The Inies or East Indies (or East India) is a term often used to refer to the islands of SE Asia, especially the Malay Archipelago. In a wider sense, the Indies is also used to describe lands of South and Southeast Asia, occupying all of the present Indian Union, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and also Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Brunei, Singapore, the Philippines, East Timor, Malaysia and Indonesia. (Dutch-held colonies in the area were known as the Dutch East Indies before Indonesian independence).