Colonial Discourse and the Suffering of Indian American Children is now freely available.
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.

Gāṇapatyas

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Gāṇapatyas literally means ‘those who follow Gaṇapati’.

Gaṇapati has been one of the most popular and important deities. The Gāṇapatyas were members of a powerful sect that considered Gaṇapati as the Supreme God. The sect might have originated during the seventh century A. D. It became powerful around the tenth century and declined later.

Followers of this sect envisage the worship of five kinds of Gaṇapati along with their Śaktis or spouses. They are:

  1. Ucchiṣṭa-Gaṇapati
  2. Mahā-Gaṇapati
  3. Urdhva-Gaṇapati
  4. Piṅgala-Gaṇapati
  5. Lakṣmī-Gaṇapati

Out of these, worship of the Ucchiṣṭa-Gaṇapati aspect clearly belongs to the Vāmācāra sects. Later on, the Gāṇāpatyas got divided into six separate sects.

The Ganeśapurāna and the Ganeśagitā are the primary texts.

References[edit]

  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Krishna Maheshwari, Deval Sancheti

Explore Other Articles

Retrieved from "https://hindupedia.com/index.php?title=Gāṇapatyas&oldid=134434"