Santosh Helekar wrote: (Aug 16 ) ''' Most Goans who live in Goa and all other states of India know that they are and always been Indians . This is also true of most Indians who live abroad.'''
True, quite true not only for the last 64 years but from the day the INDIAN National Congress was formed in the late 19th century that people of India started considering themselves to be Indians. While denomination India was very popular with the greedy for spices and precious stones Europeans as far back as the 16th century, for the people residing in the Indian sub continent India was a strange term. The Portuguese called their possession in India as ''Estado da India '' (BC pl. note ) and for the British it was naturally known as British India. I could be wrong and stand to be corrected, the Indian nation was the creation of the British empire builders. For Shivaji and his descendents it was Maratha empire and for the Chitpawan brahmins who followed it was Peshwe empire but never an Indian empire and so it could be said of all other people of India who have lived in various parts of it.