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.

Śivaduti

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Śivaduti literally means 'one who sent Śiva as her assistant for negotiations’.

Devī or Pārvatī got this name because she sent her husband Śiva as a duta[1] to the demon-king Śumbha[2] with an ultimatum to retire to the pātāla[3] or face extinction at her hands. As a form of Durgā, she is one of the eight yoginīs like Brahmāṇi, Vaiṣṇavī and so on.

She has four arms, a large face and big lips. She is tall and has a fierce appearance. She wears a garland of severed heads. Her crown is of matted hair. Snakes are her ornaments. She is draped in a tiger-skin. In her four hands she carries a spear, a discus, a noose and a shield. She stands in the ālīḍhāsana with her feet on a corpse and a jackal. She is surrounded by a pack of wolves.


References[edit]

  1. Duta means servant or negotiator.
  2. Devimāhātmya 8.28
  3. Pātāla means nether-world.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

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