<P> The historical development of Hindu self - identity within the local South Asian population, in a religious or cultural sense, is unclear . Competing theories state that Hindu identity developed in the British colonial era, or that it developed post-8th century CE after the Islamic invasion and medieval Hindu - Muslim wars . A sense of Hindu identity and the term Hindu appears in some texts dated between the 13th and 18th century in Sanskrit and regional languages . The 14th - and 18th - century Indian poets such as Vidyapati, Kabir and Eknath used the phrase Hindu dharma (Hinduism) and contrasted it with Turaka dharma (Islam). The Christian friar Sebastiao Manrique used the term' Hindu' in religious context in 1649 . In the 18th century, the European merchants and colonists began to refer to the followers of Indian religions collectively as Hindus, in contrast to Mohamedans for Mughals and Arabs following Islam . By the mid-19th century, colonial orientalist texts further distinguished Hindus from Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains, but the colonial laws continued to consider all of them to be within the scope of the term Hindu until about mid-20th century . Scholars state that the custom of distinguishing between Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs is a modern phenomenon .--> Hindoo is an archaic spelling variant, whose use today may be considered derogatory . </P> <P> At more than 1.03 billion, Hindus are the world's third largest group after Christians and Muslims . The vast majority of Hindus, approximately 966 million, live in India, according to India's 2011 census . After India, the next 9 countries with the largest Hindu populations are, in decreasing order: Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, United States, Malaysia, United Kingdom and Myanmar . These together accounted for 99% of the world's Hindu population, and the remaining nations of the world together had about 6 million Hindus in 2010 . </P> <P> The word Hindu is derived from the Indo - Aryan and Sanskrit word Sindhu, which means "a large body of water", covering "river, ocean". It was used as the name of the Indus river and also referred to its tributaries . The actual term' hindu' first occurs, states Gavin Flood, as "a Persian geographical term for the people who lived beyond the river Indus (Sanskrit: Sindhu)", more specifically in the 6th - century BCE inscription of Darius I . The Punjab region, called Sapta Sindhava in the Vedas, is called Hapta Hindu in Zend Avesta . The 6th - century BCE inscription of Darius I mentions the province of Hi (n) dush, referring to northwestern India . The people of India were referred to as Hinduvān (Hindus) and hindavī was used as the adjective for Indian in the 8th century text Chachnama . The term' Hindu' in these ancient records is an ethno - geographical term and did not refer to a religion . The Arabic equivalent Al - Hind likewise referred to the country of India . </P> <P> Among the earliest known records of' Hindu' with connotations of religion may be in the 7th - century CE Chinese text Record of the Western Regions by the Buddhist scholar Xuanzang . Xuanzang uses the transliterated term In - tu whose "connotation overflows in the religious" according to Arvind Sharma . While Xuanzang suggested that the term refers to the country named after the moon, another Buddhist scholar I - tsing contradicted the conclusion saying that In - tu was not a common name for the country . </P>

What is the meaning of hindu in arabic dictionary