Indo-Trinidadian and Tobagonian

Indo-Trinidadian and Tobagonian are nationals of Trinidad and Tobago of Indian or other South Asian ancestry. Ethnically Indo-Trinidadian and Tobagonian are collectively knowns as Hindustani people (People of Hindustan), specifically known as Hindvi (People of Hind) a panethnicity primarily living in the North Indian Hind Region of India also known as the Hindi belt, which is located in the Gangetic Plain of the Ganga and Yamuna rivers in North India, between the Himalayas and the Vindhyas. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds. If the diverse Hindustani pan-ethnicity is regarded as a single ethnic group, then it constitutes one of the world's largest.

Although the word "Hindustani" refers to people, it is historically important to understand the complex history, culture, ethos and demography of India. Certain groups of Hindustani people are identified with multiple identities, with a more localized prioritized ethnic orientation, for example, Bihari people, Haryanvi people, Avadhi people, Malvi people, Himachali people, Rajasthani people, in addition to further tribal, village,and/or religious identities. In the book "Perspectives On The Caribbean: A Reader In Culture, History, and Representation," by Philip W. Scher, Scher cites figures by respected Professor of Anthropology, Steven Vertovec; Of 94,135 Indian immigrants to Trinidad, between 1874-1917, 50.7 percent were from the NW/United Provinces (an area, which today, is largely encompassed by Uttar Pradesh), 24.4 percent hailed from the historic region of Oudh (Awadh), 13.5 percent were from Bihar, and lesser numbers from various other states and regions of the Indian Subcontinent, such as Punjab, West Bengal, and South India (as cited in Vertovec, 1992). Out of 134,1184 indentured laborers from India, 5000 distinguished themselves as "Madrasis" from the port of Madras and the ones from Calcutta as "Kalkatiyas".

Indo-Trinidadian and Tobagonians has now become interchangeable with Indians or East Indians. These were people who were taken from India by the British either as indentured laborers, workers or educated servicemen, primarily, between 1845-1917. Most of the Hindus and Muslims of Trinidad and Tobago are Indo-Trinidadian and Tobagonians.

In the book Finding a Place, author, journalist, editor, journalist and academic, Kris Rampersad challenges and rejects the notion of East Indians to describe people in Indian heritage in the Caribbean and traces their migration and adaptation from hypenated isolation inherent in the description Indo-Trinidadian or Indo-Caribbean for the unhypehnated integration into their societies as IndoTrinidadian and IndoCaribbean that embraces both their ancestral and their national identities.