South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry. Linguistically, South India is distinguished as the home of the Dravidians, but not exclusively so; ethnic Dravidians also live in parts of eastern and central India, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia, while some non-Dravidian communities (such as the Konkanis) live in South India.

South India lies in the peninsular Deccan Plateau and is bounded by the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal in the west, south and east respectively. The geography of the region is diverse, encompassing two mountain ranges — the Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats and a plateau heartland. The Tungabhadra and Kaveri rivers are important non-perennial sources of water. Inhabitants of South India are referred to as South Indians. A majority of South Indians are Dravidians who speak one of four Dravidian languages — Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil or Telugu. During its history, a number of dynastic kingdoms ruled over parts of South India whose invasions across southern and southeastern Asia impacted the history and cultures of modern nation-states such as Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. The region was colonised by Britain and gradually incorporated into the British Empire.

After experiencing fluctuations in the decades immediately after Indian independence, the economies of South Indian states have registered higher than national average decadal growth over the past three decades. While South Indian states have fared better than those of North India in some socio-economic metrices, blank">The Better Half. Outlook India. July 16, 2007 Also A Head for Numbers. Outlook India. July 16, 2007 economic disparity, illiteracy and poverty continue to affect the region much like the rest of the country. Agriculture is the single largest contributor to the regional net domestic product, while _Information technology (IT) is a rapidly growing industry. Literary and architectural styles, evolved over two thousand years, differ from other parts of the country. Politics in southern India is dominated by smaller regional political parties rather than by national political parties.