South Asia

Question 1

Even after independence in 1947, _____ as well as the other countries of South Asia long remained among the world’s poorest

Answer 1

India

Question 2

South Asia become the most ______ geographic realm on Earth in 2011

Answer 2

populous

Question 3

Two of its states, _____ and ________, often find themselves in conflict and both are nuclear powers.

Answer 3

India and Pakistan

Question 4

The huge triangular Indian subcontinent that the divides the northern _____ ______ between the ______ ___ and the _____ __ _____ is so sharply demarcated by mountain walls and desert wastes that you could take a pen and mark its boundary

Answer 4

Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal

Question 5

_______ _______ kaleidoscope of cultures may be the most diverse in the world

Answer 5

South Asia

Question 6

Most of South Asia posses one unifying force of sorts; the _______ ________, which from its late-nineteenth-century heyday through the late 1940’s came to hold sway over almost all of it

Answer 6

British Empire

Question 7

_____ prevails in Afghanistan and Pakistan

Answer 7

Islam

Question 8

Pakistan’s history is closely toed to that of _____- going back to the ancient civilization of the _____ _____, and, more recently, to the role of ______ and of British hegemony in the subcontinent.

Answer 8

India, Indus Valley, Islam

Question 9

The natural boundary of Pakistan lies ____ of the Indus River

Answer 9

West

Question 10

Afghanistan is considered to be a __________ ____ between South Asia and NASWA

Answer 10

transition zone

Question 11

the spectacular relief in the north of the realm is the product of a ________ between two of the planet’s great _________ ______.

Answer 11

collision, tectonic plate

Question 12

This realm is one of the most _____-______ areas in the world

Answer 12

quake-prone

Question 13

The _____, _____, and _______ all have their origins in the Himalaya

Answer 13

Ganges, Indus, and Brahmaputra

Question 14

the name “South Asia” is almost synonymous with the term _______ because the annual rains that accompany its onset, usually in June, are indispensable to all forms of agricultures in the realm’s key country, India

Answer 14

monsoon

Question 15

As the subcontinental landmass heats up during the spring, a huge-___ ________ system is formed above it. This low-pressure system begins to draw in vast volumes of air from over the _____ onto the subcontinent.

Answer 15

low-pressure, ocean

Question 16

When the inflow of moist oceanic air reaches critical mass in early June, the ___ ______ has arrived, It may rain for __ days or more.

Answer 16

wet monsoon, 60

Question 17

The other branch of the wet monsoon originates in the ___ __ _____ and gets caught up in the convection (rising hot air) over northwestern _____ and ________

Answer 17

Bay of Bengal, India, Bangladesh

Question 18

South Asia’s overall domain is split into three physiographic zones: ______ ______, _____ ________, and in between a wide crescent of ____ ________

Answer 18

northern mountains, southern plateaus, river lowlands

Question 19

The _________ _________ extends from the Hindu Kush and Karakoram ranges in the northwest through the Himalaya in the center to the ranges of Bhutan and the Indian State of Arunachal Pradesh in the east.

Answer 19

northern mountains

Question 20

______, the world’s tallest peak, lies on the crestline that forms the Nepal-China border

Answer 20

Everest

Question 21

Dry and barren in _________ and western _______
Green and tree-studded in ________
Forested in the lower-lying sections of _____
Densely vegetated in ________ ________
(All pertaining to the northern mountains)

Answer 21

Afghanistan, Pakistan
Kashmir
Nepal
Arunachal Pradesh

Question 22

The belt of _____ _______ extends eastward from Pakistan’s lower Indus Valley through India’s wide Gangetic Plain and then on across the great double delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra in Bangladesh

Answer 22

River Lowlands

Question 23

To the west lies the lowland of the Indus River, which rises in Tibet, crosses Kashmir, and then bends southward to receive its major tributaries from the area known as _____ (“Land of Five Rivers”) to the east

Answer 23

Punjab

Question 24

The ____ _______ constitutes peninsular India, dominated by ____, a massive tableland built of lava sheets that poured out when India separated from Africa during the breakup of Pangaea

Answer 24

southern plateaus, Deccan

Question 25

The Deccan tilts toward the ___, so that its highest areas are in the west and most of the rivers flow into the ___ __ ______

