india

[justineo]

why is India called a sub-continent?

[cre]

because it's below the earth's main continent.

[cre]

correction...according to dictionary.com it's a large landmass that is part of a continent but is considered either geographically or politically as an independent entity.

[bernardo]

Culturally and linguistically it is akin to being a continent on its own, or is a part of a larger continent.  Incidentally, it is not India which is the subcontinent, but "The Indian subcontinent", which comprises India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal and the Maldives as well.
Similarly, South-East Asia (south of China and East of Thailand) could be regarded as a sub-continent, as could the Middle East or North Africa.
It is only because of historical reasons that Europe and Asia are normally regarded as two continents rather than subcontinents of a larger Greater Eurasian continent.
Thus the difference between a continent and a sub-continent is defined by human history, culture and politics as well as by geography.

[sddsddean]

Apart from the political differences outlined in bernardo's reply, the Indian Sub con is geographically seperate, as it is on a different tectonic plate. The Indian plate 'rammed' the Asian plate about 500 million years ago (this is from memory, so don't shoot me down in flames if its a bit different) and the resulting collison has given us the Himalayas. Indeed, the plate is still heading North and Everest is still going up!

[Octavius]

A subcontinent is a large part of a continent. There is no agreement on what constitutes a subcontinent. Generally, however, a subcontinent is split from the rest of a continent by something like a mountain range or by tectonic plates. The phrase the Subcontinent, used on its own in English, commonly means the Indian subcontinent.

The Indian subcontinent is the peninsular region of South Asia, which includes India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, usually also Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and some disputed territory currently controlled by China, and sometimes Myanmar. Geographically, the region is bound by the Himalaya to the north and east, and the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal to the south. The Hindu Kush mountains between Pakistan and Afghanistan/Iran are usually considered the westernmost edge of the subcontinent. It is also known as the Indo-Pak subcontinent, primarily in Pakistan. Being the only region in the world that is commonly described as a subcontinent, it is often simply called the Subcontinent. The term South Asia is often used synonymously with the term Subcontinent, although technically South Asia refers more specifically to a political entity (the various countries that make up the Subcontinent), while the Subcontinent signifies a geographical area.

Geologically, this region is a subcontinent because it rests on a tectonic plate of its own, the India Plate, separate from the rest of Eurasia and was once a small continent before colliding with the Eurasian Plate and giving birth to the Himalayan range and the Tibetan plateau. Even now the India Plate continues to move northward with the result that the Himalaya are growing taller by a few centimetres each decade.