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.

Dharmabhutajñāna

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Dharmabhutajñāna literally means ‘knowledge which is an attribute of the Self’.

Textual References[edit]

The knowledge and details of the jīvātman or the individual soul is a subject of discussion in the darśanas or philosophical systems.

  • The Advaita Vedānta posits that the consciousness is the very nature of the soul.
  • The Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta, expounded by Rāmānuja (A. D. 1017-1137), asserts that jñāna or consciousness is always present in īśvara (God) and the jīva (soul) as their dharma or attribute.

Characteristics of Dharmabhutajñāna[edit]

  • The dharmabhutajñāna is ‘ajaḍa’.[1]
  • It illuminates itself and other objects.
  • It always exists for another.
  • It never prevails for itself.
  • It illuminates the objects for the conscious subject.
  • it is an attribute for the conscious subject.
  • The dharmabhutajñāna is eternal and all-pervasive in the case of īśvara, the nityasuris (eternally illumined souls) and the liberated souls.
  • In the case of the jīvātman (the soul in bondage) it is contracted or obscured.
  • When the jīvātman realizes the beatific form of the Divine through the yogas of karma, jñāna and bhakti, his dharmabhutajñāna also expands to infinity and becomes perfect.

Synonyms[edit]

Synonyms of dharmabhutajñāna are:

  1. Mati
  2. Prajñā
  3. Saiñvit
  4. Śemuṣī


References[edit]

  1. Ajaḍa is non-material and non-spiritual.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore