Colonial Discourse and the Suffering of Indian American Children Book Cover.webp

In this book, we analyze the psycho-social consequences faced by Indian American children after exposure to the school textbook discourse on Hinduism and ancient India. We demonstrate that there is an intimate connection—an almost exact correspondence—between James Mill’s colonial-racist discourse (Mill was the head of the British East India Company) and the current school textbook discourse. This racist discourse, camouflaged under the cover of political correctness, produces the same psychological impacts on Indian American children that racism typically causes: shame, inferiority, embarrassment, identity confusion, assimilation, and a phenomenon akin to racelessness, where children dissociate from the traditions and culture of their ancestors.


This book is the result of four years of rigorous research and academic peer-review, reflecting our ongoing commitment at Hindupedia to challenge the representation of Hindu Dharma within academia.

Ādhi

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Ādhi literally means ‘illness of the mind’.

The ancient sages have recognized that the body and the mind form one unit and that this unit is of fundamental importance in achieving anything worthwhile in life. Hence each one, the body and the mind, should remain in a healthy condition and in harmony with the other. Vyādhi (illness of the body) and ādhi (illness of the mind) are both considered to be serious obstacles in the path of progress, whether temporal or spiritual.

In most general terms, anything that disturbs the equilibrium of the body is a vyādhi and anything that upsets the equipoise of the mind is termed as an ādhi. The ariṣad- vargas or six enemies of a being termed as ādhi are as follows :

  • Lust
  • Anger
  • Greed
  • Delusion
  • Pride
  • Envy

Worries and anxieties are the examples of Rāga (attachment) and dveṣa (aversion). These are the root causes of all ādhis. Conquest of these will help in removing the ādhis.

In the dharmaśāstras, the word is used in the sense of a pledge, deposit or article of mortgage.

References[edit]

  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore