East Indian

{noun} a modern self-coined term used to describe the identity of an Indian Catholic Christian whose ancestry is from the Malabar coast of the Indian subcontinent. The two factors - geographic and religious are the identifying traits of this community as opposed to a common language, skin color, etc. Therefore “East Indian” is not an ethnic group (like African-American, Mongols, Mayans, Nepali, Nordic, Dravidian, etc) which can be separated from the rest of the Indian population on the basis of a specific DNA halogroup. However recent trends of migration to countries like Portugal & rest of Europe, Canada and adoption of foreign citizenship of those countries has shed the Indian identity (passport) for these people but retaining the Catholic Christian identity. Hence it is suitable to describe the “East Indian” as Catholic Christians from the Indian Malabar (west) Coast. {adjective} relating to the East Indies of Caribbean.