How a River, a Civilization, and a Bengali Reformer Named a Religion
If one opens the oldest sacred books of India, the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Bhagavad Gita, one is met not by a declaration, but by a silence. The familiar words Hindu and Hinduism, so weighty in the modern world, do not appear there at all. Instead, the spiritual imagination of the subcontinent spoke in older, more resonant names: Sanātana Dharma, the eternal way; Vaidika Dharma, the path of the Vedas.
What we now call “Hinduism” was not born in a single scripture, nor announced in a single moment. It emerged slowly, like a continent rising from mist, shaped by river, memory, language, and history; until, in time, Bengal gave it a new intellectual form and a name the world would remember.
The story begins not with religion, but with geography. The Sanskrit word Sindhu originally referred to the mighty river now known as the Indus, and more broadly to large bodies of water. Several inscriptions of the Achaemenid Persian emperor Darius I (522–486 BCE) explicitly mention the Indus region as Hindūš, making it the earliest known inscriptional use of the term “Hind” or “Hindu” in history, long before it had any religious meaning.
Written in Old Persian cuneiform, these references appear in major imperial records such as the Persepolis inscription (DPe), which lists Hindūš among the empire’s provinces, and the gold and silver foundation tablets from Ecbatana, where Darius described the vast boundaries of his empire extending to the Indus region. It was simply a geographical label used to describe the people living beyond the Indus River.
By the 11th century CE, Muslim scholars, travelers, and chroniclers commonly used “al-Hind” in Arabic and Persian works. People residing there were often referred to as “Hindus” in a geographical sense, meaning “people from al-Hind,” long before the term solidified into a purely religious identity. Al-Biruni, a renowned scholar, embarked on a journey to India with an insatiable curiosity, akin to discovering the world’s most extensive encyclopedia. His magnum opus, the Kitab fi Tahqiq ma li’l-Hind, delved into the intricate tapestry of Indian society, science, religion, and philosophy with unparalleled detail.
Also Read: Bengal Sketches [1],[2],[3],[4],[5],[6],[7]
The Vijayanagara Empire, founded in the 14th century, marked a major historical shift as its rulers became some of the first indigenous kings to use the term “Hindu” for political self-identity. To assert their sovereignty against northern Muslim powers (often referred to contextually as Turushkas), they adopted the unique title Hinduraya Suratrana (“Sultan among Hindu Kings”) and positioned themselves as protectors of dharma.
This was one of Bengal’s greatest intellectual contributions to global history. Through the Bengal Renaissance and the reformist movements that emerged from Calcutta, Bengali thinkers gave conceptual shape and modern articulation to what the world would come to know as “Hinduism.”
The decisive transformation from Hindu into Hinduism occurred during the colonial period, and Bengal stood at the center of this transformation. In the nineteenth century, British administrators and European Orientalists increasingly attempted to classify Indian society into formal religious categories comparable to Christianity and Islam. Yet the emergence of “Hinduism” as a coherent modern religious identity was not merely imposed from outside. It was profoundly shaped by Bengali intellectuals who engaged with both Indian tradition and Western modernity.
Among the most influential figures was Raja Rammohan Roy. Writing in English, Persian, and Bengali, he defended the philosophical depth of the Upanishads and Vedanta while responding directly to Christian missionary critiques and colonial scholarship. Scholars credit him with one of the earliest Indian uses of the term “Hinduism” (then often spelled “Hindooism”) around 1816–1817. In doing so, he helped present the many traditions of India as parts of a larger, unified spiritual civilization that could stand alongside the great religions of the world.
Thus, the journey from Sindhu to Hinduism was never only a change of name. It was the long unfolding of a civilization’s self-recognition: a river becoming a horizon, a horizon becoming a people, and a people becoming the vessel of a vast spiritual inheritance.
This was one of Bengal’s greatest intellectual contributions to global history. Through the Bengal Renaissance and the reformist movements that emerged from Calcutta, Bengali thinkers gave conceptual shape and modern articulation to what the world would come to know as “Hinduism.” What began centuries earlier as a Persian geographical adaptation of Sindhu became, through Bengal’s scholarship and reformist vision, the name of one of the world’s major religions.
Also Read: Bengal Sketches [8],[9],[10],[11],[12],[13]
The 1872 British India census helped reshape religious identity by grouping most non-Muslim, non-Christian, non-Parsi communities (and later Sikhs and Jains) under a single “Hindu” category. This broad classification ignored India’s wide diversity of local, tribal, and sectarian traditions. As a result, it turned “Hindu” from a loose cultural label into a more unified religious identity, influencing how Hinduism and communal categories developed in modern India. In the census of 1872, undivided Bengal proper was divided equally between the two major religious communities, recording 48.8% Hindus (approximately 18.1 million) and 47.5% Muslims (approximately 17.6 million), with other minority groups making up the remaining 3.7%.
Thus, the journey from Sindhu to Hinduism was never only a change of name. It was the long unfolding of a civilization’s self-recognition: a river becoming a horizon, a horizon becoming a people, and a people becoming the vessel of a vast spiritual inheritance. In that slow alchemy of memory, language, and history, Bengal stood like a lamp at dusk, gathering scattered traditions into thought, giving them voice, and helping shape a name that would travel far beyond the subcontinent, carrying with it the echo of an ancient world.
Images: Wikimedia Commons, Wikimedia Commons, picryl.com, Chat GPT
Dr. Jamil is a passionate oncology commercial leader whose two-decade journey has been driven by a deep commitment to improving the lives of people with cancer. As Head of the Early Commercial Team at Merck Oncology and an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School, he shapes innovative pipelines while mentoring and inspiring future healthcare leaders. Beyond work, he is a soulful armchair historian of Bengal, a devoted Manchester City fan, and someone whose heart is forever tied to the culture, stories, and spirit of Kolkata.
