"No civilisation chooses its own name. More often than not, it is named by others; and that is precisely what happened here. Long before the word Hinduism existed, there was simply Dharma: not a religion in the modern sense, but the principle of order, duty, truth and moral balance that sustained the civilisation of ancient India.

Sindhu's Children traces the remarkable journey of that idea as it crossed Persian frontiers, entered Islamic courts, encountered missionary critique and colonial classification, inspired reformers and nationalists, and finally emerged under a new name with a constitutional identity as the 'Hindu'.

This book offers neither easy triumphs nor comforting certainties. Instead, it invites readers to examine how a civilisation came to bear a name it did not choose, how that name reshaped its self-understanding and what it should signify today."