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.

Śikhaṇḍin

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Ambā, the eldest daughter of the king of Kāśi, was forcibly taken away from the court during her svayamvara[1] by Bhīṣma, along with her two sisters Ambikā and Ambālikā. Since neither the king Saubha, whom she had loved, nor Bhīṣma who abducted her agreed to marry her, she vowed to kill Bhīṣma in her next birth.

She was reborn as the daughter of the king Drupada but was brought up as a son. Later, due to the grace of a yakṣa named Sthuṇākarṇa, she became a man and was named as Śikhaṇḍin. Prince Śikhaṇḍin was trained by Droṇācārya and became a great warrior. He married the daughter of the king Hiraṇyavarma of the country Daśārṇa and had two sons from her. He fought the Kauravas on behalf of the Pāṇḍavas. Since Bhīṣma, who knew the whole truth, refused to fight with him, Arjuna kept him in front of himself and shot Bhīṣma, who now retired from the battlefield. Śikhaṇḍin was killed by Aśvatthāma in sleep along with the other warriors of the Pāṇḍava army at the end of the Kurukṣetra war.


References[edit]

  1. Svayamvara means marriage by choice.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

.