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Hindus

January 20, 2023

For the racehorse, see Hindus (horse).
"Hindoo" and "Hindu" redirect here. For other uses, see Hindoo (disambiguation) and Hindu (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Hindi.

Hindus (Hindustani: [ˈɦɪndu] (listen); /ˈhɪnduːz/) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.[65][66] Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for people living in the Indian subcontinent.[67][68]

Hindus
Total population
1.2–1.35 billion worldwide (2022) [1][2][3][4][5]
(15%-16% of the global's population)
Regions with significant populations
India1,106,000,000[6][7][8][1][3][9]
Nepal28,600,000[3][10][11]
Bangladesh13,130,102[12][13][14][15][16]
Indonesia4,646,357-18,000,000[17][18][19][20]
Pakistan4,444,870-8,000,000[21][22][23][24]
United States3,230,000[25]
Sri Lanka3,090,000[3][26]
Malaysia1,949,850[27][28]
UAE1,239,610[29]
United Kingdom1,030,000[3][30]
Canada828,100[31]
Australia684,000[32]
Mauritius670,327[33][34]
South Africa505,000[35]
Singapore280,000[36][37]
Fiji261,136[38][39]
Myanmar252,763[40]
Trinidad and Tobago240,100[41][42][43]
Guyana190,966[44]
Bhutan185,700[45][46]
Italy180,000[47]
Netherlands160,000[48]
France150,000[49]
Russia143,000[50]
Suriname128,995[51]
New Zealand123,534[52]
Religions
Hinduism
(Sanātana Dharma)
[53][54][55][56]
[57]
Scriptures
  • Śruti
Smriti
[58][59][60][61][62]
Languages
Predominant spoken languages:
[57][64]

The term "Hindu" traces back to Old Persian which derived these names from the Sanskrit name Sindhu (सिन्धु ), referring to the river Indus. The Greek cognates of the same terms are "Indus" (for the river) and "India" (for the land of the river).[69][70][71] The term "Hindu" also implied a geographic, ethnic or cultural identifier for people living in the Indian subcontinent around or beyond the Sindhu (Indus) River.[72] By the 16th century CE, the term began to refer to residents of the subcontinent who were not Turkic or Muslims.[72][a][b] Hindoo is an archaic spelling variant, whose use today is considered derogatory.[73][74]

The historical development of Hindu self-identity within the local Indian population, in a religious or cultural sense, is unclear.[67][75] Competing theories state that Hindu identity developed in the British colonial era, or that it may have developed post-8th century CE after the Muslim invasions and medieval Hindu–Muslim wars.[75][76][77] A sense of Hindu identity and the term Hindu appears in some texts dated between the 13th and 18th century in Sanskrit and Bengali.[76][78] The 14th- and 18th-century Indian poets such as Vidyapati, Kabir and Eknath used the phrase Hindu dharma (Hinduism) and contrasted it with Turaka dharma (Islam).[75][79] The Christian friar Sebastiao Manrique used the term 'Hindu' in a religious context in 1649.[80] In the 18th century, European merchants and colonists began to refer to the followers of Indian religions collectively as Hindus, in contrast to Mohamedans for groups such as Turks, Mughals and Arabs, who were adherents of Islam.[67][72] By the mid-19th century, colonial orientalist texts further distinguished Hindus from Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains,[67] but the colonial laws continued to consider all of them to be within the scope of the term Hindu until about mid-20th century.[81] Scholars state that the custom of distinguishing between Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs is a modern phenomenon.[82][83][c]

At more than 1.2 billion,[86] Hindus are the world's third-largest religious group after Christians and Muslims. The vast majority of Hindus, approximately 966 million (94.3% of the global Hindu population), live in India, according to the 2011 Indian census.[87] After India, the next nine countries with the largest Hindu populations are, in decreasing order: Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the United States, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.[88] These together accounted for 99% of the world's Hindu population, and the remaining nations of the world combined had about 6 million Hindus as of 2010.[88]

Etymology

Further information: Hinduism

The word Hindu is an exonym.[89][90] This word Hindu is derived from the Indo-Aryan[91] and Sanskrit[91][71] word Sindhu, which means "a large body of water", covering "river, ocean".[92][d] It was used as the name of the Indus River and also referred to its tributaries. The actual term 'hindu' first occurs, states Gavin Flood, as "a Persian geographical term for the people who lived beyond the river Indus (Sanskrit: Sindhu)",[71] more specifically in the 6th-century BCE inscription of Darius I.[93] The Punjab region, called Sapta Sindhu in the Vedas, is called Hapta Hindu in Zend Avesta. The 6th-century BCE inscription of Darius I mentions the province of Hi[n]dush, referring to northwestern India.[93][94][95] The people of India were referred to as Hinduvān (Hindus) and hindavī was used as the adjective for Indian in the 8th century text Chachnama.[95] The term 'Hindu' in these ancient records is an ethno-geographical term and did not refer to a religion.[71][96] The Arabic equivalent Al-Hind likewise referred to the country of India.[97][93]

 
 
Hindu culture in Bali, Indonesia. The Krishna-Arjuna sculpture inspired by the Bhagavad Gita in Denpasar (top), and Hindu dancers in traditional dress.

Among the earliest known records of 'Hindu' with connotations of religion may be in the 7th-century CE Chinese text Records on the Western Regions by the Buddhist scholar Xuanzang. Xuanzang uses the transliterated term In-tu whose "connotation overflows in the religious" according to Arvind Sharma.[93] While Xuanzang suggested that the term refers to the country named after the moon, another Buddhist scholar I-tsing contradicted the conclusion saying that In-tu was not a common name for the country.[95]

Al-Biruni's 11th-century text Tarikh Al-Hind, and the texts of the Delhi Sultanate period use the term 'Hindu', where it includes all non-Islamic people such as Buddhists, and retains the ambiguity of being "a region or a religion".[93] The 'Hindu' community occurs as the amorphous 'Other' of the Muslim community in the court chronicles, according to the Indian historian Romila Thapar.[98] The comparative religion scholar Wilfred Cantwell Smith notes that the term 'Hindu' retained its geographical reference initially: 'Indian', 'indigenous, local', virtually 'native'. Slowly, the Indian groups themselves started using the term, differentiating themselves and their "traditional ways" from those of the invaders.[99]

The text Prithviraj Raso, by Chand Bardai, about the 1192 CE defeat of Prithviraj Chauhan at the hands of Muhammad Ghori, is full of references to "Hindus" and "Turks", and at one stage, says "both the religions have drawn their curved swords;" however, the date of this text is unclear and considered by most scholars to be more recent.[100] In Islamic literature, 'Abd al-Malik Isami's Persian work, Futuhu's-salatin, composed in the Deccan under Bahmani rule in 1350, uses the word 'hindi' to mean Indian in the ethno-geographical sense and the word 'hindu' to mean 'Hindu' in the sense of a follower of the Hindu religion".[100] The poet Vidyapati's poem Kirtilata contrasts the cultures of Hindus and Turks (Muslims) in a city and concludes "The Hindus and the Turks live close together; Each makes fun of the other's religion (dhamme)."[101]

One of the earliest uses of word 'Hindu' in a religious context, in a European language (Spanish), was the publication in 1649 by Sebastio Manrique.[80] In the Indian historian DN Jha's essay “Looking for a Hindu identity”, he writes: “No Indians described themselves as Hindus before the fourteenth century” and that “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.”[102] In the 18th century, the European merchants and colonists began to refer to the followers of Indian religions collectively as Hindus.[102]

Other prominent mentions of 'Hindu' include the epigraphical inscriptions from Andhra Pradesh kingdoms who battled military expansion of Muslim dynasties in the 14th century, where the word 'Hindu' partly implies a religious identity in contrast to 'Turks' or Islamic religious identity.[103] The term Hindu was later used occasionally in some Sanskrit texts such as the later Rajataranginis of Kashmir (Hinduka, c. 1450) and some 16th- to 18th-century Bengali Gaudiya Vaishnava texts, including Chaitanya Charitamrita and Chaitanya Bhagavata. These texts used it to contrast Hindus from Muslims who are called Yavanas (foreigners) or Mlecchas (barbarians), with the 16th-century Chaitanya Charitamrita text and the 17th-century Bhakta Mala text using the phrase "Hindu dharma".[78]

Terminology

 
Hindus at Har Ki Pauri, Haridwar near river Ganges in Uttarakhand state of India.

Medieval-era usage (8th to 18th century)

Scholar Arvind Sharma notes that the term "Hindus" was used in the 'Brahmanabad settlement' which Muhammad ibn Qasim made with non-Muslims after the Arab invasion of northwestern Sindh region of India, in 712 CE. The term 'Hindu' meant people who were non-Muslims, and it included Buddhists of the region.[104] In the 11th-century text of Al Biruni, Hindus are referred to as "religious antagonists" to Islam, as those who believe in rebirth, presents them to hold a diversity of beliefs, and seems to oscillate between Hindus holding a centralist and pluralist religious views.[104] In the texts of Delhi Sultanate era, states Sharma, the term Hindu remains ambiguous on whether it means people of a region or religion, giving the example of Ibn Battuta's explanation of the name "Hindu Kush" for a mountain range in Afghanistan. It was so called, wrote Ibn Battuta, because many Indian slaves died there of snow cold, as they were marched across that mountain range. The term Hindu there is ambivalent and could mean geographical region or religion.[105]

The term Hindu appears in the texts from the Mughal Empire era. It broadly refers to non-Muslims. Pashaura Singh states, "in Persian writings, Sikhs were regarded as Hindu in the sense of non-Muslim Indians".[106] Jahangir, for example, called the Sikh Guru Arjan a Hindu:[107]

There was a Hindu named Arjan in Gobindwal on the banks of the Beas River. Pretending to be a spiritual guide, he had won over as devotees many simple-minded Indians and even some ignorant, stupid Muslims by broadcasting his claims to be a saint. [...] When Khusraw stopped at his residence, [Arjan] came out and had an interview with [Khusraw]. Giving him some elementary spiritual precepts picked up here and there, he made a mark with saffron on his forehead, which is called qashqa in the idiom of the Hindus and which they consider lucky. [...]

— Emperor Jahangir, Jahangirnama, 27b-28a (Translated by Wheeler Thackston)[108][e]

Colonial-era usage (18th to 20th century)

 
 
The distribution of Indian religions in India (1909). The upper map shows distribution of Hindus, the lower of Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs.
 
A Hindu wedding ritual in India

During the colonial era, the term Hindu had connotations of native religions of India, that is religions other than Christianity and Islam.[109] In the 18th century, Gentoo term was also used along with Hindu term.[110] In early colonial era Anglo-Hindu laws and British India court system, the term Hindu referred to people of all Indian religions as well as two non-Indian religions: Judaism and Zoroastrianism.[109] In the 20th century, personal laws were formulated for Hindus, and the term 'Hindu' in these colonial 'Hindu laws' applied to Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs in addition to denominational Hindus.[81][f]

Beyond the stipulations of British colonial law, European orientalists and particularly the influential Asiatick Researches founded in the 18th century, later called The Asiatic Society, initially identified just two religions in India – Islam, and Hinduism. These orientalists included all Indian religions such as Buddhism as a subgroup of Hinduism in the 18th century.[67] These texts called followers of Islam as Mohamedans, and all others as Hindus. The text, by the early 19th century, began dividing Hindus into separate groups, for chronology studies of the various beliefs. Among the earliest terms to emerge were Seeks and their College (later spelled Sikhs by Charles Wilkins), Boudhism (later spelled Buddhism), and in the 9th volume of Asiatick Researches report on religions in India, the term Jainism received notice.[67]

According to Pennington, the terms Hindu and Hinduism were thus constructed for colonial studies of India. The various sub-divisions and separation of subgroup terms were assumed to be result of "communal conflict", and Hindu was constructed by these orientalists to imply people who adhered to "ancient default oppressive religious substratum of India", states Pennington.[67] Followers of other Indian religions so identified were later referred Buddhists, Sikhs or Jains and distinguished from Hindus, in an antagonistic two-dimensional manner, with Hindus and Hinduism stereotyped as irrational traditional and others as rational reform religions. However, these mid-19th-century reports offered no indication of doctrinal or ritual differences between Hindu and Buddhist, or other newly constructed religious identities.[67] These colonial studies, states Pennigton, "puzzled endlessly about the Hindus and intensely scrutinized them, but did not interrogate and avoided reporting the practices and religion of Mughal and Arabs in South Asia", and often relied on Muslim scholars to characterise Hindus.[67]

Contemporary usage

 
A young Nepali Hindu devotee during a traditional prayer ceremony at Kathmandu's Durbar Square.

In contemporary era, the term Hindus are individuals who identify with one or more aspects of Hinduism, whether they are practising or non-practicing or Laissez-faire.[113] 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.[114][115] 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.[65] One need not be religious in the minimal sense, states Julius Lipner, to be accepted as Hindu by Hindus, or to describe oneself as Hindu.[116]

Hindus subscribe to a diversity of ideas on spirituality and traditions, but have no ecclesiastical order, no unquestionable religious authorities, no governing body, nor a single founding prophet; Hindus can choose to be polytheistic, pantheistic, monotheistic, monistic, agnostic, atheistic or humanist.[117][118][119] Because of the wide range of traditions and ideas covered by the term Hinduism, arriving at a comprehensive definition is difficult.[71] The religion "defies our desire to define and categorize it".[120] A Hindu may, by his or her choice, draw upon ideas of other Indian or non-Indian religious thought as a resource, follow or evolve his or her personal beliefs, and still identify as a Hindu.[65]

In 1995, Chief Justice P. B. Gajendragadkar was quoted in an Indian Supreme Court ruling:[121][122]

When we think of the Hindu religion, unlike other religions in the world, the Hindu religion does not claim any one prophet; it does not worship any one god; it does not subscribe to any one dogma; it does not believe in any one philosophic concept; it does not follow any one set of religious rites or performances; in fact, it does not appear to satisfy the narrow traditional features of any religion or creed. It may broadly be described as a way of life and nothing more.

