Hindustan
1. the land of the Hindus, esp India north of the Deccan and excluding Bengal
2. the general area around the Ganges where Hindi is the predominant language
3. the areas of India where Hinduism predominates, as contrasted with those areas where Islam predominates
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Hindustan
a loose designation for the whole of India or for northern India, as opposed to the Deccan. More narrowly, “Hindustan” refers to the region inhabited by speakers of Hindustani, an area that encompasses the Ganges River valley from the Delhi region to the Varanasi (Benares) region.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.