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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.

Nirupādhika

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Nirupādhika literally means ‘without upādhis or limiting adjuncts’.

An Upādhi, normally translated as a ‘limiting adjunct’, is an object that makes another object appear to be different from what it actually is, though neither of them really affects each other. For instance, when a red hibiscus flower is kept near a transparent crystal, this crystal appears red, though in reality, it is not. So, the hibiscus flower is an upādhi for the crystal.

Similarly the ātman[1] inside the body appears to be bound by the limitations or characteristics of the body-mind complex which is its upādhi. Even Brahman[2] appears to be responsible for the creation, sustenance and destruction of this world, though He is not.

In reality, in both these cases, neither the ātman nor Brahman is affected by the upādhis of the body-mind complex or the world appearance. Hence they are called ‘nirupādhika,’ ‘without the upādhis’ or ‘unaffected by the upādhis’.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Ātman means the soul or the Self.
  2. ↑ Brahman is God, the Absolute.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

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