What you are talking about is subcontinent in geographical terms, I am talking about subcontinent in political terms.
there is a difference.
Middle East is a political term, while most of Middle East is in Asia, thus they are Asians.
USA and Canada geographically is North America, you can call both, USA and Canadians, North Americans, but politically they are two different countries.
I hope you understand the difference now.
Similarly, Subcontinent had 100s of kingdom till the British came, conquered those kingdoms, and called it British India.
Some people did not recognize the legitimacy of artificial British India then, and they don't do it now, thus what you see is a mess falling apart, and the legacy of the British, the Indian government, is still using the same old British protocol to prevent people from rebelling..
I was pointing out cultural similarities, and the use of identity as Indians...