Indian

  

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Indian

Definition: Indian

Indian

Adjective

1. Of or relating to or characteristic of India or the East Indies or their peoples or languages or cultures; "the Indian subcontinent"; "Indian saris".

2. Of or pertaining to American Indians or their culture or languages; "Native American religions"; "Indian arrowheads".

Noun

1. A member of the race of people living in North America when Europeans arrived.

2. A native or inhabitant of India.

3. Any of the languages spoken by Amerindians.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "Indian" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references)

"Indian" is a common misspelling or typo for: Indians.

 

Specialty Definition: Indian

DomainDefinition

Geography

Inhabitant of India. Source: European Union. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Asian elephant

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The Asian elephant, Elephas maximus, is a species of Elephant which is smaller than its African relative. Asian elephants were notably used as war elephants, largely because their range included portions of the mideast.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Asian elephant."

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First Nations

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

First Nations is a self-descriptive term for the various societies of the indigenous peoples of the Americas -- an alternative to Native Americans, also known by some as American Indians, or Aboriginal Americans. These people, having encountered European colonization of the Americas from 1492 to the present day, often cooperate to deal with their common political and cultural concerns in associations such as the Assembly of First Nations of Canada.

In Canada, the term "First Nations" does not include Inuit or Métis peoples; however, they are included in the term "first peoples".

A representative body for Canadian First Nations is the Assembly of First Nations.

See also First Nations of Canada

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "First Nations."

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First Nations of Canada

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The First Nations people of Canada are made up of four main groups, excluding the Inuit in the North and Métis. Each of these main groups contained many tribes, each of which had adapted to their environments which were all slightly different. The four main groups were subdivided by the following geographic areas:

Pacific Coast Peoples

Among the largest tribes were the Haida, Nootka, and Salish. These people ate fish, primarily Salmon from the ocean, as well fish from lakes and rivers, and roots and berries. They made use of the forests of the Pacific, to build dug-out canoes, and houses made of evenly-split planks of wood. They use toosl made of stone and wood. The native peoples of the pacific coast also made glorious totem poles, a trait often attributed to other tribes as well.

Plains Indians

The plains included primarily the Sioux, Blackfoot, the Plains-Cree, and the Plains-Ojibwa. These people used tipis as their home, covered with skins, and there main sustenance was the buffalo, which they used as food, and for all their garmets. The tribe leaders often wore large headresses made of feathers, something which is wrongfully attributed to all first nations peoples.

Indians of the St. Lawrence

The largest group near the St. Lawrence waterway was the Iroquois. They included the Huron peoples of central Ontario and the League of Five Nations who lived in the United States, south of Lake Ontario.

Indians of the North-East Woodlands

These included the Algonquins, Mi'kmaqs in the Maritimes, the Innu in Quebec, and the Cree and Ojibwa in Northen Ontario and Manitoba.

List of First Nations Groups

This is a list of Canada's First Nations.

Pacific Coast

Plains Indians

Northeast Woodlands

St. Lawrence

Arctic Canada

Note: The Inuit and Métis are not considered "First Nations", though they are included in the term "first peoples". 
See also Métis, Native American, Assembly of First Nations
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "First Nations of Canada."
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Hindi language
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Hindi is an Indian language spoken in most states in northern and central India. It is an Indo-European language, more specifically a prakrit. Hindi became the official language of India on January 26, 1965 and is the third most spoken language in the world, after Chinese and English. About 600 million people speak, read and write Hindi, in India and abroad, and the total number of people who can understand the language exceeds 1.3 billion. In a number of countries including Fiji, Mauritius, Guyana, and Suriname Hindi is the majority language.

Linguists think of Hindi and Urdu as the same language, the difference being that Hindi is written in Devanagari and draws vocabulary from Sanskrit, while Urdu is written in Arabic script and draws on Persian and Arabic. The separation is largely a political one, for before the partition of India and Pakistan by the British, Hindi and Urdu were considered one and the same language, Hindustani.

Hindi's popularity has been helped by the Hindi film industry. These movies have an international appeal and now they  have broken into the Western markets as well. 

The beginnings of Hindi literature go  back to the Prakrits that are a part of the classical Sanskrit plays. Tulasidas's Ramacharitamanas attained wide popularity. Modern masters include Sumitra Nandan Pant, Maithili Sharan Gupta, Mahadevi Varma, Ajneya.

External Link:


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Hindu philosophy
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Hindu philosophy (one of the main divisions of Indian philosophy) is traditionally seen through the prism of six different systems that are listed here. The characteristic of this philosophy is to consider being (consciousness) together with the other issues.


Nyaya

The Nyaya school of philosophical speculation is based on a text called the Nyaya Sutra. It was written by Gautama, also known as Akshapada, (not to be confused with Gautama, the founder of Buddhism),  round about the fourth or fifth century B.C. The most important contribution made by this school is its methodology. This is based on a system of logic that has subsequently been adopted by most of the other Indian schools (orthodox or not), much in the same way that western science, religion and philosophy can be said to be largely based on Aristotelian logic.

But Nyaya is not merely logic for its own sake. Its followers believed that obtaining valid knowledge was the only way to obtain release from suffering. They therefore took great pains to identify valid sources of knowledge and to distinguish these from mere false opinions. According to the Nyaya school, there are exactly four sources of knowledge (pramanas): perception, inference, comparison and testimony. Knowledge obtained through each of these can of course still be either valid or invalid, and the Nyaya scholars again went to great pains to identify, in each case, what it took to make knowledge valid, in the process coming up with a number of explanatory schemes. In this sense, Nyaya is probably the closest Indian equivalent to contemporary Western analytical philosophy. 


Vaisheshika

The Vaisheshika system, which was founded by the sage Kanada, postulates an atomic pluralism. In terms of this school of thought, all objects in the physical universe are reducible to a certain number of atoms.

Although the Vaishesika system developed independently from the Nyaya, the two eventually merged because of their closely related metaphysical theories.

In its classical form, however, the Vaishesika school differed from the Nyaya in one crucial respect: where Nyaya accepted four sources of valid knowledge, the Vaishesika accepted only perception and inference. 


Samkhya

Samkhya is widely regarded as the oldest of the orthodox philosophical systems in Hinduism. Its philosophy regards the universe as consisting of two eternal realities: purusha and prakrti. The purushas (souls) are many, conscious and devoid of all qualities. They are the silent spectators of prakrti (matter or nature), which is composed of three gunas (dispositions): satva, rajas and tamas (steadiness, activity and dullness). When the equilibrium of the gunas is disturbed, the world order evolves. This disturbance is due to the proximity of Purusha and prakrti.  Liberation (kaivalya), then, consists of the realisation of the difference between the two.

This was a dualistic philosophy. But there are differences between the Samkhya and Western forms of dualism. In the West, the fundamental distinction is between mind and body. In Samkhya, however, it is between the self (purusha) and matter, and the latter incorporates what Westerners would normally refer to as "mind". 


Yoga

The Yoga system is largely based on the Samkhya philosophy, and the sage Patanjali is regarded as its most famous systemizer. The most significant difference is that the Yoga school not only incorporates the concept of Ishvara (a personal God) into its metaphysical worldview, which the Samkhya does not, but also upholds Ishvara as the ideal upon which to meditate. This is because Ishvara is the only purusha that has never become entangled with prakrti. The Yoga system lays down elaborate prescriptions for gradually gaining physical and mental control and mastery over the personal self, until one's consciousness has intensified sufficiently to allow awareness of one's real Self (as distinct from one's feelings, thoughts and actions).


Purva Mimamsa

The main objective of the Purva ("earlier") Mimamsa school was to establish the authority of the Vedas. Consequently this school's most valuable contribution to Hinduism was its formulation of the rules of Vedic interpretation. Its adherents believed that revelation must be proved by reasoning, that it should not be accepted blindly as dogma. In keeping with this belief, they laid great emphasis on dharma, which they understood as the performance of Vedic rituals. The Mimamsa accepted the logical and philosophical teachings of the other schools, but felt that these paid insufficient attention to right action. They believed that the other schools of thought, which pursued moksha(release) as their ultimate aim, were not completely free from desire and selfishness.  In hinduism, we are all illuminated under the light of god.  When we have moksha, we believe that we become closer to god. According to the Mimamsa, the very striving for liberation stemmed from a selfish desire to be free. Only by acting in accordance with the prescriptions of the Vedas could one attain salvation (rather than liberation). At a later stage, however, the Mimamsa school changed its views in this regard and began to teach the doctrines of God and mukti (freedom). Its adherents then advocated the release or escape from the soul from its constraints through what was known as jnana 
(enlightened activity). 


Vedanta

The Uttara ("later") Mimamsa school, more commonly known as the Vedanta, concentrates on the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads rather than on the ritualistic injunctions of the Brahmanas. But there are over a hundred Upanishads and they do not form a unified system. Their systematisation was undertaken by Badarayana, in a work called the Vedanta Sutra.

The cryptic way in which the aphorisms of the Vedanta texts are presented leaves the door wide open for a multitude of interpretations. This led to a proliferation of Vedanta schools. Each of these interprets the texts in its own way and has produced its own series of sub-commentaries - all claiming to be faithful to the original.


Monism: Advaita Vedanta

This is probably the best known of all Vedanta schools. Advaita literally means "not two"; thus this is what we refer to as a monistic (or non-dualistic) system, which emphasises oneness. Its first great consolidator was Shankara (788-820). Continuing the line of thought of some of the Upanishadic teachers, and also that of his own teacher Gaudapada, Shankara expounded the doctrine of Advaita - a nondualistic reality. By analysing the three states of experience (waking, dreaming and deep sleep) he exposed the relative nature of the world and established the supreme truth of the Advaita: the non-dual reality of Brahman in which atman (the individual soul) and brahman (the ultimate reality expressed in the trimurti) are identified absolutely. His theories were controversial from the start and some of his contemporaries accused him of teaching Buddhism while pretending to be a Hindu.

Subsequent Vedantins debated whether the reality of Brahman was saguna (with attributes) or nirguna (without attributes). Belief in the concept of Saguna Brahman gave rise to a proliferation of devotional attitudes and more widespread worship of Vishnu and Shiva.


