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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.

Pitṛloka

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Pitṛloka literally means ‘the world of dead ancestors’.

Just as a human being does not want to be destroyed after the death of his body, he also does not want his forefathers and ancestors to be destroyed after their death. The belief that one’s dead-ancestors live in a separate world is common to most of the peoples of the world.

The Ṛgveda[1] mentions the pitṛloka where one’s departed ancestors live. The Upaniṣads consider the pitṛloka as a place that can be attained by one after death, by performing sacrifices like Agnihotra,[2] and also as a station on the path of Pitṛyāna.[3][4]


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Ṛgveda 10.14.2 and 7
  2. ↑ Brhadāranyaka Upaniṣad 1.5.16
  3. ↑ Pitṛyāna means the path of manes, the path of smoke.
  4. ↑ Brhadāranyaka Upaniṣad 6.2.16
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

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