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Namaste to all, The religion Hindu is popularly known as Hinduism in the western world. However It makes me wonder if using "ism" the right thing as "ism" is usually the suffix for negatively oriented words like feudalism, fundamentalism, barbarianism, racism criticism, plagiarism, marxism etc. However when it comes to religion most of the religions other than christianity get "ism" suffixed onto it may it be Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Taoism. Is using Hinduism the right thing ? AyeVee

Namaste to all, The religion Hindu is popularly known as Hinduism in the western world. However It makes me wonder if using "ism" the right thing as "ism" is usually the suffix for negatively oriented words like feudalism, fundamentalism, barbarianism, racism criticism, plagiarism, marxism etc. However when it comes to religion most of the religions other than christianity get "ism" suffixed onto it may it be Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Taoism. Is using Hinduism the right thing ? AyeVee

I think that just because Hinduism is not a strict religion people have distorted the way ved and other ancient text have defined the term Hindu. I would disagree with Gauracandra as it was never the muslims who coined the term Hindu. It came from the river Sindhu (or Indus) Evidence that Hinduism must have existed even circa 10000 B.C. is available even Rigveda was being composed well before 6500 BC Basically Hinduism does not support forced conversion from any other religion and this is due to the ancient belief that a Hindu is born and cannot be converted into one.

I have been having discussions with my fellow workers in Australia on the subject of conversion. My argument was that a Hindu is born a Hindu and dies a Hindu, there is no way they can be converted into another religion. Similarly ones not born in a Hindu family may start believing in Hinduism but cannot be called real Hindu. My understanding is based on a statement given by Shankracharya a few years back on those Hindus who wanted to return to Hinduism after being converted to christianity with financial gains. Does any one know if this understanding is correct and if yes then which of our holy books define this ?