the geography of the indian subcontinent

\ {{south asia{{

• refers to the part of the asian continent that is cut off by the himalayas, hindu kush, and korkarum
• countries   * afghanistan   * pakistan   * nepal   * bangladesh   * sri lanka   * bhutan   * sri lanka
• relative size: india is a little smaller than the united state, but has a lot of people
• topographically:   * mountains that cut you off: himalayas, hindu kush….   * eastern ghats and western ghats on the slides     * ghats come up and then you have an elevated plane   * in between the ghats - the deccan plateau   * vindhya range that complete that “deccan triangle area”   * river valley plane - indus river and ganges     * runs through afghanistan and india   * bangladesh is basically a massive river valley delta   * hindu kush: important for access and many empires want to control     * mt. everest is here (tallest mountains in the world)   * thar desert   * the ganges river     * very significant for several reasons   * the indus river system   * tibetan plateau; not a part of south asia, highest plateau above sea level
• climate   * himalayas - snow   * arid areas - thar desert   * as one moves south, warmer and more tropical   * monsoons: winds that bring rain (refers to weather patterns), not necessarily the water itself as the winter monsoons make it drier then     * india’s dependent on it; irrigation, fresh water, clear out dirt and pollution
• demographics   * indian states and union territories     * a federal state       * reflects a very long history of lots of different peoples       * language families:         * indo european         * dravidian

entirely separate language family respective to india

• tibeto-burnam   * munda   * mon-khmer   * burushaski   * languages     * hindi - national language     * english - because they were colonized, brought many together     * in each state a language that is most spoken

within each state- several dialects and minority languages

• population density   * 1.3 billion people in india   * heaviest in the indo-gangetic plain     * bangladesh (~size of iowa)       * most dense, ⅔ of the population of india   * religion     * a more unifying factor than language and ethnicity and etc

{{ancient indian civilizations{{

• harappan society   * we don’t know too much, even though they had writings - we just haven’t been able to decode   * mohenjo daro and harappa: two main cities in this river valley   * grew a variety of things, first people to grow cotton   * benefitted from the annual flood

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