Answer 25

east, Bay of Bengal

Question 26

North of the Deccan lies two other plateaus, the _____ _____ _____ to the west and the ____ ______ ______ to the east

Answer 26

Central Indian Plateau, Nagpur Plateau

Question 27

the _____ _____ is one of India’s most productive farming areas and one of southern India’s largest population concentrations. This is due to onshore winds of the annual wet monsoon which brings ample precipitation

Answer 27

Western Ghats (ghat means step)

Question 28

The Indus Valley civilization was centered on a pair of major cities, _____ and ____-____

Answer 28

Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro

Question 29

The locals apparently called their state _____, and both Indus (for the river) and India (for the later state) may derive from this name

Answer 29

Sindhu

Question 30

Around 1500 BC, northern India was invaded by the _____ (peoples speaking Indo-European languages based in what is now Iran)

Answer 30

Aryans

Question 31

The Aryans brought their ____ and a new _____ _____ to the vast riverine flatlands of northern India

Answer 31

language, social order

Question 32

Their settlement here was also accompanied by the emergence of a religious belief system, ______. Out of the text of Vedism and local creeds there arose a new religion- ______and with it a new way of life

Answer 32

Vedism

Question 33

In recent years, the _____ ______ appears to be eroding from the combined effects of globalization, economic growth, and urbanization: this is true for India’s bigger cities, but much less so for the majority of people who still reside in rural areas.

Answer 33

caste system

Question 34

Indo-European languages predominate in the ______ and ______ parts of South Asia, whereas the _______ languages belong to the Dravidian family- languages that were indigenous to the realm even before the arrival of the Aryans.

Answer 34

western, northern, southern

Question 35

Around 500 BC, ______ arose in the eastern Ganges Basin in what is today the Indian State of Bihar

Answer 35

Buddhism

Question 36

In the late tenth century, ____ came rolling like a giant tide across South Asia

Answer 36

Islam

Question 37

By the early thirteenth century, the Muslims had established the long-surviving and powerful ___ _______ that controlled much of the northern tier of peninsular India

Answer 37

Delhi Sultanate

Question 38

In the 1520’s, Babur (a descendant of Genghis Khan) and his Islamicized Mongol forces ousted the Delhi rulers and established the ______ _______

Answer 38

Mughal Empire

Question 39

British colonialism in _____ ____ coincided with the Industrial Revolution in _____

Answer 39

South Asia, Europe

Question 40

The term for Britain’s direct rule between 1857 and 1947

Answer 40

raj

Question 41

The subdivision of the British Indian Empire into India and Pakistan at the end of colonial rule on August 15, 1947

Answer 41

partition

Question 42

_______ created an entirely new cultural and geopolitical landscape in South Asia

Answer 42

Partition

Question 43

India’s encouragement of independence for Bangladesh emphasized the continuing tension between _______ and ____

Answer 43

Pakistan, India

Question 44

When Pakistan became independent following the partition of British India, its capital was _____. The capital today is ______.

Answer 44

Karachi, Islamabad

Question 45

The politico-geographical usage of a national capital can be assertive, and as such Islamabad exemplifies the principle of the _____ ______

Answer 45

forward capital

Question 46

Capital city positioned in actually or potentially contested territory, usually near an international border; it confirms the state’s determination to maintain its presence in the region in contention

Answer 46

forward capital

Question 47

China has been pressuring the government of _____, wedged between India and Tibet, to discourage _______ immigration and to constrain the activities of Tibetans already in the country

Answer 47

Nepal, Tibetans

Question 48

In recent years, optimistic reports in the media have been proclaiming a new era for South Asia, marked by rising growth rates for the realm’s national _______, rewards from _________ and modernization, and increasing ___________ into the world economy.

