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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.

Pratyabhijñā

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Pratyabhijñā literally means ‘knowledge got by facing it’.

This is a technical term used by Kāśmīr Śaivism. When we see a person whom we had seen earlier maybe in a different place and circumstances, we recognize him as ‘He is that person’. Īśvara[1] and the jīva[2] are similar in nature. They both have jñānaśakti and kriyāśakti.[3] This is known from the scriptures and the teachings of the spiritual preceptors.

Keeping this in mind, when the sādhaka[4] meditates on īśvara, he gradually destroys or overcomes māyā[5] and realizes or recognizes that he is the same as īśvara. This is called as pratyabhijñā.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Īśvara means God.
  2. ↑ Jīva means the individual soul.
  3. ↑ Kriyāśakti means the power to know and act.
  4. ↑ Sādhaka means the one who is practicing spiritual disciplines.
  5. ↑ Māyā means ignorance as the veil.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

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