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.

Jīvat-śrāddha

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Jīvat-śrāddha literally means ‘śrāddha of oneself performed by a person still living’.

Jīvat-śrāddha Definition[edit]

Śrāddha, obsequial rites, is an ancient ritual. If a person does not have children or successors who are eligible to perform his śrāddha after his death, or if he feels that none of them may do it properly, he can perform it for himself. This is called ‘jīvatśrāddha’ or ‘jivaśrāddha’.

Rituals of Jīvat-śrāddha[edit]

The procedure as described in some works like the Baudhāyana Grhyaśesasutras[1] is quite exhaustive and complicated. It has to be performed every month for a year and then every year for twelve years. Some of the steps involved in it are:

  • Fasting
  • Kindling the sacred fire
  • Offering oblations with certain mantras from the Ṛgveda[2]
  • Giving gifts of prescribed objects
  • Burning his own effigy
  • Observing aśauca, ceremonial impurity
  • Performing ekoddiṣṭa rite
  • Few other rituals

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Baudhāyana Grhyaśesasutras 3.19
  2. ↑ Ṛgveda 4.58.3
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Krishna Maheshwari, Deval Sancheti

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