Colonial Discourse and the Suffering of Indian American Children Book Cover.webp

Colonial Discourse and the Suffering of Indian American Children is now published after academic peer-review and available through open access.

In this book, we analyze the psycho-social consequences that Indian American children face after they are exposed to the school textbook discourse on Hinduism and ancient India. We show that there is an intimate connection―an almost exact correspondence―between James Mill’s ( a prominent politician in Britain and head of the British East India Company) colonial-racist discourse and the current school-textbook discourse. Consequently, this archaic and racist discourse, camouflaged under the cover of political correctness, produces in the Indian American children the same psychological impact as racism is known to produce: shame, inferiority, embarrassment, identity confusion, assimilation, and a phenomenon similar to racelessness where the children dissociate from the tradition and culture of their ancestors

This book is an outcome of 4 years of rigorous research as a part of our ongoing commitment at Hindupedia to challenge the representation of Hindu Dharma within Academia.

Pañcadaśākṣarī-mantra

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Pañcadaśākṣarī-mantra literally means ‘mantra of fifteen letters or syllables’.

This is a fifteen-lettered[1] mantra or mystic formula closely associated with the goddess Lalitā Tripurasundarī[2] and her emblem, the Śrīcakra. Actually there are two such mantras:

  1. The one attributed to the sage Agastya which begins with the letter ‘ka’[3]
  2. Another one is attributed to his wife Lopāmudrā which begins with the letter ‘ha’.[4]

The mantra has to be received ceremonially from a competent guru. It is said to be a very powerful mantra.


References[edit]

  1. Pañcadaśa means fifteen.
  2. Lalitā Tripura-sundarī is an aspect of Pārvatī.
  3. The name is kādimata.
  4. The name is hādimata.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore