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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.
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añjalihasta (‘with folded hands’)
In the Indian iconographical works several mudrās or hastas, poses of the hand, are described for images. Each one of these indicates a particular feeling or sentiment.
In the añjalihasta, the two hands of the image are folded, leaving a hollow between them. The hands thus folded rest on the chest and are kept parallel to the ground. This pose indicates salutation.
