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Vanniyar (வன்னியர்)
Vanniyar (வன்னியர்), also Vanniar or Vanniakula Kshatriya, is a large Tamil Most Backward Class caste of northern Tamil Nadu, associated with the PMK party; its 10.5% internal reservation was struck down by the Madras High Court (2021) and the Supreme Court (2022).
Vaquero
Vaquero: Spanish-language term for a mounted cattle herder, from vaca (cow), first attested 1246. Source of American cowboy gear, techniques, and words such as rodeo, lasso, and buckaroo.
Varginha UFO incident
The Varginha UFO incident (Caso Varginha, ET de Varginha), 20 January 1996, Varginha, Minas Gerais, Brazil: three girls saw a crouching creature; claims of military capture and cover-up were dismissed by a 1997 army inquiry as misidentification of Mudinho.
VARK learning styles
VARK learning styles is an educational psychology model introduced by Neil Fleming and Colleen Mills in 1992 that sorts learners into visual, aural, read/write, and kinesthetic preferences.
Varna (वर्ण) (Hinduism)
Varna (वर्ण) is the fourfold Hindu textual classification of society into Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras, first described in the Rigveda's Purushasukta and elaborated in the Manusmriti; distinct from jati, the thousands of endogamous caste groups structuring social life.
Vedda (වැද්දා)
Vedda (වැද්දා), also Vanniyalettho or Wanniyalaeto, are the indigenous people of Sri Lanka speaking a language isolate. Genetically drifted with deep links to Indian tribal populations, they number under 1% of the population and lack formal indigenous recognition.
Vellalar (வேளாளர்)
Vellalar (வேளாளர்), also Vellala, dominant Tamil landowning farmer caste; highest-ranking Sudras of the Tamil country, chief rice growers and irrigation managers; dominant caste of Jaffna; name also adopted by Devendrakula Vellalar Scheduled Castes.
Vellappally Natesan (വെള്ളാപ്പിള്ളി നടേശൻ)
Vellappally Natesan (വെള്ളാപ്പിള്ളി നടേശൻ), Ezhava community leader, general secretary of SNDP Yogam and secretary of Sree Narayana Trusts; Padma Bhushan 2026; BDJS NDA ally; named in the ₹15 crore microfinance vigilance case.
Venezuelan refugee crisis
The Venezuelan refugee crisis is the mass displacement of over 7.9 million Venezuelans by December 2024, driven by economic collapse, political repression, and shortages of food and medicine.
Verbal fluency test
A verbal fluency test is a timed neuropsychological task in which a person produces as many unique words as possible under a letter or category constraint in 60 seconds.
Verbal learning test
A verbal learning test is a neuropsychological assessment in which a person hears a word list, recalls it over repeated trials, and is retested after a delay.
Veronica Bingham, Countess of Lucan
Veronica Bingham, Countess of Lucan (Veronica Mary Duncan, 1937-2017), known as Lady Lucan, wife of the missing 7th Earl of Lucan; only witness of the 1974 Sandra Rivett murder, survived the attack, insisted her husband was dead, died by suicide in 2017.
Veronique Peck
Veronique Peck, nee Veronique Passani (1932-2012), French-born journalist for France Soir, philanthropist, and wife of actor Gregory Peck from 1955; raised $50 million for the American Cancer Society and led the Gregory Peck Reading Series in Los Angeles.
VeryDarkMan
VeryDarkMan (VDM), Martins Vincent Otse, born 1994, is a Nigerian social media commentator and activist known as "online police", famous for call-out videos, defamation suits (Falana, Mercy Chinwo), a fabricated NGO theft claim, and deepfake impersonation scams.
Vicki Morgan
Vicki Morgan, American model and longtime mistress of Diners Club founder Alfred Bloomingdale; filed a 1982 palimony suit, was murdered in Los Angeles in July 1983; roommate Marvin Pancoast confessed then recanted.
Victim mentality
Victim mentality, or victimhood mindset, is a self-perception of persistent victimhood, studied individually as the Tendency for Interpersonal Victimhood (four dimensions including rumination and moral elitism) and collectively as collective victimhood in intergroup conflict.
Victor of Aveyron
Victor of Aveyron, the wild boy of Aveyron, a feral child found in southern France around 1800 and educated by physician Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard; his partially failed case shaped early special education.
Victoria Roshchyna
Viktoriia Roshchyna (Вікторія Рощина), Ukrainian freelance journalist for Ukrainska Pravda and Hromadske who reported from Russian-occupied Ukraine, was detained in August 2023 and died 19 September 2024 in Russian custody in Kizel, Perm Krai; her returned body showed torture signs and missing organs.
Video modeling
Video modeling is a behavioral teaching method in which a learner watches a video of a model performing a skill, then imitates it; it is an evidence-based practice for autism.
Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (விடுதலை சிறுத்தைகள் கட்சி)
Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (விடுதலை சிறுத்தைகள் கட்சி), the Liberation Panther Party, is a Dalit-led Tamil Nadu party founded in 1982, led by Thol. Thirumavalavan, and in electoral politics since 1999.
Viet people
Viet (Kinh) people, Vietnam's majority ethnic group (85.3% in 2019), Austroasiatic Việt–Mường language family, speakers of Vietnamese; Lac Viet origins, Dong Son culture, millennium of Chinese rule, global Viet kieu diaspora.
Vietnamese Americans
Vietnamese Americans are people in the United States who trace origins to Vietnam, about 2.3 million in 2023, largely from refugee resettlement after the 1975 fall of Saigon.
Vilhjalmur Stefansson
Vilhjalmur Stefansson was a Canadian-born explorer, anthropologist, and author who participated in multiple polar expeditions and commanded the Canadian Arctic Expedition between 1913 and 1918.
Vilma Espín
Vilma Espín Guillois (1930–2007), Cuban revolutionary and chemical engineer, Frank País's lieutenant in the July 26 Movement underground, founder and lifelong president of the Federation of Cuban Women, and Raúl Castro's wife.
Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales
The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS) are semi-structured interview assessments of adaptive behavior, the everyday personal and social skills a person actually performs, used in intellectual disability and autism evaluation.
Viola Desmond
Viola Desmond (1914-1965) was an African Nova Scotian businesswoman jailed in 1946 for refusing to leave the whites-only main floor of New Glasgow's Roseland Theatre; pardoned in 2010, honored on Canada's $10 note.
Viola Liuzzo
Viola Liuzzo (Viola Fauver Gregg Liuzzo), 1925–1965, Detroit civil rights activist and mother of five murdered by Ku Klux Klansmen on Highway 80 after the Selma-to-Montgomery march, with FBI informant Gary Thomas Rowe in the killers' car.
Violence
Violence is the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or a group, causing injury, death, or psychological harm.
Violence against Christians in Israel
Violence against Christians in Israel: spitting, assault, and vandalism against clergy and holy sites, mostly in Jerusalem, rising sharply since 2023 and documented by the RFDC and Rossing Center.
Violence against Muslims in India
Violence against Muslims in India: communal riots, vigilante lynchings, and state-linked abuses targeting India's largest religious minority, including the February 2020 Delhi riots (53 dead, 40 Muslim), cow-protection vigilante attacks, anti-conversion law enforcement, and documented police excesses in Uttar Pradesh.