south asia

name the two largest cities in India

Mumbai and Delhi

capital of India

Delhi

capital of nepal

Kathmandu

capital of pakistan

Islamabad

capital of Afghanistan

Kabul

capital of bangladesh

Dhaka

capital of Bhutan

Thimphu

Why has Afghanistan been so difficult, or impossible, to govern successfully over the centuries?

separated groups with no majority

Why did Afghanistan become a haven for Islamic fundamentalists in the mid-to-late 1990s?

Weak government control and the rise of the Taliban

Where had bin Laden been operating before returning to Afghanistan?

Sudan

What had bin Laden previously done in Afghanistan?

help fund infrastructure during the war

Buffer state

A state between two powerful rival countries

Taliban

the students of the madrassa. extremist Sunni islamic

Line of Control

the military control line between the Indian and Pakistani controlled parts of Jammu and Kashmir

caste system

the classes and tiers in Hindu. Priests, warriors, merchants, peasants, and untouchables

Why are/were there 4 million Afghan Pashtun refugees living in Pakistan? How did they get there?

Civil war and the Taliban. The Khyber Pass

Why did the region of Kashmir become part of India instead of Pakistan?

The maharajah was Hindu and pressured into going with India

How was Pakistan distinctly different at the time of its independence in 1947 compared to today? What accounts for this difference?

There was East Pakistan and West Pakistan. West Pakistan became Bangladesh

What are Pakistan’s main concerns when it comes to the Kashmir area?

They are concerned about human rights, since the majority of people in Kashmir are Muslim

What are India’s concerns when it comes to the Kashmir area?

they have invested heavily in infrastructure and do not want to give it up to their enemy

What do the terms nationalism, non-violent resistance, and boycott have to do with Mohandas Gandhi?

He pushed Indian nationalism and the independence of India through non violence. he would fast and boycott

How are karma and samsara related to the Caste System?

The karma you have leads you to the cycle of samsara. If you have good karma, you will advance in the caste.

Samsara

the cycle

moksha

being freed from the cycle of samsara by purifying karma

What do Hindu fundamentalists want?

a return to fundamental Hindu values, like the caste system

Why has the death rate in India dropped dramatically over the last century?

improved medical services, germ theory, urbanization, more effective food distribution

What advantages does China have in being able to better stabilize their population growth than India?

They are not a democracy

dominant religion of Bangladesh

Sunni Islam

dominant religion in Bhutan

Buddhism

dominant religion in nepal

Hinduism

Given that the Netherlands faces many of the same geographic problems that Bangladesh does, what accounts for the deadliness of the natural disasters in Bangladesh?

More people, and less infrastructure

What is the smallest country in South Asia?

The Maldives

idea that one can escape the endless cycle of rebirth

moksha

warrior to whom the god Krishna appears on battlefield

Arjuna

Greek who came to India in 326 BCE

Alexander the Great

God who acts as Arjuna’s charioteer and guru

Krishna

The god who is known as the preserver

Vishnu

One who provides a spiritual example

Guru

God known as the destroyer of ignorance

Shiva

Early invaders responsible for the Vedas

Aryans

Supreme being who exists within us all

Brahman

god with four heads

Brahma

Yoga of meditation

Raja

Yoga of devotion to god

Bhakti

Followers of the god Shiva

Shaivites

Theory that your actions will come back to you

Karma

Sacred Vedic literature that reduces the numerous gods to one

Upanishads

most sacred animals of Hinduism

Cows

Aside from Indonesia, this country is home to the greatest number of Muslims

Pakistan

Country with the highest per capita GDP in South Asia

The Maldives

The Taliban ruled Afghanistan from this capital city

Kabul

The country whose economy is the most dependent on the tea industry

Sri Lanka

India’s richest city

Mumbai

Treacherous mountains in Afghanistan and Pakistan

Hindu Kush

The two great rivers that Bangladesh is built around

The Ganges and the Brahmaputra

The rivers that share a delta in bangladesh flow into this body of water

the Bay of Bengal

The path that 4 million Pashtun Afghans took when fleeing Soviet rule in the 1980s

The Khyber Pass

The physical feature between the Eastern and Western Ghats

the Deccan Plateau

The river that has caused controversy between India and Pakistan

The Indus

A country that separates two political enemies, like Afghanistan between the Russian and British empires

Buffer State

Official name for Jihadists or Islamic holy warriors who fought in the first modern defensive jihad

Mujahideen

Growth of crops for the family only, not sale

Subsistence farming

The type of farming that 90% of Nepalese engage in

subsistence farming

lowest status in caste system

untouchables

Afghan tribe that comprises 40% of Afghanistan’s population

Pashtuns

Term for people in Nepal that guide tourists up the mountains

Sherpas

Students of religion from Pakistan that took over Afghanistan

Taliban

Regional Indian leaders are called this

Maharajah

Pakistan’s capital city that is not its largest city

Islamabad

The reason Sri Lanka has failed to become an economic power of the Indian Ocean

Civil war

Cease fire line between Pakistan and India in Kashmir

Line of control

Source of revenue in Afghanistan

Opium

common trait between India and pakistan that made their rivalry a global issue

nuclear weapons

West Pakistan became this

Bangladesh

Pakistan’s largest city

Karachi

Bhutan has this type of government

Monarchy

The violence and intensity of the Kashmir conflict increased due to newly trained fighters sent by who

Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda