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.

Aṣṭa-dhātus

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Aṣṭa-dhātus literally means ‘eight metals’.

In temples, the original icon in the garbhagṛha or sanctum sanctorum, called ‘dhruvabera’ is generally made of stone and is permanently fixed. As the temple rituals evolved into elaborate proportions, the need for a subsidiary image, a replica or a representative of the original, also arose. It was this image made of Aṣṭa-dhātus that was taken out in procession on festival days. Hence it was called ‘utsavamurti’ or ‘procession-image.’

These images were made of ‘aṣṭadhātus’ or 'aṣtalohas' i.e. eight metals viz.,

  1. Gold
  2. Silver
  3. Iron
  4. Tin
  5. Lead
  6. Copper
  7. Zinc
  8. Mercury (or brass).


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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