Talk:Atulkrishna Ghosh

Hindu is not only religion, but also ethnicity
Hindu is not only a person who adheres to Hinduism, but also a person who resides in the Subcontinent and adheres to native belief systems. In India, the official definition of Hindu is given in the Hindu Marriage Act, wherein it states that Hindu is a person who is not a Muslim, Christian, Jew or a Parsee. By that definition Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Brahmos all are Hindus. Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Brahmos do not have any separate personal law, all of them are governed by Hindu personal laws. Accordingly Rabindranath Tagore, Ram Mohan Roy, Atisa Dipankara all are ethnic Hindus.

The word Hinduism is derived from the word Hindu, who proves that the notion of Hindu as an ethnic group existed well before the notion of Hindu as a religious group came into being. The British people initially used the term 'Hindu religion' to denote the belief system of the Hindu people, later Monier Monier Williams coined the term 'Hinduism'.

Bengali Hindu is therefore a subgroup within the Hindu ethnicity. BengaliHindu (talk) 14:43, 2 March 2011 (UTC)