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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.

Gajacchāyā

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Gajacchāyā literally means ‘shadow of an elephant’.

Calendars have certain combinations of lunar days and asterisms which are considered very good. The gajacchāyā is one of them. When the moon is in the Maghā or Makhā nakṣatra[1] and the sun in the Hastā,[2] the period is considered to be very sacred, especially for the performance of śrāddhas.

The śrāddha recommended here is to be performed in the shadow of an elephant. Hence it is named so.[3] It gives gratification to the manes for thousands of kalpas.[4] This śrāddha can be performed during the inter-calary months (adhika or mala māsa) also.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Makhā nakṣatra is the 10th constellation of 5 stars.
  2. ↑ Hastā is the 13th constellation of 5 stars.
  3. ↑ Gaja = elephant; chāyā = shadow
  4. ↑ Kalpas means extraordinarily long periods of time.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Krishna Maheshwari, Deval Sancheti

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