Hindu Linux
Not many people know the origin of the term “gentoo” or how it is related to India. I was messing around with a linux distro called Gentoo Linux and bumped into a description on wikipedia.
There are many descriptions of the word on the internet (such as the term used by the portuguese to describe Telugu speaking people). But this one coming from what looks like a Hindu nationalist website, looks interesting:
An Arab geographical term “Hindu” was mutated by the British into a fictional religious category “Gentoo”. The tribals — the Kols, the Bhils, the Hos, the Nagas, the Mizos — had all disappeared. The Sikhs, the Buddhists, the Jains, the Zorastrians had all disappeared. The British had fought against and displaced the Muslim rulers — so they recognized the Muslim category — the rest of Indian diversity was lumped into one unreliable category of “Gentoo”, and a fiction of a “Code of Gentoo laws” was created in a land in which religion arose from Dharma, not texts and written laws.
Although the name Gentoo Linux comes from the penguins , its connection to India is fascinating. I suspect many Indians wouldn’t be flattered by the above description.
Hmm, the above wikipedia page blames the French for the derogatory term first used to describe Egyptians.