Hinduism is the dominant religion, or way of life,[1][note 1] of the Indian subcontinent, and

consists of many diverse traditions. It includes Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Shaktism[2] among
numerous other traditions, and a wide spectrum of laws and prescriptions of "daily morality"
based on karma, dharma, and societal norms. Hinduism is a categorisation of distinct intellectual
or philosophical points of view, rather than a rigid, common set of beliefs.[3]
Hinduism has been called the "oldest religion" in the world,[note 2] and some practitioners refer to
it as Santana Dharma, "the eternal law" or the "eternal way"[13][14][15] beyond human origins.[15]
It prescribes the "eternal" duties, such as honesty, mercy, purity, self-restraint, among others.[web
1]

Hindu ( pronunciation (helpinfo)) has historically been used as a geographical, cultural or

religious identifier for people indigenous to the Indian subcontinent.[1][2] In contemporary use,
Hindu refers to anyone who regards himself or herself as culturally, ethnically or religiously
adhering with aspects of Hinduism.[3]
The historical meaning of the term Hindu has evolved with time. Starting with the Persian and
Greek references to India in the 1st millennium BCE through the texts of the medieval era,[4] the
term Hindu implied a geographic, ethnic or cultural identifier for people living in Indian
subcontinent around or beyond Sindhu river.[5] By the 16th-century, the term began to refer to
residents of India who were not Turks or Muslims.[5][a][b]
The historical development of Hindu self-identity within the Indian population, in a religious or
cultural sense, is unclear.[1][6] Competing theories state that Hindu identity developed in the
British colonial era, or that it developed post-8th century CE after the Islamic invasion and
medieval Hindu-Muslim wars.[6][7][8] A sense of Hindu identity and the term Hindu appears in
some texts dated between the 13th- and 18th-century in Sanskrit and regional languages.[7][9] The
14th- and 18th-century Indian poets such as Vidyapati, Kabir and Eknath used the phrase Hindu
dharma (Hinduism) and contrasted it with Turaka dharma (Islam).[10] The Christian friar
Sebastiao Manrique used the term 'Hindu' in religious context in 1649.[11] In the 18th-century, the
European merchants and colonists began to refer to the followers of Indian religions collectively
as Hindus, in contrast to Mohamedans for Mughals and Arabs following Islam.[1][5] By mid 19thcentury, colonial orientalist texts further distinguished Hindus from Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains,[1]
but the colonial laws continued to consider all of them to be within the scope of the term Hindu
until about mid 20th-century.[12] Scholars state that the custom of distinguishing between Hindus,
Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs is a modern phenomenon.[13][14]
At more than 1.03 billion,[15] Hindus are the world's third largest group after Christians and
Muslims. The vast majority of Hindus, approximately 966 million, live in India, according to
India's 2011 census.[16] After India, the next 9 countries with the largest Hindu populations are,
in decreasing order: Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, United States, Malaysia,
United Kingdom and Myanmar.[17] These together accounted for 99% of the world's Hindu

population, and the remaining nations of the world together had about 6 million Hindus in
2010.[17]