The term Hindu originally denoted geography, not religion, and is absent from Hindu scriptures.

Evidence

Derived from Sindhu, the native name for the Indus river, the term Hind was first used in Persian and came to be established after the eleventh-century polymath Al-Biruni (973–1048), commissioned by the king Mahmud of Ghazni (in present-day Afghanistan), travelled to the Indian subcontinent in 1017 and wrote the famous encyclopedic account of India called Tarikh al-Hind. The word ‘Hindu’, derived thus, did not indicate a religious group but was used as a geographical demarcator for the inhabitants of the land near and east of the Indus. Later, the word may have been adopted by those inhabitants to distinguish themselves from the Muslims who came to initially rule the northern parts of India. The ancient texts that so-called Hindus today claim their roots from—the Vedas, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagvad Gita, Upanishads—do not ever use the terms Hindu or Hindusim. Recent research argues that the terms came into vogue with Orientalist and colonial scholarship. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1075

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: Connects to the broad literature on invented traditions and colonial categorization, and to the reader’s interests in caste annihilation since it undercuts the religious-givenness of Hindu identity.
• DEFINE: Etymology of ‘Hindu’ from Sindhu through Persian and Al-Biruni, clarifying it as a geographic not religious term.

Related

• The term Hindu originated as a geographical label, not a religious one. (similarity 0.96)
• The name Hindu originated as a foreign Muslim label, not a native term. (similarity 0.95)
• The label ‘Hindu’ is a foreign name, not a self-description. (similarity 0.82)
• Hindu identity was externally imposed and people self-identified by caste. (similarity 0.80)