Qualified Monism: Vishistadvaita Vedanta

Ramanuja (1040-1137) was the foremost proponent of the concept of Sriman Narayana as the supreme Brahman. He taught that Ultimate reality had three aspects: Ishvara (Vishnu), cit (soul) and acit (matter). Vishnu is the only independentreality, while souls and matter are dependent on God for their existence. Because of this qualification of Ultimate reality, Ramanuja's system is known as qualified non-dualism.


Dualism: Dvaita Vedanta

Like Ramanuja, Madhva (1199-1278) identified god with Vishnu, but his view of reality was purely dualistic and is therefore called Dvaita (dualistic) Vedanta.

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India
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The Republic of India, located in the south of Asia and comprising most of the Indian subcontinent.And it consists of federation of 28 states
, they are different in religion ,language but they exit as a nation with in definite territory as a country, is the second most populous country in the world and is the world's largest democracy with over one billion people and more than one hundred distinct languages. The Indian economy is the fourth-largest in the world, in terms of purchasing power parity. 

The name India is derived from Sindhu, the local name for the river Indus. The country is called Bharat (pronounced as bhaarat; after the wise and pious King Bharata of ancient times) among Indians. India borders Bangladesh, Myanmar, China, Bhutan, Nepal and Pakistan on land, with Sri Lanka and the Maldives just across the Indian mainland in the Indian Ocean.



भारत  गणराज्य
Bharat Ganarajya









(In Detail)
(In Detail)




National motto: "Satyameva Jayate"
 (Sanskrit: Truth Alone Triumphs)




Official language            Hindi (+17 other nat. lang.)


Political status

                          		Former colony of the U.K Independence on August 15, 1947 


Capital                      New Delhi


Largest City                      Mumbai


President APJ Abdul Kalam


Prime ministerAtal Behari Vajpayee


Area
 - Total 
 - % water		Ranked 7th 
 3,287,590 km² 
 9.5%
               

Population
 - Total
 - Density 		Ranked 2nd

 1,049,700,118 

 319.3/km² 




GDP  

 - Total  


 - GDP/head 		Ranked 4th

2,66 trillions $ 

 2,540 $ 


Currency                     Indian Rupee (INR)


Time zone                    UTC +5.30


National anthem              Jana-Gana-Mana


National song              Vande Mataram


National game              Hockey


Internet TLD.IN


Calling Code91






History

Main article: History of India

The rock art tradition of India has been traced to about 40,000 years ago in the paleolithic at Bhimbetaka in Central India and other sites. The first permanent settlements in South Asia appeared about 9,000 years ago.  This indigenous culture developed into the Indus Valley civilization(also referred to by some as the Sindhu-Sarasvati Tradition), which was at its height from around 2600 BC to 1900 BC and was one of the earliest civilisations.

Around 1500 BC, the influx of Aryan tribes from the northwest of India and to some extent their merger with the earlier inhabitants resulted in the classical Vedic culture. The earlier, more widely known, viewpoint was that this influx was through a sudden and violent invasion. However, recent thinking tends to favor the idea that there may have been a more gradual migration.  (See Aryan invasion theory.)  Eventually, Aryan culture, language, and religion became predominant in the region.

Arab incursions starting in the 8th century and Turkic in the 12th were followed by incursions by European traders beginning in the late 15th century. 

By subjugating the Mughal empire in the 19th century, the British Empire had assumed political control of virtually all Indian lands. Mostly nonviolent resistance to British colonialism under Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru led to independence in 1947. The subcontinent was divided into the secular state of India and the smaller Muslim state of Pakistan. Pakistan occupied two noncontiguous areas, and a civil war between West and East Pakistan in 1971, in which India eventually intervened, resulted in the sedition of East Pakistan to form the separate nation of Bangladesh.

Fundamental concerns in India include the ongoing dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir, massive overpopulation, environmental degradation, extensive poverty, and ethnic and religious strife, all this despite impressive gains in economic investment and output.


Politics

Main article: Politics of India

India is a Union of states with an increasingly federal structure. Officially it is declared as The Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic of India. India has as head of state a president, whose duties are largely ceremonial. The president and vice president are elected indirectly for 5-year terms by a special electoral college. Their terms are staggered, and the vice president does not automatically become president following the death or removal from office of the president.

Executive power is centred in the Council of Ministers (cabinet), led by the prime minister. The president appoints the prime minister, who is designated by legislators of the political party or coalition commanding a parliamentary majority. The president then appoints subordinate ministers on the advice of the prime minister.

India's bicameral parliament consists of the upper house called 'The Council of States' (Rajya Sabha) and the lower House called 'The House of the People' (Lok Sabha), both of which were established by the Constitution of India. The Council of Ministers is responsible to the Lok Sabha. The legislatures of the states and union territories elect 233 members to the Rajya Sabha, and the president appoints another 12. The elected members of the Rajya Sabha serve 6-year terms, with one-third up for election every 2 years. The Lok Sabha consists of 545 members; 543 are directly elected to 5-year terms. The other two are appointed by the president.


States and territories

Main article: States and territories of India

India is subdivided into 28 states, 6 union territories (marked by a *) and the national capital territory of Delhi:






Map shows parts of Kashmir claimed by India,
but controlled by Pakistan, as part of Pakistan.


Geography

Main article Geography of India


Located on the Indian subcontinent, India consists roughly of three major parts; in the north the massive Himalayas mountain range (with the highest point being the Kanchenjunga at 8,598 m) and the Indo-Gangetic plain (with deserts in the western end), and in the south the extensive Deccan plateau. The latter is part of a large peninsula in between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west, with both being part of the greater Indian Ocean.

India is home to several major rivers such as the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, the Yamuna, the Godavari and the Krishna. A small part of the upper course of the name-giving Indus lies within Indian territory. The Indian climate varies from tropical monsoons in the south to more temperate climate in the north.


Economy

Main article Economy of India

India's economy encompasses traditional village farming, modern agriculture, handicrafts, a wide range of modern industries, and a multitude of support services, including software. In fact, India's software exports alone are around $10 billion(2003).  However, a quarter of the population is still too poor to be able to afford an adequate diet. India's international payments position remained strong in 2001 with adequate foreign exchange reserves, and moderately depreciating nominal exchange rates.
As measured by GDP in US Dollars, India's 2002 output of $481 billion ranked it 12th in the world. As measured by GDP on Purchasing Power Parity basis, India's 2002 figure of $2.66 trillion makes it the fourth largest in the world.

Growth in manufacturing output has slowed, and electricity shortages continue in many regions. India has large numbers of well-educated people skilled in the English language; India is a major exporter of software services and software workers. Also see List of software companies, List of Indian companies.


Demographics

Main article: Demographics of India

India is the second-most populous country in the world, with only China having a larger population. Language, religion, and caste are major determinants of social and political organisation within the highly diverse Indian population today.

Hindi, in the Devanagari script, is the only official federal language and individual states and territories have adopted 17 other co-official languages. These are the Dravidian languages of Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu, and the Indo-Aryan languages of Bengali, Marathi, Urdu, Gujarati, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Nepali, Konkani and the classical language of Sanskrit. Many other languages belonging to both groups are spoken as well. English, though only an associate or 'link' language, is still widely in use in law and government, particularly in the higher echelons.

Although 83% of the people are Hindus, India is home to the world's second largest Muslim population. Other smaller religious minorities include Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, jews and Parsis. See also Religions of India.

The caste system once reflected Indian occupational and religiously defined hierarchies. Traditionally, there were four broad categories of castes (varnas), though they consisted of thousands of castes and subcastes, whose relative status varied from region to region. The caste system was an important social factor for most Indians till the early 1900's. The embracement of the lower castes into the mainstream community was brought about by Mahatma Gandhi who called them "Harijans" (people of God). Presently, India has tough laws against discrimination on the basis of caste. There is a policy for the socio-economic upliftment of the erstwhile lower castes, by the provision of free education till graduation, reservation of admission seats in institutions for higher education, a 50% quota in government jobs and faster promotions. However, caste remains a significant factor in the political life of the country as well as in some social customs such as marriage. 

See also Religion in India


Culture

Main article: Culture of India


Indian culture is an expression of the numerous and successive waves of influences in the sub-continent with the Northern part of India being subjected to this more than the South. What follows constitutes just a small sample of a vast tradition.

In music, two important forms are the Carnatic and the Hindustani, the former from South India, a much purer form and the latter from North India deriving a lot from Muslim infuences. 

In literature, oral and written forms prevail. Apart from the Vedas which are a sacred form of knowledge, there are other works such as the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharatha, treatises such as Vaastu Shastra in Architecture and Town planning and Artha Shastra in political science. Urdu poetry is an example of a linguistic synthesis. The literature of the Sangam period in Tamil is renowned. 

Many dance forms exist in India - Bharata Natyam, Odissi, Kuchipudi, Kathak, Kathakali, etc., mostly they have a narrative form, telling stories. Other forms such as street theatre and puppetry are also found. 

Festivals can also be included as part of Indian culture because they are a way of life in India. There are many of them -Diwali, Vijayadasami, Pongal, etc., they are not only religion-based but also include those glorifying important stages in a person's life, seasonal cycles, etc. 

Indian science was advanced in ancient times - Aryabhatta and Bhaskara were important scientists who studied planetary motion. The Arabic numerals are actually an Indian contribution. 

Traditional dresses in India include the Sari (Saree), Salwar Kameez, Dhoti and Kurta.

In cuisine, rice and wheat form the staple diet. Some popular dishes include Thali- a full fledged meal, Dosa, Idli and Chapati.

Movies are an integral part of everyday life in India, most notably the Hindi, Tamil and Telugu for their commercial bases, and Bengali and Malayalam for its artistic leanings. 

Though each region has a specific culture, in recent times there is a growing tendency to merge boundaries and imbibe aspects from other regions. Also, with increasing globalization, and due to the liberalization of the Indian economy in the early 90's, there has been influence of Western culture. So there is Indi-pop in music , Hinglish or Tanglish- English flavoured with terms from local language used most prominently in fields such as advertising, pizzas with indigenous spices, experimental dance and theatre forms, and so on. The invasion of cable TV has spawned an entirely new popular culture.

Apart from these historical and context specific forms, what an Indian sees as important in Indian culture are abstract qualities such as hospitality, family values, acceptance and toleration of differences, resilience and co-existence.


