Editing Hinduism (section)

== Etymology ==
{{further|Hindu}}
The word ''Hindū'' is an [[Endonym and exonym|exonym]],<ref>{{harvnb|Siemens|Roodt|2009|p=546}}; {{harvnb|Leaf|2014|p=36}}</ref> derived from [[Sanskrit]] word ''Sindhu'',<ref>{{harvnb|Flood|1996|p=6}}; {{harvnb|Parpola|2015|loc="Chapter 1"}}</ref> the name of the [[Indus River]] as well as the country of the lower Indus basin ([[Sindh]]).<ref>{{harvnb|Singh|2008|p=433}}; {{harvnb|Flood|1996|p=6}}</ref><ref>{{citation |last=Eggermont |first=Pierre Herman Leonard |title=Alexander's Campaigns in Sind and Baluchistan and the Siege of the Brahmin Town of Harmatelia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nG0_xoDS3hUC&pg=PA145 |year=1975 |publisher=Peeters Publishers |isbn=978-90-6186-037-2 |page=145 |quote=''Sindhu'' means a stream, a river, and in particular the Indus river, but likewise it denotes the territory of the lower Indus valley, or modern Sind... It denotes a geographical unit to which different tribes may belong. |access-date=25 December 2024 |archive-date=23 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221123010456/https://books.google.com/books?id=nG0_xoDS3hUC&pg=PA145 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{refn |group=note |The Indo-Aryan word ''Sindhu'' means "river", "ocean".{{sfn|Flood|2003|p=3}} It is frequently being used in the [[Rigveda]]. The Sindhu-area is part of [[Āryāvarta]], "the land of the Aryans".}}
The [[Proto-Iranian language|Proto-Iranian]] sound change ''*s'' > ''h'' occurred between 850 and 600 BCE.<ref>{{harvp|Parpola|2015|loc="Chapter 9"}}: "In Iranian languages, Proto-Iranian *s became h before a following vowel at a relatively late period, perhaps around 850–600 BCE."</ref>
"Hindu" occurs in [[Avesta]] as ''heptahindu'', equivalent to Rigvedic ''sapta sindhu''.<ref name="Thapar p.38">{{Cite book |last=Thapar |first=Romila |title=Early India: From the Origins to A.D. 1300 |url=https://archive.org/details/earlyindiafromor00thap |publisher=University of California Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-520-24225-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/earlyindiafromor00thap/page/38 38]}}</ref>
The 6th-century BCE inscription of [[Darius I]] mentions [[Hindush]] (referring to Sindh) among his provinces.{{sfn|Sharma|2002}}{{sfn|Flood|1996|loc=p. 6: "The actual term ''Hindu'' first occurs as a [[Persian language|Persian]] geographical term for the people who lived beyond the river Indus (Sanskrit: ''Sindhu'')."}}
''Hindustan'' (spelt "''hndstn''") is found in a [[Sasanian Empire|Sasanian]] inscription from the 3rd century CE.<ref name="Thapar p.38" />
The term ''Hindu'' in these ancient records is a geographical term and did not refer to a religion.{{sfn|Flood|1996|p=6}}  In Arabic texts, "Hind", a derivative of Persian "Hindu", was used to refer to the land beyond the Indus<ref>{{harvnb|Thapar|2004|p=38}}: "...in Arab sources, ''al-Hind'' (the land beyond the Indus)."</ref> and therefore, all the people in that land were "Hindus", according to historian [[Romila Thapar]].<ref>{{harvnb|Thapar|1989|p=222}}: "Al-Hind was therefore a geographical identity and the Hindus were all the people who lived on this land." {{harvnb|Thapar|1993|p=77}}</ref>
By the 13th century, ''[[Hindustan]]'' emerged as a popular [[Names of India|alternative name]] of India.{{sfn|Thompson Platts|1884}}

