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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.

Preta

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Preta literally means ‘one who has gone away from here’.

This word is generally used to indicate the disembodied spirit of a dead person, especially during the first ten days after death. In order to free it from that state, a handful of water mixed with sesame has to be offered to the deceased on a stone placed on kuśa grass[1] and one large pirida[2] is to be offered on kuśa grass everyday for ten days.

The word is also used to indicate a ghost, generally the spirit of a great sinner. Such ghosts, which are called bhutas, pretas and piśācas are supposed to be in the retinue of the deities Rudra and Kālī.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Kuśa grass means Poa cynosuroides.
  2. ↑ Pirida means the rice-ball.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

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Deval Sancheti

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