In its most general sense Anglo-Indian refers to any tangible or intangible entity with both British and Indian provenance or heritage. Though this page discusses a specific community, the term "Anglo-Indian" is sometimes used in the West more broadly to describe people who have mixed Indian and British ancestry. To add to the confusion, the term was also used in common parlance in Britain during the colonial era to refer to those (such as hunter-naturalist Jim Corbett) who were of British descent, but were born and raised in India, usually because their parents were serving in the colonial administration or armed forces; "Anglo-Indian" in this sense was synonymous with "domiciled British." Finally, this term should not be confused with the similar-sounding "Indo-Anglian," an adjective applied to literature in English produced by Indian authors.

The Anglo-Indian community in its proper sense is a distinct (and statistically very small) minority community (0.00018%-0.00036% of the total population in India) originating in India, consisting of people of 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 an 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 also embraces the descendents of the Luso Indians from the old Portuguese colonies of both the Coromandel and Malabar Coasts , who joined the East India Company as mercenaries and brought their families with them (see Herbert Stark's "Hostages to India" ). Similarly the definition includes mestiços (mixed Portuguese and Indian) of Goa and people of Indo-French, and Indo-Dutch descent .

Anglo-Indians formed a significantly small portion of the minority community in India before independence, but today more live outside India than within it. The community has historically been concentrated around towns and cities that were important railway terminals, as a large proportion of them worked in the Indian Railways and the postal and telegraph services. Their numbers in India have dwindled significantly as most emigrated to the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and, to a lesser extent, Canada and the United States.