Orientalism and the Modern Myth of "Hinduism"

a meaningful nitary notion of Hinduism from the Indian phenomena, unless it is done by exclusion..." (Frits Staal [1989], Ritual Without Meaning, p. 397). Orientalism and the Modem Myth of "Hinduism" 165 The work of integrating a vast collection of myths, beliefs, rituals, and laws into a coherent religion, and of shaping an amorphous heritage into a rational faith known now as "Hinduism" were endeavors initiated by Orientalists.46 The term "Hinduism" seems first o have made an appearance in the early nineteenth century, and gradually gained provenance in the decades thereafter. Eighteenth century references to the 'religion of the Gentoos,' (e.g. Nathaniel Brassey Halhead [1776], A Code of Gentoo Laws) were gradually supplanted in the nineteenth century by references to 'the religion of the Hindoos,' a preference for the Persian as opposed to the Portuguese designation of the Indian people. However, it is not until the nineteenth century proper that the term 'Hinduism' became used as a signifier of a unified, allembracing and independent religious entity in both Western and Indian circles. The Oxford English Dictionary traces "Hindooism" to an 1829 reference in the Bengalee, (Vol 45), and also refers to an 1858 usage by the German Indologist Max Miuller.47 Dermot Killingley, however, cites a reference to "Hindooism" by Rammohun Roy in 1816. As Killingley suggests, "Rammohun was probably the first Hindu to use the word Hinduism."48 One hardly need mention the extent to which Roy's conception of the 'Hindu' religion was conditioned by European, Muslim and Unitarian theological influences. Ironically there is considerable reason therefore for the frequency with which Western scholars have described Roy as "the father of modem India." Western Orientalist discourses, by virtue of their privileged political status within 'British' India, have contributed greatly to the modern construction f"Hinduism" as a single world religion. This was some46 David Kopf (1980), ibid., p. 502. 47 See Max MUiller (1880), Chips from a German Workshop II, xxvii, 304. See Frykenberg (1991), ibid., p. 43, note 7. Clearly the term is in provenance by this time since we find Charles Neumann using the term 'Hindooism' in his 1831 work The Catechism of the Shamans whilst explaining the sense in which Buddhism is to be understood as "a reform of the old Hindoo orthodox Church" (p. xxvi). 48 Dermot Killingley (1993), Rammohun Roy in Hindu and Christian Tradition, The Teape Lectures 1990, (Grevatt and Grevatt, Newcastle-upon-Tyne), p. 60.