Desi
Desi [d̪eːsi] is a loose term for the cultures, and products of the Indian subcontinent or South Asia and their diaspora, derived from the Ancient Sanskrit देश (deśá or deshi), meaning Land or Country. "Desi" countries include Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Aside from the subcontinent, there are also large Desi populations in Trinidad and Tobago, Australia, Canada, Fiji, Guyana, Malaysia, Mauritius, the Middle East (Saudi Arabia and the UAE in particular), New Zealand, Singapore, Suriname, the United Kingdom, Caribbean, and the United States, among other regions.
Etymology
Assamese: দেশী, Bengali: দেশি, Gujarati: દેશી, Hindi: देसी, Kannada: ದೇಶಿ , Malayalam: ദേശി, Marathi: देशी, Sinhalese: දේශිය, Odia: ଦେଶୀ, Punjabi: ਦੇਸੀ, Tamil: தேசி, Telugu: దేశీయుడు-desiyudu not as commonly used as Bharatyeeudu, Urdu: دیسی, Malay: desa
The ethnonym belongs in the endonymic category (i.e. it is a self-appellation). Desi is an Indo-Aryan term that originates from the Sanskrit word (Sanskrit: देश) deśha- ("region, province, country"). Indo-Aryan Sanskrit is the root of more than 25 Indo-Aryan languages and the first known usage of the Sanskrit root 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, (Sanskrit: स्वदेश) swadeś refers to one's own country or homeland, while (Sanskrit: परदेश) paradeś refers to another's country or a foreign land.