Talk:South Asia

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Afghanistan, once again.

There seems to be a specific either political or nefarious reason on why Afghanistan is always shoved into the Category of "South Asia" or "South Asian", time and time again we have clarified that Afghanistan in its modern state has nothing to do with neither India or Pakistan, the land itself sure was a part of many empires that eventually conquered india, but it was always different from india(including pakistan), an example being that rarely if ever that is , any Native Indian south asian conquered those lands why the opposite happened many times over.

Afghanistan seems to not be able to identify as an Iranian nation , even though it's languages, people and culture is close to iran because Shia iranian nationalists have decided so and have instead been given all of its designations and names by others because the country has been at war for too long for its people to get anytime to make there presence be known online and today we have ended up with this, the last remnant of scythians, Greco Bactrians, Sogdians,Saka, being feasted upon by history vultures who have to compensate of its lack of achievements. 2607:FEA8:FC60:7C5A:81F2:C530:467B:DD20 (talk) 19:42, 2 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

South Asia = Indian Subcontinent.

Afghanistan is not a part of South Asia. It is a part of Central Asia. 58.152.51.162 (talk) 04:17, 24 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Afghanistan in map

If Afghanistan is only "often included" in South Asia, then shouldn't the map image shown in the lede have Afghanistan in a light-green colour, to indicate its ambiguous inclusion? Such a map exists in an old revision of the map from 2020, it can be uploaded as a separate map and then used in this article. GreekApple123 (talk) 16:22, 27 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@User:Ratnahastin I don't understand how there can be a "long term consensus" to include Afghanistan as an integral part of South Asia in the map image when the article text repeatedly points out that Afghanistan is the only country (featured in the map) that is potentially not South Asian, and when the Afghanistan article itself doesn't clearly specify Afghanistan being South Asian. Surely a consensus on the map image must match the article text, and any choice to the contrary would have been clearly recorded in a discussion somewhere? If so, where is that discussion?

And I would like to inquire what your own opinion on the matter is, as well as how I might go about completing a discussion around changing this (I assume I would have to solicit input at WikiProject South Asia, for one thing). GreekApple123 (talk) 16:04, 2 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I am not concerned over the "integral part" but what exactly South Asia is. You should stick to mainstream definition. See the map from Britannica for a name. - Ratnahastin (talk) 16:14, 2 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Even that article's text mentions that Afghanistan is only "often included". I can understand directly imitating the maps that the mainstream sources show, but I still am not sure how to completely disregard the relevance of the various writings (text) that repeatedly point out Afghanistan's peripheralness, and Afghanistan in particular does seem to be an outlier in terms of its categorisability in Asia overall due to its "Heart of Asia" characteristics. For now however, I don't have any other arguments to offer, so I am asking for input from the WikiProject to proceed. GreekApple123 (talk) 16:41, 2 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It is quite funny because it is the Indians who insist that Afghanistan is a part of South Asia, but the Afghans themselves consider their country to be a part of Central Asia (hence, the Heart of Asia). In Wikipedia, sometimes the number wins the debate. 2001:8003:9100:2C01:C950:7681:A762:E883 (talk) 02:33, 12 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I'd suggest sticking with the current map. The degree of shading would move us into WP:OR territory and one of the reasons we have an Indian Subcontinent article as well as a South Asia article is because these are different entities. RegentsPark (comment) 17:13, 2 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I would think that the "original research" option here would be to offer a map that does not allow for the debatedness of certain countries' inclusion in the region, and instead offers an unambiguous vision of what the region is. The lede for this article and its infobox, which are carefully designed to avoid original research, specify which countries are generally classifiable as South Asian, and it states that Afghanistan is the only country that is ambiguous (classified as "often included"), so I feel that any attempt to design a map that avoids original research should tier the countries along those lines.
In regard to the Indian subcontinent-South Asia contrast, the Indian subcontinent article has several notes in its lede indicating that some of its countries have some of their land outside of the physiographical definition of the subcontinent. Copying the Pakistan note for example:

Significant landmasses from East Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (like Federally Administered Tribal Areas) which are situated on the Iranian Plateau.

Parts of Northern Areas (like Baltistan) which lie to the north of the Greater Himalayan Mountain Range.

So the subcontinent article is covering both a physiographical and geopolitical definition, while South Asia is more of an explicitly geopolitical concept. For this reason, I can see why it makes some sense to include Afghanistan and other peripheral countries in a map of South Asia, but I think that since the concept of South Asia is not based on a strictly geographical (i.e. incontestable) basis, it makes sense to offer more nuance in a map of the region by using shading. GreekApple123 (talk) 18:46, 2 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Support Well, even the plants said Afghanistan is not a part of South Asia. 2001:8003:9100:2C01:C950:7681:A762:E883 (talk) 01:59, 12 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The animals also said Afghanistan is not a part of South Asia. 2001:8003:9100:2C01:C950:7681:A762:E883 (talk) 02:04, 12 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

FIFA said Afghanistan is not a part of South Asia too. 2001:8003:9100:2C01:C950:7681:A762:E883 (talk) 02:08, 12 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Finally, Mother Earth said Afghanistan is not a part of South Asia. 2001:8003:9100:2C01:C950:7681:A762:E883 (talk) 02:12, 12 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:History of India which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 12:31, 13 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]