Sanatan Dharma is the most popular yet least understood term of contemporary Indian political discourse. Translated literally, it means “eternal religion”. Yet, the very framing reveals a paradox: The category of “religion” itself is a relatively modern invention, imported into India through colonial encounters.

In the 19th century, Japanese thinkers grappling with Western frameworks realised that “religion” was a category defined by conversion. You can convert to Buddhism, Christianity, or Islam; therefore, these qualify as religions. But Shintoism is not something one converts into; it is something one is born into, much like being Han Chinese. These are ethnic identities, hence not something you can convert out of. By this understanding, Hinduism is also an ethnic identity that one is born into, through caste, not a religion. No one can become a Hindu. But anyone can become a Muslim or Christian. Evangelising religions, therefore, threaten Hindu identity.

Indians did not have the luxury of defining their own categories. Colonial powers demanded to know what India’s “religion” was, and this pressure produced, in the early 19th century, the very word “Hinduism” — a term associated with reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, who used the new framework to challenge social........

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