why do outsiders consider south asia as one?

one thing that really bugs me is that often whenever i speak to outsiders they consider all of india, pakistan, bangladesh,sri lanka the same country or the same people. Their ignorance is just too much. Its like calling all of europe as one with same culture, language, looks etc.... How would it look if you call a greek person as same to a English or a Swedish person? South asia is a really diverse land.

Edited by balochii - 05-May-2011 at 23:27

Originally posted by balochii one thing that really bugs me is that often whenever i speak to outsiders they consider all of india, pakistan, bangladesh,sri lanka the same country or the same people. Their ignorance is just too much. Its like calling all of europe as one with same culture, language, looks etc.... How would it look if you call a greek person as same to a English or a Swedish person? South asia is a really diverse land.

Culturally and physically the Englishman is little different from the Swede, German or Dutchman. They even share the same language (an ancient form of German)

Originally posted by Nick1986 Originally posted by balochii one thing that really bugs me is that often whenever i speak to outsiders they consider all of india, pakistan, bangladesh,sri lanka the same country or the same people. Their ignorance is just too much. Its like calling all of europe as one with same culture, language, looks etc.... How would it look if you call a greek person as same to a English or a Swedish person? South asia is a really diverse land. Culturally and physically the Englishman is little different from the Swede, German or Dutchman. They even share the same language (an ancient form of German)

Edited by unclefred - 06-May-2011 at 14:53

Originally posted by balochii one thing that really bugs me is that often whenever i speak to outsiders they consider all of india, pakistan, bangladesh,sri lanka the same country or the same people. .

Edited by Cryptic - 07-May-2011 at 18:07

Originally posted by Cryptic Originally posted by balochii one thing that really bugs me is that often whenever i speak to outsiders they consider all of india, pakistan, bangladesh,sri lanka the same country or the same people. . Probably because of the past usage of country names in a broad sense. Great Britan administered Pakistan, India and Bangladesh as "India". Then Pakistan and Bagladesh were refered to as "Pakistan".   Also, consider that until recently, most European countries were either largely mono-ethnic or comprised of people with similar cultural identities who had lived as a single country for centuries. So to many, it would follow that a region once known as "India" would be comprised of "Indians" similar to France being comprised of "French".

Edited by balochii - 10-May-2011 at 02:25

Thats true the physical and cultural difference in India are there as you move down south. In general most of the north Indian cannot even tell which language is being spoken (Tamil, Telugu, Malayam, Kannada) if someone speaks to them in any of these....the un-educated or semi-educated people in North India even dont know the name of these four languages. If you see the writting script its even worse (too hard to tell) .... The point I want to make here is that apart of all this the Indians from North to South and East to West  are tied with a delicate thread of a common culture, which we all share with each other. Someone rightly said that India is museum of Races.

Edited by innocent - 10-May-2011 at 09:54

Looking at the photo above of the Pashtuns reminded me of one or two things. In northern India and Pakistan there are people called the Jats(I've no idea if the Pashtuns are related in any way) and the Jats are related to the Jutes who arrived in England with the Angles and the Saxons. The Jats are also meant to be related to the Alani(they got around a bit). The Chinese said the Yueshi became known as the Alani. The Yueshi are also known to be those who founded the Kushan Empire. The Greeks say the Asii founded the Kushan Empire. The Asii is also one of the names the Alani are known under(there's a lot of them). The Kushan Empire also covers the area, I think, where the people in the picture are from. 

[QUOTE=balochii]^ jats are small percetage of punjabies, but overall jatts are related to pashtuns, they did come from the present day afghan/pak border. Pashtuns dna has shown they are probably related to the indo aryans who came from central asia or anatolia in ancient times, even kalash and other dardic popultions of northern pakistan/kashmir areas are indo aryans. These populations are related to their european cousins who split long time ago, maybe some 4000 years ago. The punjabi and other north indic population also have indo aryan dna, but they also have huge amounts of ancestoral south indian dna, thats why most other indic populations dont look that much caucasian. The more east and south you go in to south asia, the less genetic influence of indo aryans occurs, south indians or bengalis probably dont have influence from indo aryans[/QUOTE