9781422283950

of the territory between India and Pakistan. (Bangladesh, or East Pakistan, later broke from Pakistan, in 1971.) However, religious and ethnic conflict has been ongoing, and is often tied up with the larger world political situation: India and Pakistan have fought four wars and numerous smaller conflicts since independence, with the United States backing Pakistan, and India retaining a neutral, though initially pro- Soviet, orientation. Other examples include the conflict that led to Bangladesh, whose population belongs to a sect of Islam called Awami Islam, breaking away from Pakistan, which is majority Sunni Muslim, in 1971, and the Tamil Tiger movement that attempted to create a separate state in Sri Lanka (which is majority Buddhist Sinhalese) for the Hindu Tamil people. Problems in the Region Current problems in both Central and South Asia include terrorism, the proliferation of fundamentalist, anti-Western strains of Islam, overpopulation, and poor economies. With little tradition of impartial government, corruption is also a problem. However, there have been major gains in infrastructure, sanitation, and the economy. The data in this book is taken from the Social Progress Index (SPI), a project of the Social Progress Imperative (socialprogressimperative.org). These statistics give a comprehensive picture of living conditions in various areas of the world. They are collected from a variety of sources and are intended to give an accurate picture of the state of social progress and development throughout the world. Some things, such as the degree of censorship, are hard to quantify. In these cases, the SPI uses ratings scales.

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S OCIAL P ROGRESS IN S OUTH AND C ENTRAL A SIA

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