The diverse population has been brought together into political units that have roots in the realmвЂ™s colonial past, primarily under Great Britain. South Asia is highly populated, with about one-and-a-half billion people representing a wide range of ethnic and cultural groups.

The balancing of natural capital and population growth is and will remain a primary issue in the realmвЂ™s future. Only about two hundred islands in the Maldives are inhabited.

Maldives comprises almost 1,200 islands that barely rise above sea level the highest elevation is merely seven feet, seven inches. The first is Sri Lanka, a large tropical island off IndiaвЂ™s southeast coast, and the other is the Republic of Maldives, an archipelago (group of islands) off the southwest coast of India. On the opposite side of the Himalayas are two island countries off the coast of southern India. Farther north along the Himalayan range, the traditional region of Kashmir is divided between India, Pakistan, and China. Other countries that share the Himalayas include Nepal, Bhutan, India, and Pakistan. The Himalayas, separating South Asia from East Asia along the border of ChinaвЂ™s autonomous region of Tibet, are the highest mountains in the world and the dominant physical feature of the northern rim of South Asia. The countries of South Asia include Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, and the Maldives. Source: Updated from map courtesy of University of Texas Libraries. In addition, Sikhism is a major religion in the Punjab region, which is located on IndiaвЂ™s northern border with Pakistan. In Myanmar, most follow Buddhist traditions.

Bangladesh is mainly a Muslim country, while most in India align themselves with Hinduism. Religious differences are also evident on the eastern border of the realm, where Bangladesh and India share a border with Myanmar. While Pakistan and Iran are both Islamic republics, each represents a significant branch of that faith Iran is predominantly Shia, and Pakistan is mostly Sunni. Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism are the top three religions of South Asia. The realm was the birthplace of two of the worldвЂ™s great religions, Hinduism and Buddhism, but there are also immense Muslim populations and large groups of followers of various other religions as well. The western boundary is the desert region where Pakistan shares a border with Iran. The Arabian Sea borders Pakistan and India to the west, and the Bay of Bengal borders India and Bangladesh to the east. The principal boundaries of South Asia are the Indian Ocean, the Himalayas, and Afghanistan. South Asia extends south from the main part of the continent to the Indian Ocean. Besides Russia, Southwest Asia, and Central Asia, which have been addressed in previous lessons, Asian regions include South Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. Its physical landscapes, political units, and ethnic groups are both wide-ranging and many. Of the worldвЂ™s seven continents, Asia is the largest.

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