Tamil Nadu & Kerala: Assembly Elections 2026 Results - Page 43

Originally posted by: Clochette

a bit late, but still want to post some thoughts to what I read

Hindu, to me, is - actually - a person who follows a religion which belongs to the term coined by - as you rightly stated - foreigners to facilitate the differentness from other belief systems... as such it isn't meant in a negative way.

However, as in ancient times it was more a geographical/cultural term for those living in the region of the Indus river, the hindus themselves used it then (without the -ism of course) - because of the invasions - to stress their cultural/religious difference vis-à-vis the invaders... it became like an 'umbrella'-term.

Personally - as I know about the different belief systems contained in this 'umbrella term', I also would prefer to use Sanatana or Sanatana Dharma as it is the one based on the Vedas and describes what I think is the most comprising form of spiritual/philosophical guide in our way of life. Anyways, it is the crore of the contemporary term Hinduism.

So, I partly agree with you except that I don't think that Hinduism - originally - was meant in a derogatory way (by me still not ).

The simple fact still remains that nowhere in our mythology or history or any of the religious core texts our religion was ever called as Hinduism or our people as Hindu. Sanatan dharma or simply dharma ( since at that time no other religion existed in or around the civilization ) was how it's referred always. Only after foreign invasion, they started calling us Hindus because of a very narrow very truncated idea about our religion that actually encompassed many types of faith under one umbrella, including many tribal faiths , and was spread far beyond Indus Valley.

So this term itself, Hinduism, carries a heavy weight of shame and pain and anger because it is a reminder of what has been done to us by repeated invasion by Abrahamic religions.

We started calling ourselves Hindus only because that is what we were being called by others, not out of choice but out of compulsion . And then it got part of vocabulary like so many words, that originally carried a negative connotation.

For e.g, the word Negro was once used to describe blacks when they were slaves . They never chose to be called Negros or niggers. It was coined as part of their painful history of slavery. Just like blackface.

Therefore this word is now no longer considered as an acceptable term to use for blacks. Even the word nigga or nigger is unacceptable unless used by blacks for each other and not by other races.

The word Hindu is what we were described by those who neither understood us, nor respected our culture , considered us as "other" or "lesser" and wanted to deny how ancient and widespread our dharma was and how many different often opposing ideologies it accepted and embraced within it.