Ethnic groups of South Asia

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South Asia, which consists of the nations of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and the Maldives, is one of the most ethnically diverse regions of the world, with more than 2,000 ethnic entities with populations ranging from the hundreds of millions to small tribal groups. South Asia has been invaded and settled by many ethnic groups over the centuries including various Dravidian, Indo-Aryan and Iranian groups. The amalgamation of Dravidian, Indo-Aryan and local tribal cultures over the centuries created common culture, traditions and beliefs. The Vedic Sanskrit language and Vedic religion combined Indo-Aryan, Dravidian and local tribal beliefs to give rise to the Indian religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. As a consequence, they share many similar cultural practices, festivals, and traditions. Throughout time, the traditions of different ethnic groups in South Asia have diverged, sometimes giving rise to strong local traditions, such as South Indian culture, or at other times, influenced by external cultures, especially in the northwestern parts of South Asia, and in Bangladesh, where Turks and Pathans have had much influence and brought the religion of Islam to the Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashtun, Baloch, Kashmiri and Bengali peoples. The largest spoken language in this region is Hindi, numbering almost 300 million. The second largest spoken language of this region is Bengali numbering 240 million.

Most of the ethnic groups in this region fall into two major linguistic groups: the Dravidian languages and the Indo-Aryan languages, a sub-branch of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. Other small groups, mainly speaking Austro-Asiatic, Tibeto-Burman, or Iranian languages, are also present in South Asia.