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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.

Bālakṛcchra

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Bālakṛcchra literally means ‘the small penance’.

Two widely discussed topics in the smṛtis and dharmaśāstras are :

  1. Pātaka - Sin
  2. Prāyaścitta - Expiation of sin

Sins may be major (mahāpātakas) or minor (upapātakas). The prāyaścittas prescribed for the mahāpātakas like killing a brāhmaṇa or incest, often end by the death of the sinner. But those prescribed for the upapātakas like minor thefts or abandoning the Vedic fires, are tolerable and purify the sinners eventually.

Krcchra is a very general name given to most of these prāyaścittas. Bālakṛcchra also called śiśukṛcchra or laghukṛcchra—is one variety prescribed for upapātakas in which the expiation is light and easy. If kṛcchras are usually spread over 12 days, bālakṛcchra is observed only for 4 days.

  • It consists of eating once only in day time on the first day.
  • Eating only once in the night on the second day.
  • Eating food that comes unasked that too only once on the third day.
  • Fasting on the fourth day.

Other general rules as applicable to kṛcchras like bathing thrice daily, speaking the truth and so on, should also be followed.

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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