why is the king's indian called the king's indian?

fianchetto bishop= indian, for some reason

fianchetto in king's indian: on the king side, the king's bishop

Thus the piece is the king's indian, and the opening is named after that

Don't try that with nimzo indian though, they broke the rules and used indian for a non fianchetto. Nimzowitsch did sort of come up with that idea, but since nimzowitsch defense was already taken (1 e4 Nc6) they were a little looser with the indian term. The bishop on b4 does put pressure on the center at least like the fianchettoes, but that's what any good bishop should do anyway.

LOL

Because it's not the King's Pakistani.

 How about the Clinton Defense, aka "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky".

No, he played the Queen's Indian and the Nimzo-Indian though.

But his arrival in Europe was in 1929. when the hyper-modern movement was already all the rage so it's unlikely that it was him specifically that inspired the name "Indian defenses." 

I prefer the bush cower defense

It's because in the original Indian game of chess, Pawns could only move one square... the two-square hop was introduced in Europe (along with castling and a re-vamped Queen).

So defenses that involve Black moving his Pawns only one square are known as "Indian" defenses.

I'm sure that ... e6 was one of the standard openings back when chess was played according to Indian rules, yes.

I think you've got your Indians confused. Native Americans have no connection with India.

I think 'Indian defences' were so called because when first played the term was used in derogatory way and referred to black justing make a pawn move one square forward - Indian chess not having a two square first move option for pawns.

When I first started playing chess, as now, I never had any coaching and imagined the King's Indian was so named because the fianchetto formation near the king resembled a teepee..

Yes, Kings Indian Defense - Purely from the Land of India, Origins in West Bengal 1848 by Mohesh Chander Banerjee and his Kingdoms played very often with this Tradition. Indian Defenses. Believe it or not he has also demonstrated Grunfeld Defense, some 38 years before Ernst Grünfeld was born!.  Thank you India for such an amazing Chess openings ! Earlier it was played by White, but Russians suggested to use it for Black Opening also, that changed a new Era of Indian Defenses !

In chess 1.0, pawns move one square at a time. Europe introduced the two square move rule while India kept the one move only rule.  In the traditional Kings Indian, the king's pawn is the lead and the other pawns move one square at a time.

Thanks for the clarity "mohescandra" was a hilarious translation tho