Hindustan

alternative archaic Hindostan · alternative archaic Hendostan · alternative archaic Hindoostan · alternative archaic Hendoostan · alternative archaic Indostan · alternative Hindusthan

1. colloquialIndia (Republic of India).

   Synonyms: Bharat

2. datedThe entire region of the Indian subcontinent.

   “The Government of Her Majesty the Queen, Empress of India, […] says the movement is ‘for the remission of tax, the advancement of Hindustan, and the strengthening of the British Government.’

   1909, Rudyard Kipling, “The Enlightenments of Pagett, M.P.”, in Under the Deodars (The Works of Rudyard Kipling), Edinburgh de Luxe edition, Boston, Mass.; London: The Edinburgh Society, →OCLC, page 206

   2 more examples

   He did not wish to steal anything. He only desired to know what to steal, and, incidentally, how to get away when he had stolen it. He thanked all the Gods of Hindustan, and Herbert Spencer, that there remained some valuables to steal.

   1900 December – 1901 October, Rudyard Kipling, chapter XIII, in Kim, London: Macmillan and Co., published 1901, →OCLC, page 341

   There, floor piled upon floor above the chattering throngs, were these less gregarious units, each something of a mystery to his fellow-guests, each in his separate cell; and each as remote from real human companionship as if that cell were fashioned, not in the bricks of London, but in the rocks of Hindustan!

   1913, Sax Rohmer, chapter 15, in The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu

3. obsoleteThe northern (properly north central) region of India.
4. obsoleteThe Hindustani language.