The Indian Continent
About 225 million years ago, India was a large island situated off the
Australian coast. A vast ocean, the Tethys Sea, separated India from the
Asian continent. When Pangaea broke apart about 200 million years ago, India
began to forge northward. About 80 million years ago, India was located
roughly 6,400 km south of the Eurasian continent, moving northward at a
rate of about 9 m a century. When India rammed into Eurasia about 40 to
50 million years ago, its northward advance slowed by about half. The collision
resulted in the rapid uplift of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau. In
just 50 million years, peaks such as Mt. Everest have risen to heights of
more than 9 km. The impinging of the two landmasses has yet to end. The
Himalayas continue to rise more than 1 cm a year a growth rate of 10 km
in a million years!
The European Continent is part of the bigger Eurasian Continent
separated by the Ural mountains. We consider Europe as a separate continent,
not only because of the cultural and racial differences and mountain borders,
but also because Europe considered itself a continent and told the world
that this part of Eurasia was a continent. When Europe (~ 750 million people)
is considered a separate continent from Asia, what is the reason Indian
Continent (~1.5 billion people) is accorded a status of a sub-continent?
In reality, the reason is that Indians don't consider it a continent. Why?
Because Indians were constantly reminded by the British that "the Indian
continent is a Sub-continent."
The Indian Continent, owing to its geographical isolation by the Himalayas
from Eurasia and the cultural and racial differences from Eurasia, should
be regarded as a separate continent. We should all give due respect
to the Indian Continent and address it as a Continent.
For more on the Indian Continent, please visit:
Vepachedu Home Page/references
The Indian Continent and
Tibet
The Himalayas
Gondwana Land
Sreenivasarao Vepachedu, February 1999 (updated 2007)
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