The label ‘Hindu’ is a foreign name, not a self-description.

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. “The first and foremost thing that must be recognised is that Hindu society is a myth. The name Hindu is itself a foreign name,” said Ambedkar. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 147

Categorization

Category: Definitional Content

• DEFINE: Ambedkar’s etymology of ‘Hindu’ — that it was imposed by outsiders and native identity was caste-based.

Related

• Hindu identity was externally imposed and people self-identified by caste. (similarity 0.91)
• The name Hindu originated as a foreign Muslim label, not a native term. (similarity 0.85)
• The term Hindu originated as a geographical label, not a religious one. (similarity 0.84)
• Hindu society is a fiction; only discrete castes actually exist (similarity 0.84)
• Hindu society is a myth and only a collection of self-segregating castes (similarity 0.82)
• The term Hindu originally denoted geography, not religion, and is absent from Hindu scriptures. (similarity 0.82)
• Ambedkar himself drew on eugenics language to describe Hindus (similarity 0.81)
• Hindu as political identity was forged from demographic panic, not religion (similarity 0.79)