Desi  Desi are the people, cultures, and products of the Indian subcontinent and their diaspora, derived from Ancient Sanskrit "देश (deśá)", meaning "Land" or "Country". Although "desi" is sometimes viewed as a loose term, and countries that are considered "desi" are subjective, it is generally accepted that the desi trace their origin specifically to the majority of South Asia (i.e. the Indian subcontinent), the countries of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The ethnonym belongs in the endonymic category (i.e., it is a self-appellation). "Desi" is borrowed from Hindi-Urdu "deśī" 'national', ultimately from Sanskrit ', derived from ' () 'region, province, country'. 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". Thus, ' () refers to one's own country or homeland, while ' () refers to another's country or a foreign land. While the original Sanskrit word meant 'country', 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. Desi contrasts with the Hindustani language word "vilāyati" (Anglicised as "Blighty"), which originally referred only 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. People from the subcontinent living in "vilāyat" (Britain) or in other Western countries refer to themselves and their ethnic culture as "desi". The "desi/vilāyati" pair of antonyms is widely used in subcontinent languages (Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali etc.). After the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the United States dramatically increased immigration from the subcontinent. As increasing numbers of students from the subcontinent arrived in the U.S. and UK, their countries of origin were colloquially referred to as "". For example, all things Indian including Indian expatriates were referred to as "desi".