This is a composition meant for a 13-year-old granddaughter of a friend of mine. The granddaughter and her family live in England. Her mother is Greek, and her father is a Bengali Hindu. She had been told by her teacher to speak to her class about her religion. My friend and his wife passed the task on to me. After composing this I was rather pleased with it, and thought that this might be useful to other kids of similar age. So here it is.

I am British by nationality and Hindu by religion. My father is a Hindu and my mother is a Greek Orthodox Christian. My parents left it to us to choose our religion and I decided to be a Hindu. So I want to tell you something about the Hindu religion.

It is also known as the 'Sanatan' religion, which means "old' or 'ancient' or 'original'. The name 'Hindu' was given by the Persians (now known as Iranians) who gave the name to the people who lived on the other side of the River Sindhu.  Sindhu is now known as the River Indus. The names 'Indus' and 'India' were given by the Greeks when they tried to invade India under King Alexander the Great. The Persians could not pronounce the word 'Sindhu', so they called us 'Hindu'. Likewise they could not pronounce Alexander, so they called him 'Sikandar'. The Sindhu or Indus River is now mostly in Pakistan. 

The Hindu religion is known as 'Sanatan' because it is the oldest religion in the world. No single person began this religion. That way it is quite different from Christianity which was begun by Jesus Christ, or Islam which was begun by Hazrat Mohammed. In the ancient times sages used to sit in meditation, or deep thinking, and told their thoughts to their pupils. The pupils memorised them and passed them on to their pupils. Then later on some of the pupils' pupils' pupils wrote them down and added something. The original scriptures, or holy books, of Hindus came up this way. They were called the Vedas.

There are four Vedas, Rik, Yaju, Saam and Atharva. Again, there are further divisions. The philosophical parts of the Vedas are called the Upanishads. These are the most important parts. After the Vedas many more, maybe hundreds, holy books were written. But the most popular Hindu holy book is the Srimad-Bhagavad-Gita. It is written in very simple language, but has deep meanings.

Hinduism thus has no single holy book like the Bible or the Quran. Hindus are free to follow any or all of the books. 

Hindus also have no single idea of God. Many Hindus worship only one God. Some worship three Gods, some worship innumerable Gods. Some worship a formless God, some imagine their God to be male, female or child. Some do not even believe in a God. They are called Nastikas. These do not cause any quarrels among the different kinds of Hindus. All of them remain Hindus and live in peace among themselves and with non-Hindus.

India is the mother country of Hindus, but they exist all over the world. Nepal is mostly Hindu and they are there in big numbers in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Guyana, Trinidad, Surinam, South Africa, Indonesia and in many other countries. The United Kingdom, United States of America and Canada also have large Hindu populations.

Are there no bad things in Hinduism? Yes, there were and there still are. Hindus have divisions among themselves called 'caste' based on their births. The people who considered themselves 'upper caste' looked down upon the 'lower castes', sometimes didn't even touch them. Untouchability has been done away with in India by law, and the other distinctions are also gradually dying out. One thing about Hinduism is that it can change all the time, depending on the times. Formerly there were horrible things like Sutee, in which widows were burnt alive with their husbands' dead bodies. There were also human sacrifices. All these have been abolished long back. Just as Joan of Arc was burnt alive or slavery existed in the United States, but these things do not exist any more!

Hindus do not believe that theirs is the only correct religion and all others are false religions. This is very important. They also do not force, or even persuade others to follow their religion. Anybody is free to join it any time or leave it any time. Hindus respect all religions and consider them as different ways of worshipping or reaching God. I am very happy to be a Hindu in this country.