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What is the difference between Religion and Dharma? These words have different connotations but are often used interchageably.

In a site like this, we need a word to repesent 'Dharma'. Has some English term for 'Dharma' been suggested earlier by any hindu sect?

The word "Dharma" had often been translated loosely as "religion". It is sometimes also translated as "morality" and "law". However, all this terms suggested are incorrect since translating "Dharma" into English would mean looking for an equivalent concept in Abrahamic traditions which it lacks. It is one of the many examples of non-translatable Sanskrit words. There is no one equivalent English word that can fully and convincingly give the idea what "Dharma" stands for.

Rajiv Malhotra explains in detail what "Dharma" is and why it cannot be translated into English, in his book "Being Different: An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism":

Dharma ≠ Religion or Law

The word 'dharma' has multiple meanings depending on the context in
which it is used. Monier-Williams's A Concise Sanskrit-English
Dictionary lists several, including: conduct, duty, right, justice,
virtue, morality, religion, religious merit, good work according to a
right or rule, etc. 54 Many others have been suggested, such as law
or 'torah' (in the Judaic sense), 'logos' (Greek), 'way' (Christian)
and even 'tao' (Chinese). None of these is entirely accurate, and none
conveys the full force of the term in Sanskrit.

Dharma has the Sanskrit root dhri, which means 'that which upholds' or
'that without which nothing can stand' or 'that which maintains the
stability and harmony of the universe'. Dharma encompasses the
natural, innate behaviour of things, duty, law, ethics, virtue, etc.
For example, the laws of physics describe current human understanding
of the dharma of physical systems. Every entity in the cosmos has its
particular dharma – from the electron, which has the dharma to move in
a certain manner, to the clouds, galaxies, plants, insects, and of
course, man.

Dharma has no equivalent in the Western lexicon. Colonialists endeavoured to map Indian traditions onto Christianity so as to be
able to locate, categorize, understand and govern their subjects, yet
the notion of dharma has remained elusive. The common translation
into 'religion' is especially misleading since, to most westerners,
the model of a genuine religion is one that:

1.involves worship of the divine who is distinct from ourselves and the cosmos;

2.is based on a single canon of scripture given by God in a precisely defined historical event;

3.is governed by an institution with the authority of the church;

4.consists of formal members;

5.is presided over by an ordained clergyman; and

6.uses a standard set of rituals.

All this is determined by a chain of authority tracing its credentials
back to God's historical intervention in this world. As a result of
its power over the discourse, Christianity has supplied many of the a
priori categories and labels for the study of other religions,
resulting in serious misinterpretations.

Equating dharma with worship of God creates distortion because dharma
is not limited to any particular creed or specific form of worship.
To the westerner, an atheistic religion would be a contradiction in terms, but in Buddhism, Jainism and Carvaka dharma, there is no place
for God as conventionally defined. Even in some Hindu systems, the
exact status of God is debatable. Nor is it necessary for an
aspirant to visit a temple; one can achieve the same level of practice
and devotion in one's own home. Indeed, one may carry the image of
one's ishta-devata (chosen deity) in one's purse or pocket and never
have to go to a house of worship.

In Hinduism, dharma provides the principles for the harmonious
fulfilment of all aspects of life – namely, the acquisition of wealth
and power (artha), fulfilment of desires (kama), and liberation
(moksha). Religion, then, is only one subset of dharma's range of
meanings. It may be seen as 'dharma for beginners'. For one thing,
religion applies only to human beings and not to the entire cosmos;
there is no religion of electrons, monkeys, plants and galaxies,
whereas all of them have their dharma. Dharma is self-revealing at
every moment, and since the essence of humanity is sat-chit-ananda, it
is possible for them to know their dharma through direct experience.
Conversely, in the Western traditions, the central law or dharma of
the world and its peoples is both singular and unified, and it is
revealed and governed from above. In dharmic traditions, the word
adharma means non-performance of duty or unrighteousness; it does not
mean refusal to embrace a given set of propositions as a belief system
or disobedience to a set of commandments or canons.

He also goes on to explain why Dharma cannot be equated to law:

Dharma is also often translated as 'law', but to become a law, a set of rules has to be present, and these rules must: (i) be promulgated and decreed by an authority that enjoys political sovereignty over a given territory, (ii) be obligatory, (iii) be interpreted, adjudicated and enforced by courts, and (iv) carry penalties when the law is breached. No such description of dharma is found in the traditions.

The system of 'canon law' – that is the laws that were determined and enforced by the Church – began under the late Roman emperors. The ultimate source of Jewish law is the God of Israel. The Western religions agree that the laws of God must be obeyed just as if they were commandments from a sovereign. It is therefore critical that 'false gods' be denounced and defeated, for they might issue illegitimate laws in order to undermine the 'true laws'. If multiple deities were allowed, there would be confusion as to which laws were universal.