Although Hinduism contains a broad range of philosophies, Hindus share philosophical concepts, such as but not limiting to dharma, karma, kama, artha, moksha and samsara, even if each subscribes to a diversity of views.[123] Hindus also have shared texts such as the Vedas with embedded Upanishads, and common ritual grammar (Sanskara (rite of passage)) such as rituals during a wedding or when a baby is born or cremation rituals.[124][125] Some Hindus go on pilgrimage to shared sites they consider spiritually significant, practice one or more forms of bhakti or puja, celebrate mythology and epics, major festivals, love and respect for guru and family, and other cultural traditions.[123][126] A Hindu could:

  • follow any of the Hindu schools of philosophy, such as Advaita (non-dualism), Vishishtadvaita (non-dualism of the qualified whole), Dvaita (dualism), Dvaitadvaita (dualism with non-dualism), etc.[127][128]
  • follow a tradition centred on any particular form of the Divine, such as Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism, etc.[129]
  • practice any one of the various forms of yoga systems in order to achieve moksha – that is freedom in current life (jivanmukti) or salvation in after-life (videhamukti);[130]
  • practice bhakti or puja for spiritual reasons, which may be directed to one's guru or to a divine image.[131] A visible public form of this practice is worship before an idol or statue. Jeaneane Fowler states that non-Hindu observers often confuse this practice as "stone or idol-worship and nothing beyond it", while for many Hindus, it is an image which represents or is symbolic manifestation of a spiritual Absolute (Brahman).[131] This practice may focus on a metal or stone statue, or a photographic image, or a linga, or any object or tree (pipal) or animal (cow) or tools of one's profession, or sunrise or expression of nature or to nothing at all, and the practice may involve meditation, japa, offerings or songs.[131][132] Inden states that this practice means different things to different Hindus, and has been misunderstood, misrepresented as idolatry, and various rationalisations have been constructed by both Western and native Indologists.[133]

Disputes

In the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" has been used in some places to denote persons professing any of these religions: Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism or Sikhism.[134] This however has been challenged by the Sikhs[114][135] and by neo-Buddhists who were formerly Hindus.[136] According to Sheen and Boyle, Jains have not objected to being covered by personal laws termed under 'Hindu',[136] but Indian courts have acknowledged that Jainism is a distinct religion.[137]

The Republic of India is in the peculiar situation that the Supreme Court of India has repeatedly been called upon to define "Hinduism" because the Constitution of India, while it prohibits "discrimination of any citizen" on grounds of religion in article 15, article 30 foresees special rights for "All minorities, whether based on religion or language". As a consequence, religious groups have an interest in being recognised as distinct from the Hindu majority in order to qualify as a "religious minority". Thus, the Supreme Court was forced to consider the question whether Jainism is part of Hinduism in 2005 and 2006.

History of Hindu identity

Starting after the 10th century and particularly after the 12th century Islamic invasion, states Sheldon Pollock, the political response fused with the Indic religious culture and doctrines.[76] Temples dedicated to deity Rama were built from north to south India, and textual records as well as hagiographic inscriptions began comparing the Hindu epic of Ramayana to regional kings and their response to Islamic attacks. The Yadava king of Devagiri named Ramacandra, for example states Pollock, is described in a 13th-century record as, "How is this Rama to be described.. who freed Varanasi from the mleccha (barbarian, Turk Muslim) horde, and built there a golden temple of Sarngadhara".[76] Pollock notes that the Yadava king Ramacandra is described as a devotee of deity Shiva (Shaivism), yet his political achievements and temple construction sponsorship in Varanasi, far from his kingdom's location in the Deccan region, is described in the historical records in Vaishnavism terms of Rama, a deity Vishnu avatar.[76] Pollock presents many such examples and suggests an emerging Hindu political identity that was grounded in the Hindu religious text of Ramayana, one that has continued into the modern times, and suggests that this historic process began with the arrival of Islam in India.[138]

Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya has questioned the Pollock theory and presented textual and inscriptional evidence.[139] According to Chattopadhyaya, the Hindu identity and religious response to Islamic invasion and wars developed in different kingdoms, such as wars between Islamic Sultanates and the Vijayanagara kingdom, and Islamic raids on the kingdoms in Tamil Nadu. These wars were described not just using the mythical story of Rama from Ramayana, states Chattopadhyaya, the medieval records used a wide range of religious symbolism and myths that are now considered as part of Hindu literature.[77][139] This emergence of religious with political terminology began with the first Muslim invasion of Sindh in the 8th century CE, and intensified 13th century onwards. The 14th-century Sanskrit text, Madhuravijayam, a memoir written by Gangadevi, the wife of Vijayanagara prince, for example describes the consequences of war using religious terms,[140]

I very much lament for what happened to the groves in Madhura,
The coconut trees have all been cut and in their place are to be seen,
  rows of iron spikes with human skulls dangling at the points,
In the highways which were once charming with anklets sound of beautiful women,
  are now heard ear-piercing noises of Brahmins being dragged, bound in iron-fetters,
The waters of Tambraparni, which were once white with sandal paste,
  are now flowing red with the blood of cows slaughtered by miscreants,
Earth is no longer the producer of wealth, nor does Indra give timely rains,
The God of death takes his undue toll of what are left lives if undestroyed by the Yavanas [Muslims],[141]
The Kali age now deserves deepest congratulations for being at the zenith of its power,
gone is the sacred learning, hidden is refinement, hushed is the voice of Dharma.

— Madhuravijayam, Translated by Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya[140]

The historiographic writings in Telugu language from the 13th- and 14th-century Kakatiya dynasty period presents a similar "alien other (Turk)" and "self-identity (Hindu)" contrast.[142] Chattopadhyaya, and other scholars,[143] state that the military and political campaign during the medieval era wars in Deccan peninsula of India, and in the north India, were no longer a quest for sovereignty, they embodied a political and religious animosity against the "otherness of Islam", and this began the historical process of Hindu identity formation.[77][g]

Andrew Nicholson, in his review of scholarship on Hindu identity history, states that the vernacular literature of Bhakti movement sants from 15th to 17th century, such as Kabir, Anantadas, Eknath, Vidyapati, suggests that distinct religious identities, between Hindus and Turks (Muslims), had formed during these centuries.[144] The poetry of this period contrasts Hindu and Islamic identities, states Nicholson, and the literature vilifies the Muslims coupled with a "distinct sense of a Hindu religious identity".[144]

Hindu identity amidst other Indian religions

 
 
Hindus celebrating their major festivals, Holi (top) and Diwali.

Scholars state that Hindu, Buddhist and Jain identities are retrospectively-introduced modern constructions.[83] Inscriptional evidence from the 8th century onwards, in regions such as South India, suggests that medieval era India, at both elite and folk religious practices level, likely had a "shared religious culture",[83] and their collective identities were "multiple, layered and fuzzy".[145] Even among Hinduism denominations such as Shaivism and Vaishnavism, the Hindu identities, states Leslie Orr, lacked "firm definitions and clear boundaries".[145]

Overlaps in Jain-Hindu identities have included Jains worshipping Hindu deities, intermarriages between Jains and Hindus, and medieval era Jain temples featuring Hindu religious icons and sculpture.[146][147][148] Beyond India, on Java island of Indonesia, historical records attest to marriages between Hindus and Buddhists, medieval era temple architecture and sculptures that simultaneously incorporate Hindu and Buddhist themes,[149] where Hinduism and Buddhism merged and functioned as "two separate paths within one overall system", according to Ann Kenney and other scholars.[150] Similarly, there is an organic relation of Sikhs to Hindus, states Zaehner, both in religious thought and their communities, and virtually all Sikhs' ancestors were Hindus.[151] Marriages between Sikhs and Hindus, particularly among Khatris, were frequent.[151] Some Hindu families brought up a son as a Sikh, and some Hindus view Sikhism as a tradition within Hinduism, even though the Sikh faith is a distinct religion.[151]

Julius Lipner states that the custom of distinguishing between Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs is a modern phenomena, but one that is a convenient abstraction.[82] Distinguishing Indian traditions is a fairly recent practice, states Lipner, and is the result of "not only Western preconceptions about the nature of religion in general and of religion in India in particular, but also with the political awareness that has arisen in India" in its people and a result of Western influence during its colonial history.[82]

Sacred geography

Scholars such as Fleming and Eck state that the post-Epic era literature from the 1st millennium CE amply demonstrate that there was a historic concept of the Indian subcontinent as a sacred geography, where the sacredness was a shared set of religious ideas. For example, the twelve Jyotirlingas of Shaivism and fifty-one Shaktipithas of Shaktism are described in the early medieval era Puranas as pilgrimage sites around a theme.[152][153][154] This sacred geography and Shaiva temples with same iconography, shared themes, motifs and embedded legends are found across India, from the Himalayas to hills of South India, from Ellora Caves to Varanasi by about the middle of 1st millennium.[152][155] Shakti temples, dated to a few centuries later, are verifiable across the subcontinent. Varanasi as a sacred pilgrimage site is documented in the Varanasimahatmya text embedded inside the Skanda Purana, and the oldest versions of this text are dated to 6th to 8th-century CE.[156][157]

The idea of twelve sacred sites in Shiva Hindu tradition spread across the Indian subcontinent appears not only in the medieval era temples but also in copper plate inscriptions and temple seals discovered in different sites.[158] According to Bhardwaj, non-Hindu texts such as the memoirs of Chinese Buddhist and Persian Muslim travellers attest to the existence and significance of the pilgrimage to sacred geography among Hindus by later 1st millennium CE.[159]

According to Fleming, those who question whether the term Hindu and Hinduism are a modern construction in a religious context present their arguments based on some texts that have survived into the modern era, either of Islamic courts or of literature published by Western missionaries or colonial-era Indologists aiming for a reasonable construction of history. However, the existence of non-textual evidence such as cave temples separated by thousands of kilometers, as well as lists of medieval era pilgrimage sites, is evidence of a shared sacred geography and existence of a community that was self-aware of shared religious premises and landscape.[160][157] Further, it is a norm in evolving cultures that there is a gap between the "lived and historical realities" of a religious tradition and the emergence of related "textual authorities".[158] The tradition and temples likely existed well before the medieval era Hindu manuscripts appeared that describe them and the sacred geography. This, states Fleming, is apparent given the sophistication of the architecture and the sacred sites along with the variance in the versions of the Puranic literature.[160][161] According to Diana L. Eck and other Indologists such as André Wink, Muslim invaders were aware of Hindu sacred geography such as Mathura, Ujjain, and Varanasi by the 11th century. These sites became a target of their serial attacks in the centuries that followed.[157]

Hindu persecution

Main article: Persecution of Hindus

The Hindus have been persecuted during the medieval and modern era. The medieval persecution included waves of plunder, killing, destruction of temples and enslavement by Turk-Mongol Muslim armies from central Asia. This is documented in Islamic literature such as those relating to 8th century Muhammad bin-Qasim,[162] 11th century Mahmud of Ghazni,[163][164] the Persian traveler Al Biruni,[165] the 14th century Islamic army invasion led by Timur,[166] and various Sunni Islamic rulers of the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire.[167][168][169] There were occasional exceptions such as Akbar who stopped the persecution of Hindus,[169] and occasional severe persecution such as under Aurangzeb,[170][172][h] who destroyed temples, forcibly converted non-Muslims to Islam and banned the celebration of Hindu festivals such as Holi and Diwali.[173]

Other recorded persecution of Hindus include those under the reign of 18th century Tipu Sultan in south India,[174] and during the colonial era.[175][176][177] In the modern era, religious persecution of Hindus have been reported outside India in Pakistan and Bangladesh.[178][179][180]

Hindu nationalism

Main articles: Hindu nationalism and Hindutva

Christophe Jaffrelot states that modern Hindu nationalism was born in Maharashtra, in the 1920s, as a reaction to the Islamic Khilafat Movement wherein Indian Muslims championed and took the cause of the Turkish Ottoman sultan as the Caliph of all Muslims, at the end of the World War I.[181][182] Hindus viewed this development as one of divided loyalties of Indian Muslim population, of pan-Islamic hegemony, and questioned whether Indian Muslims were a part of an inclusive anti-colonial Indian nationalism.[182] The Hindu nationalism ideology that emerged, states Jeffrelot, was codified by Savarkar while he was a political prisoner of the British colonial authorities.[181][183]

Chris Bayly traces the roots of Hindu nationalism to the Hindu identity and political independence achieved by the Maratha confederacy, that overthrew the Islamic Mughal empire in large parts of India, allowing Hindus the freedom to pursue any of their diverse religious beliefs and restored Hindu holy places such as Varanasi.[184] A few scholars view Hindu mobilisation and consequent nationalism to have emerged in the 19th century as a response to British colonialism by Indian nationalists and neo-Hinduism gurus.[185][186][187] Jaffrelot states that the efforts of Christian missionaries and Islamic proselytizers, during the British colonial era, each of whom tried to gain new converts to their own religion, by stereotyping and stigmatising Hindus to an identity of being inferior and superstitious, contributed to Hindus re-asserting their spiritual heritage and counter cross examining Islam and Christianity, forming organisations such as the Hindu Sabhas (Hindu associations), and ultimately a Hindu-identity driven nationalism in the 1920s.[188]

