The small river Inde has its source in Eastern Belgium, runs through Aachen-Kornelimünster, Eschweiler and Inden, and flows into the river Rur near Jülich. Because of lignite opencast mining, it has been diverted in 2003 next to Inden-Lamersdorf.

The brooks Omerbach, Otterbach, Saubach, Vichtbach and Wehebach flow into the Inde.

Its name is of Celtic origin: Inda. The Inde has a counterpart, a "small Inde", in France: the Andelle, which is a 55 km long river in the French département Seine-Maritime and whose original name was Indella. The suffix -ella is an example for Celtic river names comparing for instance Mosella (= Moselle, i.e. "small Mosa (= Maas)"). For the name "Inde", the Indoeuropean stem *wed (= water) is supposed, like in words like Italian "onda" and French "onde" (= wave).

The river Inde acquired historical importance, when Kaiser Louis the Pious (or Louis I or Louis the Debonair) founded the monastery of Kornelimünster at one of its old passages in 815.

Inde is also the name that the Apache tribe of Native Americans used to describe themselves.