Hinduism

Hinduism refers to the religious beliefs, rituals, practices, philosophies, and worldviews of people who self-identify as Hindus. Hindu religious practices emerged in the northwestern parts of South Asia (present-day Pakistan and northern India) several centuries prior to Christ. While some trace the advent of Hinduism to deep antiquity, a wider consensus places the formalization of Hindu ideas to 1750 BC. The word Hindu is an aspirate Persian-Arabic pronunciation of the river Sindhu (Indus), which people to the east of it called Hindus.

Hindu majorities exist only in Nepal (99 percent) and India (85 percent), with sizable minorities in Fiji, Mauritius, and Suriname, and tiny but often economically powerful minorities in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and some nations in Africa and the Middle East.

There ...