'Shivaji: The Great Maratha' is the incredible story of King Shivaji Bhosale, a legendary warrior-king, secular ruler, guerrilla fighter, a brilliant tactician general and a clever diplomat. But above all, a remarkable human being.
King Shivaji Bhosale 1630-1680
A couple of books on modern conflicts in the region: India's Wars: A Military History 1947-1971 by Arjun Subramaniam and Intervention in Sri Lanka: The IPKF Experience by Harkirat Singh
The History Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Intervention in Sri Lanka: The IPKF Experience Retold (other topics)India's Wars: A Military History 1947-1971 (other topics)
South Asia in 2008: A Review (other topics)
India's Wars: A Military History 1947-1971 (other topics)
Shivaji: The Great Maratha (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Harkirat Singh (other topics)Arjun Subramaniam (other topics)
Arjun Subramaniam (other topics)
Harkirat Singh (other topics)
रणजित देसाई (other topics)
More...
Please feel free to add books, websites, blogs, urls with deal with this subject matter. However, be mindful that no self promotion or spam is allowed.
This folder will discuss the following countries/areas/regions:
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities (see below), also includes the adjoining countries on the west and the east. Topographically, it is dominated by the Indian Plate, which rises above sea level as the Indian subcontinent south of the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush. South Asia is surrounded (clockwise, from west) by Western Asia, Central Asia, Eastern Asia, Southeastern Asia and the Indian ocean.
South Asia is home to well over one fifth of the world's population, making it both the most populous and most densely populated geographical region in the world.
The region has often seen conflicts and political instability,[citation needed:] including wars between the region's two nuclear-armed states, Pakistan and India. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation is an economic cooperation organization in the region.
The UN Subregion of South Asia includes:
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) includes:
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
Source: Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asia