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.

Aryāvarta

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Aryāvarta literally means ‘the land of the ārya’.

From the most ancient times, the region between the Himalayas and the Vindhya mountains, demarcated by the western and eastern seas, has been declared as the ‘Āryāvarta,’ the land of the ārya, ‘the refined and cultured people.’

Black antelopes roam about this land. It was believed that it was a holy land and only people with puṇya (religious merit) would have the privilege to have birth there. Of course, there are other descriptions according to which there are slight variations to its geographical limits.


References[edit]

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