Colonial Discourse and the Suffering of Indian American Children is now freely available.
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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.

Śurpaṇakhā

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Śurpaṇakhā literally means one whose nails resembled a winnowing basket’.

Śurpaṇakhā is one of the two iniquitous ladies, of the Rāmāyaṇa, the other being Mantharā. But without them the classic Rāmāyaṇa would never have been composed, thereby depriving millions of people for centuries, of the great inspiration for life. She was the daughter of the sage Viśravas and Kaikasī. She was younger than Rāvaṇa and Kumbhakarṇa but older than Vibhīṣaṇa. She had been married to Vidyujihva who was killed by Rāvaṇa since he had joined the enemy camp.

As a result of her pleadings, Rāvaṇa made arrangements for her stay in the Daṇḍaka forest with Khara and Duṣana, with their large army to protect her. Infatuated with Rāmā’s beauty, she pressed him to marry her, abandoning Sītā. When she tried to kill Sītā, Rāma got her punished through Lakṣmaṇa who cut off her nose and ears. Her complaints to Khara and Rāvaṇa resulted in the decimation of Khara and his army by Rāma and the abduction of Sītā by Rāvaṇa.


References[edit]

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

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