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.

Vitasti

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Vitasti literally means ‘span’.

Vitasti as per Upaniṣad[edit]

Vitasti seems to be a standard measure of length from the oldest times.[1] It is described as the twelve aṅgulas.

Vitasti as per Architecture[edit]

Works on architecture and iconography have defined vitasti as the measurement of a span, the length between the tips of the thumb and the little finger when stretched. When this length is divided into twelve equal parts, each part is called as an aṅgula. Aṅgula is also the width of a finger. It is about three-fourths of an inch.


References[edit]

  1. Mahānārāyana Upaniṣad 13.7
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore