Does the Oxford Dictionary say that India means old-fashioned and criminal people? Know the truth.

For the last few years, some people in our country are demanding to change the name of the country from India to Bharat. Regarding this case, the Supreme Court said that both the names India and Bharat have been mentioned in our constitution. The case was later dismissed.

Now a post is going viral on social media claiming that the Oxford Dictionary defines India as old-fashioned and criminal people. 

But Fact Crescendo found the viral claim misleading. In the Oxford dictionary, it is not our country India which has been mentioned as old-fashioned and criminal people, but it was referring to Indians (Native Americans). 

What’s the claim? 

Social media users are claiming that the meaning of the word Indian is illegitimate children. That’s why the Britishers used to write ‘Dogs and Indians are not allowed’ in movie halls and many public places. 

The old Oxford Dictionary also mentioned the synonym of Indian as Old fashioned and criminal peoples on page number 789. It was also mentioned that Indian means those whose parents were not married in a church. Such children are also considered as illegitimate children. 

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Fact Check- 

After searching on Google, we found the Oxford Dictionary on a website. We did not find the word India or Indian on page number 789 of the dictionary. 

Then we searched for the publication of the Oxford Dictionary in the year 1934. Even in this publication, we did not find the word India mentioned in page number789. In this page, only synonyms of words beginning with ‘O’ were mentioned. 

We found that the meaning of the words India and Indians were mentioned in page number 580. The meaning of India in the dictionary is – a country in the Asian continent which is located in the eastern part of the Indus river and in the southern part of the Himalayan mountains. 

The meaning of the word Indian in the dictionary is – the original inhabitants of America and the West Indies. The Britannica website also states that the original inhabitants of the Americas were called Indians because Christopher Columbus repeatedly mistakenly believed that he had reached South Asia. Thinking himself correct, he started calling the people there Indios. (Indios means the people of the Indus Valley)

We also found that another Oxford Dictionaries website also referred to Indian as an old-fashioned and sometimes offensive members of a Native American race. 

Conclusion: 

Fact Crescendo found the claim to be misleading. It is true that Oxford Dictionary described Indian as old-fashioned and criminal people, but it did not refer to our country India or us as Indians. The synonym given by the dictionary referred to Indians (Native Americans)