Sports

As far as sports are concerned, though not India's national sport, cricket is a very popular game today and India's size has made it the game's financial powerhouse.

Art and Architecture

Indian architecture


Miscellaneous topics


External links


Official


Other





Countries of the world  |  Asia


India is also the letter I in the NATO phonetic alphabet





 







Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "India."
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Indian
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The term Indian can refer to:


Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Indian."
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Indian (motorcycle)
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company was founded as the Hendee Manufacturing Company by George M. Hendee and C. Oscar Hedstrom in Springfield, Illinois in 1901.

Hendee and Hedstrom were both motorcycle racers, Hendee having been the "high wheel" champion.

The company went on to manufacture other products such as aircraft engines, bicycles, boat motors and air conditioners.  Manufacture of all products was halted in 1953.

The most popular models were the Scout, made prior to WWII, and the Chief, which had its heyday from 1946-53 (although 1949 production was extremely limited).

The company went back into manufacturing in 1999 with a newer version of the Scout, and now also produces Chief and Spirit models.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Indian (motorcycle)."
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Indian cuisine
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

This article has been merged from the "Indian cuisine" and "Indian food" articles. It needs further merging and copyediting.

Note: In the context of this article, "Indian" refers to the countries of the Indian subcontinent, that is to say, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

According to many estimates, the Indian subcontinent has more variety in food than the whole of Europe put together. This is because of India's extraordinary ability to assimilate foreign things and produce something new from it.

For example, although pizza is relatively a new food in India (introduced around 1994, after the Indian economy started opening up), there are a number of Indian versions(flavours) of this food. Thus Indian food was successful in accommodating Arab, Persian, Mongol (Mughal) and various other culinary traditions and thus grew out into a collage.


Regional cuisines

There is no such thing as a single 'Indian' cuisine. Almost all the states of India have their own tradition of food, although they can be grouped into 3 main categories.


Wheat is the staple constituent of many North Indian foods, rice being the important thing in Southern and Eastern foods.

(this is still a stub article)


Staple ingredients and spices

The staples of Indian cuisine are rice, atta (a special type of whole-wheat flour) and at least five dozen varieties of pulses, the most important of which are chana (bengal gram; similar to the chick pea but smaller and more flavorful), toor (pigeon pea or red gram), urad (black gram) and mung (green gram). Pulses are used almost exclusively in the form of dal, except chana, which is often cooked whole for breakfast and is processed into flour (besan).

The most important spices in Indian cuisine are chili pepper, black mustard seed (rai), cumin, turmeric, fenugreek, ginger, coriander and asafoetida (hing). In sweet dishes, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg and rose petal essence are used.


Regional specialties


Tends to be about at least 2 different base types of sauce, onion-based which works with only particular vegetables, and tomato-based which works with most succulent vegetables. Gujarati cuisine is pure vegetarian.

Main ingredients used include coriander, cumin seed, chilli, pepper, cinnamon bark, cloves, garlic and ginger.


Steam-cakes, which are prepared from a fermented batter of rice and urad dal (gram). Soak rice and gram in water for about 12 hours, then grind the stuff to a watery paste. Place the paste into plates that contain small compartments with tiny holes under them, then cook in a pressure-cooker.

Idlis are very tasty when eaten with chutney or sambhar as a side-dish.


Made from wheat(rava) and vegetables.It is partly fried and boiled along with the cut vegetables and spices added.


Other famous Indian dishes:
There are several Indian bread known by various names such as roti prata, thosai and naan bread.

Some sweets:

Indian food abroad

Britain has a particularly strong tradition of Indian cuisine that originates from the British Raj.  At this time there were a few Indian restaurants in the richer parts of London that catered for British officers returning from their duties in India.

In the 20th century there was a second phase in the development of Anglo-Indian cuisine, as families from countries such as Bangladesh migrated to London to look for work.  Some of the earliest such restaurants were opened in Brick Lane in the East End of London, a place that is still famous for this type of cuisine.

In the 1960s, a number of inauthentic "Indian" foods were developed, including the infamous "chicken tikka masala". This tendency has now been reversed, with subcontinental restuarants being more willing to serve authentic Indian, Bengali and Pakistani food, and to show their regional variations.

Indian food is now a staple of the British diet: indeed it has been argued that Indian food can be regarded part of the core of the British national cuisine.

See also: cuisine, Andhra food

See the Wikipedia Cookbook for specific recipes.


External Links


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Indian film
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

India produces the maximum number of movies per year, (1200 for the year 2002) although most of them are commercial flops. Thus Indian film is potentially the only competitor for the western Hollywood.

Commerical Indian films are considered to be melodramatic and long with plenty of music. Filmi music play a significant role in Indian movies.

Notable Indian movie makers:


Notable Indian actors/actresses:


Notable Indian Filmi music composers:


Film industry is referred with different names in different parts of the country


See also: Film history
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Indian film."
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Indian languages
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)


Official Languages

India's official language is Hindi written in the Devanagri script. It is the primary tongue of 30% of the people. While English enjoys associate status, it is widely spoken and is one of the most important languages for national, political, and commercial communication. Other official languages of India  include Urdu, the official language of Pakistan, as well as Bangla or Bengali, the official language of Bangladesh.

Linguists think of Hindi and Urdu as the same language, the difference being that Hindi is written in Devanagari script and draws vocabulary from Sanskrit, while Urdu is written in Arabic script and draws on Persian and Arabic.

The States are free to decide their own regional languages for internal administration and education, so there are 18 official languages spoken throughout the country. Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri and Sindhi, are among the official languages which are also widely spoken. 

Sanskrit though an official language has generally not been not used for conversation, though spoken Sanskrit classes and youth camps are becoming more widespread. It is mainly used in Hindu rituals and ceremonies or as part of daily prayers by Hindus worldwide.

In all there are 24 different languages, each spoken by a million or more persons; as well as millions of other languages and dialects.


Alphabets of Indian Languages

Indian languages have corresponding distinct alphabets. 
With the exception of Urdu the alphabets of all these
languages are Indo-European, hence derived from the
Aramaic alphabet. We conjecture below on the relation
of the alphabet to the Greek alphabet.


Urdu Alphabet

Urdu writing is quite complex due to the fact that
the language derives its sources from Persian and Arabic
as well as Hindustani, the dialect of the Gangetic
plains, formalised in modern Hindi. It is believed that
Urdu is closest to Tadjik, the language of a province
on the outer periphery of the Persian Empire. This
is the region to which the Mughal dynasty traced its
ancestry. The word Urdu is supposed the mean the "royal
camp" or the "military encampment". Presumably this is
where Persian bureacrats, Arabic scholars and Hindustani
landlords or land record holders or accountants came
together, giving rise a new mixed language.


Phonetic Alphabet

A remarkable feature of the alphabets of Indo-European
origin is the manner in which it is organised. It is
organised according to phonetic principle, unlike the
Roman alphabet which has a random sequence of letters.
The classification is as follows

                      





                      



voiceless consonants
voiced consonants
nasals




un-aspirated
aspirated
un-aspirated
aspirated





guttural
k
kh
g
gh
ng


palatal
ch
chh
j
jh
ny


retroflex
t
th
d
dh
nn




dental
t
th
d
dh
n




bilabial
p
ph
b
bh
m





                      


vowel based            
  y  
  r  
  l  
  w  



                      


aspirations          
  s  
  sh  
  sh  
  h  


This classification is observed in all the languages under discussion. Additionally each language has a few special letters signifying sounds
specific to that language, as also a few symbols representing composite
sounds.

Finally, the list of vowels is separately specified, as follows

a, aa, i, ee, u, oo, e, ai, o, ou, um, (a)h
Additionally in Vedic Sanskrit,  rr, rrr, lrr, lrrr

Note that the list read as pairs represents shorter
and longer versions of same vowel. Here the first a is like
u in bus. (a)h is special to Sanskritised words, occurring
in word endings as in duhkh(a)h, Buddhist term for pain of
human condition. It is impossible to say any of the consonants
without the associated vowel and the default way of saying
a consonant attaches the neutral a sound to it.

In languages of Eastern India like Bangla, Oriya and Assamese,
a is spoken almost o.

The classification of these sounds is universal. Every language
in India has a corresponding symbol, and also, with some modifications,
the corresponding sound. In fact we may be tempted to think that
all languages at least of the Indo-European family have the
corresponding alphabets, give or take a few, and sometimes give or
take a row or column.

For instance, English has t and d of the third row, but th and
dh of fourth row. (In fact in English th spelt in all the articles
and common nouns is actually the pronunciation of dh, the aspirated d).
In French on the other hand, third row is absent, but t and d of
the fourth row are used. English does not have the th and dh of the
third row.

For nasals, Sanskrit imposes considerable systematics. The above
scheme records that the nasal occurring in conjunction with any given
row has a sound characteristic that row. For instance the nasalisation
occurring in the word "Ganga" is that of the first row, while the
nasalisation occurring in the words "India" or "integral" are character-
istically front palatals. Speakers of any language have to necessarily
speak in this manner though they never realise it.

The classification of the "vowel generated" may seem rather
curious. The belief here is that y sound arises from conjunction
of ee with a, w sound arises from trying to say u (as in put) or
oo in conjunction with a. Old Sanskrit of Rig Veda has two more
vowels, rr and lrr, as also their corresponding longer versions.
It is likely that the rr was guttural like the French r, more
akin to a vowel than a consonant. The lrr remains a mystery for
being classified a vowel. But this classification
then explains r (as in run) and l (as in long) simply as conjunction
of these vowels with the a sound.

The economy of this classification in the fact that effectively
each of the five main rows is generated by one letter,
the others are systmeatic modifications of the same. In
modern Tamil, a great simplification of alphabet has been
achieved by having only one symbol for each of the five rows,
the specific hardening and aspiration understood from context
while reading. Tamil indeed spells Gandhi and Kanti as same.