The colonial era Hindu revivalism and mobilisation, along with Hindu nationalism, states Peter van der Veer, was primarily a reaction to and competition with Muslim separatism and Muslim nationalism.[189] The successes of each side fed the fears of the other, leading to the growth of Hindu nationalism and Muslim nationalism in the Indian subcontinent.[189] In the 20th century, the sense of religious nationalism grew in India, states van der Veer, but only Muslim nationalism succeeded with the formation of the West and East Pakistan (later split into Pakistan and Bangladesh), as "an Islamic state" upon independence.[190][191][192] Religious riots and social trauma followed as millions of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs moved out of the newly created Islamic states and resettled into the Hindu-majority post-British India.[193] After the separation of India and Pakistan in 1947, the Hindu nationalism movement developed the concept of Hindutva in second half of the 20th century.[194]

The Hindu nationalism movement has sought to reform Indian laws, that critics say attempts to impose Hindu values on India's Islamic minority. Gerald Larson states, for example, that Hindu nationalists have sought a uniform civil code, where all citizens are subject to the same laws, everyone has equal civil rights, and individual rights do not depend on the individual's religion.[195] In contrast, opponents of Hindu nationalists remark that eliminating religious law from India poses a threat to the cultural identity and religious rights of Muslims, and people of Islamic faith have a constitutional right to Islamic shariah-based personal laws.[195][196] A specific law, contentious between Hindu nationalists and their opponents in India, relates to the legal age of marriage for girls.[197] Hindu nationalists seek that the legal age for marriage be eighteen that is universally applied to all girls regardless of their religion and that marriages be registered with local government to verify the age of marriage. Muslim clerics consider this proposal as unacceptable because under the shariah-derived personal law, a Muslim girl can be married at any age after she reaches puberty.[197]

Hindu nationalism in India, states Katharine Adeney, is a controversial political subject, with no consensus about what it means or implies in terms of the form of government and religious rights of the minorities.[198]

Demographics

Main article: Hinduism by country
 
Hinduism by country, worldmap (estimate 2010).[199]

There are 1.2-1.3 billion Hindus worldwide (15%–16% of world's population), with about 95% of them being concentrated in India alone.[1][200] Along with Christians (31.5%), Muslims (23.2%) and Buddhists (7.1%), Hindus are one of the four major religious groups of the world.[201]

Most Hindus are found in Asian countries. The top twenty-five countries with the most Hindu residents and citizens (in decreasing order) are India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, United States, Malaysia, Myanmar, United Kingdom, Mauritius, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Canada, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Trinidad and Tobago, Singapore, Fiji, Qatar, Kuwait, Guyana, Bhutan, Oman and Yemen.[88][200]

The top fifteen countries with the highest percentage of Hindus (in decreasing order) are Nepal, India, Mauritius, Fiji, Guyana, Bhutan, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Kuwait, Bangladesh, Réunion, Malaysia, and Singapore.[202]

The fertility rate, that is children per woman, for Hindus is 2.4, which is less than the world average of 2.5.[203] Pew Research projects that there will be 1.4 billion Hindus by 2050.[204]

Hinduism by continents (2017–18)
Continents Hindus population % of the Hindu pop % of the continent pop Follower dynamics World dynamics
Asia 1,074,728,901 99.266 26.01   Growing   Growing
Europe 2,030,904 0.214 0.278   Growing   Growing
The Americas 2,806,344 0.263 0.281   Growing   Growing
Africa 2,013,705 0.213 0.225   Growing   Growing
Oceania 791,615 0.071 2.053   Growing   Growing
Cumulative 1,082,371,469 100 15.03   Growing   Growing

In more ancient times, Hindu kingdoms arose and spread the religion and traditions across Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand, Nepal, Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia,[205] Laos,[205] Philippines,[206] and what is now central Vietnam.[207]

Over 3 million Hindus are found in Bali Indonesia, a culture whose origins trace back to ideas brought by Hindu traders to Indonesian islands in the 1st millennium CE. Their sacred texts are also the Vedas and the Upanishads.[208] The Puranas and the Itihasa (mainly Ramayana and the Mahabharata) are enduring traditions among Indonesian Hindus, expressed in community dances and shadow puppet (wayang) performances. As in India, Indonesian Hindus recognise four paths of spirituality, calling it Catur Marga.[209] Similarly, like Hindus in India, Balinese Hindus believe that there are four proper goals of human life, calling it Catur Purusartha – dharma (pursuit of moral and ethical living), artha (pursuit of wealth and creative activity), kama (pursuit of joy and love) and moksha (pursuit of self-knowledge and liberation).[210][211]

Culture

Main article: Hindu culture

Hindu culture is a term used to describe the culture and identity of Hindus and Hinduism, including the historic Vedic people.[212] Hindu culture can be intensively seen in the form of art, architecture, history, diet, clothing, astrology and other forms. The culture of India and Hinduism is deeply influenced and assimilated with each other. With the Indianisation of southeast Asia and Greater India, the culture has also influenced a long region and other religions people of that area.[213] All Indian religions, including Jainism, Sikhism and Buddhism are deeply influenced and soft-powered by Hinduism.[214]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Flood (1996, p. 6) adds: "(...) 'Hindu', or 'Hindoo', was used towards the end of the eighteenth century by the British to refer to the people of 'Hindustan', the people of northwest India. Eventually 'Hindu' became virtually equivalent to an 'Indian' who was not a Muslim, Sikh, Jain or Christian, thereby encompassing a range of religious beliefs and practices. The '-ism' was added to Hindu in around 1830 to denote the culture and religion of the high-caste Brahmans in contrast to other religions, and the term was soon appropriated by Indians themselves in the context of building a national identity opposed to colonialism, though the term 'Hindu' was used in Sanskrit and Bengali hagiographic texts in contrast to 'Yavana' or Muslim as early as the sixteenth century".
  2. ^ von Stietencron (2005, p. 229): For more than 100 years the word Hindu (plural) continued to denote the Indians in general. But when, from AD 712 onwards, Muslims began to settle permanently in the Indus valley and to make converts among low-caste Hindus, Persian authors distinguished between Hindus and Muslims in India: Hindus were Indians other than Muslim. We know that Persian scholars were able to distinguish a number of religions among the Hindus. But when Europeans started to use the term Hindoo, they applied it to the non-Muslim masses of India without those scholarly differentiations.
  3. ^ Despite the commonplace use of the term "Hindu" for the followers of the Hindu religion, the term also continues to designate a cultural identity, the ownership of India's millennia-old cultural heritage. Arvind Sharma notes that the exclusivist conception of religion was foreign to India, and Indians did not yield to it during the centuries of Muslim rule but only under the British colonial rule. Resistance to the exclusivist conception led to Savarkar's Hindutva, where Hinduism was seen both as a religion and a culture.[84] Hindutva is a national Hindu-ness, by which a Hindu is one born in India and behaves like a Hindu. M. S. Golwalkar even spoke of "Hindu Muslims," meaning "Hindu by culture, Muslim by religion."[85]
  4. ^ Flood (2008, p. 3): The Indo-Aryan word Sindhu means "river", "ocean".
  5. ^ Prince Khusrau, Jahangir son, mounted a challenge to the emperor within the first year of his reign. The rebellion was put down and all the collaborators executed. (Pashaura Singh, 2005, pp. 31–34)
  6. ^ According to Ram Bhagat, the term was used by the Colonial British government in post-1871 census of colonial India that included a question on the individual's religion, especially in the aftermath of the 1857 revolution.[111][112]
  7. ^ Lorenzen (2010), p. 29: "When it comes to early sources written in Indian languages (and also Persian and Arabic), the word 'Hindu' is used in a clearly religious sense in a great number of texts at least as early as the sixteenth century. (...) Although al-Biruni's original Arabic text only uses a term equivalent to the religion of the people of India, his description of Hindu religion is in fact remarkably similar to those of nineteenth-century European orientalists. For his part Vidyapati, in his Apabhransha text Kirtilata, makes use of the phrase 'Hindu and Turk dharmas' in a clearly religious sense and highlights the local conflicts between the two communities. In the early sixteenth century texts attributed to Kabir, the references to 'Hindus' and to 'Turks' or 'Muslims' (musalamans) in a clearly religious context are numerous and unambiguous."
  8. ^ See also "Aurangzeb, as he was according to Mughal Records"; more links at the bottom of that page. For Muslim historian's record on major Hindu temple destruction campaigns, from 1193 to 1729 AD, see Richard Eaton (2000), Temple Desecration and Indo-Muslim States, Journal of Islamic Studies, Vol. 11, Issue 3, pages 283–319

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Bibliography

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  • Avari, Burjor (2013). Islamic Civilization in South Asia: A History of Muslim Power and Presence in the Indian Subcontinent. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-58061-8.
  • Fleming, Benjamin J. (2009), "Mapping Sacred Geography in Medieval India: The Case of the Twelve "Jyotirliṅgas"", International Journal of Hindu Studies, 13 (1): 51–81, doi:10.1007/s11407-009-9069-0, S2CID 145421231
  • Flood, Gavin D. (1996), An Introduction to Hinduism, Cambridge University Press
  • Flood, Gavin (2006), The Tantric Body. The Secret Tradition of Hindu Religion, I.B Taurus
  • Flood, Gavin, ed. (2008), The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism, Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., ISBN 978-1-4051-3251-0
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  • Lorenzen, David N. (2006), "Who invented Hinduism?", in Davaid N. Lorentzen (ed.), Who Invented Hinduism? Essays on Religion in History, Yoda Press, pp. 1–36, ISBN 81-902272-6-2
  • Lorenzen, David N. (2010), "Hindus and others", in Esther Bloch; Marianne Keppens; Rajaram Hegde (eds.), Rethinking Religion in India: The Colonial Construction of Hinduism, Routledge, pp. 25–40, ISBN 978-1-135-18279-3
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  • Sharma, Arvind (2008), "The Hermeneutics of the word "Religion" and Its Implications for the World of Indian Religions", in Sherma, Rita; Sharma, Arvind (eds.), Hermeneutics and Hindu Thought: Toward a Fusion of Horizons, Springer Science & Business Media, pp. 19–32, ISBN 978-1-4020-8192-7
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Further reading

  • Esther Bloch; Marianne Keppens; Rajaram Hegde, eds. (2009). Rethinking Religion in India: The Colonial Construction of Hinduism. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-18279-3.
  • Dass, Baboo Ishuree (1860). Domestic manners and customs of the Hindoos of northern India, or, more strictly speaking, of the north west provinces of India. Medical Hall Press, Benares.

External links

  Quotations related to Hindus at Wikiquote   Media related to Hindus at Wikimedia Commons

