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.

Aśmārohaṇa

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Aśmārohaṇa literally means ‘mounting the stone’.

Among all the saihskāras or sacraments, vivāha or marriage, has been given the central place. Unlike in some other societies, marriage is not a social contract but a spiritual sacrament and hence considered as permanent and indissoluble.

Out of the several steps involved in the sacrament of marriage, aśmārohaṇa is also one ritual. When the couple go round the nuptial fire three times, this is called agnipariṇayana or circum-ambulating the fire, the bridegroom makes the bride step upon a mill-stone each time, with certain mantras. The purport of it is that she should be firm and steady like the stone in her marital life which is also a considered as a spiritual companionship.


References[edit]

  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Krishna Maheshwari, Deval Sancheti

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