What is the politically correct term for someone from India?

Question

(Please only serious answers.) I was just wondering if people from the country of India get insulted with the term 'Indian' or if they prefer being referred to as 'Native American'. I wasn't sure if the term Native American referred to all that have Indian heritage or not. Thank you so much!

Answer 1

I am a Native woman.

The first term the colonizers used to refer to Native people was Indian. They forced this term upon us, we did not choose it for ourselves. This term is generally considered slightly offensive to Native people. Eventually society and the government realized this wasn't an appropriate term. Now the politically correct term is Native American. It refers to all Native American (Indian) people. Again. We did not choose this term! Many Native people prefer to be called: Native, Indigenous, Tribal, or by their specific tribe's names. If anyone has a problem with the term Native American they should complain to the U.S. government (not Native people) and ask the government to allow Natives to choose their own terminology.

As for if it is offensive to Indian (from India) people I do not know. I just hope they know it is not the choosing of Native people to be called this. I would not want to offend anyone as a Native person. I respect their opinion in this matter.

What I generally hear people refer to Indians from India as is:
East Indian. But I do not know if this is correct and it is not my place to say so since I am not from India.

Answer 2

"Asian Indian" or "East Indian" are terms that I have heard used to avoid confusion when referring to citizens of the country of India and not Native Americans.

Your question begs the question, "Why would people from India want to be called Native Americans??? India is not a subset of the Americas, it is a sovereign republic in the opposite hemispheres of the globe.

Answer 3

Native Americans were only called Indians because when first discovered it was thought America was an Indian spice Island so the people found there were thought to be Indian.
Not as is now known American.

There are so many different parts to India.
People from Gujarat, would be called Gujarati, people from the Punjab would be Punjabi, and so on, but the Indian people I know have never said Indian was an offencive term.

Answer 4

I have never heard that people from India would feel insulted because of someone calling them Indian.
Just like you won't be offenced if someone call you a American, a Chinese, Japanese, or a Canadian.

But actually, why would Native American be called Indian at the first place??
Did early Europeans think that the Native American looks like Indian when they first arrived in North America?

Answer 5

Indians

Answer 6

Native American, my experience tells me, refers to the descendants of the early inhabitants of North America who were called 'Indians' by the explorers. The Cherokee springs to mind. People from India, however, are in fact Indians. There is nothing disrespectful or repugnant or politically incorrect in referring to them as Indians.

Answer 7

Hello. The politically correct term for someone from india is indian.

Answer 8

indian or asian