From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

India has several socio-political, historical, and geographical meanings.

Main article: Greater India

Dark blue: the Indian subcontinent, Light Blue: Other countries culturally linked to India, notably Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia and Malaysia, Purple: Regions not included in Indosphere, but with significant current or historical Indian cultural influence, notably Afghanistan, Tibet, and Yunnan province of China.

Greater India is another term sometimes used to describe the region between Central Asia in the North and tropical Indonesia in the South, and from the borderlands of Persia to Tibet and western China, which has had a significant Indian influence on its culture and civilization, including religious thought, language, art and literature.

This socio-cultural region is now part of the modern nations of (from the west): Iran (Seistan-Balochistan province), Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, the trans-Tsangpo and Yunnan regions of China, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Maldives, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Brunei, East Timor, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, the Mauritius, Maldives, Seychelles, Comoros and other islands of the Indian Ocean.

Main articles: South Asia and British Raj

Officially, it is a term which refers to the major part of the South Asia which comprised the British Raj, and included the current sovereign states of India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. Undivided India did not include all geographical regions and nations of the South Asia like Nepal and Bhutan, but included most of the Princely states of India.

References to undivided India are found in some legal enactments including India’s Citizenship Act, 1955, which states that for the meaning of undivided India [1] (in the context of this Act), the undivided India means India as defined in the Government of India Act 1935, as originally enacted. There are innumerable other references to undivided India, in a variety of contexts, but mostly indicating India with boundaries as it existed just before the partition of India into India and Pakistan.

Main article: Indian subcontinent

The term Indian subcontinent largely corresponds to South Asia or Greater India, and is used in geographical or geological contexts rather than political or historical ones.

Main article: Indosphere

Indosphere is a term, defined as "a socio-political sphere subsuming those countries, cultures, and languages that have historically come under influence from the politics, culture, religion, and languages of India (notably, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma)." [2]

Main article: Indies

Regions covered by the term Indies, East Indies, or East India used in the widest sense.      East Indies      British India/Indian subcontinent      Western New Guinea

The Indies or East Indies (or East India) is a term used to describe lands of South and Southeast Asia, occupying all of the former British India, the present Indian Union, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and also Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.^{[citation needed]}

The East Indies also include Iranian Baluchistan, Indochina, the Philippine Islands, Brunei, Singapore and East Timor.^{[citation needed]} It does not, however, include Irian Jaya (West Papua), which is part of Melanesia.

The inhabitants of the East Indies are often called East Indians, distinguishing them both from inhabitants of the Caribbean which is also called the West Indies, and from the indigenous peoples of the Americas who are often called "Indians" or "American Indians."

A depiction of Akhand Bharat

Akhanda Bharat (literally "Undivided India") is a term that refers to regions that had a Hindu majority in the past, before the Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent and post-colonial partition. Popular conceptions of Akhand Bharat differ. Some regard Undivided India as Akhand Bharat, while some opine that Afghanistan, Sout-East Asia and even Iran, which come within the Indian sphere of influence form a part of Akhand Bharat. It includes all of the current Republic of India as well as the nation-states of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan (particularly the Punjab and Sindh region), Sri Lanka and Myanmar. Apart from Afghanistan, this is basically the same as the formerly-existing Indian Empire which lasted until the end of the colonial era in India in 1947. Akhanda Bharatam is the Sanskrit name for this region.

The geographic frontiers of this region is held to range from the Himalayan region in the north to the ocean in the south, the borders of Bharatavarsha as outlined in the Vishnu Purana.

These regions tended to be predominantly influenced by Dharmic religion and culture prior to the introduction of Christianity and Islam, of which the concept of partition was created. Thus, religious and ethnic nationalism often has an influence on the concept of Akhanda Bharata. The concept is sometimes subscribed to by nationalist Indians as well as Hindu nationalists and organizations such as Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and political parties such as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).^{[citation needed]}

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• Indian subcontinent