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.

Aśvatirtha

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By Swami Harshananda

Aśvatirtha literally means ‘place of pilgrimage connected with horses’.

The religion considers that visits to places of pilgrimage results in great merit and also destruction of the sins. One of the minor places of pilgrimage (generally called ‘tīrtha’ or ‘tīrthakṣetra,’) is Aśvatirtha situated near Kanyākubja (the modern Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh).

It is stated in the Mahābhārata[1] that when the sage Rcīka wanted to marry Satyavati, the daughter of the king Gādhi (father of the famous sage Viśvāmitra) he demanded 100 white horses, with one ear black in color, as bridal fee. Rcīka prayed to god Varuṇa by whose grace the horses rose from the river Gaṅgā at this point. Hence this place was named as Aśvatirtha.

There are two more places of the same name, situated on the rivers Narmadā and Godāvarī. The latter is said to be the place where the twin deities, the Aśvins, were born.[2]


References[edit]

  1. Anuśāsanaparva 4.17
  2. Brahmapurāna 89.43
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore