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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.

Nīlākṣa-nakula

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Nīlākṣa-nakula literally means ‘the blue-eyed mongoose’.

After the performance of the Aśvamedha sacrifice, king Yudhiṣṭhira, the eldest of the Pāṇḍavas, was puffed up with pride. Suddenly in the Yāgaśālā[1] a big mongoose with blue eyes appeared. It's half body was golden. It rolled on the ground where there were scattered grains but was disappointed as the other half too did not turn golden as it had hoped for.

Then it spoke like a human being disparagingly of Yudhiṣṭhira’s so-called great sacrifice comparing it with the sacrifice of a whole brāhmaṇa family out of hunger. After everyone gave away his or her share of food to hungry souls who begged for the same. Accidental contact of it's body of the mongoose with a small portion of the leftover food in the brāhmaṇa’s house turned that half of its body into golden color. Since that day the mongoose was trying to convert the other half of its body also into golden color by visiting places where great sacrifices were being performed. On hearing this, Yudhiṣṭhira was humbled.[2]


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Yāgaśālā means sacrificial shed.
  2. ↑ Mahābhārata, Āśvamedhikaparva, chapter 90
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

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