See also: Languages of India and Pakistan

External Link


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Indian Ocean
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)





the five Oceans




  •  Atlantic Ocean

  •  Arctic Ocean

  •  Indian Ocean

  •  Pacific Ocean

  •  Southern Ocean




The Indian Ocean is the third largest body of water in the world, covering about 20% of the Earth's water surface.  It is bounded on the north by southern Asia;  on the west by the Arabian Peninsula and Africa;  on the east by the Malay Peninsula, the Sunda Islands, and Australia;  and on the south by Antarctica.  It is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the 20 deg east meridian south of Africa, and from the Pacific by the 147 deg east meridian.  The northernmost extent of the Indian Ocean is approximately 30 deg north latitude in the Persian Gulf.  The ocean is nearly 10,000 km (6,200 mi) wide at the southern tips of Africa and Australia;  its area is 73,556,000 km² (28,400,000 sq mi), including the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.  The ocean's volume is estimated to be 292,131,000 km³ (70,086,000 mi³).  Small islands dot the continental rims.  Island nations within the ocean are Madagascar (formerly Malagasy Republic), the world's fourth largest island;  Comoros;  Seychelles; Maldives;  Mauritius; and Sri Lanka.  Indonesia borders it.  The ocean's importance as a transit route between Asia and Africa has made it a scene of conflict.  Because of its size, however, no one nation had successfully dominated until the early 1800s when Britain controlled much of the surrounding land.  Its strategic importance far outweighs the economic value of its minerals or marine life.




ENVIRONMENT

The African, Indian, and Antarctic crustal plates converge in the Indian Ocean.  Their junctures are marked by branches of the Mid-Oceanic Ridge forming an inverted Y, with the stem running south from the edge of the continental shelf near Mumbai, India.  The eastern, western, and southern basins thus formed are subdivided into smaller basins by ridges.  The ocean's continental shelves are narrow, averaging 200 km (125 mi) in width.  An exception is found off Australia's western coast, where the shelf width exceeds 1,000 km (600 mi).  The average depth of the ocean is 3,890 m (12,760 ft).  Its deepest point, in the Java Trench, is estimated to be 7,450 m (24,442 ft).  North of 50 deg south latitude, 86% of the main basin is covered by pelagic sediments, of which more than one-half is globigerina ooze.  The remaining 14% is layered with terrigenous sediments.  Glacial outwash dominates the extreme southern latitudes.


Climate

The climate north of the equator is affected by a Monsoon wind system. Strong northeast winds blow from October until April; from May until October south and west winds prevail.  In the Arabian Sea the violent monsoon brings rain to the Indian subcontinent.  In the southern hemisphere the winds generally are milder, but summer storms near Mauritius can be severe. When the monsoon winds change, cyclones sometimes strike the shores of the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal.


Hydrology

Among the few large rivers flowing into the Indian Ocean are the Zambezi, Shatt-al-Arab, Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Irrawaddy.  Currents are largely controlled by the monsoon. Two large circular currents, one in the northern hemisphere flowing clockwise and one south of the equator moving counterclockwise, constitute the dominant flow pattern.  During the winter monsoon, however, currents in the north are reversed.  Deepwater circulation is controlled primarily by inflows from the Atlantic Ocean, the Red Sea, and Antarctic currents. North of 20 deg south latitude the minimum surface temperature is 22 deg C (72 deg F), exceeding 28 deg C (82 deg F) to the east.  Southward of 40 deg south latitude, temperatures drop quickly.  Surface water salinity ranges from 32 to 37 parts per 1,000, the highest occurring in the Arabian Sea and in a belt between southern Africa and southwestern Australia.  Pack ice and icebergs are found throughout the year south of about 65 deg south latitude. The average northern limit of icebergs is 45 deg south latitude.

Economy

The warmth of the Indian Ocean keeps phytoplankton production low, except along the northern fringes and in a few scattered spots elsewhere;  life in the ocean is thus limited.  Fishing is confined to subsistence levels. The ocean's most important function has been that of trade transport. Europeans, following the ancient seafarers, had crossed its waters to reach the East and returned with silks, rugs, tea, and spices. The Indian Ocean is also noted for its role in the shipment of petroleum from Southeast Asia to the West.  Petroleum is the most significant mineral of the area, extracted primarily on the Persian Gulf.


History

The earliest known civilizations, in the valleys of the Nile, Euphrates, Tigris, and Indus rivers and in Southeast Asia, have developed near the Indian Ocean.  During Egypt's 1st dynasty (c.3000 BC), sailors were sent out onto its waters, journeying to Punt, thought to be part of present-day Somalia.  Returning ships brought gold and slaves.  Phoenicians of the 3rd millennium BC may have entered the area, but no settlements resulted. The Greeks and Romans knew something of the ocean; the unknown author of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea describes ports and trade goods along the coasts of Africa and India from around the 2nd century AD.

Indonesian peoples crossed the Indian Ocean to settle in Madagascar. Marco Polo (c. 1254-1324) is thought to have returned from the Far East by way of the Strait of Malacca.  Chinese expeditions of exploration reached East Africa in the 15th century, but Arab traders dominated shipping in the Indian Ocean before Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1497 and sailed to India, the first European to do so.  The ancient peoples who lived along the ocean each tried unsuccessfully to control its commercial routes.  Portugal attempted to achieve pre-eminence for more than a century but was thwarted in the mid-1600s.  The Dutch East India Company (1602-1798) sought control of trade with the East across the Indian Ocean.  France and Britain established trade companies for the area, but Britain became the principal power.  After 1815 it dominated the area.

The opening of the Suez canal in 1869 revived European interest in the East, but no nation was successful in establishing trade dominance.  Since World War II the United Kingdom has withdrawn from the area, to be only partially replaced by India, the USSR, and the United States.  The last two have tried to establish hegemony by negotiating for naval base sites. Developing countries bordering the ocean, however, seek to have it made a "zone of peace" so that they may use its shipping lanes freely.

Bibliography:  Braun, D., The Indian Ocean (1983);  Chandra, S., ed., The Indian Ocean (1987);  Chaudhuri, K.  N., Trade and Civilization in the Indian Ocean (1985);  Cousteau, Jacques-Yves, and Diole, Philippe, Life and Death in a Coral Sea (1971);  Cubitt, Gerald, Islands of the Indian Ocean (1975);  Das Gupta, A., and Pearson, M.N., India and the Indian Ocean (1987);  Dowdy, W.  L., and Trood, R., eds., The Indian Ocean (1985);  Kerr, A., ed., Resources and Development in the Indian Ocean Region (1981);  Nairn, A.  E., and Stehli, F.  G., eds., The Ocean Basins and Margins, Vol.  6:  The Indian Ocean (1982);  Ostheimer, John M., ed., The Politics of the Western Indian Ocean Islands (1975);  Toussaint, Auguste, The History of the Indian Ocean, trans.  by June Guicharnaud (1966).

Background:
A spring 2000 decision by the International Hydrographic Organization delimited a fifth world ocean from the southern portions of the Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, and Pacific Ocean. The new ocean extends from the coast of Antarctica north to 60 degrees south latitude which coincides with the Antarctic Treaty Limit. The Indian Ocean remains the third-largest of the world's five oceans (after the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean, but larger than the Southern Ocean and Arctic Ocean).

Location:
body of water between Africa, the Southern Ocean, Asia, and Australia

Geographic coordinates:
20 00 S, 80 00 E

Map references:
World

Area:

Area - comparative:
about 5.5 times the size of the US

Coastline:
66,526 km

Climate:
northeast monsoon (December to April), southwest monsoon (June to October); tropical cyclones occur during May/June and October/November in the northern Indian Ocean and January/February in the southern Indian Ocean

Terrain:
surface dominated by counterclockwise gyre (broad, circular system of currents) in the southern Indian Ocean; unique reversal of surface currents in the northern Indian Ocean; low atmospheric pressure over southwest Asia from hot, rising, summer air results in the southwest monsoon and southwest-to-northeast winds and currents, while high pressure over northern Asia from cold, falling, winter air results in the northeast monsoon and northeast-to-southwest winds and currents; ocean floor is dominated by the Mid-Indian Ocean Ridge and subdivided by the Southeast Indian Ocean Ridge, Southwest Indian Ocean Ridge, and Ninetyeast Ridge

Elevation extremes:

Natural resources:
oil and gas fields, fish, shrimp, sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules

Environment - current issues:
endangered marine species include the dugong, sealss, turtles, and whales; oil pollution in the Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf, and Red Sea

Geography - note:
major chokepoints include Bab el Mandeb, Strait of Hormuz, Strait of Malacca, southern access to the Suez Canal, and the Lombok Strait

Economy - overview:
The Indian Ocean provides major sea routes connecting the Middle East, Africa, and East Asia with Europe and the Americas. It carries a particularly heavy traffic of petroleum and petroleum products from the oilfields of the Persian Gulf and Indonesia. Its fish are of great and growing importance to the bordering countries for domestic consumption and export. Fishing fleets from Russia, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan also exploit the Indian Ocean, mainly for shrimp and tuna. Large reserves of hydrocarbons are being tapped in the offshore areas of Saudi Arabia, Iran, India, and western Australia. An estimated 40% of the world's offshore oil production comes from the Indian Ocean. Beach sands rich in heavy minerals and offshore placer deposits are actively exploited by bordering countries, particularly India, South Africa, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.

Ports and harbors:
Calcutta (India), Chennai (Madras; India), Colombo (Sri Lanka), Durban (South Africa), Jakarta (Indonesia), Fremantle (Australia), Mumbai (Bombay; India), Richards Bay (South Africa)

Disputes - international:
some maritime disputes (see littoral states)


Much of this text is based on public domain text by US Naval Oceanographer at: http://oceanographer.navy.mil/indian.html
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Indian Ocean."
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Indigenous people of Brazil
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The number of indigenous people in Brazil has declined sharply from a pre-Columbian high of an estimted 5-6 million to just 100,000 in 1950. Over the past fifty years, efforts have been underway to protect the country's native peoples, and the population has risen again to some 300,000 (1997) in some 200 tribal groupings.

Indigenous people of Brazil include:

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Music of India
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The music of India includes multiples varieties of folk and pop music, along with Karnatic and Hindustani classical music.


Pop music

The biggest form of Indian pop music is filmi, or music originated in films.  Other forms of pop musicians include Alisha Chinai and rock bands like Bally Sagoo.


