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 over 1000 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 Dravidians, Aryans, Sakas, Huns, Greeks, Persians, Afghans, Turks, Arabs, and others. The amalgamation of Dravidian, Aryan and local tribal cultures over the centuries created common culture, traditions and beliefs. The Aryan Vedic Sanskrit language and religion combined Indo-Aryan, Dravidian and local tribal beliefs to give rise to Hinduism. 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 the Tamil culture, or at other times, influenced by external cultures, especially in the northwestern parts of South Asia, and in Bangladesh, where Turks and Afghans have had much influence and brought the religion of Islam to the Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashtun, Baloch, Kashmiri and Bengali people. The largest single ethnic group in this region are the Hindi-speaking people, numbering almost 300 million, making them the second largest ethnic group in the world after the Han-Chinese.The second largest ethnic group of this region are the Bengali people numbering 240 million.

Most of the ethnic groups in this region fall into two major linguistic groups: the Dravidians and the Indo-Aryans, a branch of the Indo European group. Other small groups, mainly Austric and Iranian (closely related to the Indo-Aryans) are also present in the South Asia.