What is Hinduism?

Hinduism is the religion of roughly 1.2 billion people, around 15% of the world's population, which makes it the third-largest religion after Christianity and Islam. Most Hindus live in India and Nepal, and there are large communities in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia (especially Bali), Mauritius, the Caribbean, Fiji, North America and the United Kingdom.

Hinduism is often called the oldest living religion. Some of its hymns, the Vedas, were composed more than 3,000 years ago. Yet it has no single founder, no single holy book that all Hindus accept as final, and no central authority such as a pope or a council. It is better understood as a family of related traditions that share key ideas, sacred texts and practices.

Where does the word “Hinduism” come from?

The word “Hindu” comes from Sindhu, the Sanskrit name for the Indus river. Persians, and later Greeks, used versions of the word to describe the land and people beyond the Indus. For centuries it was a geographical label rather than a religious one. The English term “Hinduism” became common in the nineteenth century, when British writers needed a single name for the varied religious life of India.

Many Hindus prefer the name Sanatana Dharma, usually translated as “the eternal way” or “the eternal law”. The phrase expresses the belief that the truths at the heart of the tradition were not invented by any one person but are timeless.

What do Hindus believe?

Because Hinduism is so diverse, almost every general statement has exceptions. Even so, most Hindus would recognise the following ideas:

• Brahman: a single ultimate reality that underlies everything that exists.
• Atman: the eternal self or soul in each living being, which many schools teach is ultimately one with Brahman.
• Dharma: the moral and cosmic order, and each person's duty to live in harmony with it.
• Karma: the principle that every action has consequences, in this life or a future one.
• Samsara and moksha: the cycle of birth, death and rebirth, and liberation from that cycle.

Hindus also respect the authority of the Vedas, though in practice many people know their religion through the great epics, devotional poetry, temple worship and family custom rather than through the Vedic texts themselves.

Is Hinduism polytheistic?

Hindus worship many deities, such as Vishnu, Shiva, the goddess Devi and Ganesha, so Hinduism can look polytheistic from the outside. However, many Hindus understand these deities as different forms or aspects of one divine reality. A famous verse of the Rig Veda (1.164.46) puts it this way: “Truth is one; the wise call it by many names.”

Scholars sometimes use the word henotheism, meaning devotion to one chosen deity without denying the existence of others. A devotee of Vishnu, for example, may regard Vishnu as the supreme God while still honouring Ganesha at the start of a ceremony.

The main traditions

Hinduism contains several large devotional traditions, each focused on a particular form of the divine:

• Vaishnavism: worship of Vishnu and his incarnations, especially Krishna and Rama.
• Shaivism: worship of Shiva as the supreme being.
• Shaktism: worship of the Goddess (Devi or Shakti) as the supreme power.
• Smartism: an approach that honours five or six deities as equally valid forms of the one Brahman.

Sacred texts

Hindu scriptures are usually divided into two groups. Shruti (“that which is heard”) includes the Vedas and the Upanishads, regarded as revealed truth. Smriti (“that which is remembered”) includes the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, the Puranas and the law books. The Bhagavad Gita, part of the Mahabharata, is probably the most widely read Hindu scripture today.

How is Hinduism practised?

For most Hindus, religion is lived through daily practice rather than defined by doctrine. Common practices include:

• Puja, or worship, at a home shrine or in a temple (mandir).
• Reciting prayers and mantras, such as the Gayatri Mantra.
• Celebrating festivals such as Diwali, Holi and Navaratri.
• Pilgrimage to holy places such as Varanasi, the Ganges and the great temple cities of the south.
• Rites of passage, called samskaras, which mark birth, initiation, marriage and death.
• Yoga and meditation as spiritual disciplines.

Hinduism in the United Kingdom

The 2021 Census recorded just over one million people in England and Wales who described their religion as Hindu, about 1.7% of the population. Leicester and the London boroughs of Harrow and Brent have particularly large Hindu communities. Britain has well over a hundred mandirs, including the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Neasden, London, opened in 1995 as one of the largest traditional Hindu temples outside India. Read more in Hinduism in the United Kingdom.

Sources and further reading

• Gavin Flood, An Introduction to Hinduism (Cambridge University Press, 1996).
• Wendy Doniger, The Hindus: An Alternative History (Oxford University Press, 2009).
• Office for National Statistics, “Religion, England and Wales: Census 2021”.
• Pew Research Center, “The Global Religious Landscape”.