The word Hindu is very much
misunderstood and misused. Many people have no idea how the word originated. In India,
some politicians use the words Hindu and Hindutva with communal overtones
either to promote or oppose some ideology or party.
To the rest of the world,
Hindu and Hinduism refer to a
set of people belonging to definite religious
system.
The fact is that the BOTH the words
"Hindu" and "India" have foreign origin. The word "Hindu" is
neither a Sanskrit word nor is this word found in any of the native dialects and languages of
India. It should be noted that "Hindu" is NOT a religious word at all. There
is no reference of the word "hindu" in the Ancient Vedic Scriptures.
It is said that the Persians used to
refer to the Indus river as Sindhu. Indus is a major river which flows partly
in India and partly in Pakistan. However, the Persians could not pronounce the
letter "S" correctly in their native tongue and mispronounced it as
"H." Thus, for the ancient Persians, the word "Sindhu" became
"Hindu." The ancient Persian Cuneiform inscriptions and the Zend Avesta refer to the word
"Hindu" as a geographic name rather than a religious name. When the
Persian King Darious-1 extended his empire up to the borders of the Indian
subcontinent in 517 BC, some people of the Indian subcontinent became part of
his empire and army. Thus for a very long time the ancient Persians referred
to these people as "Hindus". The ancient Greeks and Armenians
followed the same pronunciation, and thus, gradually the name stuck.
The word "India" also has
a similar foreign origin. Originally, the native Indians used to address the Indian
subcontinent as "Bharat". As a matter of fact in Mahabharat, which is one of
the two "Itihasa", we find reference of the word "Bharat". As per
legend, the land ruled by the great King "Bharata" was called Bharat.
The ancient Greeks used to
mispronounce the river Sindhu as Indos. When Alexander invaded India, the
Macedonian army referred to the river as Indus and the land east of
the river as India. The Greek writers who wrote about Alexander preferred
to use the same name.
For the Arabs the land became
Al-Hind. The Muslim rulers and travellers who came to India during the medieval
period referred the Indian subcontinent as "Hindustan" and the people
who lived there as Hindus.
Thus, if we go by the original definition
of the word Hindu, any person living in the land beyond the river Indus is a
Hindu and whatever religion he or she practices is Hinduism, the word Hindu is a secular word. Hinduism
denotes any religion or religions that are
practiced by the people living in the Indian subcontinent.
The proper word to use for those
people who follow the Scriptures of The Vedas is "Sanatana Dharma", not "Hinduism" as is commonly used.
Some more views on Hinduism
Some people say that
"Hinduism" is no religion. It is a way of life. Is it not a great
wonder that a country with more than 850 million strong Hindus, is still
holding together with a slender thread of "Way
Of Life"!!
Let us see what a great Muslim
Scholar had said:- "Had it
not been for the Secular temper of a large number of Hindus and the broad
Humanitarianism which is the kernel of Hinduism, the extermination of Indian
Muslims would have been easily carried out"- Rafiq Zakharia.
Mark Tully, concludes his article of atonement with
these lines:-
"Finally,
I am sometimes flabbergasted at the fact that Indians –Hindus, sorry, as most
of this country’s intelligentsia is Hindu – seem to love me so much,
considering the fact that in my heydays, I considerably ran down the 850
million Hindus of this country, one billion worldwide. I have repented today: I
do profoundly believe that India needs to be able to say with pride, “Yes, our civilisation has a Hindu base to it.”
We will not find the word 'Hindu' in
any of our ancient scriptures or epics, including Bhagwat Gita. Because
there was no requirement to name or identify our Religion in those periods when
no other Religion existed. Hindu is a geographic description of the people who
lived on the Banks of Indus and beyond. As the time progressed, there was a
requirement of identifying the people of this great land with some specific
name. And, the way of life they practised took the generic term of Hinduism, as
against the Vedic description of "Santana
Dharma", which was reflected only in the Sanskrit Texts, of later
origin. The faith of Hindus spread all over the sub continent and beyond
to South East Asian Countries, in various languages spoken by the people of
various regions, which gradually came to be known as Hinduism, thus
establishing its own identity, in the face of many other Religions.
Today, Hinduism is a Religion. And I
am a Hindu, though an atheist. Because, only Hinduism permits this privilege.
In practicing their way of life, our forefathers constantly indulged in
introspection and sincere effort to find the truth, which resulted in
Upanishads and Vedanta. Some of our own Rishis, like Sukhracharya, the Guru of
Asuras, have questioned the existence of a supreme God, with unbridled
power of creation and destruction. But, they never left the fold oftheir brethren.
Therefore, there is no blasphemy law
for Hinduism, since the greatest critics of the Religion are from the same fold
and not necessarily from outside, from other Religions.
This characteristic has been its strength, which effectively
countered the spread of many off shoot Religions of Hinduism, like
Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. This same characteristic withstood the
onslaught of Islam and Christianity, despite the fact that this country was
under their rule for more than 12 centuries.
To quote Mark Tully again-
"The genius of Hinduism, the very reason it
has survived so long, is that it does not stand up and fight. It changes and
adapts and modernises and
absorbs–that is the scientific and proper way of going about it. I believe that
Hinduism may actually prove to be the religion of this millennium, because it
can adapt itself to change".
Thanks for his views on the subject to :
Col (Retd) TN Raman
