People from the subcontinent living in vilāyat (Britain) or in other Western countries refer to themselves and their ethnic culture as desi.
ĭesi contrasts with the Hindustani language word vilāyati (Anglicised as ' Blighty'), which originally referred to Afghanistan and Central Asia, over time it came to refer to Britain (during the British rule vilāyat, an Arabic-origin word meaning 'state', signified Britain) but may also refer more generally to anything that is European or Western. The word 'Desi' is used to refer to something 'from the country' and with time its usage shifted more towards referring to people, cultures, and products of a specific region for example, desi food, desi calendars, and desi dress. The word 'Desi' comes from the Sanskrit word 'Desh' meaning 'country'. Thus, svadeśa (Sanskrit: स्वदेश) refers to one's own country or homeland, while paradeśa (Sanskrit: परदेश) refers to another's country or a foreign land. The first known usage of the Sanskrit word is found in the Natya Shastra (~200 BCE), where it defines the regional varieties of folk performing arts, as opposed to the classical, pan-Indian margi. Desi is borrowed from the Hindustani desī ( देसी,'national', ultimately from Sanskrit deśīya, derived from deśa ( देश) 'region, province, country'. The ethnonym belongs in the endonymic category (i.e., it is a self-appellation).