Filmi

The capital of filmi is Mumbai (Bombay), which is a cinematic capital referred to as Bollywood.  Popular composers include Ilayaraja, Rajesh Roshan, A.R. Rahman and Raamlaxman.  The films tend be idealized visions of Indian life, and the music is similarly jolly and romantic.  Many of the stars play similar, stereotyped roles in multiple films and lip-synch to the singing of vocal stars like Lata Mangeshkar and S.P. Balasurahmaniam.  Filmi's Golden Age occurred in the 1950s to the mid-1960s.

Cinema began taking shape in India in the late 19th century, and silent films soon became very popular.  In 1931, Ardeshir M. Irani's Alam Ara was adapted from a piece of Parsi theater and launched Indian talkies.  The music became extremely popular, and was soon heavily advertised.  One reason for the push was that India's linguistic diversity meant dialogue would be incomprehensible for a large portion of the audience, no matter what language it was made in.  Music provided a neutral option.

A form of filmi based on ghazal (see below) is called filmi-ghazal and was introduced by Talat Mahmood; it was eventually modernized into ghazal-song.


Western fusions

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, rock and roll fusions with Indian music were well-known throughout Europe and North America.  Ali Akbar Khan's 1955 performance in the United States was perhaps the beginning of this trend, which was soon centered around Ravi Shankar.

In 1962, Shankar and Bud Shank, a jazz musician, released Improvisations and Theme From Pather Pachali and began fusing jazz with Indian traditions.  Future pioneers like John Coltrane continued this fusion, called indo jazz.  George Harrison (of The Beatles) played the sitar, which he had learned from Shankar, on the song "Norwegian Wood" in 1965.  Other Western artists like the Grateful Dead, Incredible String Band, Rolling Stones, The Move and Traffic soon incorporated Indian influences and instruments, and added Indian performers.

Though the Indian music craze soon died down among mainstream audiences, diehard fans and immigrants continued the fusion.  In the late 1980s, Indian-British artists fused Indian and Western traditions to make the Asian Underground.


Folk music

The arrival of movies and pop music weakened folk music's popularity, but cheaply recordable music has made it easier to find and helped revive the traditions.  Folk music (desi) has been influential on classical music, which is viewed as a higher art form.  Instruments and styles have impacted classical ragas.


Brass bands

Brass bands, descended from English traditions, are now very popular especially at weddings and other special occasions.


Bhangra

Bhangra is a form of dance-oriented folk music that has become a pop sensation in the United Kingdom. The present musical style is derived from the traditional musical accompaniment to the folk dance of Punjab called by the same name, Bhangra.


Dandiya

A form of folk music adapted for clubs is called dandiya.  It is based on Gujarati folk music, and includes best-selling artists like Falguni Pathak.


Rajasthan

Rajasthani has a diverse collection of musician castes, including langas, sapera, bhopa, jogi and manganiyar.


Baul

The Bauls of India and Bangladesh are a mystical order of musicians and played a form of music using a khamak, ektara and dotara.


Classical music


Hindustani

see: Indian classical music


Karnatic

see: Carnatic music.


Vocal music

Hindustani vocal music can be divided into several sorts, including bhajan and ghazal, while Karnatic vocal music is typically a hymn called kriti.


Dhrupad

Dhrupad is a sacred style of singing traditionally performed by men with a tampura and pakhawaj accompanying.  The lyrics are in a midieval form of Hindi and typically heroic in theme, or else praising a particular deity.  A more ornamented form is called dhamar.


Bhajan

Religious vocal music, bhajan is the most popular form in northern India.  Famous performers include Kabir, Tulsidas and Mirabi.  It arose out of the Alvar bhakti movement of the 9th and 10th century.


Ghazal

Ghazals are an originally Persian form of vocal music that is popular with multiple variations across Iran, Central Asia, Turkey and India.  Ghazal exists in multiple variations, including folk and pop forms.


Khyal

An informal form of vocal music, khyal is partially improvised and very emotional in nature.  Though its origins are shrouded in mystery, the 15th century rule of Hussain Shah Sharqi and was popular by the 18th century rule of Mohammed Shah.  The best-known composer of the period was Sadarang, a pen name for Niamat Khan.  Later performers include Faiyaz Khan, Abdul Karim Khan, Bhimsen Joshi, Shweta Jhaveri, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Amir Khan.


Kriti

Kritis are a form of Hindu hymn especially popular in southern India.  It is commonly composed in Telugu, Tamil or Sanskrit.


Tarana

Tarana, and its southern equivalent Tillana, are rhymic songs with nonsense lyrics.


Thumri

Thumri is an accessible and informal vocal form said to have begun with the court of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, 1847-1856.  There are two types of thumri: Punjabi and Lucknavi.  The lyrics are typically in a language called braj bhasha, and are usually romantic.  Performers include Shobha Gurtu, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Girija Devi.


References

See also Indian musical instruments, History of Indian music, Natya Shastra, Dattilam, Brihaddeshi, Sangita-Ratnakara
, List of regional genres of music


Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Music of India."
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Native American
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Native Americans (American Indians, Amerindians, or Red Indians) are indigenous peoples, who lived in the Americas prior to the European colonization; some of these ethnic groups still exist. The name "Indians" was bestowed by Christopher Columbus, who mistakenly believed that the places he found them were among the islands to the southeast of Asia known to Europeans as the Indies. (See further discussion below).

 Canadians now generally use the term First Nations to refer to Native Americans. In Alaska, because of legal use in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANSCA) and because of the presence of the Inuit, Yupik, and Aleut peoples, the term Alaskan Native predominates. (See further discussion below.) 

Native Americans officially make up the majority of the population in Bolivia, Peru and Guatemala and are significant in most other former Spanish colonies, with the exception of Costa Rica, Cuba, Argentina, Dominican Republic and Uruguay.


History

The Native Americans are widely believed to have come to the Americas via the prehistoric Bering Land Bridge. However, this is not the only theory. Some archaeologists believe that the migration consisted of seafaring tribes that moved along the coast, avoiding mountainous inland terrain and highly variable terrestrial ecosystems. Other researchers have postulated an original settlement by skilled navigators from Oceania, though these American Aborigine people are believed to be nearly extinct. Yet another theory claims an early crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by people originating in Europe. Many native peoples do not believe the migration theory at all. The creation stories of many tribes place the people in North America from the beginning of time. Mormon tradition holds that some Native Americans are descendants of the lost tribes of Israel.

Based on anthropological evidence, at least three distinct migrations from Siberia occurred. The first wave of migration came into a land populated by the large mammals of the late Pleistocene epoch, including mammoths, horses, giant sloths, and wooly rhinoceroses. The Clovis culture provides one example of such immigrants. Later the Folsom culture developed, based on the hunting of bison. 

The second immigration wave comprised the Athabascan people, including the ancestors of the Apachess and Navajos; the third wave consisted of the Inuits, the Yupiks, and the Aleuts, who may have come by sea over the Bering Strait. The Athabascan peoples generally lived in Alaska and western Canada but some Athabascans migrated south as far as California and the American Southwest, and became the ancestors of tribes now there.

The descendants of the third wave are so ethnically distinct from the remainder of the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas that they are not usually included in the terms "American Indian" or "First Nations".

In recent years, anthropological evidence of migration has been supplemented by studies based on molecular genetics. The provisional results from this field suggest that four distinct migrations from Asia occurred; and, most surprisingly, provide evidence of smaller-scale, contemporaneous human migration from Europe. This suggests that the migrant population, living in Europe at the time of the most recent ice age, adopted a life-style resembling that lived by Inuits and Yupiks in recent centuries. 

In the  Mississippi valley of the United States, in Mexico and Central America, and in the Andes of South America Native American civilizations arose with farming cultures and city-states. 

See archeology of the Americas.


The Arrival of Europeans

The European colonization of the Americas forever changed the lives and cultures of the Native Americans. In the 15th to 19th centuries, their populations were decimated, by the privations of displacement, by disease, and in many cases by warfare with European groups and enslavement by them.  The first Native American group encountered by Columbus, the 250,000 Arawaks of Haiti, were violently enslaved. Only 500 survived by the year 1550, and the group was totally extinct before 1650. Over the next 400 years, the experiences of other Native Americans with Europeans would not always amount to genocide, but they would typically be disastrous for the Native Americans.

In the 15th century  Spaniardss and other Europeans brought horses to the Americas. Some of these animals escaped their owners and began to breed and increase their numbers in the wild. Ironically, the horse had originally evolved in the Americas, but the last American horses died out at the end of the last ice age. The re-introduction of the horse, however, had a profound impact on Native American cultures in the Great Plains of North America. This new mode of travel made it possible for some tribes to greatly expand their territories, exchange goods with neighboring tribes and to more easily capture game.  

Europeans also brought diseases against which the Native Americans had no immunity. Sometimes they did this intentionally, but often it was unintentional. Ailments such as chicken pox and measles, though common and rarely fatal among Europeans, often proved fatal to Native Americans.  More deadly diseases such as smallpox were especially deadly to Native American populations. It is difficult to estimate the percentage of the total Native American population killed by these diseases, since waves of disease oftentimes preceded White scouts and often destroyed entire villages. Some historians have argued that more than 80% of some Indian populations may have died due to European-derived diseases. [See Jeffrey Amherst]

The first reported case of white men scalping Native Americans took place in New Hampshire colony on February 20, 1725, though it is thought that Indians learned scalping from Americans who, at times, collected them for bounties.  

Four Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy sided with the British and the Tories of the American Revolutionary War. The colonists were especially outraged at the Wyoming Massacre and the Cherry Valley Massacre, which occurred in 1788. In 1799 Congress sent Major General John Sullivan on what has become known as the Sullivan Expedition to neutralize the Iroquois threat to the American side. The two allied nations were rewarded, at least temporarily by keeping title to their lands after the Revolution. The title was later purchased very cheaply by Massachussets and sold off in the Phelps and Gorham Purchase and the Holland Purchase, after which by treaty, it became a part of New York State. The tribes were moved to reservations or sent westward. Part of the Cayuga Nation was granted a reservation in British Canada See also History of New York.

