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.

Talk:Bay Area Solidarity Summer

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Rutvi Dattani


Bay Area Solidarity Summer (BASS) is a training program curated for South Asian American activists and organizers, based in California[1] as of December 2022.

As per their website, they have published no books, papers or research pertaining to Hindus, rights of Hindus, the impact or relationship between Islam and Hinduism / Hindutva, India or the Indian Government.

In 2021, they endorsed the "Dismantling Global Hindutva" conference and made the allegation

"the current government of India [in 2021] has instituted discriminatory policies including beef bans, restrictions on religious conversion and interfaith weddings, and the introduction of religious discrimination into India’s citizenship laws. The result has been a horrifying rise in religious and caste-based violence, including hate crimes, lynchings, and rapes directed against Muslims, non-conforming Dalits, Sikhs, Christians, adivasis and other dissident Hindus. Women of these communities are especially targeted. Meanwhile, the government has used every tool of harassment and intimidation to muzzle dissent. Dozens of student activists and human rights defenders are currently languishing in jail indefinitely without due process under repressive anti-terrorism laws."[2]

In 2016, they signed a letter addressed to the California Department of Education where they[3]:

  • Misrepresented academic concensus, ignoring scholarship stating "According to scholarly consensus, the Indus Valley Civilization predates Hindu Vedic culture Labeling the ancient pre-Hindu Indus Valley Civilization as “Saraswati,” “Sindh-Saraswati,” or mentioning the Saraswati river"[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]
  • Gaslit anyone with a different point of view by calling them 'Hindu Nationalist'

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Bay Area Solidarity Summer Website accessed December 27, 2022
  2. ↑ "Letter of Support", Dismantling Global Hindutva Conference website, accessed August 7, 2022
  3. ↑ 5-17 Thenmozhi Soundararajan South Asian Histories for All + Sikh Coalition
  4. ↑ Chakrabarti, Dilip, and Sukhdev Saini. The Problem of the Sarasvati River and Notes on the Archaeological Geography of Haryana and Indian Punjab. Aryan Books International, 2009.
  5. ↑ Danino, Michel. The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati. Penguin Books, 2010.
  6. ↑ McIntosh, Jane R. A Peaceful Realm: The Rise and Fall of the Indus Civilization. Westview Press, 2002, p. 24. ​where she stated "Suddenly it became apparent that the “Indus” Civilization was a misnomer—although the Indus had played a major role in the development of the civilization, the “lost Saraswati” River, judging by the density of settlement along its banks, had contributed an equal or greater part to its prosperity. Many people today refer to this early state as the “Indus-Saraswati Civilization” and continuing references to the “Indus Civilization” should be an abbreviation in which the “Saraswati” is implied. There are some fifty sites known along the Indus whereas the Saraswati has almost 1,000. This is misleading figure because erosion and alluviation has between them destroyed or deeply buried the greater part of settlements in the Indus Valley itself, but there can be no doubt that the Saraswati system did yield a high proportion of the Indus people’s agricultural produce"
  7. ↑ Gupta, S. P. “The Dawn of Civilization.” History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization: Volume I: Part 1, edited by G. C. Pandey and D. P. Chattopadhyaya, Centre for Studies in Civilizations, 1999.
  8. ↑ Dikshit, K. N. “Origin of Early Harappan Cultures in the Sarasvati Valley: Recent Archaeological Evidence and Radiometric Dates.” Journal of Indian Ocean Archaeology, vol. 9, 2013, pp. 132.
  9. ↑ Kautilya. The Arthaśāstra. Translated and edited by L. N. Rangarajan, Penguin Books, 1992.
  10. ↑ Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark. Ancient Cities of the Indus Civilization. Oxford University Press, 1998.
  11. ↑ Lal, B. B. Piecing Together: Memoirs of an Archaeologist. Aryan International Books, 2011.
  12. ↑ McIntosh, Jane R. A Peaceful Realm: The Rise and Fall of the Indus Civilization. Westview Press, 2002.
  13. ↑ Possehl, Gregory L. Indus Age: The Beginnings. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.
  14. ↑ Possehl, Gregory L. The Indus Civilization. Alta Mira Press, 2002.
  15. ↑ Sarkar, Anindya, et al. “Oxygen Isotope in Archaeological Bioapatites from India: Implications to Climate Change and Decline of Bronze Age Harappan civilization.” Nature Scientific Reports, vol. 6, May 2016, pp. 1–9. doi:10.1038/srep26555.
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