as adj.: of Indian religion, belonging to Hinduism; as noun: a devotee or follower of Hinduism. It is the Av. and Persian equivalent of Skt. sindhu (river, as in Saptasindhu; also meaning: great water, sea, ocean). It was used in Persia to denote the land and people beyond the great expanse of water (i.e. the river later called Indus, the latinized form of the word sindhu). After their conquest of Persia it was adopted by the Muslims for the subcontinent and also to refer to the religion of India. The latter meaning came to be recognized by the Hindus themselves and has gained general acceptance. In the absence of formal registers of members such as have been developed in Christian denominations, it has never been easy to decide who is a Hindu.
Until comparatively recently it could be said that whoever was born within a Hindu community, conformed to caste regulations and accepted the Veda as his sacred scripture was a Hindu. On those grounds the Buddha could not be regarded as one, and Buddhism developed into a new religion. The high spiritual content of the Buddha’s message and his stature, however, later led the Brahminic orthodoxy to include him in the system of Hinduism as a divine incarnation, albeit with some distortions. In modern times the perception of who is or can be a Hindu has broadened as a result of innovations brought about by various reform movements, prompted by the encounter of Hinduism with European civilization. Thus castes can no longer be viewed as an integral part of Hinduism as a religion, and although they persist as a social prejudice, accepting their regulations is no longer a condition of being a Hindu. Birth also lost its importance as a criterion for being a Hindu so that assimilation, e.g. by marriage, is possible, and ‘conversion’ is no longer an impossibility, despite the reluctance of some orthodox sections to accept it. Another modern development has been a revaluation of Hinduism with an emphasis on its essence as a spiritual and universalistic teaching. In that light, belief in the Veda need not mean its literal acceptance as divine revelation: it may be replaced by acknowledgment of the inspired nature of its spiritual message. The criterion of who is a Hindu could thus be based also on a person’s acceptance of the world view expressed by the concept of Sanātana Dharma. Even so, generally speaking, whoever follows some traditional form of Hindu practice or worship on whatever level has to be regarded for all practical purposes as a Hindu, however limited might be his understanding of the concept of Sanātana Dharma or his ability to articulate it.
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