By contrast, in dharmic systems there is no record of any sovereign promulgating the various dharmic smritis or dharma-shastras for any specific territory at any specific time, nor any claim that God revealed such laws, nor that they should be enforced by a ruler. None of the compilers of the famous smritis were appointed by kings, served in law enforcement, nor had an official capacity in the state machinery. They were more akin to modern social theorists than jurists. None of the Vedas and Upanishads was sponsored by a king, court or administrator, nor by an institution similar to the Christian Church. The famous Yajnavalkya Smriti is introduced in the remote sanctuary of an ascetic. The Manusmriti begins by stating its setting as the humble abode of Manu, who answered questions posed to him in a state of samadhi. Manu tells the sages that every epoch has its own distinct dharma (Manusmriti , 1.82). In this respect, dharma is closer to the sense of law we find in the Hebrew scriptures, where Torah, the Hebrew equivalent, is also given in direct spiritual experience. The difference is that the Torah quickly became promulgated and enforced by the institutions of ancient Israel.

The dharma-shastras did not create an enforced practice but recorded existing practices. Many traditional smritis were documenting localized customs of particular communities. An important principle was self-governance by a community from within. The smritis do not claim to prescribe an orthodox view from the pulpit, as it were, and it was not until the nineteenth century, under British colonialism, that the smritis were turned into law by the state.

A subset of the dharma-shastras deals with 'vyavahara', or disputes concerning mundane civil and criminal complaints. It is only this subset that may be considered 'law' in the Western sense. Manusmriti (VIII.4–7) lists eighteen topics of vyavahara disputes. Another important point is that even these vyavahara laws were superseded by local custom. Local tradition, being the will of the people, thus trumps normative laws. A victorious king was prohibited by tradition from imposing his own laws over a defeated people and had to respect their local laws.

The reduction of dharma to concepts such as religion and law has harmful consequences: it places the study of dharma in Western hands, moving it away from the authority of practising dharma scholars; moreover, it creates the false impression that dharma is similar to Christian ecclesiastical law-making and the related struggles for state power. The result in India has been to subject dharma to the same limits as Christianity in Europe – all in the name of secularism. To treat dharma as religion remains a major blunder.

Therefore, using "Dharma" and "religion" interchangeably is erroneous. Nor is it possible to suggest an equivalent term for it.

Each word has one 'etymological' meaning and one 'current usage' meaning. First let us see the etymological meaning of dharma.

According to the sanskritdictionary.com, the word 'dharma' originally means

ध्रियते लोको$नेन, धरति लोकं वा (धृ-मन्;) : dhriyate loko'nena, dharati lokam vA, ie. by which the world is held or which holds the world.

According to the Oxford dictionary, the word 'Religion' originates from

‘life under monastic vows’,‘obligation, bond, reverence’, (perhaps based on Latin religare ‘to bind’).

'Holding' and 'binding' are very close indeed ! So there is some similarity in the etymological meanings of the two words, there is some dissimilarity though.

Next, let us come to the current usage. The sanskritdictionary.com provides the following meanings of 'Dharma':

1 Religion; the customary observances of a caste, sect, &c. -2 Law, usage, practice, custom, ordinance, statue. -3 Religious or moral merit, virtue, righteousness, good works (regarded as one of the four ends of human existence); अनेन धर्मः सविशेषमद्य मे त्रिवर्ग- सारः प्रतिभाति भाविनि Ku.5.38, and see त्रिवर्ग also; एक एव सुहृद्धर्मो निधने$प्यनुयाति यः H.1.63. -4 Duty, prescribed course of conduct; षष्ठांशवृत्तेरपि धर्म एषः Ś.5.4; Ms.1.114. -5 Right, justice, equity, impartiality. -6 Piety, propriety, decorum. -7 Morality, ethics -8 Nature. disposition, character; उत्पत्स्यते$स्ति मम को$पि समानधर्मा

The Oxford dictionary provides the following meanings of 'Religion'

1. The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.




2. A particular system of faith and worship.




3. A pursuit or interest followed with great devotion.

Many of the 'current usage meanings' of both the words sound similar.

Some of the meanings like 'Virtue', 'Duty', 'Righoutness', 'Nature' etc are of course entirely different.

This is a site where 'Hinduism' is an accepted word 'by default' and therefore 'Religion' can be a good translation of 'Dharma'. When used in some other sense, we can easily use some appropriate word like Virtue, Duty etc.

We must remember that the two words are coming from two different societies, traditions and culture and differences are obvious. Such differences are inherent in almost each and every translation of Sanskrit words to English.

As we have accepted the English language to express our ideas about Spirituality, I think we can safely use the word 'Religion' for 'Dharma' except certain cases where the word means something different as mentioned above.

To conclude, even though they are not exactly the same, they can be used interchangeably most of the time.