On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 2:50 PM, Amir E. Aharoni <
amir.aharoni(a)mail.huji.ac.il> wrote:
So are the words "India" and
"Indian". If this logic is true, then the
English name of the Republic of India, and the name of this mailing
list would be derogatory as well. Evidently, to most people they
aren't.
The use of the word "India" as a singular polity was a choice made by our
former colonial master. The name "India" found general agreement among the
leaders of the new republic, who not so coincidentally, were also
overwhelmingly from the northern parts of India.
See also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India#Etymology
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics by PH Matthews distinguishes
Indic scripts from the Dravidian scripts, clearly specifying that Indic
refers to the languages belonging to the Indo-Aryan Family (see page 175 of
410)
Text reproduced below:
Indian scripts . Writing systems derived directly or indirectly from the *
Brahmi script, attested in ancient India from the second half of the 1st
millennium BC. Modern forms include *Devanagari, used in particular for
Hindi, and the separate scripts, often with characters of very different
shapes, that have developed for other major*Indo-Aryan and for the *
Dravidian languages: in addition, those of *Tibetan, and of most languages
in South-east Asia, including *Burmese, *Khmer, *Lao, and *Thai. Earlier
forms were used still more widely, in Central Asia with the spread of
Buddhism and e.g. for *Javanese before the Muslim conquest.
The basic type is *alpha-syllabic, as *Devanagari. The precise historical
links, both within and outside ,are still partly uncertain: but for those
in South-east Asia, the Mon script, attested in Burma ( Myanmar) from the
11 th to the 12th century AD, and before it the Grantha script, used in the
coastal area of Tamil Nadu from the 5th century AD, were major
intermediaries.
Indic = Indo-Aryan.
(Source:
http://www.questia.com/read/55186560/the-concise-oxford-dictionary-of-lingu…
)
Kind Regards,
Anirudh