Geographical Setting

Emergence of India

The Indian subcontinent emerged as a separate geographical unit some 40 million years ago. Originally peninsular India, together with Antarctica, Africa, Arabia, and South America, is considered to have been a part of the southern super-continent called Gondwanaland. Earlier, Gondwanaland, together with the northern super-continent Laurasia, comprising North America, Greenland, Europe, and most of Asia north of the Himalayas, formed a single landmass called Pangaea. Then Gondwanaland and Laurasia became separate units. Due to tectonic movements different parts began to break away from Gondwanaland, giving rise to separate geographical units including peninsular India. This process began around 225 million years ago, and 40 million years ago India became a separate unit. India moved north to join the Eurasian continent sometime between 58 and 37 million years ago. In comparison to earlier dates, India's Himalayan boundary is very young. The uplift of the Himalayas took place in four phases. The last and the final-uplift took place in the Pleistocene epoch.

The Himalayas played an important part in forming the Indo-Gangetic plains through its rivers which brought down alluvial deposits in the Pleistocene epoch. The Indian subcontinent is as large in area as Europe without Russia, with a total area of 4,202,500 sq. km. The subcontinent is divided into five countries: India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and Pakistan. India has nearly 1000,000,000 people. It comprises twenty-eight states and seven union territories, including the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Some of its states are larger than many European countries.