Hindu identity was externally imposed and people self-identified by caste.

Evidence

The reformers’ use of the words ‘Hindu’ and ‘Hinduism’ was new. Until then, they had been used by the British as well as the Mughals, but it was not the way people who were described as Hindus chose to describe themselves. Until the panic over demography began, they had always foregrounded their jati, their caste identity. … It does not occur in any Sanskrit work prior to the Mohammedan invasion. They did not feel the necessity of a common name, because they had no conception of their having constituted a community. Hindu society as such does not exist. It is only a collection of castes. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 147

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes that ‘Hindu’ is an external administrative label predating any internal sense of Hindu community.