ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the assumptions underlying much academic usage of the terms "Hindu" and "Hinduism" in Britain are consonant with the radical claims of rightwing Hindu nationalists. It explores the issue of how, as liberal academics, many of the people have come to work with what are, in practice, rightwing assumptions, associated with groups which in India have been implicated in extensive violence against Muslims and Christians. The chapter refers briefly to the British use of "Hindu" as a classificatory category both in the past and present. Richard Burghart argues that though British Hindus identify with ethnic groups based on region or caste, they do not in general see themselves as constituting a single people or ethnic group. The chapter contends that it needs to free itself from the influence of the "world religions" paradigm common in Religious Studies and from the Durkheimian model, with its assumption that religion primarily has integrative functions.