January 20, 2023
hindus, racehorse, horse, hindoo, hindu, redirect, here, other, uses, hindoo, disambiguation, hindu, disambiguation, confused, with, hindi, tani, ˈɦɪndu, listen, people, religiously, adhere, hinduism, historically, term, also, been, used, geographical, cultura. For the racehorse see Hindus horse Hindoo and Hindu redirect here For other uses see Hindoo disambiguation and Hindu disambiguation Not to be confused with Hindi Hindus Hindustani ˈɦɪndu listen ˈ h ɪ n d uː z are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism 65 66 Historically the term has also been used as a geographical cultural and later religious identifier for people living in the Indian subcontinent 67 68 HindusTotal population1 2 1 35 billion worldwide 2022 1 2 3 4 5 15 16 of the global s population Regions with significant populationsIndia1 106 000 000 6 7 8 1 3 9 Nepal28 600 000 3 10 11 Bangladesh13 130 102 12 13 14 15 16 Indonesia4 646 357 18 000 000 17 18 19 20 Pakistan4 444 870 8 000 000 21 22 23 24 United States3 230 000 25 Sri Lanka3 090 000 3 26 Malaysia1 949 850 27 28 UAE1 239 610 29 United Kingdom1 030 000 3 30 Canada828 100 31 Australia684 000 32 Mauritius670 327 33 34 South Africa505 000 35 Singapore280 000 36 37 Fiji261 136 38 39 Myanmar252 763 40 Trinidad and Tobago240 100 41 42 43 Guyana190 966 44 Bhutan185 700 45 46 Italy180 000 47 Netherlands160 000 48 France150 000 49 Russia143 000 50 Suriname128 995 51 New Zealand123 534 52 ReligionsHinduism Sanatana Dharma 53 54 55 56 67 6 Vaishnavism 57 26 6 Shaivism 57 3 2 Shaktism 57 2 6 other Hindu traditions e g Neo Hinduism Reform Hinduism and Hindu atheism 57 ScripturesSrutiVedas Samhitas Brahmanas Aranyakas Upanishads SmritiUpavedas Darsanas Dharmashastras Shastras Agamas Tantras Puranas Upapuranas Ramayana Ramcharitamanas amp other Ramayana versions Mahabharata incl Bhagavad Gita Sutras Stotras Subhashitas Bhashyas and others 58 59 60 61 62 LanguagesSacred language Vedic SanskritOld Tamil 63 Predominant spoken languages HindiAhirwatiAssameseAwadhiBagheliBagriBalochiBengaliBhiliBhojpuriBishnupriya ManipuriBodoBraj BhashaBundeliBurmeseChhattisgarhiChitraliChittagonianDhatkiDhundariDogriDoteliDzongkhaGarhwaliGoariaGondiGujaratiGujariGurungHarautiHaryanviHindkoKalasha munKannadaKannaujiKashmiriKhandeshiKhorthaKokborokKonkaniKumaoniKurukhKutchiLadakhiLambadiLimbuMagadhiMagarMaithiliMalayalamMaltoMalviMarathiMarwariManipuriMewatiMundariNagpuriNepaliNewarNimadiOdOdiaPashtoPunjabiSanskritSanthaliSaraikiSaurashtraShekhawatiSikkimeseSindhiSylhetiTamangTamilTeluguTharuTuluother South Asian languagesBalineseChamIndonesianJavaneseKhmerMalayOsingSundaneseThaiTenggereseother Indonesian languagesEnglishDutchFrenchRomaniRussianother European languagesCaribbean HindustaniCaribbean EnglishFiji HindiPidgin FijianArabicAfrikaansMauritian CreoleMauritian Bhojpuri HindustaniReunion CreoleSeychellois CreoleSwahiliZuluand others 57 64 The term Hindu traces back to Old Persian which derived these names from the Sanskrit name Sindhu स न ध referring to the river Indus The Greek cognates of the same terms are Indus for the river and India for the land of the river 69 70 71 The term Hindu also implied a geographic ethnic or cultural identifier for people living in the Indian subcontinent around or beyond the Sindhu Indus River 72 By the 16th century CE the term began to refer to residents of the subcontinent who were not Turkic or Muslims 72 a b Hindoo is an archaic spelling variant whose use today is considered derogatory 73 74 The historical development of Hindu self identity within the local Indian population in a religious or cultural sense is unclear 67 75 Competing theories state that Hindu identity developed in the British colonial era or that it may have developed post 8th century CE after the Muslim invasions and medieval Hindu Muslim wars 75 76 77 A sense of Hindu identity and the term Hindu appears in some texts dated between the 13th and 18th century in Sanskrit and Bengali 76 78 The 14th and 18th century Indian poets such as Vidyapati Kabir and Eknath used the phrase Hindu dharma Hinduism and contrasted it with Turaka dharma Islam 75 79 The Christian friar Sebastiao Manrique used the term Hindu in a religious context in 1649 80 In the 18th century European merchants and colonists began to refer to the followers of Indian religions collectively as Hindus in contrast to Mohamedans for groups such as Turks Mughals and Arabs who were adherents of Islam 67 72 By the mid 19th century colonial orientalist texts further distinguished Hindus from Buddhists Sikhs and Jains 67 but the colonial laws continued to consider all of them to be within the scope of the term Hindu until about mid 20th century 81 Scholars state that the custom of distinguishing between Hindus Buddhists Jains and Sikhs is a modern phenomenon 82 83 c At more than 1 2 billion 86 Hindus are the world s third largest religious group after Christians and Muslims The vast majority of Hindus approximately 966 million 94 3 of the global Hindu population live in India according to the 2011 Indian census 87 After India the next nine countries with the largest Hindu populations are in decreasing order Nepal Bangladesh Indonesia Pakistan Sri Lanka the United States Malaysia the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom 88 These together accounted for 99 of the world s Hindu population and the remaining nations of the world combined had about 6 million Hindus as of 2010 update 88 Contents 1 Etymology 2 Terminology 2 1 Medieval era usage 8th to 18th century 2 2 Colonial era usage 18th to 20th century 2 3 Contemporary usage 2 4 Disputes 3 History of Hindu identity 3 1 Hindu identity amidst other Indian religions 3 2 Sacred geography 3 3 Hindu persecution 3 4 Hindu nationalism 4 Demographics 5 Culture 6 See also 7 Notes 8 References 8 1 Citations 8 2 Bibliography 9 Further reading 10 External linksEtymologyFurther information Hinduism The word Hindu is an exonym 89 90 This word Hindu is derived from the Indo Aryan 91 and Sanskrit 91 71 word Sindhu which means a large body of water covering river ocean 92 d It was used as the name of the Indus River and also referred to its tributaries The actual term hindu first occurs states Gavin Flood as a Persian geographical term for the people who lived beyond the river Indus Sanskrit Sindhu 71 more specifically in the 6th century BCE inscription of Darius I 93 The Punjab region called Sapta Sindhu in the Vedas is called Hapta Hindu in Zend Avesta The 6th century BCE inscription of Darius I mentions the province of Hi n dush referring to northwestern India 93 94 95 The people of India were referred to as Hinduvan Hindus and hindavi was used as the adjective for Indian in the 8th century text Chachnama 95 The term Hindu in these ancient records is an ethno geographical term and did not refer to a religion 71 96 The Arabic equivalent Al Hind likewise referred to the country of India 97 93 Hindu culture in Bali Indonesia The Krishna Arjuna sculpture inspired by the Bhagavad Gita in Denpasar top and Hindu dancers in traditional dress Among the earliest known records of Hindu with connotations of religion may be in the 7th century CE Chinese text Records on the Western Regions by the Buddhist scholar Xuanzang Xuanzang uses the transliterated term In tu whose connotation overflows in the religious according to Arvind Sharma 93 While Xuanzang suggested that the term refers to the country named after the moon another Buddhist scholar I tsing contradicted the conclusion saying that In tu was not a common name for the country 95 Al Biruni s 11th century text Tarikh Al Hind and the texts of the Delhi Sultanate period use the term Hindu where it includes all non Islamic people such as Buddhists and retains the ambiguity of being a region or a religion 93 The Hindu community occurs as the amorphous Other of the Muslim community in the court chronicles according to the Indian historian Romila Thapar 98 The comparative religion scholar Wilfred Cantwell Smith notes that the term Hindu retained its geographical reference initially Indian indigenous local virtually native Slowly the Indian groups themselves started using the term differentiating themselves and their traditional ways from those of the invaders 99 The text Prithviraj Raso by Chand Bardai about the 1192 CE defeat of Prithviraj Chauhan at the hands of Muhammad Ghori is full of references to Hindus and Turks and at one stage says both the religions have drawn their curved swords however the date of this text is unclear and considered by most scholars to be more recent 100 In Islamic literature Abd al Malik Isami s Persian work Futuhu s salatin composed in the Deccan under Bahmani rule in 1350 uses the word hindi to mean Indian in the ethno geographical sense and the word hindu to mean Hindu in the sense of a follower of the Hindu religion 100 The poet Vidyapati s poem Kirtilata contrasts the cultures of Hindus and Turks Muslims in a city and concludes The Hindus and the Turks live close together Each makes fun of the other s religion dhamme 101 One of the earliest uses of word Hindu in a religious context in a European language Spanish was the publication in 1649 by Sebastio Manrique 80 In the Indian historian DN Jha s essay Looking for a Hindu identity he writes No Indians described themselves as Hindus before the fourteenth century and that 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 102 In the 18th century the European merchants and colonists began to refer to the followers of Indian religions collectively as Hindus 102 Other prominent mentions of Hindu include the epigraphical inscriptions from Andhra Pradesh kingdoms who battled military expansion of Muslim dynasties in the 14th century where the word Hindu partly implies a religious identity in contrast to Turks or Islamic religious identity 103 The term Hindu was later used occasionally in some Sanskrit texts such as the later Rajataranginis of Kashmir Hinduka c 1450 and some 16th to 18th century Bengali Gaudiya Vaishnava texts including Chaitanya Charitamrita and Chaitanya Bhagavata These texts used it to contrast Hindus from Muslims who are called Yavanas foreigners or Mlecchas barbarians with the 16th century Chaitanya Charitamrita text and the 17th century Bhakta Mala text using the phrase Hindu dharma 78 Terminology Hindus at Har Ki Pauri Haridwar near river Ganges in Uttarakhand state of India Medieval era usage 8th to 18th century Scholar Arvind Sharma notes that the term Hindus was used in the Brahmanabad settlement which Muhammad ibn Qasim made with non Muslims after the Arab invasion of northwestern Sindh region of India in 712 CE The term Hindu meant people who were non Muslims and it included Buddhists of the region 104 In the 11th century text of Al Biruni Hindus are referred to as religious antagonists to Islam as those who believe in rebirth presents them to hold a diversity of beliefs and seems to oscillate between Hindus holding a centralist and pluralist religious views 104 In the texts of Delhi Sultanate era states Sharma the term Hindu remains ambiguous on whether it means people of a region or religion giving the example of Ibn Battuta s explanation of the name Hindu Kush for a mountain range in Afghanistan It was so called wrote Ibn Battuta because many Indian slaves died there of snow cold as they were marched across that mountain range The term Hindu there is ambivalent and could mean geographical region or religion 105 The term Hindu appears in the texts from the Mughal Empire era It broadly refers to non Muslims Pashaura Singh states in Persian writings Sikhs were regarded as Hindu in the sense of non Muslim Indians 106 Jahangir for example called the Sikh Guru Arjan a Hindu 107 There was a Hindu named Arjan in Gobindwal on the banks of the Beas River Pretending to be a spiritual guide he had won over as devotees many simple minded Indians and even some ignorant stupid Muslims by broadcasting his claims to be a saint When Khusraw stopped at his residence Arjan came out and had an interview with Khusraw Giving him some elementary spiritual precepts picked up here and there he made a mark with saffron on his forehead which is called qashqa in the idiom of the Hindus and which they consider lucky Emperor Jahangir Jahangirnama 27b 28a Translated by Wheeler Thackston 108 e Colonial era usage 18th to 20th century The distribution of Indian religions in India 1909 The upper map shows distribution of Hindus the lower of Buddhists Jains and Sikhs A Hindu wedding ritual in India During the colonial era the term Hindu had connotations of native religions of India that is religions other than Christianity and Islam 109 In the 18th century Gentoo term was also used along with Hindu term 110 In early colonial era Anglo Hindu laws and British India court system the term Hindu referred to people of all Indian religions as well as two non Indian religions Judaism and Zoroastrianism 109 In the 20th century personal laws were formulated for Hindus and the term Hindu in these colonial Hindu laws applied to Buddhists Jains and Sikhs in addition to denominational Hindus 81 f Beyond the stipulations of British colonial law European orientalists and particularly the influential Asiatick Researches founded in the 18th century later called The Asiatic Society initially identified just two religions in India Islam and Hinduism These orientalists included all Indian religions such as Buddhism as a subgroup of Hinduism in the 18th century 67 These texts called followers of Islam as Mohamedans and all others as Hindus The text by the early 19th century began dividing Hindus into separate groups for chronology studies of the various beliefs Among the earliest terms to emerge were Seeks and their College later spelled Sikhs by Charles Wilkins Boudhism later spelled Buddhism and in the 9th volume of Asiatick Researches report on religions in India the term Jainism received notice 67 According to Pennington the terms Hindu and Hinduism were thus constructed for colonial studies of India The various sub divisions and separation of subgroup terms were assumed to be result of communal conflict and Hindu was constructed by these orientalists to imply people who adhered to ancient default oppressive religious substratum of India states Pennington 67 Followers of other Indian religions so identified were later referred Buddhists Sikhs or Jains and distinguished from Hindus in an antagonistic two dimensional manner with Hindus and Hinduism stereotyped as irrational traditional and others as rational reform religions However these mid 19th century reports offered no indication of doctrinal or ritual differences between Hindu and Buddhist or other newly constructed religious identities 67 These