Hindus
The word Hindu first appeared in the 5th-century BCE DNa inscription of Darius I as a Persian geographical term for people living beyond the Indus River. This ancient record referred to the region known as Hapta Hindu, which corresponds to the Sanskrit Sapta Sindhu or land of seven rivers mentioned in the Rig Veda. The Greek cognate Indus named the river itself, while India described the land surrounding it. For centuries, this label functioned strictly as an ethno-geographical marker rather than a religious one. It identified residents of the Indian subcontinent who lived near or beyond the great waterway that gave the region its name.
By the 16th century CE, the meaning shifted toward identifying non-Muslim and non-Turkic populations within the subcontinent. The earliest known records using Hindu with religious connotations appear in the 7th-century Chinese text Records on the Western Regions by Buddhist scholar Xuanzang. He transliterated the term as In-tu, noting its overflow into religious territory though he debated whether it truly named a country. Al-Biruni's 11th-century text Tarikh Al-Hind further blurred lines between region and faith, describing Hindus as religious antagonists to Islam while retaining ambiguity about their identity.
European merchants and colonists began referring to followers of Indian religions collectively as Hindus during the 18th century. They contrasted these groups with Mohamedans, a term used for Turks, Mughals, and Arabs adhering to Islam. By the mid-19th century, colonial orientalist texts distinguished Hindus from Buddhists, Sikhs, and Jains, yet British laws continued treating all these communities under the umbrella of Hindu until approximately the mid-20th century. Scholars note that distinguishing between these groups is largely a modern phenomenon born from colonial administrative needs.
The political response fused with Indic religious culture after the 10th century, particularly following the 12th-century Islamic invasion. Temples dedicated to deity Rama were constructed from north to south India, reflecting a growing sense of collective identity against invaders. The Yadava king Ramacandra of Devagiri appears in a 13th-century record as someone who freed Varanasi from mleccha horde and built a golden temple of Sarngadhara. Although he was a devotee of Shiva, his political achievements were described using Vaishnavism terms centered on Rama.
Medieval records used diverse religious symbolism beyond just the Ramayana epic to describe wars between Islamic Sultanates and kingdoms like Vijayanagara. Raids on Tamil Nadu kingdoms employed mythical stories alongside historical accounts to frame resistance. The 14th-century Sanskrit text Madhuravijayam written by Gangadevi describes war consequences using religious terminology contrasting alien Turks with self-defined Hindus. Vernacular literature from Bhakti movement sants between the 15th and 17th centuries further solidified distinct identities through poetry that vilified Muslims while asserting Hindu heritage.
Poets such as Vidyapati, Kabir, Tulsidas, and Eknath used phrases like Hindu dharma to contrast their culture with Turaka dharma. Christian friar Sebastiao Manrique used the term Hindu in a religious context during a publication in 1649. These texts reveal how military campaigns evolved into quests for sovereignty embodying animosity against Islam's otherness. This process began with the first Muslim invasion of Sindh in the 8th century CE and intensified after the 13th century.
British colonial laws and Orientalist scholarship codified diverse Indian traditions into a unified category called Hinduism during the 18th and 19th centuries. Early Anglo-Hindu laws applied the term Hindu to people of all Indian religions including Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, plus two non-Indian faiths: Judaism and Zoroastrianism. The influential Asiatick Researches founded in the 18th century initially identified only two religions in India: Islam and Hinduism. Orientalists grouped all Indian religions except Islam under the single label Hindu.
By the early 19th century, these texts began dividing Hindus into separate groups for chronology studies. Terms such as Seeks (later Sikhs), Boudhism (later Buddhism), and Jainism emerged within reports on Indian religions. Colonial scholars assumed communal conflict drove these subdivisions while constructing Hinduism as an ancient default oppressive substratum. Followers of other Indian religions were later distinguished from Hindus in an antagonistic manner where Hindus appeared irrational and traditional compared to reform movements.
The Supreme Court of India has repeatedly been forced to define Hinduism because the Constitution prohibits discrimination based on religion yet grants special rights to minorities. This legal tension led courts to consider whether Jainism belongs to Hinduism in rulings from 2005 and 2006. Scholars note that distinguishing between Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs is a modern phenomenon resulting from Western preconceptions about religion combined with political awareness arising during colonial history.
Post-Epic era literature from the 1st millennium CE demonstrates a historic concept of the Indian subcontinent as sacred geography shared across regions. The twelve Jyotirlingas of Shaivism and fifty-one Shaktipithas of Shaktism appear in early medieval Puranas as pilgrimage sites distributed around thematic centers. These sacred sites span from the Himalayas to hills of South India, connecting Ellora Caves to Varanasi by the middle of the first millennium.
Varanasi serves as a documented sacred pilgrimage site within the Varanasimahatmya text embedded inside the Skanda Purana, with oldest versions dating to the 6th to 8th-century CE. Non-Hindu texts including memoirs of Chinese Buddhist and Persian Muslim travelers attest to the existence and significance of pilgrimages among Hindus by the later 1st millennium CE. Cave temples separated by thousands of kilometers alongside lists of medieval pilgrimage sites provide non-textual evidence of a self-aware community sharing religious premises.
Muslim invaders became aware of Hindu sacred geography such as Mathura, Ujjain, and Varanasi by the 11th century. These locations subsequently became targets for serial attacks over following centuries. Copper plate inscriptions and temple seals discovered at different sites confirm that ideas about twelve sacred sites spread across the entire subcontinent during the medieval era.
