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.

Śikhara

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Śikhara literally means ‘that which has a top’.

The words gopura, śikhara and vimāna are generally assumed to be synonymous but factually they are not. They can be explained as belows:

  • Gopura is the huge tower built over the entrance of big temples.
  • Vimāna is a small tower built over the garbhagṛha[1] to indicate the place where the chief deity is installed.
  • Śikhara is the uppermost tapering part of the Vimāna.

Over the śikhara, āmalaka[2] is built capped by a kalaśa.[3]


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Garbhagṛha means sanctum sanctorum.
  2. ↑ Āmalaka means myroballan-shaped structure.
  3. ↑ Kalaśa means finial.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

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Deval Sancheti

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