colonial studies states Pennigton puzzled endlessly about the Hindus and intensely scrutinized them but did not interrogate and avoided reporting the practices and religion of Mughal and Arabs in South Asia and often relied on Muslim scholars to characterise Hindus 67 Contemporary usage A young Nepali Hindu devotee during a traditional prayer ceremony at Kathmandu s Durbar Square In contemporary era the term Hindus are individuals who identify with one or more aspects of Hinduism whether they are practising or non practicing or Laissez faire 113 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 114 115 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 65 One need not be religious in the minimal sense states Julius Lipner to be accepted as Hindu by Hindus or to describe oneself as Hindu 116 Hindus subscribe to a diversity of ideas on spirituality and traditions but have no ecclesiastical order no unquestionable religious authorities no governing body nor a single founding prophet Hindus can choose to be polytheistic pantheistic monotheistic monistic agnostic atheistic or humanist 117 118 119 Because of the wide range of traditions and ideas covered by the term Hinduism arriving at a comprehensive definition is difficult 71 The religion defies our desire to define and categorize it 120 A Hindu may by his or her choice draw upon ideas of other Indian or non Indian religious thought as a resource follow or evolve his or her personal beliefs and still identify as a Hindu 65 In 1995 Chief Justice P B Gajendragadkar was quoted in an Indian Supreme Court ruling 121 122 When we think of the Hindu religion unlike other religions in the world the Hindu religion does not claim any one prophet it does not worship any one god it does not subscribe to any one dogma it does not believe in any one philosophic concept it does not follow any one set of religious rites or performances in fact it does not appear to satisfy the narrow traditional features of any religion or creed It may broadly be described as a way of life and nothing more Although Hinduism contains a broad range of philosophies Hindus share philosophical concepts such as but not limiting to dharma karma kama artha moksha and samsara even if each subscribes to a diversity of views 123 Hindus also have shared texts such as the Vedas with embedded Upanishads and common ritual grammar Sanskara rite of passage such as rituals during a wedding or when a baby is born or cremation rituals 124 125 Some Hindus go on pilgrimage to shared sites they consider spiritually significant practice one or more forms of bhakti or puja celebrate mythology and epics major festivals love and respect for guru and family and other cultural traditions 123 126 A Hindu could follow any of the Hindu schools of philosophy such as Advaita non dualism Vishishtadvaita non dualism of the qualified whole Dvaita dualism Dvaitadvaita dualism with non dualism etc 127 128 follow a tradition centred on any particular form of the Divine such as Shaivism Vaishnavism Shaktism etc 129 practice any one of the various forms of yoga systems in order to achieve moksha that is freedom in current life jivanmukti or salvation in after life videhamukti 130 practice bhakti or puja for spiritual reasons which may be directed to one s guru or to a divine image 131 A visible public form of this practice is worship before an idol or statue Jeaneane Fowler states that non Hindu observers often confuse this practice as stone or idol worship and nothing beyond it while for many Hindus it is an image which represents or is symbolic manifestation of a spiritual Absolute Brahman 131 This practice may focus on a metal or stone statue or a photographic image or a linga or any object or tree pipal or animal cow or tools of one s profession or sunrise or expression of nature or to nothing at all and the practice may involve meditation japa offerings or songs 131 132 Inden states that this practice means different things to different Hindus and has been misunderstood misrepresented as idolatry and various rationalisations have been constructed by both Western and native Indologists 133 Disputes In the Constitution of India the word Hindu has been used in some places to denote persons professing any of these religions Hinduism Jainism Buddhism or Sikhism 134 This however has been challenged by the Sikhs 114 135 and by neo Buddhists who were formerly Hindus 136 According to Sheen and Boyle Jains have not objected to being covered by personal laws termed under Hindu 136 but Indian courts have acknowledged that Jainism is a distinct religion 137 The Republic of India is in the peculiar situation that the Supreme Court of India has repeatedly been called upon to define Hinduism because the Constitution of India while it prohibits discrimination of any citizen on grounds of religion in article 15 article 30 foresees special rights for All minorities whether based on religion or language As a consequence religious groups have an interest in being recognised as distinct from the Hindu majority in order to qualify as a religious minority Thus the Supreme Court was forced to consider the question whether Jainism is part of Hinduism in 2005 and 2006 History of Hindu identityStarting after the 10th century and particularly after the 12th century Islamic invasion states Sheldon Pollock the political response fused with the Indic religious culture and doctrines 76 Temples dedicated to deity Rama were built from north to south India and textual records as well as hagiographic inscriptions began comparing the Hindu epic of Ramayana to regional kings and their response to Islamic attacks The Yadava king of Devagiri named Ramacandra for example states Pollock is described in a 13th century record as How is this Rama to be described who freed Varanasi from the mleccha barbarian Turk Muslim horde and built there a golden temple of Sarngadhara 76 Pollock notes that the Yadava king Ramacandra is described as a devotee of deity Shiva Shaivism yet his political achievements and temple construction sponsorship in Varanasi far from his kingdom s location in the Deccan region is described in the historical records in Vaishnavism terms of Rama a deity Vishnu avatar 76 Pollock presents many such examples and suggests an emerging Hindu political identity that was grounded in the Hindu religious text of Ramayana one that has continued into the modern times and suggests that this historic process began with the arrival of Islam in India 138 Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya has questioned the Pollock theory and presented textual and inscriptional evidence 139 According to Chattopadhyaya the Hindu identity and religious response to Islamic invasion and wars developed in different kingdoms such as wars between Islamic Sultanates and the Vijayanagara kingdom and Islamic raids on the kingdoms in Tamil Nadu These wars were described not just using the mythical story of Rama from Ramayana states Chattopadhyaya the medieval records used a wide range of religious symbolism and myths that are now considered as part of Hindu literature 77 139 This emergence of religious with political terminology began with the first Muslim invasion of Sindh in the 8th century CE and intensified 13th century onwards The 14th century Sanskrit text Madhuravijayam a memoir written by Gangadevi the wife of Vijayanagara prince for example describes the consequences of war using religious terms 140 I very much lament for what happened to the groves in Madhura The coconut trees have all been cut and in their place are to be seen rows of iron spikes with human skulls dangling at the points In the highways which were once charming with anklets sound of beautiful women are now heard ear piercing noises of Brahmins being dragged bound in iron fetters The waters of Tambraparni which were once white with sandal paste are now flowing red with the blood of cows slaughtered by miscreants Earth is no longer the producer of wealth nor does Indra give timely rains The God of death takes his undue toll of what are left lives if undestroyed by the Yavanas Muslims 141 The Kali age now deserves deepest congratulations for being at the zenith of its power gone is the sacred learning hidden is refinement hushed is the voice of Dharma Madhuravijayam Translated by Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya 140 The historiographic writings in Telugu language from the 13th and 14th century Kakatiya dynasty period presents a similar alien other Turk and self identity Hindu contrast 142 Chattopadhyaya and other scholars 143 state that the military and political campaign during the medieval era wars in Deccan peninsula of India and in the north India were no longer a quest for sovereignty they embodied a political and religious animosity against the otherness of Islam and this began the historical process of Hindu identity formation 77 g Andrew Nicholson in his review of scholarship on Hindu identity history states that the vernacular literature of Bhakti movement sants from 15th to 17th century such as Kabir Anantadas Eknath Vidyapati suggests that distinct religious identities between Hindus and Turks Muslims had formed during these centuries 144 The poetry of this period contrasts Hindu and Islamic identities states Nicholson and the literature vilifies the Muslims coupled with a distinct sense of a Hindu religious identity 144 Hindu identity amidst other Indian religions Hindus celebrating their major festivals Holi top and Diwali Scholars state that Hindu Buddhist and Jain identities are retrospectively introduced modern constructions 83 Inscriptional evidence from the 8th century onwards in regions such as South India suggests that medieval era India at both elite and folk religious practices level likely had a shared religious culture 83 and their collective identities were multiple layered and fuzzy 145 Even among Hinduism denominations such as Shaivism and Vaishnavism the Hindu identities states Leslie Orr lacked firm definitions and clear boundaries 145 Overlaps in Jain Hindu identities have included Jains worshipping Hindu deities intermarriages between Jains and Hindus and medieval era Jain temples featuring Hindu religious icons and sculpture 146 147 148 Beyond India on Java island of Indonesia historical records attest to marriages between Hindus and Buddhists medieval era temple architecture and sculptures that simultaneously incorporate Hindu and Buddhist themes 149 where Hinduism and Buddhism merged and functioned as two separate paths within one overall system according to Ann Kenney and other scholars 150 Similarly there is an organic relation of Sikhs to Hindus states Zaehner both in religious thought and their communities and virtually all Sikhs ancestors were Hindus 151 Marriages between Sikhs and Hindus particularly among Khatris were frequent 151 Some Hindu families brought up a son as a Sikh and some Hindus view Sikhism as a tradition within Hinduism even though the Sikh faith is a distinct religion 151 Julius Lipner states that the custom of distinguishing between Hindus Buddhists Jains and Sikhs is a modern phenomena but one that is a convenient abstraction 82 Distinguishing Indian traditions is a fairly recent practice states Lipner and is the result of not only Western preconceptions about the nature of religion in general and of religion in India in particular but also with the political awareness that has arisen in India in its people and a result of Western influence during its colonial history 82 Sacred geography Scholars such as Fleming and Eck state that the post Epic era literature from the 1st millennium CE amply demonstrate that there was a historic concept of the Indian subcontinent as a sacred geography where the sacredness was a shared set of religious ideas For example the twelve Jyotirlingas of Shaivism and fifty one Shaktipithas of Shaktism are described in the early medieval era Puranas as pilgrimage sites around a theme 152 153 154 This sacred geography and Shaiva temples with same iconography shared themes motifs and embedded legends are found across India from the Himalayas to hills of South India from Ellora Caves to Varanasi by about the middle of 1st millennium 152 155 Shakti temples dated to a few centuries later are verifiable across the subcontinent Varanasi as a sacred pilgrimage site is documented in the Varanasimahatmya text embedded inside the Skanda Purana and the oldest versions of this text are dated to 6th to 8th century CE 156 157 The idea of twelve sacred sites in Shiva Hindu tradition spread across the Indian subcontinent appears not only in the medieval era temples but also in copper plate inscriptions and temple seals discovered in different sites 158 According to Bhardwaj non Hindu texts such as the memoirs of Chinese Buddhist and Persian Muslim travellers attest to the existence and significance of the pilgrimage to sacred geography among Hindus by later 1st millennium CE 159 According to Fleming those who question whether the term Hindu and Hinduism are a modern construction in a religious context present their arguments based on some texts that have survived into the modern era either of Islamic courts or of literature published by Western missionaries or colonial era Indologists aiming for a reasonable construction of history However the existence of non textual evidence such as cave temples separated by thousands of kilometers as well as lists of medieval era pilgrimage sites is evidence of a shared sacred geography and existence of a community that was self aware of shared religious premises and landscape 160 157 Further it is a norm in evolving cultures that there is a gap between the lived and historical realities of a religious tradition and the emergence of related textual authorities 158 The tradition and temples likely existed well before the medieval era Hindu manuscripts appeared that describe them and the sacred geography This states Fleming is apparent given the sophistication of the architecture and the sacred sites along with the variance in the versions of the Puranic literature 160 161 According to Diana L Eck and other Indologists such as Andre Wink Muslim invaders were aware of Hindu sacred geography such as Mathura Ujjain and Varanasi by the 11th century These sites became a target of their serial attacks in the centuries that followed 157 Hindu persecution Main article Persecution of Hindus The Hindus have been persecuted during the medieval and modern era The medieval persecution included waves of plunder killing destruction of temples and enslavement by Turk Mongol Muslim armies from central Asia This is documented in Islamic literature such as those relating to 8th century Muhammad bin Qasim 162 11th