Thanks for all the replies so far.

For those who think the question was manipulative, I offer no apologies. This was not meant to be quantitatively sound research and analysis, but a thumbnail sketch of reactions. In all such issues, particularly with words possessing strong and varied connotations, the connotations themselves can often provide the 'manipulation'. If, instead of 'Indian', the word I chose had been 'and' or 'the', would you have felt as manipulated? If not, then my question was valid, simply because I am/was trying to explore the range of connotations that the word has - and using as my base the amazingly varied membership of AWADtalk.

One point I didn't anticipate, which Jackie noted, was the fact that, since the post was by me, there would be certain connotations, or associations, pre-attached, as it were, to the word. For my inability to correct for that, I apologise.

My hypothesis, if there was one, was that in the US, the word 'Indian' is primarily associated with Native Americans (or Amerinds, or Aboriginal Americans, or Native Persons, or whatever is the current politically correct label for that group of people), whereas for anglophones outside the US, the word seems to be associated primarily with people/objects from either the Republic of India, or the South Asian sub-continent. This seems, so far, ot have been borne out by the replies.

Your indulgence in this matter has been greatly appreciated. Namaste

the sunshine ("wandering between two worlds/one dead, the other powerless to be born") warrior