1 “Adivasi” is the term now used in India to designate the original inhabitants (indigenous people) of a region.

2 Hand-spun cotton cloth popularized by Gandhi during the Independence movement as a defiant statement of self-reliance and a badge of membership in the Congress movement. Khadi is still worn today by many politicians and Gandhian workers.

3 $1.00 (U.S.)=Rs 43.3500. A crore is 10 million.

4 Dalits, literally “oppressed” or “ground-down,” is the preferred term for the people who used to be called “Untouchables” in India. Gandhi coined the term harijan (children of God) as a euphemism for these castes, but Dalits is preferred today by the more militant among them, and also has a more explicit political meaning.

5 Satyagraha, literally “life force,” was Gandhi’s term for civil disobedience. The term is now commonly applied to any movement that confronts its foe—typically, the State—nonviolently.

6 VHP, Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Literally, World Hindu Organization, part of the “Sangh” family of Hindu nationalist organizations to which the BJP (Bharatiya Janta Party) also belongs. The VHP was in the forefront of the move to destroy the Babri Mosque and build a Ram temple at Ayodhya (1992).

7 Prasad, or sacred food, is shared by devotees in an act of seeking benediction.

8 Yatra (literally, pilgrimage) can be translated as any journey “with purpose.”

9 BJP refers to the Bharatiya Janta Party, literally the Indian People’s Party, at present the largest single party of the governing coalition since the elections of 1998. It espouses a Hindu nationalist ideology, and its support is concentrated mostly in northern India.

10 The residence of the president of India, formerly the viceroy’s residence.