" 

 ::::I think it is correct that before the 19th century, Hindus used to call their religion ""Dharma"" only. This situation came into being because being the oldest religion, there was a time when there was no need to distinguish it from any other religion. However, this word has now become a generic term in Hindi and numerous other languages. And the name ""Hinduism"" was not invented by any German or Brit. It was first coined by Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Raja Ram Mohan Roy had used the spelling ""Hindooism"", someone else tweaked the spelling only by taking away two ""oo""s and inserting only one ""u"" in its place.-  "