Anglo-Indians are people who have mixed Indian and British ancestry, or people of British descent born or living in India, Pakistan, or Burma, now mainly historical in the latter sense. British residents in India used the term "Eurasians" for people of mixed European and Indian descent (cf. George Orwell's Burmese Days). The Oxford Dictionary's definition of "Anglo-Indian" is "Of mixed British and Indian parentage, of Indian descent but born or living in Britain, or (chiefly historical) of British descent or birth but living or having lived long in India".

The Anglo-Indian community in its modern sense is a distinct, small minority community originating in India. It consists of people from mixed British and Indian ancestry whose native language is English. An Anglo-Indian's British ancestry was usually bequeathed paternally.

Article 366(2) of the Indian Constitution defines Anglo-Indian as "a person whose father or any of whose other male progenitors in the male line is or was of European descent but who is domiciled within the territory of India and is or was born within such territory of parents habitually resident therein and not established there for temporary purposes only". This definition extends "Anglo-Indian" to include Indians of purely European (male) ancestry.