Names of India - Hind / Hindustan

Hind / Hindustan

The name Hind (Persian: هند‎) is derived from the Iranian equivalent of Indo-Aryan Sindh. The Persian -stān means "country" or "land" (cognate to Sanskrit sthāna "place, land").

India was called Hindustān (Persian: هندوستان‎) in Persian, although the term Hind is in current use. al-Hind الهند is the term in the Arabic language (e.g. in the 11th century Tarikh Al-Hind "history of India"). It also occurs intermittently in usage within India, such as in the phrase Jai Hind (Hindi: जय हिन्द).

The terms Hind and Hindustān were current in Persian and Arabic from the 11th century Islamic conquests: the rulers in the Sultanate and Mughal periods called their Indian dominion, centred around Delhi, Hindustan.

Hindustān, as is the term Hindu itself, entered the English language in the 17th century. In the 19th century, the term as used in English referred to the northern region of India between the Indus and Brahmaputra rivers and between the Himalayas and the Vindhyas in particular, hence the term Hindustani for the Hindi-Urdu language. Hindustan was in use synonymously with India during the British Raj.

Hind (Hindi: हिन्द) remains in use in Hindi. In contemporary Persian and Urdu language, the term Hindustan has come to mean the Republic of India. The same is the case with Arabic, where al-Hind is the name of the Republic of India.

Today, Hindustān is no longer in use as the official name for India, although some countries in Middle East (Gulf) still refer to it with one of the old names of India, i.e. Hind or al-Hind.

An alternate and infrequently cited theory on the origin of the word Hindustan puts it further the back in time. This may be based on the Sanskrit shloka from the Barhaspatya Samhita of the Rigveda (ca. 1700-1100 BC): Himalyam Samarabhya Yavadindusarovaram Tam Deonirmitam Desham Hindusthanam Prachakshate Translation: "The country which starts from Himalayas and the borders of which reach till the Indian Ocean (Indu Sarovaram), has been created by Gods and its name is Hindusthan."