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.

Cinmudrā

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Cinmudrā literally means ‘hand-pose indicating knowledge’.

Icons of deities, sages and saints sculptured as per the rules given in the standard works of iconography, usually have certain hand-poses called ‘hasta-mudrās’. These mudrās indicate certain specific ideas or sentiments. One such pose, the ‘cinmudrā,’ is sculptured on images in the posture of imparting knowledge. For instance the Dakṣiṇāmurti aspect of Śiva and Ādiśaṅkara has this cinmudrā in their postures. The presentation of cinmudrā is as follows:

  • In this pose the tips of the thumb and the forefinger, usually of the right hand, are joined to form a circle.
  • The other fingers are kept open and stretched.
  • The whole palm faces outwards.
  • This mudrā is also called ‘vyākhyāna or sandeśa’ mudrā.


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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