Answer 48

economies, globalization, integration

Question 49

__________ and _____ rank among the poorest countries on Earth

Answer 49

Afghanistan, Nepal

Question 50

An ideology or development strategy that advocates the privatization of state-run companies, lowering of international trade tariffs, reduction of government subsidies, cutting of corporate taxes, and overall deregulation of business activity

Answer 50

neoliberalism

Question 51

Most countries in this realm have liberalized their economies since the 1980s as part of a worldwide turn toward ____________

Answer 51

neoliberalism

Question 52

As in so many other parts of the world, here, too, increased overall growth has mostly been accompanied by ever greater economic and social __________

Answer 52

inequality

Question 53

Informal term referring to the world’s most heavily populated cities: in this book, the term refers to a metropolis containing a population of greater than 10 million people

Answer 53

megacity

Question 54

The metropolitan areas centered on ____, ____-___ _______, __________, _________, __________, ______ all contain populations that exceed 10 million and have grown rapidly over the past two decades

Answer 54

Mumbai, Delhi-New Delhi, Kolkata, Dhaka, Chennai, Bengaluru, Karachi

Question 55

The field of ____________ ________ focuses on the characteristics, distributions, growth, and other aspects of spatial demography in a country, region, or realm as they relate to soils, climates, land ownership, social conditions, economic development, and other factors.

Answer 55

population geography

Question 56

________ ______ measures the number of people per unit area in a country, province, or an entire realm

Answer 56

Population density

Question 57

_________ _____ is simply the number of people per areal unit, usually a country

Answer 57

Arithmetic density

Question 58

_________ _______ is a more meaningful measure because it takes into account only land that is arable and can be used for food production

Answer 58

Physiological density

Question 59

The term __________ ______ refers to a structural change in birth and death rates resulting, first, in rapid population increase, and, subsequently, in declining growth rates and a stable population

Answer 59

demographic transition

Question 60

The key issue is for birth rates to come ___ so that overall growth rates will drop and the population will ________

Answer 60

down, stabilize

Question 61

__________ ______ refers to the proportion of the population that is wither too old or too young to be productive and that must be cared for by the productive population.

Answer 61

Demographic burden

Question 62

Graphic representation or profile of a national population according to age and gender. Such a diagram of age-sex structure typically displays the percentage of each age group (commonly in five year increments) as a horizontal bar, whose length represents its relationship to the total population

Answer 62

population pyramid

Question 63

Five Regions of South Asia

Answer 63

1. the West- Afghanistan and Pakistan
2. India
3. The East- Bangladesh
4. The Northern Mountain States- Nepal and Bhutan
5. The Southern Islands- Sri Lanka and the Maldives

Question 64

The _____ _____ range dominates the center of Afghanistan, creating three broad environmental zones: the comparatively well watered, fertile northern plains and basin; the rugged, earthquake prone central highland; and the desert-dominated southern plateaus.

Answer 64

Hindu Kush

Question 65

Capital of Afghanistan

Answer 65

Kabul

Question 66

______ constitutes Pakistan’s core area, the Muslim heartland across which the post-independence boundary between Pakistan and India was superimposed. It is home to over half of the population, Punjabi is the language, and wheat farming is the mainstay

Answer 66

Punjab

Question 67

The lower Indus River is the key to life in _____, but Punjab control the water upstream, which is one of the issues dividing Pakistan

Answer 67

Sindh

Question 68

The ribbon of fertile, irrigated, alluvial land along the lower Indus, where the British laid out irrigation systems, males Sindh a Pakistani breadbasket for ______ and _____. Commercially, ______ is king here, supplying textile factories in the cities and towns.

Answer 68

Wheat, rice, cotton

Question 69

The province of ______ ___________ lies wedged between powerful Punjab to the east and troubled Afghanistan to the west, with the territory long known as the Tribal Areas intervening in the south. It is a conservative, deeply religious, militant province, where Islamic political parties and movements are stronger than in any other part of the country.

Answer 69

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Question 70

________ is by far the biggest of Pakistan’s four provinces, it accounts for nearly half of the national territory but is inhabited by only about 14 million people, barely 5 percent of the country’s population. Sheep raising is the leading livelihood here, and wool the primary export.

Answer 70

Balochistan

Question 71

The geopolitical situation involving the three states today have been describes as a potentially _____ ______- in which Afghanistan could become the main source of destabilization

Answer 71

deadly triangle

Question 72

The term _______ _____ refers to the several different categories of conflict that recur among India’s highly diverse sociocultural roups.

Answer 72

communal tension