East Indians (ethnic group)
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East Indians are an ethnic or sub-ethnic group, based in and around the city of Bombay (Mumbai) in western India. These people, part of the original Konkani ethnic group, had been evangelized by force under Portuguese auspices, and had partly Lusitanized. Later the area was conquered by the Maratha Empire, and the Marathi language was forced on the people. Under British rule, they were known as Bombay Portuguese, but, when immigrants from Portuguese-ruled Goa began to enter Bombay, in order to distinguish themselves from the Goans (whom the British also called Portuguese), they renamed themselves "East Indians", purportedly after the British East India Company, in order to demonstrate their loyalty to the British, and as locals of Bombay as distinguished from the Goans.
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