century Mahmud of Ghazni 163 164 the Persian traveler Al Biruni 165 the 14th century Islamic army invasion led by Timur 166 and various Sunni Islamic rulers of the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire 167 168 169 There were occasional exceptions such as Akbar who stopped the persecution of Hindus 169 and occasional severe persecution such as under Aurangzeb 170 172 h who destroyed temples forcibly converted non Muslims to Islam and banned the celebration of Hindu festivals such as Holi and Diwali 173 Other recorded persecution of Hindus include those under the reign of 18th century Tipu Sultan in south India 174 and during the colonial era 175 176 177 In the modern era religious persecution of Hindus have been reported outside India in Pakistan and Bangladesh 178 179 180 Hindu nationalism Main articles Hindu nationalism and Hindutva Christophe Jaffrelot states that modern Hindu nationalism was born in Maharashtra in the 1920s as a reaction to the Islamic Khilafat Movement wherein Indian Muslims championed and took the cause of the Turkish Ottoman sultan as the Caliph of all Muslims at the end of the World War I 181 182 Hindus viewed this development as one of divided loyalties of Indian Muslim population of pan Islamic hegemony and questioned whether Indian Muslims were a part of an inclusive anti colonial Indian nationalism 182 The Hindu nationalism ideology that emerged states Jeffrelot was codified by Savarkar while he was a political prisoner of the British colonial authorities 181 183 Chris Bayly traces the roots of Hindu nationalism to the Hindu identity and political independence achieved by the Maratha confederacy that overthrew the Islamic Mughal empire in large parts of India allowing Hindus the freedom to pursue any of their diverse religious beliefs and restored Hindu holy places such as Varanasi 184 A few scholars view Hindu mobilisation and consequent nationalism to have emerged in the 19th century as a response to British colonialism by Indian nationalists and neo Hinduism gurus 185 186 187 Jaffrelot states that the efforts of Christian missionaries and Islamic proselytizers during the British colonial era each of whom tried to gain new converts to their own religion by stereotyping and stigmatising Hindus to an identity of being inferior and superstitious contributed to Hindus re asserting their spiritual heritage and counter cross examining Islam and Christianity forming organisations such as the Hindu Sabhas Hindu associations and ultimately a Hindu identity driven nationalism in the 1920s 188 The colonial era Hindu revivalism and mobilisation along with Hindu nationalism states Peter van der Veer was primarily a reaction to and competition with Muslim separatism and Muslim nationalism 189 The successes of each side fed the fears of the other leading to the growth of Hindu nationalism and Muslim nationalism in the Indian subcontinent 189 In the 20th century the sense of religious nationalism grew in India states van der Veer but only Muslim nationalism succeeded with the formation of the West and East Pakistan later split into Pakistan and Bangladesh as an Islamic state upon independence 190 191 192 Religious riots and social trauma followed as millions of Hindus Jains Buddhists and Sikhs moved out of the newly created Islamic states and resettled into the Hindu majority post British India 193 After the separation of India and Pakistan in 1947 the Hindu nationalism movement developed the concept of Hindutva in second half of the 20th century 194 The Hindu nationalism movement has sought to reform Indian laws that critics say attempts to impose Hindu values on India s Islamic minority Gerald Larson states for example that Hindu nationalists have sought a uniform civil code where all citizens are subject to the same laws everyone has equal civil rights and individual rights do not depend on the individual s religion 195 In contrast opponents of Hindu nationalists remark that eliminating religious law from India poses a threat to the cultural identity and religious rights of Muslims and people of Islamic faith have a constitutional right to Islamic shariah based personal laws 195 196 A specific law contentious between Hindu nationalists and their opponents in India relates to the legal age of marriage for girls 197 Hindu nationalists seek that the legal age for marriage be eighteen that is universally applied to all girls regardless of their religion and that marriages be registered with local government to verify the age of marriage Muslim clerics consider this proposal as unacceptable because under the shariah derived personal law a Muslim girl can be married at any age after she reaches puberty 197 Hindu nationalism in India states Katharine Adeney is a controversial political subject with no consensus about what it means or implies in terms of the form of government and religious rights of the minorities 198 DemographicsMain article Hinduism by country Hinduism by country worldmap estimate 2010 199 There are 1 2 1 3 billion Hindus worldwide 15 16 of world s population with about 95 of them being concentrated in India alone 1 200 Along with Christians 31 5 Muslims 23 2 and Buddhists 7 1 Hindus are one of the four major religious groups of the world 201 Most Hindus are found in Asian countries The top twenty five countries with the most Hindu residents and citizens in decreasing order are India Nepal Bangladesh Indonesia Pakistan Sri Lanka United States Malaysia Myanmar United Kingdom Mauritius South Africa United Arab Emirates Canada Australia Saudi Arabia Trinidad and Tobago Singapore Fiji Qatar Kuwait Guyana Bhutan Oman and Yemen 88 200 The top fifteen countries with the highest percentage of Hindus in decreasing order are Nepal India Mauritius Fiji Guyana Bhutan Suriname Trinidad and Tobago Qatar Sri Lanka Kuwait Bangladesh Reunion Malaysia and Singapore 202 The fertility rate that is children per woman for Hindus is 2 4 which is less than the world average of 2 5 203 Pew Research projects that there will be 1 4 billion Hindus by 2050 204 Hinduism by continents 2017 18 Continents Hindus population of the Hindu pop of the continent pop Follower dynamics World dynamicsAsia 1 074 728 901 99 266 26 01 Growing GrowingEurope 2 030 904 0 214 0 278 Growing GrowingThe Americas 2 806 344 0 263 0 281 Growing GrowingAfrica 2 013 705 0 213 0 225 Growing GrowingOceania 791 615 0 071 2 053 Growing GrowingCumulative 1 082 371 469 100 15 03 Growing GrowingIn more ancient times Hindu kingdoms arose and spread the religion and traditions across Southeast Asia particularly Thailand Nepal Burma Malaysia Indonesia Cambodia 205 Laos 205 Philippines 206 and what is now central Vietnam 207 Over 3 million Hindus are found in Bali Indonesia a culture whose origins trace back to ideas brought by Hindu traders to Indonesian islands in the 1st millennium CE Their sacred texts are also the Vedas and the Upanishads 208 The Puranas and the Itihasa mainly Ramayana and the Mahabharata are enduring traditions among Indonesian Hindus expressed in community dances and shadow puppet wayang performances As in India Indonesian Hindus recognise four paths of spirituality calling it Catur Marga 209 Similarly like Hindus in India Balinese Hindus believe that there are four proper goals of human life calling it Catur Purusartha dharma pursuit of moral and ethical living artha pursuit of wealth and creative activity kama pursuit of joy and love and moksha pursuit of self knowledge and liberation 210 211 CultureMain article Hindu culture Hindu culture is a term used to describe the culture and identity of Hindus and Hinduism including the historic Vedic people 212 Hindu culture can be intensively seen in the form of art architecture history diet clothing astrology and other forms The culture of India and Hinduism is deeply influenced and assimilated with each other With the Indianisation of southeast Asia and Greater India the culture has also influenced a long region and other religions people of that area 213 All Indian religions including Jainism Sikhism and Buddhism are deeply influenced and soft powered by Hinduism 214 See also Hinduism portal Society portal Religion portalHistory of Hinduism List of Hindu empires and dynasties Hinduism by country Hindu eschatology List of Hindu festivals Hindu calendar Suratrana Samskaram DikshaNotes Flood 1996 p 6 adds Hindu or Hindoo was used towards the end of the eighteenth century by the British to refer to the people of Hindustan the people of northwest India Eventually Hindu became virtually equivalent to an Indian who was not a Muslim Sikh Jain or Christian thereby encompassing a range of religious beliefs and practices The ism was added to Hindu in around 1830 to denote the culture and religion of the high caste Brahmans in contrast to other religions and the term was soon appropriated by Indians themselves in the context of building a national identity opposed to colonialism though the term Hindu was used in Sanskrit and Bengali hagiographic texts in contrast to Yavana or Muslim as early as the sixteenth century von Stietencron 2005 p 229 For more than 100 years the word Hindu plural continued to denote the Indians in general But when from AD 712 onwards Muslims began to settle permanently in the Indus valley and to make converts among low caste Hindus Persian authors distinguished between Hindus and Muslims in India Hindus were Indians other than Muslim We know that Persian scholars were able to distinguish a number of religions among the Hindus But when Europeans started to use the term Hindoo they applied it to the non Muslim masses of India without those scholarly differentiations Despite the commonplace use of the term Hindu for the followers of the Hindu religion the term also continues to designate a cultural identity the ownership of India s millennia old cultural heritage Arvind Sharma notes that the exclusivist conception of religion was foreign to India and Indians did not yield to it during the centuries of Muslim rule but only under the British colonial rule Resistance to the exclusivist conception led to Savarkar s Hindutva where Hinduism was seen both as a religion and a culture 84 Hindutva is a national Hindu ness by which a Hindu is one born in India and behaves like a Hindu M S Golwalkar even spoke of Hindu Muslims meaning Hindu by culture Muslim by religion 85 Flood 2008 p 3 The Indo Aryan word Sindhu means river ocean Prince Khusrau Jahangir son mounted a challenge to the emperor within the first year of his reign The rebellion was put down and all the collaborators executed Pashaura Singh 2005 pp 31 34 According to Ram Bhagat the term was used by the Colonial British government in post 1871 census of colonial India that included a question on the individual s religion especially in the aftermath of the 1857 revolution 111 112 Lorenzen 2010 p 29 When it comes to early sources written in Indian languages and also Persian and Arabic the word Hindu is used in a clearly religious sense in a great number of texts at least as early as the sixteenth century Although al Biruni s original Arabic text only uses a term equivalent to the religion of the people of India his description of Hindu religion is in fact remarkably similar to those of nineteenth century European orientalists For his part Vidyapati in his Apabhransha text Kirtilata makes use of the phrase Hindu and Turk dharmas in a clearly religious sense and highlights the local conflicts between the two communities In the early sixteenth century texts attributed to Kabir the references to Hindus and to Turks or Muslims musalamans in a clearly religious context are numerous and unambiguous See also Aurangzeb as he was according to Mughal Records more links at the bottom of that page For Muslim historian s record on major Hindu temple destruction campaigns from 1193 to 1729 AD see Richard Eaton 2000 Temple Desecration and Indo Muslim States Journal of Islamic Studies Vol 11 Issue 3 pages 283 319ReferencesCitations a b c Can Muslims surpass Hindus in population numbers Experts say practically not possible 24 April 2022 Hindu Countries 2021 World Population Review 2021 Retrieved 5 July 2021 a b c d e The Future of World Religions Population Growth 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million 27 July 2022 Atrocities on Hindus in Bangladesh Now 1 8 crore Hindu Bengali citizens of Bangladesh are ready to go to India said Ravindra Ghosh Chairman of Bangladesh Hindu Janajagruti Samiti APN News Introduction Bangladesh tradeinfolink com my Retrieved 9 May 2021 Hindu population in Bangladesh grew by 1 per cent in 2015 Report The Economic Times 23 June 2016 Retrieved 7 January 2021 BANGLADESH 2012 INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM REPORT US State Department 2012 page 2 Hindu Countries 2022 Indonesia Religious Freedoms Report 2010 US State Department 2011 Quote The Ministry of Religious Affairs estimates that 10 million Hindus live in the country and account for approximately 90 percent of the population in Bali Hindu minorities also reside in Central and East Kalimantan the city of Medan North Sumatra South and Central Sulawesi and Lombok West Nusa Tenggara Hindu groups such as Hare Krishna and followers of the Indian spiritual leader Sai Baba are present in small numbers Some indigenous religious groups including the Naurus on Seram Island in Maluku Province incorporate Hindu and animist beliefs and many have also adopted some Protestant teachings Indonesia International Religious Freedom Report 2005 US State Department Quote The Hindu association Parishada Hindu Dharma Indonesia PHDI estimates that 18 million Hindus live in the country a figure that far exceeds the government estimate of 4 million Hindus account for almost 90 percent of the population in Bali United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Refworld 2010 Report on International Religious Freedom Indonesia United Nations High Commission for Refugees Archived from the original on 19 October 2012 Retrieved 27 May 2014 Hindu population in Pakistan has grown at a faster pace than in India 26 March 2019 Hindu Population PK pakistanhinducouncil org pk Archived from the original on 15 March 2018 Retrieved 11 January 2022 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint unfit URL link Population by religion Archived 17 June 2006 at the Wayback Machine Two years after it counted population Pakistan silent on minority numbers The Indian Express 7 January 2020 Mangla Sharma estimates Hindu population in Pakistan at nearly one crore and Sikhs at 40 000 2014 Religious Landscape Study Pew Forum on Religion amp Public Life 12 May 2015 Retrieved 15 May 2015 Department of Census and Statistics The Census of Population