South Asia: Part One

Themes

• Water issues (sea level rise, drought, glacial depletion, pollution)

• Village life and urbanization

• Influence of British Colonization, rise of the South Asian states

• Extremes of Rich and Poor

• Population Growth and Gender Impacts

Terms to be aware of

• Hindu nationalists have changed names of names from British spellings

– Bombay to Mumbai

– Madras to Chennai

– Calcutta to Kolkatta

– Ganges to Ganga

– Bangalore to Bengalūru

• Region sometimes referred to as the Indian sub-continent

Landforms

• Himalayas, world’s highest mountain range

– Crash of Indian and Eurasian plates

• So much force that over time lifted Tibet plateau 15000 ft.

– Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra rise, run along south of mnts

• In south of India is the Deccan plateau

– Surrounded by Ghats (smaller mnt ranges)

Climate

• Dominated by Monsoon – technically seasonal wind pattern, but in effect means super dry and super wet seasons

– In the winter, cool air flows outward from Asia high pressure mass towards ocean

• SW India, NE Sri Lanka get rain

– In summer, hot, rising, low pressure Siberia air sucks in moist tropical air, brings the rain

• Aided by ITCZ moisture

• Runs from June to October

– Rivers flood, deposit rich soils

• In Bangladesh, villages built on artificial mounds

– Occasionally, the monsoon fails, causing devastation in rural India

Environmental Issues

• No world region is going to have so many people impacted by climate change

– Sea Level Rise

• Bangladesh 17 million or so people living at sea level. No country will have more displaced people.

– Although long history of dealing with water in rural areas

• Mumbai, like Miami, also has almost no elevation

• 80% of Maldives < 3ft above sea level

– Water Issues

• 703 million people depend on rivers fueled by annual snow melt of Himalayan glaciers

– Many of these glaciers are disappearing

• India diverts 60 % of Ganga, esp. for Kolkatta; 85% of Teesta

– This leaves rural Bangladesh w/ less water for irrigation & advancing salt water

– Similar situation between Indian states

• Rich neighborhoods and hotels use infinitely more water than poor people

• Agricultural change and urbanization leads to more rapid runoff, with horrendous flooding becoming more frequent.

Environmental Issues

– Dams

• For stable electric supply, irrigation, many rivers are being dammed

– This forces people off land

» Supposed to be given new land, many end up without any

– Most dams also produced less electricity than projected.

– Water quality hurt by industrial, agriculture runoff

• The river is too full of oxygen depleting materials

Environmental Issues

• Deforestation

– Long history of deforestation from early Hindu kingdoms through the British

• Organized wood cutting is to supply urban areas, with little input from local people who use forest resources for other purposes (like foraging, shelter, religion, etc…)

• “Chipko movement,” which has slowed deforestation and increased ecological awareness, began as a way to protect sacred groves

• However, much cutting is done locally for fuel, animal fodder

Environmental Issues (cont.)

• Industrial Pollution

– Emissions from vehicles and industry are so bad that breathing Delhi’s air is like smoking 20 cigarettes a day.

• Region burns more wood, agricultural waste, and animal dung than any world region

– All of these fine in small amounts; much more polluting than fuels like natural gas

– Acid rain is destroying farmland and monuments, including the Taj Mahal.

– The Indian government, however, has launched an ambitious campaign to clean up poorly regulated factories

• Prompted by Bhopal diaster, where Union Carbide subsidy had a gas leak that killed 3000, injured 50000

March of Civilizations

• Region has high level of diversity

– From successive conquering invasions

• Indus Valley Civilization amongst first settled agricultural civilizations in the world; had town planning, plumbing

• Arya moved in from Asia

– Probably started Hinduism and Caste System

• Islam first spread by Arab traders along coast around 1000

• Mughals (Turko-Persian) in 1526

– Gave Islam prestige, most powerful in North

– Even of amongst non-Muslims, changed aesthetics, gender roles

– Brought Hindustani language (Urdu and Hindi)

Religious Geography

– Most of world’s nearly 1 billion Hindus in India

• Ganga River plain is considered hearth

– Buddhism’s origins are in northern India and it has spread to E. and SE Asia.

• Majority in Bhutan, Sri Lanka

• Has similarities with Jainism, an older non-violent religion

– Muslim majority in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the Maldives

• 120 million Muslims in India

– Sikhism, a combination of Hindu and Islam, centered on Punjab

• Sikhs big in military, police

– Also Parsis/Zoranstrians (Mumbai), Christians (West Coast), Jews, Animists

Caste System

A rigidly hierarchical system of roles and privileges which (ironically) had been flexible in accommodating conquerors (until the British) in at the top.

The major divisions (varna)

– Brahmins: highest class, performed rituals, intellectuals

– Kshatriyas: warrior or princely class, most wealth and power. Less restrictions on lifestyle

– Vaishyas: merchant class, often most stringent vegetarians and subscribers to non-violence

– Sudras: most of India’s population, the peasant farmer, artisan class

– Harigans (Dalits): also known as the untouchables. Were segregated from society to prevent social pollution; often had ‘unclean jobs.’ Not even an actual caste.

• Also some tribal/animist groups considered outside of caste system

Caste System

– One is born into a given subcaste (jati);

• Traditionally defines where one will live, eat, associate, marriage partner, livelihood

– The jatis are often associated with a certain place; thus, they are segregated into distinct spaces.

• Often certain jatis have a dialect

• Partly explains their persistence

– Gandhi began an official effort to eliminate the caste system.

• Now affirmative action program, reserving government jobs, higher education spaces, and parliamentary seats for lower castes

– Lower castes now ride buses, work with higher castes; it matters much less than ever before

– Still little marriage across jati lines (only 5%)

The British

• The Mughals collapsed around 1707, leaving many smaller states along with their own territory

– At same time, European trading companies are setting up outposts

– Most successful is British East India Company

• By playing states off each other, British gradually extend control, which is finalized 1857

– Afghanistan, Nepal remain quasi-independent

The British

• Economic Influence

– Britain looked to South Asia as a market and source of raw materials

• Undermined world’s largest cloth industry in Bengal in late 1700’s through forbidding import tariffs and banning looms

– Many workers became landless peasants, moved to cities or elsewhere in Empire

» Jute, cotton, tea, sugar, indigo became mainstays

• Taxes, droughts killed 10 mil. in 1800’s

– Here, colonization also left some side benefits

• British cities (Bom, Cal, Mad) boom

– British build New Delhi 17 years b4 leaving

• Decent rail network

• English as unifying language

• Bureaucracy and democratic tradition

• Cricket

British Go Bye-Bye

• Partition and Independence

– Indian National Congress begins in 1885, leads independence movement

• Gandhi argues for civil disobedience to shame the British

• Congress Party post-Independence, leads world’s largest democracy

– Independence comes in 1947

• INC, Muslim League and British agree that country will be partitioned into India (predominantly Hindu) and Pakistan (East + West, predominantly Muslim)

– British had flamed tensions

– Fearing persecution, millions migrated across the borders during Partition

» 1 million died

• Eventually East Pakistan becomes independent Bangladesh

– India, Pakistan still clash over Kashmir

– Bangladesh and India have improved their democracies over time.