| A | B |
|---|
| "Nehru dynasty" | family that led India the first 40 years after independence |
| Bharata Janata Party (BJP) | Hindu fundamentalists who pushed for a Hindu-principled government in India |
| Golden Temple | occupied by Sikh rebels who wanted their own state |
| Bhutto family | a civilian family who ruled Pakistan |
| Kashmir | a state in northern India, fought over by India and Pakistan |
| Mother Teresa | a Catholic nun who set up Sister of Charity, known for helping the poor and sick in India, especially Calcutta |
| Harijans | the Untouchables, the lowest status in the Indian caste system |
| Bangladesh | former West Pakistan |
| Afghanistan | invaded by the Soviets in 1979, U.S. supplied weapons to guerillas in Pakistan forcing Russia to withdraw, recent cite of War on Terrorism |
| Sri Lanka | Buddhist island off India (formerly Ceylon) where the Tamil minority assassinated India's leader Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 |
| Gamal Abdel Nasser | Egyptian president in the 1950s |
| Kurds | ethnic group in northern Iraq, Iran, and Turkey, that was suppressed to avoid autonomy (their own state) |
| Arab League | promoted Pan-Arabism, working together in crises and economy |
| Kibbutzim | collective farms set up in the newly organized country of Israel in 1948 |
| hejab | the Muslim woman's head covering, not required wear in some Middle Eastern countries today |
| Balfour Declaration | Britain's idea for a Jewish State in 1917 that bore fruit in 1947 when Jewish state of Israel was established |
| Ruhollah Khomeini | Fundamentalist Shiite Moslem who took over Iran and led it against Western ideas |
| Aswan High Dam | built on the upper Nile by Nasser, with the Soviet's help |
| Anwar Sadat | Egyptian president when Nasser died, improved relations with U.S. and Israel, assassinated in 1981 |
| Hosni Mubarak | Sadat's successor, confirmed peace with Israel and improved relations with other Arabs |
| Muhammad Mosaddiq | Iranian nationalist who nationalized oil industry and led Iran |
| Suez Canal | Nasser nationalized it in 1956 for Egypt, ending British control |
| The Shah | Iranian anti-communist leader which the U.S. helped put in power in 1953 and helped stay in power for 25 years |
| Savak | The Shah's secret police who increasingly crushed Kurds and left-wing political groups |
| Intifada | uprisings by young Palestinians who defied Israeli soldiers |
| Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) | waged guerrilla war against the Israelis |
| Yasir Arafat | head of the PLO, signed an historic pact with Rabin in 1994 |
| Yitzhak Rabin | Israeli Prime Minister who gave some self-rule to the Palestinians |
| Saddam Husein | Iraqi dictator who took some of Iran leading to an 8-year war, then invaded Kuwait leading to the Gulf War |
