Insular South Asia

{{Short description|The islands of South Asia}}

{{Redirect|Island South Asia|3=Littoral South Asia|the broader region including Coastal South Asia}}

{{Distinguish|Insular India}}

File:Maldives Sri Lanka Locator.png and the Maldives, the two small island nations in the narrow definition of Insular South Asia.{{Citation |last1=Dam Roy |first1=S. |title=Wetlands of Small Island Nations in South Asia vis-à-vis the Mainland and Island Groups in India: Status and Conservation Strategies |date=2017 |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-3715-0_2 |work=Wetland Science : Perspectives From South Asia |pages=31–48 |editor-last=Prusty |editor-first=B. Anjan Kumar |access-date=2024-01-09 |place=New Delhi |publisher=Springer India |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-81-322-3715-0_2 |isbn=978-81-322-3715-0 |last2=Krishnan |first2=P. |last3=Patro |first3=Shesdev |last4=George |first4=Grinson |last5=Velmurugan |first5=A. |last6=Kiruba Sankar |first6=R. |last7=Ramachandran |first7=Purvaja |editor2-last=Chandra |editor2-first=Rachna |editor3-last=Azeez |editor3-first=P. A.}}]]

Insular South Asia is an ill-defined region, consisting at a minimum of all islands in the Southern region of Asia, principally Sri Lanka, the Maldives and the Laccadives.{{cite book |last1=Scarre |first1=Christopher |title=The human past: World prehistory and the development of human societies |date=2009 |publisher=Thames and Hudson |location=London |isbn=9780500287804 |page=548 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780500287804/ |access-date=21 May 2024}}{{Cite book |last1=Lach |first1=Donald Frederick |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vz3m72WHa6gC |title=Asia in the Making of Europe |last2=Kley |first2=Edwin J. Van |date=1965 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-46756-6 |language=en}} Other sources also apply the term to the Malay Archipelago in Southeast Asia encompassing Brunei, Indonesia, East Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and East Timor.{{cite web |title=1. PROTECTED AREAS IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION: AN OVERVIEW |url=https://www.fao.org/3/W5475E/W5475E02.htm |publisher=FAO |access-date=9 January 2024}}{{cite journal |last1=Goldammer |first1=Johann G. |title=History of equatorial vegetation fires and fire research in Southeast Asia before the 1997–98 episode: A reconstruction of creeping environmental changes |journal=Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change |date=1 July 2006 |volume=12 |pages=13–32 |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11027-006-9044-7 |access-date=21 May 2024}}

It was an important region during the initial European colonisation of South Asia and Southeast Asia.{{Cite journal |last=Witek |first=John W. |date=1994 |editor-last=Lach |editor-first=Donald F. |editor2-last=Van Kley |editor2-first=Edwin J. |title=The Seventeenth-Century European Advance into Asia--A Review Article |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2059733 |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |volume=53 |issue=3 |pages=867–880 |doi=10.2307/2059733 |jstor=2059733 |s2cid=164121619 |issn=0021-9118}}