ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Answer: Persians called India as ‘Hindustan ’ or the land of Hindus. Hindu was derived from Sindhu as Indian civilization was on banks of Sindhu. Ancient Greeks called Hindustan India which is now referred to as Republic of India.

Detailed explanation-2: -The second-century Greek writer, Lucian mentions the name Indus for India in Latin. In old English, King Alfred, in the translation of Paulus Orosius, had used the name India. At the beginning of the medieval era, when the French people came to India, then they called India as Inde or Yende.

Detailed explanation-3: -The term “Hindu” traces back to Old Persian which derived these names from the Sanskrit name Sindhu ( ), referring to the river Indus. The Greek cognates of the same terms are “Indus” (for the river) and “India” (for the land of the river).

Detailed explanation-4: -The Mughal Empire (1526–1857) called its lands ‘Hindustan’. The term ‘Mughal’ itself was never used to refer to the land. As the empire expanded, so too did ‘Hindustan’. At the same time, the meaning of ‘Hindustan’ as the entire Indian subcontinent is also found in Baburnama and Ain-i-Akbari.

Detailed explanation-5: -From Middle English hinde, from Old English hindan (“at the rear, from behind”), Proto-Germanic *hinder (“behind, beyond”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱem-ta-(“down, below, with, far, along, against”), from *ḱóm (“beside, near, by, with”).