and Housing of Sri Lanka 2011 The World Factbook Central Intelligence Agency cia gov 21 June 2022 Malaysia U S Department of State Table Religious Composition by Country in Numbers Pew Research Center 18 December 2012 ISBN 978 2 02 419434 7 UK Government 27 March 2009 Religion in England and Wales 2011 Office of National Statistics 11 December 2012 Retrieved 7 September 2014 2011 National Household Survey www12 statcan gc ca Statistics Canada 8 May 2013 Retrieved 21 April 2016 Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census of Population and Housing General Community Profile XLSX Abs gov au Retrieved 2 July 2022 The World Factbook Central Intelligence Agency cia gov 21 June 2022 Resident population by religion and sex PDF Statistics Mauritius p 68 Archived from the original PDF on 16 October 2013 Retrieved 1 November 2012 Table Religious Composition by Country in Numbers 2010 Pew Research Center s Religion amp Public Life Project 18 December 2012 Archived from the original on 1 February 2013 Retrieved 14 February 2015 The World Factbook Central Intelligence Agency cia gov 21 June 2022 Department Of State The Office of Electronic Information Bureau of Public Affairs Singapore 2001 2009 state gov Fiji State gov 10 September 2012 Retrieved 2 July 2020 The World Factbook Cia gov Retrieved 2 July 2020 The 2014 Myanmar Population and Housing Census PDF Department of Population Ministry of Labour Immigration and Population MYANMAR Archived from the original PDF on 29 March 2018 Retrieved 2 October 2018 The World Factbook Central Intelligence Agency cia gov 21 June 2022 Trinidad and Tobago U S Department of State Department Of State The Office of Electronic Information Bureau of Public Affairs Trinidad and Tobago 2001 2009 state gov Religious Composition Census of Guyana 2012 Bureau of Statistics Guyana July 2016 Retrieved 16 December 2017 CIA The World Factbook Cia gov Retrieved 5 March 2012 Bhutan State gov 2 February 2010 Retrieved 5 March 2012 religion in Italy globalreligiousfuture org hindus in the Netherlands the hindu perspective 23 March 2013 religion in France globalreligiousfuture org Arena Atlas of Religions and Nationalities in Russia Sreda org The World Factbook Central Intelligence Agency cia gov 22 September 2022 2018 Census totals by topic national highlights Knott 1998 pp 3 5 Hatcher 2015 pp 4 5 69 71 150 152 sfn error no target CITEREFHatcher2015 help Bowker 2000 sfn error no target CITEREFBowker2000 help Harvey 2001 p xiii sfn error no target CITEREFHarvey2001 help a b c d e Chapter 1 Global Religious Populations PDF January 2012 Archived from the original PDF on 20 October 2013 Dominic Goodall 1996 Hindu Scriptures University of California Press ISBN 978 0 520 20778 3 page ix xliii RC Zaehner 1992 Hindu Scriptures Penguin Random House ISBN 978 0 679 41078 2 pages 1 11 and Preface Ludo Rocher 1986 The Puranas Otto Harrassowitz Verlag ISBN 978 3 447 02522 5 Moriz Winternitz 1996 A History of Indian Literature Motilal Banarsidass pp xv xvi ISBN 978 81 208 0264 3 Yajna a Comprehensive Survey Gyanshruti Srividyananda Yoga Publications Trust 2007 p 338 ISBN 978 81 86336 47 2 Johnson Todd M Grim Brian J 2013 The World s Religions in Figures An Introduction to International Religious Demography PDF Hoboken NJ Wiley Blackwell p 10 Archived from the original PDF on 20 October 2013 Retrieved 24 November 2015 Pandey Anjali 2019 Re Englishing flat world fiction World Englishes 38 1 2 200 218 doi 10 1111 weng 12370 S2CID 199152662 a b c Jeffery D Long 2007 A Vision for Hinduism IB Tauris ISBN 978 1 84511 273 8 pages 35 37 Lloyd Ridgeon 2003 Major World Religions From Their Origins to the Present Routledge pp 10 11 ISBN 978 1 134 42935 6 Quote It is often said that Hinduism is very ancient and in a sense this is true It was formed by adding the English suffix ism of Greek origin to the word Hindu of Persian origin it was about the same time that the word Hindu without the suffix ism came to be used mainly as a religious term The name Hindu was first a geographical name not a religious one and it originated in the languages of Iran not of India They referred to the non Muslim majority together with their culture as Hindu Since the people called Hindu differed from Muslims most notably in religion the word came to have religious implications and to denote a group of people who were identifiable by their Hindu religion However it is a religious term that the word Hindu is now used in English and Hinduism is the name of a religion although as we have seen we should beware of any false impression of uniformity that this might give us a b c d e f g h i Pennington Brian K 2005 Was Hinduism Invented Britons Indians and the Colonial Construction of Religion Oxford University Press pp 111 118 ISBN 978 0 19 803729 3 Lorenzen 2006 pp xx 2 13 26 Mihir Bose 18 April 2006 The Magic of Indian Cricket Cricket and Society in India Routledge pp 1 3 ISBN 978 1 134 24924 4 India Online Etymology Dictionary a b c d e Flood 1996 p 6 a b c Hawley John Stratton Narayanan Vasudha 2006 The Life of Hinduism University of California Press pp 10 11 ISBN 978 0 520 24914 1 Herbst Philip 1997 The color of words an encyclopaedic dictionary of ethnic bias in the United States Intercultural Press pp 106 107 ISBN 978 1 877864 97 1 Hindu Hindoo A term borrowed from the Persian word Hindu Hindu is used today for an adherent of Hinduism the common religion of India Hindoo is listed in dictionaries as a variant spelling but it is one that may lend itself to derogatory use Dasgupta Shamita Das 1998 A patchwork shawl chronicles of South Asian women in America Rutgers University Press p 121 ISBN 0 8135 2518 7 I faced repeated and constant racial slurs at school from nigger to injun to Hindoo I as one of the few children of color was the equal opportunity target University of South Dakota English Department 1989 link to article South Dakota Review University of South Dakota 27 On the streets too simple slur words like Hindoo and Paki used almost with impunity in the seventies underscore how language includes or excludes Rosenblatt Roger 1999 Consuming desires consumption culture and the pursuit of happiness Island Press p 81 ISBN 1 55963 535 5 For example even though the majority of these newcomers were in fact practicing Hindus by the mid 1960s anti immigration agitators had dropped the use of Hindoo as choice slur Bhatia Sunil Ram Anjali 2004 Culture hybridity and the dialogical self Cases of the South Asian diaspora Mind Culture and Activity 11 3 224 240 doi 10 1207 s15327884mca1103 4 S2CID 144892736 Not being able to live up to the unattainable images of Charlie s Angels and the golden girls of The Brady Bunch and facing repeated and constant racial slurs at school such as nigger injun and hindoo combined with a lack of role models Yule Valerie 1989 Children s dictionaries spelling and pronunciation English Today 5 1 13 17 doi 10 1017 S0266078400003655 S2CID 145117424 I suspect the answer may be the long tradition of using that sort of simplified spelling to indicate the speech of vulgar and low types of people Nevertheless there is a sort of visual onomatopoeia a Hindu has dignity while a Hindoo seems slightly ridiculous a b c Lorenzen 2006 pp 24 33 a b c d e Sheldon Pollock 1993 Ramayaṇa and political imagination in India Journal of Asian studies Vol 52 No 2 pages 266 269 a b c Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya 1998 Representing the other Sanskrit sources and the Muslims eighth to fourteenth century Manohar Publications ISBN 978 81 7304 252 2 pages 92 103 Chapter 1 and 2 a b O Connell Joseph T July September 1973 The Word Hindu in Gauḍiya Vaiṣṇava Texts Journal of the American Oriental Society 93 3 340 344 doi 10 2307 599467 JSTOR 599467 Lorenzen 2010 p 29 a b Lorenzen 2006 p 15 a b Rachel Sturman 2010 Hinduism and Law An Introduction Editors Timothy Lubin et al Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 71626 0 pag 90 a b c Julius J Lipner 2009 Hindus Their Religious Beliefs and Practices 2nd Edition Routledge ISBN 978 0 415 45677 7 pages 17 18 a b c Leslie Orr 2014 Donors Devotees and Daughters of God Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 535672 4 pages 25 26 204 Sharma 2008 pp 25 26 Sridharan 2000 pp 13 14 Hindu Population projections Pew Research 2015 Washington DC Rukmini S Vijaita Singh Muslim population growth slows The Hindu 25 August 2015 79 8 of more than 121 crore Indians as per 2011 census are Hindus a b c 10 Countries With the Largest Hindu Populations 2010 and 2050 Pew Research Center 2015 Washington DC Herman Siemens Vasti Roodt 2009 Nietzsche Power and Politics Rethinking Nietzsche s Legacy for Political Thought Walter de Gruyter p 546 ISBN 978 3 11 021733 9 Murray J Leaf 2014 The Anthropology of Eastern Religions Ideas Organizations and Constituencies Lexington Books p 36 ISBN 978 0 7391 9241 2 a b Flood 2008 p 3 Takacs Sarolta Anna Cline Eric H 17 July 2015 The Ancient World Routledge pp 377 ISBN 978 1 317 45839 5 a b c d e Sharma Arvind 2002 On Hindu Hindustan Hinduism and Hindutva Numen Brill 49 1 1 36 doi 10 1163 15685270252772759 JSTOR 3270470 Thapar 2003 p 38 a b c Jha 2009 p 15 Jha 2009 p 16 Thapar 2003 p 8 Thapar Romila September October 1996 The Tyranny of Labels Social Scientist 24 9 10 3 23 doi 10 2307 3520140 JSTOR 3520140 Wilfred Cantwell Smith 1981 p 62 a b Lorenzen 2006 p 33 Lorenzen 2006 p 31 a b Dube Mukul A short note on the short history of Hinduism Scroll in Lorenzen 2006 pp 32 33 a b Arvind Sharma 2002 On Hindu Hindustan Hinduism and Hindutva Numen Vol 49 Fasc 1 pages 5 9 Arvind Sharma 2002 On Hindu Hindustan Hinduism and Hindutva Numen Vol 49 Fasc 1 page 9 Pashaura Singh 2005 Understanding the Martyrdom of Guru Arjan Journal of Punjab Studies 12 1 page 37 Pashaura Singh 2005 Understanding the Martyrdom of Guru Arjan Journal of Punjab Studies 12 1 pages 29 31 Wheeler Thackston 1999 The Jahangirnama Memoirs of Jahangir Emperor of India Oxford University Press p 59 ISBN 978 0 19 512718 8 a b Gauri Viswanathan 1998 Outside the Fold Conversion Modernity and Belief Princeton University Press ISBN 978 0 691 05899 3 page 78 A Code of Gentoo Laws or Ordinations of the Pundits from a Persian Translation Made from the Original Written in the Sanscrit Language INDIAN CULTURE Retrieved 12 January 2023 Bhagat Ram Hindu Muslim Tension in India An Interface between census and Politics during Colonial India PDF iussp org IIPS Retrieved 17 April 2019 Archive of All Colonial India documents arrow latrobe edu au The Centre for Data Digitisation and Analysis at The Queen s University of Belfast Retrieved 17 April 2019 Bryan Turner 2010 The New Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Religion John Wiley amp Sons ISBN 978 1 4051 8852 4 pages 424 425 a b Martin E Marty 1 July 1996 Fundamentalisms and the State Remaking Polities Economies and Militance University of Chicago Press pp 270 271 ISBN 978 0 226 50884 9 James Minahan 2012 Ethnic Groups of South Asia and the Pacific An Encyclopedia ISBN 978 1 59884 659 1 pages 97 99 Julius J Lipner 2009 Hindus Their Religious Beliefs and Practices 2nd Edition Routledge ISBN 978 0 415 45677 7 page 8 Julius J Lipner 2009 Hindus Their Religious Beliefs and Practices 2nd Edition Routledge ISBN 978 0 415 45677 7 page 8 Quote one need not be religious in the minimal sense described to be accepted as a Hindu by Hindus or describe oneself perfectly validly as Hindu One may be polytheistic or monotheistic monistic or pantheistic even an agnostic humanist or atheist and still be considered a Hindu Lester Kurtz Ed Encyclopedia of Violence Peace and Conflict ISBN 978 0 12 369503 1 Academic Press 2008 MK Gandhi The Essence of Hinduism Editor VB Kher Navajivan Publishing see page 3 According to Gandhi a man may not believe in God and still call himself a Hindu Knott Kim 1998 Hinduism A Very Short Introduction Oxford Oxford University press p 117 ISBN 978 0 19 285387 5 Supreme Court of India Bramchari Sidheswar Shai and others Versus State of West Bengal 1995 Archive2 Archived from the original Archived 30 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine Supreme Court of India 1966 AIR 1119 Sastri Yagnapurushadji vs Muldas Brudardas Vaishya Archived 12 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine pdf page 15 14 January 1966 a b Frazier Jessica 2011 The Continuum companion to Hindu studies London Continuum pp 1 15 ISBN 978 0 8264 9966 0 Carl Olson 2007 The Many Colors of Hinduism A Thematic historical Introduction Rutgers University Press ISBN 978 0 8135 4068 9 pages 93 94 Rajbali Pandey 2013 Hindu Saṁskaras Socio religious Study of the Hindu Sacraments 2nd Edition Motilal Banarsidass ISBN 978 81 208 0396 1 pages 15 36 Flood Gavin 7 February 2003 The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism Wiley ISBN 978 0 631 21535 6 via Google Books Muller F Max Six Systems of Indian Philosophy Samkhya and Yoga Naya and Vaiseshika 1899 This classic work helped to establish the major classification systems as we know them today Reprint edition Kessinger Publishing February 2003 ISBN 978 0 7661 4296 1 Radhakrishnan S Moore CA 1967 A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy Princeton ISBN 0 691 01958 4 Tattwananda Swami 1984 Vaisnava Sects Saiva Sects Mother Worship First revised ed Calcutta Firma KLM Private Ltd This work gives an overview of many different subsets of the three main religious groups in India TS Rukmani 2008 Theory and Practice of Yoga Editor Knut Jacobsen Motilal Banarsidass ISBN 978 81 208 3232 9 pages 61 74 a b c Jeaneane Fowler 1996 Hinduism Beliefs and Practices Sussex Academic Press ISBN 978 1 898723 60 8 pages 41 44 Stella Kramrisch 1958 Traditions of the Indian Craftsman The Journal of American Folklore Vol 71 No 281 pages 224 230 Ronald Inden 2001 Imagining India Indiana University Press ISBN 978 0 253 21358 7 pages 110 115 India Constitution Religious rights Article 25 Explanation II In sub Clause b of clause 2 the reference to Hindus shall be construed as including a reference to persons professing the Sikh Jaina or Buddhist religion Tanweer Fazal 1 August 2014 Nation state and Minority Rights in India Comparative Perspectives on Muslim and Sikh Identities Routledge pp 20 112 114 ISBN 978 1 317 75179 3 a b Kevin Boyle Juliet Sheen 7 March 2013 Freedom of Religion and Belief A World Report Routledge pp 191 192 ISBN 978 1 134 72229 7 para 25 Committee of Management Kanya Junior High School Bal Vidya Mandir Etah Uttar Pradesh v Sachiv U P Basic Shiksha Parishad Allahabad U P and Ors Per Dalveer Bhandari J Civil Appeal No 9595 of 2003 decided On 21 August 2006 Supreme Court of India Sheldon Pollock 1993 Ramayaṇa and political imagination in India Journal of Asian studies Vol 52 No 2 pages 261 297 a b Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya 2004 Other or the Others in The World in the Year 1000 Editors James Heitzman Wolfgang Schenkluhn University Press of America ISBN 978 0 7618 2561 6 pages 303 323 a b Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya 2004 Other or the Others in The World in the Year 1000 Editors James Heitzman Wolfgang Schenkluhn University Press of America ISBN 978 0 7618 2561 6 pages 306 307 the terms were Persians Tajikas or Arabs and Turushkas or Turks states Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya 2004 Other or the Others in The World in the Year 1000 Editors James Heitzman Wolfgang Schenkluhn University Press of America ISBN 978 0 7618 2561 6 pages 303 319 Cynthia Talbot 2000 Beyond Turk and Hindu Rethinking Religious Identities in Islamicate South Asia Editors David Gilmartin Bruce B Lawrence University Press of Florida ISBN 978 0 8130 2487 5 pages 291 294 Talbot Cynthia October 1995 Inscribing the other inscribing the self Hindu Muslim identities in pre colonial India Comparative Studies in Society and History 37 4 701 706 doi 10 1017 S0010417500019927 JSTOR 179206 S2CID 111385524 a b Andrew Nicholson 2013 Unifying Hinduism Philosophy and Identity in Indian Intellectual History Columbia University Press ISBN 978 0 231 14987 7 pages 198 199 a b Leslie Orr 2014 Donors Devotees and Daughters of God Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 535672 4 pages 42 204 Paul Dundas 2002 The Jains 2nd Edition Routledge ISBN 978 0 415 26605 5 pages 6 10 K Reddy 2011 Indian History Tata McGraw Hill ISBN 978 0 07 132923 1 page 93 Margaret Allen 1992 Ornament in Indian Architecture University of Delaware Press ISBN 978 0 87413 399 8 page 211 Trudy King et al 1996 Historic Places Asia and Oceania Routledge ISBN 978 1 884964 04 6 page 692 Ann Kenney et al 2003 Worshiping Siva and Buddha The Temple Art of East Java University of Hawaii Press ISBN 978 0 8248 2779 3 pages 24 25 a b c Robert Zaehner 1997 Encyclopedia of the World s Religions Barnes amp Noble Publishing ISBN 978 0 7607 0712 8 page 409 a b Fleming 2009 pp 51 56 Knut A Jacobsen 2013 Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition Salvific Space Routledge pp 122 129 ISBN 978 0 415 59038 9 Andre Padoux 2017 The Hindu Tantric World An Overview University of Chicago Press pp 136 149 ISBN 978 0 226 42412 5 Linda Kay Davidson David Martin Gitlitz 2002 Pilgrimage From the Ganges to Graceland an Encyclopedia ABC CLIO pp 239 244 ISBN 978 1 57607 004 8 Fleming 2009 p 56 a b c Diana L Eck 2012 India A Sacred Geography Harmony pp 34 40 55 58 88 ISBN 978 0 385 53191 7 a b Fleming 2009 pp 57 58 Surinder M Bhardwaj 1983 Hindu Places of Pilgrimage in India A Study in Cultural Geography University of California Press pp 75 79 ISBN 978 0 520 04951 2 a b Fleming 2009 pp 51 58 Surinder M Bhardwaj 1983 Hindu Places of Pilgrimage in India A Study in Cultural Geography University of California Press pp 58 79 ISBN 978 0 520 04951 2 Andre Wink 2002 Al Hind the Making of the Indo Islamic World Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam 7Th 11th Centuries BRILL Academic pp 154 161 203 205 ISBN 978 0 391 04173 8 Andre Wink 2002 Al Hind the Making of the Indo Islamic World Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam 7Th 11th Centuries BRILL Academic pp 162 163 184 186 ISBN 978 0 391 04173 8 Victoria Schofield 2010 Afghan Frontier At the Crossroads of Conflict Tauris p 25 ISBN 978 1 84885 188 7 Sachau Edward 1910 Alberuni s India Vol 1 Kegan Paul Trench Trubner amp Co p 22 Quote Mahmud utterly ruined the prosperity of the country and performed there wonderful exploits by which the Hindus became like atoms of dust scattered in all directions and like a tale of old in the mouth of the people Tapan Raychaudhuri Irfan Habib 1982 Cambridge Economic History of India Vol 1 Cambridge University Press p 91 ISBN 978 81 250 2730 0 Quote When Timur invaded India in 1398 99 collection of slaves formed an important object for his army 100 000 Hindu slaves had been seized by his soldiers and camp followers Even a pious saint had gathered together fifteen slaves Regrettably all had to be slaughtered before the attack on Delhi for fear that they might rebel But after the occupation of Delhi the inhabitants were brought out and distributed as slaves among Timur s nobles the captives including several thousand artisans and professional people Farooqui Salma Ahmed 2011 A Comprehensive History of Medieval India Twelfth to the Mid Eighteenth Century Pearson p 105 ISBN 978 81 317 3202 1 Hermann Kulke Dietmar Rothermund 2004 A History of India Routledge p 180 ISBN 978 0 415 32919 4 a b David N Lorenzen 2006 Who Invented Hinduism Essays on Religion in History Yoda p 50 ISBN 978 81 902272 6 1 Ayalon 1986 p 271 Abraham Eraly 2000 Emperors of the Peacock Throne The Saga of the Great Mughals Penguin Books ISBN 978 0 14 100143 2 pages 398 399 Avari 2013 p 115 citing a 2000 study writes Aurangzeb was perhaps no more culpable than most of the sultans before him they desecrated the temples associated with Hindu power not all temples It is worth noting that in contrast to the traditional claim of hundreds of Hindu temples having been destroyed by Aurangzeb a recent study suggests a modest figure of just fifteen destructions In contrast to Avari the historian Abraham Eraly estimates Aurangzeb era destruction to be significantly higher in 1670 all temples around Ujjain were destroyed and later 300 temples were destroyed in and around Chitor Udaipur and Jaipur among other Hindu temples destroyed elsewhere in campaigns through 1705 171 The persecution during the Islamic period targeted non Hindus as well Avari writes Aurangzeb s religious policy caused friction between him and the ninth Sikh guru Tegh Bahadur In both Punjab and Kashmir the Sikh leader was roused to action by Aurangzeb s excessively zealous Islamic policies Seized and taken to Delhi he was called upon by Aurangzeb to embrace Islam and on refusal was tortured for five days and then beheaded in November 1675 Two of the ten Sikh gurus thus died as martyrs at the hands of the Mughals Avari 2013 page 155 Kiyokazu Okita 2014 Hindu Theology in Early Modern South Asia The Rise of Devotionalism and the Politics of Genealogy Oxford University Press pp 28 29 ISBN 978 0 19 870926 8 Kate Brittlebank 1997 Tipu Sultan s Search for Legitimacy Islam and Kingship in a Hindu Domain Oxford University Press pp 12 34 35 ISBN 978 0 19 563977 3 Funso S Afọlayan 2004 Culture and Customs of South Africa Greenwood pp 78 79 ISBN 978 0 313 32018 7 Singh Sherry Ann 2005 Hinduism and the State in Trinidad Inter Asia Cultural Studies 6 3 353 365 doi 10 1080 14649370500169987 S2CID 144214455 Derek R Peterson Darren R Walhof 2002 The Invention of Religion Rethinking Belief in Politics and History Rutgers University Press p 82 ISBN 978 0 8135 3093 2 Paul A Marshall 2000 Religious Freedom in the World Rowman amp Littlefield pp 88 89 ISBN 978 0 7425 6213 4 Grim B J Finke R 2007 Religious Persecution in Cross National Context Clashing Civilizations or Regulated Religious Economies American Sociological Review 72 4 633 658 doi 10 1177 000312240707200407 S2CID 145734744 Quote Hindus are fatally persecuted in Bangladesh and elsewhere Hindus from Pakistan flee to India citing religious persecution The Washington Post 15 August 2012 Retrieved 15 July 2016 a b Christophe Jaffrelot 2007 Hindu Nationalism A Reader Princeton University Press ISBN 978 0 691 13098 9 pages 13 15 a b Gail Minault 1982 The Khilafat Movement Religious Symbolism and Political Mobilization in India Columbia University Press ISBN 978 0 231 05072 2 pages 1 11 and Preface section Amalendu Misra 2004 Identity and Religion SAGE Publications ISBN 978 0 7619 3226 0 pages 148 188 CA Bayly 1985 The pre history of communialism Religious conflict in India 1700 1860 Modern Asian Studies Vol 19 No 2 pages 186 187 177 203 Christophe Jaffrelot 2007 Hindu Nationalism A Reader Princeton University Press ISBN 978 0 691 13098 9 pages 6 7 Antony Copley 2000 Gurus and their followers New religious reform movements in Colonial India Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 564958 1 pages 4 5 24 27 163 164 Hardy F A radical assessment of the Vedic heritage in Representing Hinduism The Construction of Religious and National Identity Sage Publ Delhi 1995 Christophe Jaffrelot 2007 Hindu Nationalism A Reader Princeton University Press ISBN 978 0 691 13098 9 pages 13 a b Peter van der Veer 1994 Religious Nationalism Hindus and Muslims in India University of California Press ISBN 978 0 520 08256 4 pages 11 14 1 24 Peter van der Veer 1994 Religious Nationalism Hindus and Muslims in India University of California Press ISBN 978 0 520 08256 4 pages 31 99 102 Jawad Syed Edwina Pio Tahir Kamran et al 2016 Faith Based Violence and Deobandi Militancy in Pakistan Palgrave Macmillan pp 49 50 ISBN 978 1 349 94966 3 Farahnaz Ispahani 2017 Purifying the Land of the Pure A History of Pakistan s Religious Minorities Oxford University Press pp 28 37 ISBN 978 0 19 062167 4 Peter van der Veer 1994 Religious Nationalism Hindus and Muslims in India University of California Press ISBN 978 0 520 08256 4 pages 26 32 53 54 Ram Prasad C Contemporary political Hinduism in Blackwell companion to Hinduism Blackwell Publishing 2003 ISBN 0 631 21535 2 a b GJ Larson 2002 Religion and Personal Law in Secular India A Call to Judgment Indiana University Press ISBN 978 0 253 21480 5 pages 55 56 John Mansfield 2005 The Personal Laws or a Uniform Civil Code in Religion and Law in Independent India Editor Robert Baird Manohar ISBN 978 81 7304 588 2 page 121 127 135 136 151 156 a b Sylvia Vatuk 2013 Adjudicating Family Law in Muslim Courts Editor Elisa Giunchi Routledge ISBN 978 0 415 81185 9 pages 52 53 Katharine Adeney and Lawrence Saez 2005 Coalition Politics and Hindu Nationalism Routledge ISBN 978 0 415 35981 8 pages 98 114 Pew Research Center Washington DC Religious Composition by Country December 2012 2012 a b Hindu population totals in 2010 by Country Pew Research Washington DC 2012 Table Religious Composition by Country Global Religious Composition Pew Research Center 2012 The World Factbook The World Factbook cia gov Retrieved 18 May 2021 Total Fertility Rates of Hindus by Region 2010 2050 Pew Research Center 2015 Washington DC Projected Global Hindu Population 2010 2050 Pew Research Center 2015 Washington DC a b Vietnam Laos Cambodia Hunter Publisher Inc 2003 p 8 ISBN 978 2 88452 266 3 Philippine History Module based Learning I 2002 Ed Rex Bookstore Inc p 40 ISBN 978 971 23 3449 8 Gitesh Sharma January 2009 Traces of Indian Culture in Vietnam Rajkamal Prakshan Group p 74 ISBN 978 81 905401 4 8 Martin Ramstedt 2003 Hinduism in Modern Indonesia Routledge ISBN 978 0 7007 1533 6 pages 2 23 Murdana I Ketut 2008 BALINESE ARTS AND CULTURE A flash understanding of Concept and Behavior Mudra JURNAL SENI BUDAYA Indonesia Volume 22 page 5 11 Ida Bagus Sudirga 2009 Widya Dharma Agama Hindu Ganeca Indonesia ISBN 978 979 571 177 3 IGP Sugandhi 2005 Seni Rupa Bali Hindu Dalam Perspektif Epistemologi Brahma Widya Ornamen Vol 2 Number 1 pp 58 69 Fleming 2009 Sengupta Jayshree India s cultural and civilisational influence on Southeast Asia ORF Retrieved 11 October 2021 Religion and Indian Philosophy Geriatrics 6 March 2014 Retrieved 11 October 2021 Bibliography Ayalon David 1986 Studies in Islamic History and Civilisation BRILL ISBN 965 264 014 X Avari Burjor 2013 Islamic Civilization in South Asia A History of Muslim Power and Presence in the Indian Subcontinent Routledge ISBN 978 0 415 58061 8 Fleming Benjamin J 2009 Mapping Sacred Geography in Medieval India The Case of the Twelve Jyotirliṅgas International Journal of Hindu Studies 13 1 51 81 doi 10 1007 s11407 009 9069 0 S2CID 145421231 Flood Gavin D 1996 An Introduction to Hinduism Cambridge University Press Flood Gavin 2006 The Tantric Body The Secret Tradition of Hindu Religion I B Taurus Flood Gavin ed 2008 The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism Malden MA Blackwell Publishing Ltd ISBN 978 1 4051 3251 0 Jha D N 2009 Rethinking Hindu Identity Routledge ISBN 978 1 84553 459 2 Lorenzen David N October 1999 Who Invented Hinduism Comparative Studies in Society and History Cambridge University Press 41 4 630 659 doi 10 1017 s0010417599003084 JSTOR 179424 S2CID 247327484 Lorenzen David N 2006 Who invented Hinduism in Davaid N Lorentzen ed Who Invented Hinduism Essays on Religion in History Yoda Press pp 1 36 ISBN 81 902272 6 2 Lorenzen David N 2010 Hindus and others in Esther Bloch Marianne Keppens Rajaram Hegde eds Rethinking Religion in India The Colonial Construction of Hinduism Routledge pp 25 40 ISBN 978 1 135 18279 3 Sridharan Kripa 2000 Grasping the Nettle Indian Nationalism and Globalization in Leo Suryadinata ed Nationalism and globalization east and west Institute of Southeast Asian Studies pp 294 318 ISBN 978 981 230 078 2 The term Hindutva equates religious and national identity an Indian is a Hindu the Indian Muslims are not aliens ethnically They are flesh of our flesh and blood of our blood Sharma Arvind 2008 The Hermeneutics of the word Religion and Its Implications for the World of Indian Religions in Sherma Rita Sharma Arvind eds Hermeneutics and Hindu Thought Toward a Fusion of Horizons Springer Science amp Business Media pp 19 32 ISBN 978 1 4020 8192 7 Smith Wilfred Cantwell 1981 On Understanding Islam Selected Studies Walter de Gruyter ISBN 978 90 279 3448 2 von Stietencron Heinrich 2005 Hinduism On the Proper Use of a Deceptive Term Hindu Myth Hindu History Religion Art and Politics Orient Blackswan pp 227 248 ISBN 978 81 7824 122 7 Thapar Romila 1989 Imagined religious communities Ancient history and the modern search for a Hindu identity Modern Asian Studies Cambridge University Press 23 2 209 231 doi 10 1017 S0026749X00001049 JSTOR 312738 S2CID 145293468 Thapar Romila 1993 Imagined religious communities Interpreting Early India Delhi Oxford University Press pp 60 88 Thapar Romula 2003 The Penguin History of Early India From the Origins to AD 1300 Penguin Books India ISBN 978 0 14 302989 2Further readingEsther Bloch Marianne Keppens Rajaram Hegde eds 2009 Rethinking Religion in India The Colonial Construction of Hinduism Routledge ISBN 978 1 135 18279 3 Dass Baboo Ishuree 1860 Domestic manners and customs of the Hindoos of northern India or more strictly speaking of the north west provinces of India Medical Hall Press Benares External links Quotations related to Hindus at Wikiquote Media related to Hindus at Wikimedia Commons Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Hindus amp oldid 1133840977, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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