Interesting question on the use of the word Hindu, should we use it or not?

Firstly we need to establish were this term comes from then we would be in a better position to answer the question on its use. His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada explains it thus:

Sometimes Indians both inside and outside of India think that we are preaching the Hindu religion, but actually we are not. One will not find the word Hindu in the Bhagavad-gita. Indeed, there is no such word as Hindu in the entire Vedic literature. This word has been introduced by the Muslims from provinces next to India, such as Afghanistan, Baluchistan, and Persia. There is a river called Sindhu bordering the north western provinces of India, and since the Muslims there could not pronounce Sindhu properly, they instead called the river Hindu, and the inhabitants of this tract of land they called Hindus. In India, according to the Vedic language, the Europeans are called mlecchas or yavanas. Similarly, Hindu is a name given by the Muslims.

India’s actual culture is described in the Bhagavad-gita, where it is stated that according to the different qualities or modes of nature there are different types of men, who are generally classified into four social orders and four spiritual orders. This system of social and spiritual division is known as varnasrama-dharma. The four varnas, or social orders, are brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya. and sudra. The four asramas, or spiritual orders, are brahmacarya, grhastha, vanaprastha, and sannyasa. The varnasrama system is described in the Vedic scriptures known as the Puranas. The goal of this institution of Vedic culture is to educate every man for advancement in knowledge of Krsna, or God. That is the entire Vedic program.

When Lord Caitanya talked with the great devotee Ramananda Raya, the Lord asked him, “What is the basic principle of human life?” Ramananda Raya answered that human civilization begins when varnasrama-dharma is accepted. Before coming to the standard of varnasrama-dharma there is no question of human civilization. Therefore, the Krsna consciousness movement is trying to establish this right system of human civilization, which is known as Krsna consciousness, or daiva-varnasrama — Krsna Consciousness: Hindu Cult or Divine Culture?

We see that the origins of the term Hindu come from a need to explain a group of people who act and worship in a way that is different (a collective term).

The use of collective terms is not unusual, we see all faiths pit together under an umbrella or collective term: Christian, Muslim, Jewish act. but if we look more closely we see also that these terms are incomplete with some of the faiths and teachings but is accepted as a simplified and collective term giving greater identity and help aid some understanding.

HDG Srila Prabhupada also at times used the word Hindu especially when in the early days the temples and centres were being attacked he once said to tell the press that the Hindus are being persecuted as many understood or thought they knew what Hindu meant it gave unity and helped build understanding.

Rather than stopping it’s use we should endeavour to educate those who are willing to learn as simply explained by our founder Achaia, whilst also accepting that some will still see us and refer to us as Hindu especially in the press and media circles.

Cow protection or protection of all living entities is a fundamental principle of Vedic culture, unfortunately we live in a society that has quite a taste for eating meat. It is seen still as a bit abnormal not to eat meat and so there is some difficulty in understanding at times those who don’t.

In the case of the RSPCA they themselves see meat eating as normal and justified this includes the cow and so to explain true cow protection for this class of individual is difficult, what to say welfare of all living creatures.

To make life simple and to continue killing and eating we se that they use the term sacred cow, missing that point that all cows are seen as mother and should be treated as such after all we are all in so many ways indebted to the cow in the same way as we are to our mothers. But this is elevated understanding.

Again we see the need for us to help in the understanding of Vedic knowledge for those willing and able to listen and with an appetite to learn, but we also must learn tolerance for those who use terms that are not always necessarily correct.