Castes and Tribes of Southern India/Gentoo

by Edgar Thurston

Gentoo.— Gentoo or Jentu, as returned at times of census, is stated to be a general term applied to Balijas and Telugu speaking Sūdras generally. The word is said by Yule and Burnell *^[1] to be "a corruption of the Portuguese Gentio, a gentile or heathen, which they applied to the Hindus in contradistinction to the Moros or Moors, i.e., Mahomedans. The reason why the term became specifically applied to the Telugu people is probably because, when the Portuguese arrived, the Telugu monarchy of Vijayanagar was dominant over a great part of the peninsula." In a letter written from prison to Sir Philip Francis, Rājah Nuncomar referred to the fact that "among the English gentry, Armenians, Moores and Gentoos, few there is who is not against me." Gentoo still survives as a caste name in the Madras Quarterly Civil List (1906).

1. * Hobson-Jobson.