Medieval persecution included waves of plunder, killing, destruction of temples, and enslavement by Turk-Mongol Muslim armies from central Asia. Islamic literature documents events involving 8th-century Muhammad bin-Qasim, 11th-century Mahmud of Ghazni, and Persian traveler Al Biruni who wrote that Mahmud ruined prosperity making Hindus like atoms scattered in all directions. The 14th-century invasion led by Timur resulted in seizure of 100,000 Hindu slaves by his soldiers and camp followers before attacking Delhi.
Even pious saints gathered fifteen slaves each, yet all had to be slaughtered before the attack on Delhi fearing rebellion. After occupying Delhi, inhabitants were distributed as slaves among Timur's nobles including several thousand artisans and professional people. Various Sunni Islamic rulers of the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire continued patterns of persecution though occasional exceptions existed such as Akbar stopping persecution or Aurangzeb destroying temples and banning festivals like Holi and Diwali.
Other recorded persecution occurred under Tipu Sultan in south India during the 18th century. In modern times religious persecution of Hindus has been reported outside India in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar where Hindus are fatally persecuted according to reports.
Modern Hindu nationalism was born in Maharashtra during the 1920s as a reaction to the Islamic Khilafat Movement wherein Indian Muslims championed the Turkish Ottoman sultan as Caliph after World War I. Hindus viewed this development as divided loyalties within their Muslim population questioning whether they formed part of inclusive anti-colonial Indian nationalism. The ideology emerged codified by Savarkar while he remained a political prisoner of British colonial authorities.
Chris Bayly traces roots of Hindu nationalism to independence achieved by the Maratha confederacy which overthrew parts of the Islamic Mughal empire allowing Hindus freedom to pursue diverse beliefs and restore holy places like Varanasi. Christian missionaries and Islamic proselytizers during British colonial era each tried gaining converts by stereotyping Hindus as inferior contributing to re-assertion of spiritual heritage through organizations such as Hindu Sabhas ultimately forming identity-driven nationalism in the 1920s.
After separation of India and Pakistan in 1947 the movement developed concept of Hindutva in second half of 20th century. Religious riots and social trauma followed as millions moved out of newly created Islamic states resettling into Hindu-majority post-British India. The movement sought reforming Indian laws including uniform civil code where all citizens subject to same laws regardless religion though opponents argue eliminating religious law threatens cultural identity.
There are approximately 1.17 billion Hindus worldwide representing 14.9% of global population with about 95% concentrated in India alone. Alongside Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists, Hindus constitute one of four major religious groups globally according to Pew Research Center data from 2012. Most Hindus reside in Asian countries with top twenty-five nations hosting largest populations listed in decreasing order starting with India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, United States, Malaysia, Myanmar, United Kingdom, Mauritius, South Africa, Netherlands, France, Russia, United Arab Emirates, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Trinidad and Tobago, Singapore, Fiji, Qatar, Kuwait, Guyana, Bhutan, Oman, Suriname, and Yemen.
Over three million Hindus live in Bali Indonesia whose culture traces back to ideas brought by Hindu traders during the 1st millennium CE. Their sacred texts include Vedas and Upanishads while Puranas and Itihasa remain enduring traditions expressed through community dances and shadow puppet performances called wayang. Balinese Hindus recognize four paths of spirituality known as Catur Marga similar to practices in India.
Fertility rate for Hindus stands at 2.4 children per woman less than world average of 2.5. Pew Research projects there will be 1.4 billion Hindus by 2050. Hindu kingdoms arose in ancient times spreading religion across Southeast Asia including Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, and central Vietnam.
Common questions
When did the word Hindu first appear in historical records?
The word Hindu first appeared in the 5th-century BCE DNa inscription of Darius I as a Persian geographical term for people living beyond the Indus River. This ancient record referred to the region known as Hapta Hindu, which corresponds to the Sanskrit Sapta Sindhu or land of seven rivers mentioned in the Rig Veda.
Who defined Hindus as a unified religious category during colonial rule?
European merchants and colonists began referring to followers of Indian religions collectively as Hindus during the 18th century. British colonial laws and Orientalist scholarship codified diverse Indian traditions into a unified category called Hinduism during the 18th and 19th centuries.
What is the population count of Hindus worldwide today?
There are approximately 1.17 billion Hindus worldwide representing 14.9% of global population with about 95% concentrated in India alone. Pew Research projects there will be 1.4 billion Hindus by 2050.
Which city serves as a documented sacred pilgrimage site within the Varanasimahatmya text?
Varanasi serves as a documented sacred pilgrimage site within the Varanasimahatmya text embedded inside the Skanda Purana, with oldest versions dating to the 6th to 8th-century CE. Non-Hindu texts including memoirs of Chinese Buddhist and Persian Muslim travelers attest to the existence and significance of pilgrimages among Hindus by the later 1st millennium CE.
When did modern Hindu nationalism emerge as an ideology?
Modern Hindu nationalism was born in Maharashtra during the 1920s as a reaction to the Islamic Khilafat Movement wherein Indian Muslims championed the Turkish Ottoman sultan as Caliph after World War I. The movement developed concept of Hindutva in second half of 20th century after separation of India and Pakistan in 1947.