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.

Anuvākyā

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Anuvākyā literally means ‘to say after’.

Performance of Vedic rites involves several complex processes. Appropriate Vedic hymns selected from the various sections of the Vedas (mostly from the Rgveda Samhitā) have to be chanted or sung at certain specified stages during these rites. Such hymns are categorized as follows :

  1. Yājyā
  2. Anuvākyā
  3. Śastra and so on

The anuvākyā hymns, also called as puronuvākyā, are to be chanted by the hotṛ (priest reciting the ṛks) when the adhvaryu (priest following the Yajurveda) cuts the purodāśa (cakes for offering) into several parts. These hymns are actually invitations to the respective deities to accept the offerings allotted to them. Since the name of the particular deity appears in the first part of the hymn, the hymn itself is also called puronuvākyā (puras = first, in front).[1]


References[edit]

  1. Rgveda 8.44.12 and 1.91.11 are used as anuvākyās
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore