["Hindu" doesn't appear in the four Vedas, the Upanishads and the Buddhist scriptures. . . .
The various traditions used their philosophical and spiritual practices such as Vaishnavs,
Shakta, Mahayana, Vajrayana, Advaita etc - to identify themselves. But no one called themselves
Hindus. . . .
The three words - Hindu, Hindustan and Hinduism - were coined and popularised by
Muslims and Christians . . .
All the diverse philosophical traditions and the sub-traditions which originated in
India are part of Sanatan Dharma that translates to "Eternal Law" or "Eternal Way of
Things" or "Eternal Order".--Devdan Chaudhuri, "How
did Hindus become Hindu and why Hindutva is not Hinduism," dailyo.in, October 17, 2017]
[The Bhagavad Gita enumerated the traits of the righteous . . .
The traits of the righteous were, "Fearless and pure in heart; steadfast in the exercise
of wisdom; restrained and open-handed; none-hurting, truthful, from anger free;
compassionate to all existent beings; free from nagging greed; gentle, modest, never
fickle; ardent, patient, enduring, pure, not treacherous nor arrogant."--Devdan Chaudhuri,
"About Values,"
thepunchmagazine.com, April 18, 2020]
[The word "Hindu" is a Persianate derivative of "Sindhu", Sanskrit for the Indus River.
Only during India's colonial encounter in the 19th century did "Hindu" become an
ascriptive label . . .
Scholars have attributed the invention of "Hinduism" as much to men from dominant castes
who sought to reform and remake a colonised society as to colonial missionaries. These
19th-century reformers sought to go back to ancient texts such as the Vedas or the
Upanishads to propose a de-ritualised, quasi-monotheistic creed for a modern India. Such a
move mimicked the textualist methods of the Protestant Reformation, and the then fashionable
European efforts to appropriate ancient Sanskrit spiritual texts to construct an "Aryan" race identity.
The reformers were answering British criticisms of Indic polytheisms as "beastly" and
"superstitious". They enthusiastically embraced the colonial view of Muslims being
wholly separate from Hindus, ignoring the accommodations and intermixing over centuries
that had produced shared ritual, intellectual, sartorial, culinary, and musical
traditions between the two groups.--Uday Chandra, "The making of a Hindu India," aljazeera.com, August 25, 2020]
Raqib Hameed Naik, "US academic conference on 'Hindutva' targeted by
Hindu groups," aljazeera.com, September 7, 2021
"HINDUTVA IS NOT HINDUISM,"
The Wisdom Fund