In the 19th century the United States forced Native Americans onto marginal lands in areas farther and farther west as white settlement of the young nation expanded in that direction. Numerous Indian Wars broke out between US forces and many different tribes. Authorities drafted countless treaties during this period and then later nullified them for various reasons. Well-known battles include the untypical Native American victory at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, and the massacre of Native Americans at Wounded Knee in 1890. On January 31, 1876 the United States government ordered all Native Americans to move into reservations or reserves. This spelled the end of the Prairie Culture that developed around the use of the horse for hunting, travel and trading.

American policy toward Native Americans has been an evolving process. In the late nineteenth century reformers in efforts to civilize Indians adapted the practice of educating native children in boarding schoolss. The experience in the boarding schools which existed from 1875 to 1928 was difficult for Indian children who were forbidden to speak their native languages and in numerous other ways forced to adopt white cultural practices. 

Military defeat, cultural pressure, confinement on reservations, forced cultural assimilation, the outlawing of native languages and culture, forced sterilizations, termination policies of the 50's and 60's, and (especially) slavery have had deleterious effects on Native Americans' mental and ultimately physical health. Contemporary problems include poverty, alcoholism, heart disease, and diabetes: see New World Syndrome.


Classification

Ethnographers commonly classify the native peoples of the United States into ten geographical regions with shared cultural traits. The following list groups peoples by their region of origin, followed by the current location. See the individual article on each tribe for a history of their movements. The regions are:


Indians of Central and South America are generally classified by language, environment, and cultural similarities. The preferred term in Latin America is "Indigenous peoples."


Languages

For a general discussion, see Language families and languages
See also: Native American mythology


External Resources


Further Reading


      

See European colonization of the Americas, Indian Territory, The Indian Trade, Indian Massacres, and Indian Removal.


What name best identifies this group of people?

The term "Native American" originated with anthropologists who preferred it to the former appelations of "Indian" or "American Indian", which they considered inaccurate, as these terms bear no relationship to the actual origins of Aboriginal Americans (or American Aborigines), and were born of the misapprehension on the part of Christopher Columbus, arriving at islands off the east coast of the North American continent, that he had reached the East Indies. The words "Indian" and "American Indian" continue in widespread use in North America, even amongst Native Americans themselves, many of whom do not feel offended by the terms.[1] But the appropriateness of this usage has become controversial since the late 20th century; many feel that the term "Indian" is undesirable as it is symbolic of the domination of these peoples by the European colonists. Others, in turn, resent criticism of their traditional way of speaking.  "Red Indian" is a common British term, useful in differentiating this group from a distinct group of people referred to as East Indians. In the French language, the term Amérindien has been coined.

One minority view has advocated the name "Asiatic Americans" as a more accurate term because of the popular theory that such peoples migrated to the Americas from Asia across an ice bridge covering the Bering Straits some 20,000 years ago. Competent fossil evidence supports the case for such a migration. However, this term is considered offensive by many American Indians because most native religions state that American Indians have been in the Western Hemisphere since the dawn of time. Furthermore, the strong tradition among archaeologists and anthropologists, is to indicate the geographic origins of a people as relating to the region where researchers first encountered them or their remains.

One difficulty with the term "Native American" as a substitute for "American Indian" lies in the fact that there exist several groups of people indisputably indigenous to the Americas, but who fall outside the classification of "American Indians", for example the Innu people of the Labrador/Quebec peninsula and the Inuit, Yupik, and Aleut peoples of the far north of the continent. Another argument is that any person born in America is native to it. 

Another difficulty is that many Native American groups migrated (or were displaced) to their current locations after the start of European colonization, and therefore it can be argued that they have no more "native" ties to their current locations than do the Europeans. However, as they were moving within America, they remained native to the America.

Generally, peoples wish that others use the name they give themselves.

See also List of Native Americans, First Nations of Canada, Native American fighting styles



External Links:


Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Native American."
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Abbreviations & Acronyms: Indian
The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted.
EntrySourceExpressionField
INAEnglishIndian National AirwaysN/A
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).
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Synonym: Indian
Synonym: native American (adj). (additional references)
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Synonyms within Context: Indian
ContextSynonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Barter
A Roland for an Oliver; quid pro quo; commutation, composition; Indian gift.
Continuity
Adverb: continuously; Adjective: seriatim; in a line; Noun: in succession, in turn; running, gradually, step by step, gradatim, at a stretch; in file, in column, in single file, in Indian file.
Cunning
Ulysses, Machiavel, sly boots, fox, reynard; Scotchman; Jew, Yankee; intriguer, intrigant; floater, Indian giver, keener, repeater.
Evening
Autumn; fall, fall of the leaf; autumnal equinox; Indian summer, St. Luke's summer, St. Martin's summer.
Money
Penny, cent, Lincoln cent, indian head penny, copper; two-cent piece three-cent piece, half-dime, nickel, buffalo nickel, V nickel, dime, disme, mercury dime, quarter, two bits, half dollar, dollar, silver dollar, Eisenhower dollar, Susan B. Anthony dollar.
Pungency
Nicotine, tobacco, snuff, quid, smoke; segar; cigar, cigarette; weed; fragrant weed, Indian weed; Cavendish, fid, negro head, old soldier, rappee, stogy.
Remedy
Agueweed, arnica, benzoin, bitartrate of potash, boneset, calomel, catnip, cinchona, cream of tartar, Epsom salts; feverroot, feverwort; friar's balsam, Indian sage; ipecac, ipecacuanha; jonquil, mercurous chloride, Peruvian bark; quinine, quinquina; sassafras, yarrow.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.
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Crosswords: Indian
English words defined with "Indian": Carib Indian ♦ East Indian fig tree, East Indian rosewood ♦ French and Indian War ♦ Indian agent, Indian banyan, Indian bean, Indian blackwood, Indian madder, Indian pudding, Indian rosewood, Indian wheat ♦ South American Indian ♦ West Indian satinwood. (references)
Specialty definitions using "Indian": American Indian area, American Indian Area, Alaska Native Area, Hawaiian Home Land, American Indian area/Alaska Native area/Hawaiian home land, American Indian off-reservation trust land, American Indian reservation, American Indian Reservation - federal, American Indian Reservation - state, American Indian Tribal Subdivision, American Indian tribe/Selected American Indian categories, American Indian trust land ♦ Bureau of Indian Affairs ♦ Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations ♦ Indian Drug, Indian licorice, Indian Ocean Islands, Indian title ♦ State Designated American Indian Statistical Area ♦ United States Indian Health Service. (references)
Etymologies containing "Indian": Youze. (references)
Non-English Usage: "Indian" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses.
Albanian (Hindi, hindoo, hindu, indian), Occitan (indian), Romanian (indian, injun, red indian), Swedish (american indian, Indian, injun, red indian).
Top     
Modern Usage: Indian
DomainUsage
Screenplays
When the boat arrives from the mainland, there will be ten dead bodies, and a riddle no one can solve on Indian Island (And Then There Were None; writing credit: Agatha Christie; Dudley Nichols)
What? You're a Maharajah! That's Indian royalty (Shanghai Knights; writing credit: Alfred Gough; Miles Millar)
Oh, the Indian is hot. I go for exotic types, especially when they're half-naked (Can't Stop the Music; writing credit: Allan Carr; Bronte Woodard)
It was built on an ancient Indian burial ground, and was the setting of Satanic rituals, witch-burnings, and five John Denver Christmas specials (The Simpsons; writing credit: Artur Brauner; Paul Hengge)
Bastard Indian. (East Is East; writing credit: Ayub Khan-Din)
Lyrics
And the unsung Western hero killed an Indian or three (Hymn 43; performing artist: Jethro Tull)
Looking for some indian blood and (A Sorta Fairytale; performing artist: Tori Amos)
Clever
Canada is an Indian word meaning "Big Village". (references; author: unknown)
Indian build small fire, stand real close. White man build big fire, stand way back. (references; author: unknown)
Movie/TV Titles
Godmonster of Indian Flats (1973)
One Little Indian (1973)
Cowboy and Indian (1972)
Indian Corn (1972)
The Other Side of the Ledger: An Indian View of the Hudson's Bay Company (1972)
Song Titles
Indian Reservation (performing artist: Medicine Man)
Indian Reservation (performing artist: Paul Revere and The Raiders)
Indian Lake (performing artist: The Cowsills)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.
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Commercial Usage: Indian
DomainTitle
References
  • The Fleming Indian Investment Trust PLC: International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis (reference)
  • The Indian Hotels Company Limited: International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis (reference)
  • Indian Hume Pipe Company Limited (The): International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis (reference)
  • Indian Oil Corporation Limited: International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis (reference)
  • Indian Petrochemical Corporation Limited: International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis (reference)
    (more reference examples)
  
Books
  • Ayurvedic Massage: Traditional Indian Techniques for Balancing Body and Mind (reference)
  • Pueblo Indian Pottery: 750 Artist Biographies, C. 1800-Present, With Value/Price Guide, Featuring over 20 Years of Auction Records (American Indian a (reference)
  • Indian Blackbuck Antelope: A Texas View (reference)
  • The Indian blackbuck (reference)
  • My life as an Indian : the story of a red woman and a white man in the lodges of the Blackfeet (reference)
    (more book examples)
  
Periodicals
  
Theater & Movies
  
Music
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.
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Image Slideshow: Indian
Photos:
Indian
More pictures...
Illustrations:
Indian
More pictures...
Computer Images:
Indian
More pictures...
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Photo Album: Indian
ThumbnailDescription & CreditThumbnailDescription & Credit
Early morning.  Navajo Indian reservation. Credit: CDC.
Indian Ink capsule stain is useful for improving visualization of encapsulated Bacillus anthracis in clinical samples such as blood, blood culture bottles, or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Credit: CDC.
Clouds and Sunglint over Indian Ocean. Credit: NASA.
View of the Indian Ocean from Galileo. Credit: NASA.
The Sulaiman Mountains are a major geological feature of Pakistan and one of the bordering ranges of the Indian subcontinent. Credit: NASA.
Trincomalee Canyon, Sri Lanka Surveyed by PIONEER Survey made during International Indian Ocean Expedition. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection.
Life imitating art in the Indian Ocean - celestial navigation Very similar to Winslow Homer print of navigators on Georges Bank Navigating on the PIONEER. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection.
"Indian Canoe Races, Anacortes". In:  "Puget Sound and Western Washington  Cities-Towns Scenery", by Robert A. Reid, Robert A. Reid Publisher, Seattle, 1912.  P. 108. Credit: America's Coastlines.
Tlingit Indian village - Angoon - on the west coast of Admiralty Island. 57.5 North Latitude, 134.6 W Longitude. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth.
A busy Northwest Cape beach looking southwest towards the Indian Ocean. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.
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Digital Photo Gallery: Indian
 
"Indian Temple" by Ryan Smith
Commentary: "Taken by myself while touring India."		"Indian sadu" by David Lahav
Commentary: "This is  an indian sadu who stays in nepal ."

Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers.
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Sounds Captioned with "Indian".
PlayCaption
Sitar; Indian music; India.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.
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Familiar Quotations: Indian
AuthorQuotation
E. J. Hobsbawm
As the global expansion of Indian and Chinese restaurants suggests, xenophobia is directed against foreign people, not foreign cultural imports.
Emo Philips
You know what I hate? Indian givers.
Thomas Jefferson
That Indian swamp in the wilderness.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.
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Historic Usage: Indian
AuthorDateQuotation
John Locke
1690
Those who have the supreme power of making laws in England, France or Holland, are to an Indian, but like the rest of the world, men without authority: and therefore, if by the law of nature every man hath not a power to punish offences against it, as he soberly judges the case to require, I see not how the magistrates of any community can punish an alien of another country; since, in reference to him, they can have no more power than what every man naturally may have over another. (Second Treatise of Government)
US Declaration of Independence
1776
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. (reference)
US Constitution
1791
Clause 1: The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;  Clause 2: To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;  Clause 3: To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;  Clause 4: To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;  Clause 5: To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;  Clause 6: To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;  Clause 7: To establish Post Offices and post Roads;  Clause 8: To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;  Clause 9: To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;  Clause 10: To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;  Clause 11: To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;  Clause 12: To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;  Clause 13: To provide and maintain a Navy;  Clause 14: To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;  Clause 15: To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;  Clause 16: To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;  Clause 17: To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, byCession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;--And  Clause 18: To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof. (reference)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.
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Use in Literature: Indian
TitleAuthorQuote
Scarlet Letter
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Thus, a blazing spear, a sword of flame, a bow, or a sheaf of arrows, seen in the midnight sky, prefigured Indian warfare
Les Miserables
Hugo, Victor
There was in fact something aromatic in the opinions of these venerable groups, and their ideas smelt of Indian herbs
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Joyce, James
Moonan got fifth place in the Indian.
Grapes of Wrath
Steinbeck, John
On the wall a picture of an Indian girl in color, labeled Red Wing
Walden
Thoreau, Henry David
1.04 3/4 Indian meal
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.
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Non-Fiction Usage: Indian
SubjectTopicQuote
Health
The last cases were found among American Indian populations and in Appalachia. (references)
Asia and the Indian subcontinent, especially in areas where humans raise pigs and consume freshwater plants. (references)
Epidemics and high endemic disease rates have occurred in the Central Asian Republics, the Indian subcontinent, and across Asia and the Pacific Islands. (references)
Business
The 1990s have seen a steady liberalization of Indian import regulations. (references)
The hardware market is made up of a blend of Indian and foreign manufacturers. (references)
Recently, the GoI allowed the use of single engine aircraft in Indian air space. (references)
Civil Liberties
Colombia
Outsiders who wish to enter Indian tribes' reserves must be invited. (references)
Iran
The delegation was composed of American, Japanese, South Korean, and Indian nationals. (references)
Nepal
Indian and Pakistani broadcast television also is readily available in many parts of the country. (references)
Economic History
India
Indian real estate portal. (references)
India
Indian packaging industry. (references)
India
Indian patent protection is weak. (references)
Human Rights
Bangladesh
Bangladeshi border security forces may have killed more than a dozen Indian personnel. (references)
Bhutan
Dorji's extradition case still is pending in the Indian courts and is proceeding slowly. (references)
Bhutan
In June 1998, an Indian court released Dorji on bail but placed restrictions on his movements. (references)
Indigenous People
Brazil
The National Indian Foundation is responsible for the coordination and implementation of indigenous policies. (references)
Dominica
An estimated 25 percent of the Carib Indian population is believed to be in mixed marriages or relationships. (references)
Canada
Quebec's Indian people remain overwhelmingly opposed to separation from Canada and deeply distrust the separatist government of the province. (references)
Minorities
Mauritius
Citizens of Indian ethnicity are usually Hindus or Muslims. (references)
Malaysia
Ethnic Indian citizens remained among the country's poorest groups. (references)
United Arab Emirates
It is estimated that more than 50 percent of foreign workers are from the Indian subcontinent. (references)
Political Economy
Maldives
At President Gayoom's request, the Indian military suppressed the coup attempt within 24 hours. (references)
India
These developments meant that the Indian economy was not able to achieve the targeted rate of growth for 1998-99. (references)
Pakistan
Pakistan initially consisted of two parts, East Pakistan and West Pakistan, separated by 1,000 miles of Indian territory. (references)
Political Rights
Trinidad and Tobago
Basdeo Panday became the country's first Prime Minister of East Indian descent. (references)
Ecuador
The politically active Confederation of Ecuador's Indian Nationalities (CONAIE) was at the forefront of protests that overthrew then-President Mahuad in 2000. Indigenous members of the National Constituent Assembly and their supporters won important constitutional protections for indigenous rights in the 1998 Constitution. (references)
Trade
India
The RBI directs banks to meet Bureau of Indian Standards guidelines. (references)
Travel
Ghana
Indian food - nice buffet. (references)
Mauritius
Mauritian cuisine blends European, Chinese and Indian influences. (references)
Oman
Virtually all physicians are English-speakers, with Indian nationals predominating. (references)
Women
Nepal
Folk beliefs about witchcraft, which are especially strong in the lowland Terai area on the Indian border, generally target women, particularly elderly and/or widowed women. (references)
Kuwait
There were no new developments in the cases of an Indian maid beaten to death by her employer in 1999, and the kidnap, rape, torture, and beating of a group of four domestic workers allegedly by state security employees in June 2000.   In cases in which individuals were convicted of attacking their employees, sentences varied. (references)
Worker Rights
France
In May a court sentenced and fined another couple for enslaving a young Indian woman. (references)
Lexicography
Devil's Dictionary
SEVERALTY, n.  Separateness, as, lands in severalty, i.e., lands held individually, not in joint ownership.  Certain tribes of Indians are believed now to be sufficiently civilized to have in severalty the lands that they have hitherto held as tribal organizations, and could not sell to the Whites for waxen beads and potato whiskey. Lo! the poor Indian whose unsuited mind Saw death before, hell and the grave behind; Whom thrifty settler ne'er besought to stay -- His small belongings their appointed prey; Whom Dispossession, with alluring wile, Persuaded elsewhere every little while! His fire unquenched and his undying worm By "land in severalty" (charming term!) Are cooled and killed, respectively, at last, And he to his new holding anchored fast!
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.
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Speeches: Indian
SpeakerTermPhrase(s)
George Washington
1789-1797Toward none of the Indian tribes have overtures of friendship been spared.
John Adams
1797-1801In connection with this unpleasant state of things on our western frontier it is proper for me to mention the attempts of foreign agents to alienate the affections of the Indian nations and to excite them to actual hostilities against the United States.
Thomas Jefferson
1801-1809Our Indian neighbors are advancing, many of them with spirit, and others beginning to engage in the pursuits of agriculture and household manufacture.
James Monroe
1817-1825A people accustomed to the use of firearms only, as the Indian tribes are, will shun even moderate works which are defended by cannon.
John Quincy Adams
1825-1829The attention of Congress is particularly invited to that part of the report of the Secretary of War which concerns the existing system of our relations with the Indian tribes.
Andrew Jackson
1829-1837Thus will all conflicting claims to jurisdiction between the States and the Indian tribes be put to rest.
Jimmy Carter
1977-1981Indian policies and perceptions at times differ from our own, and we have established a candid dialogue with this sister democracy which seeks to avoid the misunderstandings which have sometimes complicated our ties.
Bill Clinton
1993-2001To attract talented young teachers to the toughest assignments, I recommend a six-fold increase in college scholarships for students who commit to teach in the inner cities, isolated rural areas and Indian communities.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.
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Usage Frequency: Indian
"Indian" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 91.33% of the time. "Indian" is used about 3,708 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)
Parts of SpeechPercentUsage per
100 Million Words		Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)91.33%3,3862,845 
Noun (proper)6.71%24918,850 
Noun (singular)1.97%7339,105 
                    Total100.00%3,708N/A
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Top     
Usage in Company Names: Indian
CountryNameCountryName
India
Indian Aluminium Company Limited
United Kingdom
The Fleming Indian Investment Trust PLC
USA
Indian Village Bancorp, Inc.
 (more examples...)  
Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.
Top     
Expressions: Indian
Expressions using "Indian": also known as large African or Indian millet) ♦ american indian ♦ american Indian Day ♦ Asiatic or Indian civet ♦ british Indian Ocean Territory ♦ brown Indian hemp ♦ buffalo Indian ♦ Carib Indian ♦ Classical Indian medicine ♦ draw in indian ink ♦ East Indian ♦ East Indian copal ♦ East Indian fig tree ♦ East Indian millet ♦ east indian oak ♦ East Indian rosebay ♦ East Indian rosewood ♦ Egyptian or East Indian ♦ french and Indian War ♦ Huichol Shamanism (Huichol Indian Shamanism) ♦ in indian file ♦ indian agent ♦ Indian and Iranian languages and cultures ♦ indian arrowroot ♦ indian banyan ♦ Indian bdellium ♦ Indian Beach ♦ indian bean ♦ indian beech ♦ indian beet ♦ indian berry ♦ indian blackwood ♦ indian blanket ♦ indian blue ♦ Indian bread ♦ indian breadroot ♦ indian buffalo ♦ Indian bull ♦ indian button fern ♦ indian cane ♦ indian capital ♦ indian cherry ♦ indian chickweed ♦ indian chief ♦ indian chieftan ♦ indian chocolate ♦ indian cholera ♦ Indian civet ♦ indian club ♦ indian cobra ♦ indian coral tree ♦ Indian cordage ♦ indian corn ♦ Indian Creek ♦ indian cress ♦ indian crocus ♦ Indian cucumber ♦ indian currant ♦ Indian dye ♦ indian elephant ♦ indian fig ♦ indian file ♦ Indian fire ♦ indian gift ♦ indian giver ♦ indian grackle ♦ Indian grass ♦ Indian Harbor Be ♦ Indian Harbour Beach ♦ Indian hay ♦ Indian Head ♦ Indian Head Park ♦ Indian Heights ♦ indian hemp ♦ Indian hen ♦ Indian Hills ♦ Indian Hills Cherokee Section ♦ indian ink ♦ Indian Lake ♦ indian lettuce ♦ Indian licorice ♦ Indian loaf ♦ indian lodge ♦ indian lotus ♦ indian madder ♦ indian mallow ♦ indian meal ♦ indian millet ♦ Indian Mills ♦ indian monetary unit ♦ indian mongoose ♦ Indian Mound ♦ indian mustard ♦ Indian Neck ♦ Indian oak ♦ indian ocean ♦ Indian Ocean Islands ♦ Indian Orchard ♦ Indian ox ♦ indian paint ♦ Indian paintbrush. Additional references.
Hyphenated Usage
Beginning with "Indian": indian-administered, indian-asian, indian-backed, indian-blue, indian-born, indian-brave, indian-controlled, indian-cotton, indian-dark, indian-dominated, indian-fashion, indian-hater, indian-hating, indian-looking, indian-made, indian-ness, indian-occupied, indian-orientated, indian-owned, indian-pacific, indian-raised, indian-ruled, indian-striped, indian-style, indian-type.
Ending with "Indian": anti-indian, british-indian, ex-indian, half-indian, non-indian, pro-indian, sino-indian.
Containing "Indian": American-Indian language, red-indian costume, red-indian storybook.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.
Top     
Frequency of Internet Keywords: Indian
The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day		ExpressionFrequency
per Day
device indian
11,587
indian elephant
844
indian sex
8,535
indian song
843
indian
6,745
baby name indian
841
indian woman
4,355
indian airline
832
indian motorcycle
3,785
indian passion
798
indian movie
3,736
indian pussy
768
american indian
3,532
indian clothing
762
cleveland indian
2,883
cherokee indian
755
indian recipe
1,927
indian casino
736
indian music
1,890
american indian jewelry
726
indian railway
1,714
indian name
680
xxx indian
1,451
amer indian native
673
indian girl
1,416
indian art
672
indian porn
1,198
indian babe
653
indian actress
1,109
bureau of indian affair
643
indian food
1,065
indian model
623
indian nude
933
indian cooking
615
native american indian
932
indian matrimonial
610
american indian art
874
california indian casino
556
indianapolis indian
849
indian picture
554
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.
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Modern Translation: Indian
Language Translations for "Indian"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Afrikaans
  
Rooihuid (American Indian), Indies, Indiaans (Red, Red Indian), Indiaan (American Indian), Indiër. (various references)
   
Albanian
  
indian (Hindi, hindoo, hindu), lëkurëkuq (injun, red indian, redskin). (various references)
   
Arabic 
  
‏هندي من الهند, ‏هندي الجزر, ‏هندي, ‏الهندي الأحمر الأميركى, ‏إحدى لغات هنود إميركة. (various references)
   
Basque
  
indiar. (various references)
   
Bulgarian 
  
от царевично брашно, индийски, индиец, индиански език (amerind), индиански (amerind), индианец (american indian, amerind, injun, red man, redskin). (various references)
   
Chinese 
  
印第安语, 印度人 . (various references)
   
Czech
  
indický, indiánský, indián (american indian, red indian), ind. (various references)
   
Danish
  
inder. (various references)
   
Dutch
  
Indisch (Indonesian), Indiase (Indian woman), Indiaas, Indiër. (various references)
   
Esperanto
  
indiano (American Indian), indiana (Red Indian), hindo, hindino (Indian lady, Indian woman), hinda. (various references)
   
Faeroese
  
mais (corn, Indian corn, maize, mealies). (various references)
   
Farsi 
  
هندی  (Indic), هندوستانی  (Hindustani), وابسته به هندی ها. (various references)
   
Finnish
  
intialainen. (various references)
   
French
  
Indien (American Indian), Indienne (Indian woman). (various references)
   
Frisian
  
Yndysk, yndiaan (American Indian). (various references)
   
German
  
indisch, Inder, indianisch (Red Indian), Indianer (american indian, IndianAmerican, redskin), inderin. (various references)
   
Greek 
  
Ινδός (Hindu). (various references)
   
Hebrew 
  
אינדיאני (red indian), הודי, הדי. (various references)
   
Hungarian
  
hindu (baboo, hindoo, hindu, Indian woman). (various references)
   
Icelandic
  
maís (corn, Indian corn, maize, mealies). (various references)
   
Italian
  
indiano (American, American Indian, amerind, hindu, Red Indian, redskin), indiano americano (American, American Indian). (various references)
   
Japanese Kanji 
  
印度人  (Hindu), インダス文明  (egghead, inch, India paper, Indian jewellry, Indian summer, Indiana, Indianapolis 500-mile race, Induscivilization, integer, integrate, integrated, integration, Intel, intellectual, intelligence, intelligence service, intelligence test, intelligent, intelligent building, intelligent city, intelligent terminal, intelligentsia, Intelsat, intensity, intensive, intentional, interactive, interior, interior adviser, interior coordinator, interior craft, interior design, interior designer, interline leads, International Telecommunications Satellite Organization, Inturist, pornographic videos). (various references)
   
Japanese Katakana 
  
いんどじん (Hindu), インディアン . (various references)
   
Korean 
  
인도 (Beaconing, guiding, India). (various references)
   
Manx
  
Injinagh. (various references)
   
Norwegian
  
mais (corn, indian corn, maize, mealies). (various references)
   
Occitan
  
indian. (various references)
   
Papiamen
  
indjan (American Indian, Red Indian). (various references)
   
Pig Latin
  
indianay.(various references)
   
Portuguese
  
indiano (hindustani), hindu (hindoo, hindu, hindustani). (various references)
   
Romanian
  
indian american, indian (injun, red indian), locuitor al indiei. (various references)
   
Russian 
  
индийский (hindustani). (various references)
   
Serbo-Croatian
  
indijski (hindi, hindu), indijanski, indijanac (injun, red indian), indijac. (various references)
   
Spanish
  
indio (red indian), indico, amerindio (American Indian, amerind, amerindian), indio americano (American Indian). (various references)
   
Sranan
  
ingi (American Indian, Red Indian), panari (American Indian). (various references)
   
Swahili
  
Mhindi. (various references)
   
Swedish
  
indisk (Iindian), indian (American Indian, injun, red indian), indier (Iindian, wog). (various references)
   
Tagalog
  
Karagatang Indiyo (Indian Ocean). (various references)
   
Turkish
  
Kizilderílí (American Indian), kızılderililere ait, kızılderili dili, kızılderili (american indian, amerind, amerindian, injun, red, red indian, redskin), hintli (hindu), hint (indo-), hindistan'a ait (hindustani), Híntlí. (various references)
   
Turkmen 
  
aяbogdaю (Indian style). (various references)
   
Ukrainian
  
індієць, індійський, індіанка (squaw), індіанець. (various references)
   
Vietnamese 
  
thuốc lá (canister, indian weed, mild, stub), thu muộn  những năm cuối cùng nhàn tản của cuộc đời (indian summer), người da đỏ (red indian, red man, redskin), mực nho (india ink, indian ink), môn vật Ân-ddộ (indian wrestling), hạt ngô (indian corn), bột ngô (indian meal). (various references)
   
Yucatec
  
masewal (American Indian). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.
Top     
Ancestral Language Translations: Indian
LanguagePeriodTranslations
Latin500 BCE-Modern
inde. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.
Top     
Misspellings: Indian
Misspellings
"Indian" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Finjan, ginadian, Gindin, idaian, indain, Indean, Indena, Indias, Indien, Indral, Inria, Iudin, Kindia. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).
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Anagrams: Indian
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
Words within the letters "a-d-i-i-n-n"
-2 letters: inia, nidi.
-3 letters: aid, ain, and, ani, din, inn, nan.
-4 letters: ad, ai, an, id, in, na.
 Words containing the letters "a-d-i-i-n-n"
 
+1 letter: indamin, indican.
 
+2 letters: conidian, diazinon, draining, guanidin, indamine, indamins, indicans, indicant, invading.
 
+3 letters: adjoining, anodizing, cnidarian, cyaniding, detaining, diazinons, guanidine, guanidins, hindbrain, indamines, indicants, indignant, ingrained, islanding, kidnaping, kundalini, mainlined, nonacidic, ordaining.
 
+4 letters: admonition, antidoting, antimonide, badinaging, bradykinin, brigandine, cnidarians, daintiness, damnifying, dandifying, datelining, definienda, depainting, deraigning, destaining, detraining, diagnosing, diamonding, disbanding, discanting, disdaining, distaining, distancing, divination, dominating, domination, dynamiting, enfilading, guanidines, headlining, hindbrains, incendiary, incidental, indagating, indagation, indexation, indicating, indication, indurating, induration, inordinate, insinuated, inundating, inundation, invaliding, iodinating, iodination, jaundicing, kidnapping, kundalinis, maintained, mandarinic, marinading, nationwide, niggarding, ordination, pinnatifid, poniarding, reinvading, unbraiding.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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INDEX
 1. Definition 
 2. Synonyms 
 3. Crosswords 
 4. Usage: Modern 		 5. Usage: Commercial 
 6. Images: Slideshow 
 7. Images: Photo Album 
 8. Images: Digital Art 		 9. Sounds 
 10. Quotations: Familiar 
 11. Quotations: Historic 
 12. Quotations: Fiction 		 13. Quotations: Non-fiction 
 14. Quotations: Speeches 
 15. Usage Frequency 
 16. Names: Company Usage 		 17. Expressions 
 18. Expressions: Internet 
 19. Translations: Modern 
 20. Translations: Ancient 		 21. Abbreviations 
 22. Acronyms 
 23. Derivations 
 24. Anagrams 		 25. Bibliography 


  
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