Who is a Hindu?

Hindu word as we hear from historians has its roots in the name of great river of undivided India, Sindhu. The Persians started calling anyone who lived beyond Sindhu and below Himalayas as Hindu.

But for times immemorial the word and the "religion" associated with it has evoked not just confusion but also has fueled passion both for and against. 

So who is a Hindu. What does he /she believe in? Is Hindu a term defining a religion? If it does, then there is not one book which can be said to be a basis of it. There are contradicting philosophies within so called Hindu religion. Then there are people who point out that since Hindu term has come to being much later than recorded Vedic literature, Hindu is either not a religion or at-least not a Vedic religion! People who call themselves Hindus, believe in different Gods. What's more there are unbelievers who call themselves Hindus too! 

Due to this diversity of belief systems there are people who go to the extent of saying there is nothing called Hindu. It’s just a name of a group of people who happen to live in a subcontinent but have different belief systems.

While no one can deny that Hindu term is relatively new when compared to Vedic literature. In Vedic literature there was no name for the religion it preached. There are two reasons for this - 

1.     There was no name for the concept it preached because when Vedic literature was written rest of the world was trying to learn how to roast meat. So unless you need to differentiate something from other similar things, you don't need names. The literature itself has evolved few thousand years ago in a period that could well have spread across few centuries. The nearest the proponents of Vedic literature came to naming it when they called it "Sanatan Dharm". This means iternal "Dharma" (I am not using religion and the reason will be known in second point below).

2.     There is a fundamental difference between the "Dharma" which is preached by Vedic literature and that which is preached by Semitic religions like Islam, Christianity or Jewish. The difference is that Dharma defined by Vedas was an individual Dharma of a person. The duty of a person in a given situation which will take the person to the highest goal. The highest goal was defined as finding the unity of individual with the whole universe (Moksha).   The nearest universe known to the individual would always be the society he / she lives in. So the individual Moksha was always tied to larger good of society. The way of following that Dharma could be different. Vedic Dharma always believed that path to achieve Moksha was irrelevant as every path would lead to same reality. Therefore there are umpteen number of ways once can follow this Dharma. 

Any Semitic religion on other hand stresses upon salvation through prescribed way of worship and anything outside of that is a blasphemy. It goes just as far where heaven and hell are defined for good and bad deeds. The concept of unity within the universe is something not existing in these religions. 

Therefore all the confusion on the nature and ways of Hindu is a resultant of trying to fit into the framework of Semitic religion. When it does not fit this framework they try to deny the very existence of Hindu as an entity. 

So again, who is Hindu. Anyone who is born in Indian subcontinent and believes in following can claim to be Hindu - 

1. My good is associated with the good of larger society (or universe) as we all are manifestation of one reality. 

2. This land (Bharat) is my mother and its well being is my first priority

3. Whatever be the God or book i believe in, my first and only loyalty is with this land.

Anyone following these criteria is a Hindu. The culture is same across India and across religions. This culture is unmistakably same as that preached in Vedic literature. In fact the religious groups like Parasi or Jew who settled here much later have also adopted this culture. Due to geography you can call it Hindu or you can choose to call it Vedic culture or Sanatan Dharma. Calling Sun by any name does not change its brightness.