The Invention Of Hinduism In The Nineteenth Century

It could be argued that the ‘ism’ in ‘Hinduism’ is a problem; however, numerous scholars have suggested that Hinduism was invented and constructed by British Scholars and other senior figures during the nineteenth century. On the other hand we see evidence of the term Hindu in thirteenth century texts such as the Rig Veda. During the 1800’s Hinduism was actually known as ‘Hindooism’. In a letter published in 1818 by John Crawford we see seven examples of Hinduism spelt with a ‘u’. (Who invented Hinduism? David N. Lorenzen Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol 41, No.4 (Oct 1999) pp. 631).

The term Hindu is believed to have been coined in the 1800’s by the British yet as seen above there are many contributing factors to the construction of the word ‘Hindu’. However, the word

Upon arrival in India the British were faced with many new wonders of the orient. They described the fruits of Hinduism as: poverty, national ignorance, idolatry, banditry, barbarism, murder, pantheism, human sacrifice, polytheism and animal worship. Many of these ideas were alien to the British and they were very much the opposite of British norms and Christian values. The British thought that civilisation was very important and that the native people were in no way civilised. The West or ‘The Occident’ tried to westernise many typically Indian traditions. For example the education system in India changed and became very much a British education system; this then caused a class divide in India, similar to that in Britain. During this time (King R. 2005) western authority was obvious at not only a political and economic level but also at a cultural level, consequently “having an inevitable impact upon traditional beliefs and practices in non-western