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Colonial Discourse and the Suffering of Indian American Children is now freely available.
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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.

Itihasa

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia
Then the northern rays of the sun are the northern honey-cells [of the beehive]. The mantras envisioned by the sages Atharvā and Aṅgirā are the bees, and the Itihāsas and Purāṇas [i.e., history and legends] are the flower. The water [from the sacrifice, such as the soma juice and other things] is the nectar [of the flower].


Those Atharvā-Aṅgirasā mantras stimulated the Itihāsas and Purāṇas [i.e., the history and the legends]. Out of that so stimulated emerged fame, vitality, the power of the organs, energy, and the essence of food.

—Chandogya Upanishad 3.4.1-2


The word itihAsa splits as iti-ha-Asa and means thus-verily-happened. Therefore itihAsa means history as it truly happened.

Many texts of Sanatana Dharma record history - just in a form that is different than what is now considered to be the norm. Today, the definition of History is that which was introduced into India by the British. Much prior to that, the sages recorded history so that future generations could benefit from its learnings. The Rigveda has recorded some history, the Ramayana of Valmiki and the Mahabharata by Sage Vyasa are popular examples of Itihasa.

The Ramayana and Mahabharata were composed in an epic format, which means as poetry in order to make it easy for people to listen, learn, and preserve history.

Texts[edit]

Contributors to this article

Himanshu Bhatt, Krishna Maheshwari

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