Hindu epics like the 

Ramayana and Mahabharata also refers to Dharma. They

say that executing one’s Dharma is the right aim of every individual. And
also at that time, the king was known as Dharmaraj because the main
motive of the king was to follow the path of Dharma.

Nature of Dharma
Despite the other schools of Jurisprudence, the Hindu Jurisprudence takes
more care over the duties more than the rights. The nature of these Dharma
changes from person to person. There are many duties of many people in
this world like earlier, the king’s duty was to uphold the religious law and the
other hand a farmer’s duty is to produce food, the doctor has to cure the
people, the lawyers have to fight for justice. Being a highly religious concept
in nature, Dharma is multi-faceted. It contains many laws and customs in a
large range of subjects which is essential and needed to be followed by each
and every person. For example, Manusmriti deals with religion,
administration, economics, civil and criminal law, marriage, succession, etc.
These we study mainly in our law books.
Who are Hindus?
A person can be called as a Hindu, who:

 Is a Hindu by religion in any form.

 Is a Buddhist, Jaina or Sikh by religion.
 Is born from Hindu parents.
 Is not a Muslim, Parsi, Christian or Jews and are not governed under
Hindu law.
 Lodge in India.

The Supreme Court of India in the landmark case of Shastri vs

Muldas expressly defined the term ‘Hindu’. This case is related to the Swami
Narayan temple in Ahmedabad. There is a group of people called the
Satsangi who were managing the temple and they restricted non-Satsangi
Harijans from entering the temple. They argued that Satsangi is a different
religion and they are not bound by Hindu Law. The Supreme Court of India
held that the Satsangi, Arya Samajis and Radhaswami, all these belong to
the Hindu religion because they originated under Hindu philosophy.

Hindu by Religion:

 If any person follows the religion by practising it or by claiming it

can be called as a Hindu.

Conversion and Reconversion to Hinduism:

 Under the codified Hindu law, any person converted to Hinduism,

Buddhism, Jainism or Sikhism can be called a Hindu.
 From the case of Perumal vs ponnuswami, we can say that a
person can be called a Hindu by conversion. 

In this case, Perumal was the father of Poonuswami who got married to an
Indian Christian. In the future due to certain differences, they were living
separately. In the future, the mother of Poonuswami asked Perumal for the
share of his properties. Perumal denied and said “marriage between a Hindu
and a Christian is void”. The Supreme Court of India held that a real
intention is sufficient evidence of conversion and no formal ceremony of
purification is needed (Conversion of Hinduism). So it is not void and
Poonuswami would get a share.

 For conversion, the person should have a bonafide intention and

also shouldn’t have any reason to be converted.
 Reconversion basically happens, when a person is Hindu and gets
converted to a non-Hindu religion and he will again become Hindu if
he/she gets converted into any four religions of Hindu.
 If a person is born from a Hindu family, he/she is a Hindu.
 When one of the parents of a child is Hindu and he/she is brought
up as a member of the Hindu family, he/she is a Hindu.
 If a child is born from a Hindu mother and a Muslim father and
he/she is brought up as a Hindu then he/she can be considered as a
Hindu. We can explain that a child’s religion is not necessarily that
of a father.
 The codified Hindu Law lays down that a person who is not a
Muslim, Parsi, Christian or Jews is governed by Hindu Law is a
Hindu.