ABSTRACT
The South Asian sub-continent presents many paradoxes to the student of development issues. It contains a relatively small number of states (India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Bhutan and Sri Lanka) but a vast number of people (around one billion, or over 20 per cent of the world's population in 1985). The region is an area of enormous diversity, both environmentally (with massive mountain ranges, vast deserts, densely populated areas of high productivity) and socially (containing many distinct languages, ethnic groups and religions, remote rural areas and huge cities), and yet has a coherence and sense of identity born of a monsoon climate and (more importantly) a common political and cultural heritage which permeates all aspects of life. These make South Asia a distinct and identifiable region. To generalise about such a huge and diverse area is a thankless task, but generalise we must if the development experiences of this region are to be understood and their implications drawn out.
