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.

Pāṣaṇḍin

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Pāṣaṇḍin literally means ‘heretic’.

‘Pā’ means ‘to protect’. ‘Saṇḍ’ means ‘to revile’. Hence the word literally means ‘one who reviles’. In practice, it was used to indicate all persons who reviled the Vedas or did not believe in them which alone can protect the human beings according to the believers, by spiritually elevating them. Several sects such as:

  1. Kāpāla
  2. Nākula,[1]
  3. Vāma
  4. Bhairava
  5. Kālāmukha
  6. Pāñcarātra

They were branded as avaidika[2] and pāṣaṇḍa. The followers of these sects were called pāṣaṇḍins or pākhaṇḍins, which means the same thing. The lists often included the Jains and the Buddhists also. The purāṇas like the Kurma contain highly derogatory statements against the pāṣaṇḍins and forbid any association with them.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Nākula means Pāśupata.
  2. ↑ Avaidika is not sanctioned by the Vedas or against the Vedic tradition.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Deval Sancheti

Explore Other Articles

Retrieved from "https://hindupedia.com/index.php?title=Pāṣaṇḍin&oldid=116266"