Among the earliest known records of 'Hindu' with connotations of religion may be in the 7th-century CE Chinese text ''Record of the Western Regions'' by [[Xuanzang]].{{sfn|Sharma|2002}} In the 14th century, 'Hindu' appeared in several texts in Persian, Sanskrit and Prakrit within India, and subsequently in vernacular languages, often in comparative contexts to contrast them with Muslims or "Turks". Examples include the 14th-century Persian text ''Futuhu's-salatin'' by 'Abd al-Malik [[Isami (historian)|Isami]],{{refn|group=note|name="Hindu_term"}}
Jain texts such as ''[[Vividha Tirtha Kalpa]]'' and ''Vidyatilaka'',{{sfn|Truschke|2023|pp=251–252}}
circa 1400 [[Apabhramsa]] text ''Kīrttilatā'' by [[Vidyapati]],{{sfn|Truschke|2023|pp=253–254}} 16–18th century [[Bengali language|Bengali]] [[Gaudiya Vaishnavism|Gaudiya Vaishnava]] texts,<ref name="O'Connell">{{Cite journal |last=O'Conell |first=Joseph T. |year=1973 |title=The Word 'Hindu' in Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Texts |volume=93 |pages=340–344 |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |issue=3 |doi=10.2307/599467 |jstor=599467| issn=0003-0279 }}</ref> etc.
These native usages of "Hindu" were borrowed from Persian, and they did not always have a religious connotation, but they often did.<ref>{{harvnb|Truschke|2023|p=252}}: "Christine Chojnacki has argued that ''hinduka'' and related terms mark a combination of religious, linguistic, and cultural affinities in early Jain sources."
{{harvnb|Truschke|2023|p=253}}: "Writing for the Bahmani court in the Deccan in 1350, Isami paired ''hindū'' and ''musalmān'', elsewhere using ''hindī'' to mean Indian."
{{harvnb|Truschke|2023|p=254}}: "[Vidyapati] equates Hindu and Muslim religious and cultural practices, positing comparable differences between their respective ''dhamme'' (Sanskrit ''dharma'')."
{{harvnb|Truschke|2023|p=260}}: "Most passages identified a mix of religious and cultural norms. For instance, the texts refer to the “Hindu god” (''hindura īśvara'') and “Hindu treatise” (''hindu-śāstre''), on the one hand, and to “hindu clothes” (''hindu-beśa''), on the other."</ref>
In Indian texts, ''Hindu dharma'' ("Hindu religion") was often used to refer to Hinduism.<ref name="O'Connell" />{{sfn|Truschke|2023|pp=254}}

Starting in the 17th century, European merchants and colonists adopted "Hindu" (often with the English spelling "Hindoo") to refer to residents of India as a religious community.{{sfn|Truschke|2023|p=261}}{{Refn|In the contemporary era, the term Hindus are individuals who identify with one or more aspects of Hinduism, whether they are practising or non-practising or ''[[Laissez-faire]]''.<ref>{{cite book |first=Bryan |last=Turner |year=2010 |title=The New Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Religion |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-4051-8852-4 |pages=424–425}}</ref> The term does not include those who identify with other Indian religions such as Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism or various animist tribal religions found in India such as ''Sarnaism''.<ref>{{cite book |first=James |last=Minahan |year=2012 |title=Ethnic Groups of South Asia and the Pacific: An Encyclopedia |isbn=978-1-59884-659-1 |pages=97–99 |publisher=Abc-Clio }}</ref> The term Hindu, in contemporary parlance, includes people who accept themselves as culturally or ethnically Hindu rather than with a fixed set of religious beliefs within Hinduism. One need not be religious in the minimal sense, states [[Julius J. Lipner|Julius Lipner]], to be accepted as Hindu by Hindus, or to describe oneself as Hindu.{{sfn|Lipner|2009|p=8}}|group=note}}
The term got increasingly associated with the practices of Brahmins, who were also referred to as "Gentiles" and "Gentoos".{{sfn|Truschke|2023|p=261}}
Terms such as "Hindoo faith" and "Hindoo religion" were often used, eventually leading to the appearance of "Hindooism" in a letter of [[Charles Grant (British East India Company)|Charles Grant]] in 1787, who used it along with "Hindu religion".{{sfn|Truschke|2023|pp=261–262}}
The first Indian to use "Hinduism" may have been [[Raja Ram Mohun Roy|Raja Ram Mohan Roy]] in 1816–17.<ref>{{harvnb|Truschke|2023|p=262}}; {{harvnb|Singh|2008|p=433}}</ref> By the 1840s, the term "Hinduism" was used by those Indians who opposed British colonialism, and who wanted to distinguish themselves from Muslims and Christians.<ref>{{harvnb|Flood|1996|p=6}}; {{harvnb|Klostermaier|2010|p=17}}; {{harvnb|Doniger|2014|p=5}}; {{harvnb|Parpola|2015|p=5}}</ref>
Before the British began to categorise communities strictly by religion, Indians generally did not define themselves exclusively through their religious beliefs; instead identities were largely segmented on the basis of locality, language, [[Varna (Hinduism)|varna]], [[jāti]], occupation, and sect.{{sfn |Doniger |2014 |p=3}}{{refn|group=note |In [[D. N. Jha]]'s essay ''Looking for a Hindu identity'', he writes: "No Indians described themselves as Hindus before the fourteenth century" and "Hinduism was a creation of the colonial period and cannot lay claim to any great antiquity."<ref name="Mukul Dube">{{Cite web |first=Mukul |last=Dube |title=A short note on the short history of Hinduism |website=Scroll.in |date=10 January 2016 |url=http://scroll.in/article/801580/a-short-note-on-the-short-history-of-hinduism |archive-date=28 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221128182331/https://scroll.in/article/801580/a-short-note-on-the-short-history-of-hinduism |url-status=live}}</ref> He further wrote "The British borrowed the word 'Hindu' from India, gave it a new meaning and significance, [and] reimported it into India as a reified phenomenon called Hinduism."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Short note on the short history of Hinduism |date=10 January 2016 |url=https://scroll.in/article/801580/a-short-note-on-the-short-history-of-hinduism |access-date=13 November 2021 |archive-date=13 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211113220512/https://scroll.in/article/801580/a-short-note-on-the-short-history-of-hinduism |url-status=live}}</ref>}}