Colonial Discourse and the Suffering of Indian American Children Book Cover.webp

Colonial Discourse and the Suffering of Indian American Children is now published after academic peer-review and available through open access.

In this book, we analyze the psycho-social consequences that Indian American children face after they are exposed to the school textbook discourse on Hinduism and ancient India. We show that there is an intimate connection―an almost exact correspondence―between James Mill’s ( a prominent politician in Britain and head of the British East India Company) colonial-racist discourse and the current school-textbook discourse. Consequently, this archaic and racist discourse, camouflaged under the cover of political correctness, produces in the Indian American children the same psychological impact as racism is known to produce: shame, inferiority, embarrassment, identity confusion, assimilation, and a phenomenon similar to racelessness where the children dissociate from the tradition and culture of their ancestors

This book is an outcome of 4 years of rigorous research as a part of our ongoing commitment at Hindupedia to challenge the representation of Hindu Dharma within Academia.

Anupātaka

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Anupātaka literally means ‘secondary sin’.

Human beings are generally prone to commit sins due to certain basic weaknesses like hunger, sex, passion and prejudices inherent in the psycho-physical system. When they are not sublimated or controlled by dharma (righteousness or religious laws), sin will result. A sin is generally termed as ‘pātaka,’ that which makes one fall (pat = to fall) from the ideal way.

The smṛtis and dharmaśāstras have categorized the sins in various ways. Anupātaka is one such sin which is considered less than mahāpātaka (grievous sin). Two such sins coming under Anupātaka are :

  1. False accusations against one’s guru (father or preceptor)
  2. Sexual relationship with women like the wife of a learned brāhmaṇa or those seeking one’s protection

A sin must be expiated. Various kinds of expiations known as prāyaścittas are prescribed for the various crimes. As regards the anupātakas, the prāyaścittas are almost the same as the ones prescribed for the mahāpātakas. Performing Aśvamedha sacrifice and visiting places of pilgrimage are prominently mentioned in this list of prāyaścittas for the anupātakas.


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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