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.

Paiṭhinasi

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Origin of Paiṭhinasi[edit]

The Vedas and the Upaniṣads give a general outline of philosophy and ethics. They do not deal with the daily routine or social conduct of persons living in their society. This, however, has been done by later writers through whose works, evolved a set of literature which is now well-known as dharmaśāstras. One of the earliest works in the category of dharmasutras is that of Paithīnasi. Though his work has not been recovered, fragments of the same have been culled from other works which have quoted him. He perhaps was a follower of Atharvaveda. His period is not known approximately.

Topics of Literature by Paiṭhinasi[edit]

A few of the topics on which he has been quoted are:

  • Marriage within the gotra permitted if it is beyond third degree on mother’s side and beyond the fifth on father’s side
  • Service to the husband as the greatest austerity for a wife
  • The practice of satī[1]
  • Inheritance of the property of a son-less man after his death
  • Observance of aśauca[2] at certain times like marriage or famine or pilgrimage


References[edit]

  1. Satī means immolation of the wife on the funeral pyre of her husband.
  2. Aśauca means ceremonial impurity.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math,

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