India, together with its neighboring countries, is a well-defined physical unit, surrounded in the north-east by the rampart of the young folded mountains and washed in the south by the Indian Ocean. South of the Himalayan range, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan create a distinct South Asian area known as the Indian subcontinent. India makes up over three-quarters of the subcontinent's entire area. 'There is no section of the world better delineated by nature as a region by itself than the Indian subcontinent,' says Prof. Chisholm. G.B Cressey argued that India should be referred to as a subcontinent since it is a separate geographical unit with numerous physical and cultural units. However, some Indian geographers believe that the term "subcontinent" is a misnomer, and that it is a vestige of British control, which tended to split the country by geography and religion.

These geographers argue that this term has never been used for geographical units that are far larger and more diverse, such as China and Russia. It's worth noting that the British subcontinental idea worked wonders in splitting the continent into distinct nations, lending credence to their primary approach of 'divide and rule.' Before partition, the country's total area was 42,27,378 square kilometres. On August 15, 1947, the country was partitioned, and a new country, Pakistan, was born. This resulted in the loss of 7,96,095 square kilometers of East Pakistan (now Pakistan) and 1,44,020 square kilometres of East Pakistan (the present Bangladesh). As a result, the country's current size is roughly three-quarters of its initial size. As a result, some researchers prefer to refer to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and even Afghanistan as South Asia.