Your stance makes a lot of sense. The downside is, there is a bit of a misunderstanding around the term "Hindu" which really is a modern term initially more of a description of a geographical location around the Indus river and was not so much a label for one religion in India but a "Western" term to mean those who follow laws, ceremonies and social stratification as well as religions found in India and not Persia or Europe for example. In fact early on, some early European authors/historians included Jains and Buddhists as being Hindus - which actually is sort of correct.
Later in more modern times the term came to be associated with those who attend temples of various "Sanskrit Gods" and local village Gods inclusive of local nature Gods in different regions/villages of India such as trees and rocks, just a convenient way to group the hugely diverse Dharmic based communities across India into one "bucket" not so much to confuse things but to in one sense UN-confuse or better said UN-complicate things to Western and other non-India audiences/readers, it would be too complicated to start discussing Bal religion here, Jain there, Krishna bhakta over there, Mother Goddess that way, Dharmic philosophical in this region, atheist version over here, old Vedic way up there, Shaiva here, Surya there, Saurya down there - not that authors would also document and discuss all these diverse aspects and more including social hierarchy et all, but those were in the more "University level" type "books" so the use of Hindu was a convenient "high school" level term.
Next what happened is, "Hinduism" began to spread to areas such as Europe and America, though the Buddhists had a head start of about 100 years over the "Hindus". By then Hindu became an umbrella term even accepted by many in India to mean "various sects and philosophies and traditions and Dharmic religions found in India"...
Hinduism has seen a notable spread now to areas outside of India. Personally I do not have any issue with calling myself a Hindu. Especially since I am a "Village Hindu" in large part and go to many different temples - including Jain and Buddhist, Sikh by the way but basically I am a Saiva but that also has subsects and "titles" and Sampradayas and on and on.
But if you don't want to call yourself a Hindu, I don't care. What I like is to have Hindu adventures and experience Hinduism which is really fun and self-rewarding to no end not to mention some great "vacatiions" to India and other Dharmic regions, even to local temples across America and Canada et all.
In fact, that is where terms such as Hindu come in handy. Let us say I am in Warsaw Poland. Well I can find an English directory and look up "Hindu" temples. I will find ashrams that worshp no Gods but do yoga, or an ISKCON temple, or it might be a South Indian Murugan temple, or a North Indian Durga temple, or even a Kali temple run by "white people" from mostly from Russia but some Poles and two ladies from the Netherlands and a Guru from Santa Monica California.
How convenient!
Nor do I have an issue with your need to clarify and announce your stance. To be honest, I don't read too many of your posts but see your announcement as useful. Thanks!
