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 examine the impact on Indian American children from school textbook narratives about Hinduism and ancient India, highlighting their alignment with colonial-racist discourse. This discourse causes psychological effects similar to those caused by racism: shame, inferiority, embarrassment, identity confusion, assimilation, and a detachment from their cultural heritage. The book represents four years of rigorous research and academic peer review, underscoring Hindupedia's dedication to challenging the portrayal of Hindu Dharma in academia.

Talk:Kamala Visweswaran

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Anirudha Patel

Kamala Visweswaran is a Professor of Anthropology, T.T. and W.F. Chao Professor of Transnational South Asian Studies at Rice University. She is also a CWGS affiliate and member of the Medical Humanities Program at Rice as of May 2023[1][2]. According to her university profile, her research interests span algorithmic cultures, genomic governance, surveillance studies, science and technology studies, feminist theory and ethnography, transnational and diaspora studies, ethnic and conflict, human rights, colonial law, post/colonial law, and literature, comparative South Asia and Middle East studies.

She has published no books, papers, or research pertaining to Hindus, the rights of Hindus, the impact or relationship between Islam and Hinduism / Hindutva, India, the Indian Government in the context of BJP government, the Indus Civilization, or caste as of May 2023.

In 2021, she along with Hibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader of the Taliban, co-signed a letter supporting "Dismantling Global Hindutva" Conference, as an academic and scholar 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."[3]

In 2016, she signed a letter[4] addressed to the State Board of Education, California Department of Education, dated May 17, 2016. The letter stated the following:

  1. "There is no established connection between Hinduism and the Indus Civilization."
  2. "It is inappropriate to remove mention of the connection of caste to Hinduism."


In 2006, she signed a letter addressed to the California Department of Education, expressing her concern about the representation of Hinduism and Ancient India in Grade 6 Social Studies textbooks despite having no publications relating to the topics being covered. She stated:

"The idea that Sanatana Dharma is a basic belief of Hinduism ignores both changes in the historical usage of the term to connote an array of notions and ritual practices, and its tendency since the late nineteenth century, to be associated with Hindu Nationalist groups in whose usage it has become a monolith and acquired a narrow and exclusively Sanskritic connotation. Such groups have since the time of the founding of the first Hindutva organization in 1925 been associated with violence and destruction. "[5]

In this letter, she misrepresents the academic "state of the art." making most of her stances suspect. Specifically, she positions the "Aryan migration theory" as the most accurate at this point in time misrepresenting academic research ignoring 13+ papers that challenge that position[6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18].

In the letter, she

  • Delinks Hinduism and Ancient India as because they claim that Hinduism emerged in the 19th century [19]. Finally, they decide to refine well known ancient Hindu texts such as the Aṣṭādhyāyī and Tolkāppiyam as "non-Hindu" to justify their position[20].
  • Delinks Sanskrit, the language of many ancient Hindu texts with Hindu Dharma[21] and argue falsely that Hindu women are treated as impure and unfit ignoring the richness of the traditions and respect always provided to women and described in detail across a wide body of texts[22].
  • Attributes well understood Hindu concepts like ahiṃsā to Buddhism and Jainism[23]

Publications related to India[edit]

Books:[edit]

  1. Visweswaran, Kamala. Un/common Cultures: Racism and the Rearticulation of Cultural Difference. Durham: Duke University Press, 2011.
  2. Visweswaran, Kamala. Perspectives on Modern South Asia: A Reader in Culture, History, and Representation. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2018.

Selected Articles and Book Chapters:[edit]

  1. Visweswaran, Kamala. "The Anomaly of a Woman Anthropologist in the Field in India." Cultural Anthropology, vol. 5, no. 4, 1990, pp. 428-439.
  2. Visweswaran, Kamala. "Sexual Violence and the Politics of Tamil Identity." Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 29, no. 34, 1994, pp. 2186-2193.
  3. Visweswaran, Kamala. "The Modernity of Slavery: Domestic Servitude in Chennai." Contributions to Indian Sociology, vol. 31, no. 2, 1997, pp. 239-264.
  4. Visweswaran, Kamala. "Race and the Culture of Anthropology." American Anthropologist, vol. 100, no. 1, 1998, pp. 70-83.
  5. Visweswaran, Kamala. "Queering the Public Sphere in India." Social Text, vol. 21, no. 3, 2003, pp. 141-156.
  6. Visweswaran, Kamala. "Telling Stories: Subaltern Histories and Anthropology." Does the Elephant Dance?: Contemporary Indian Foreign Policy, edited by S. Narayan and D. Chakravarti, Sage Publications, 2006, pp. 168-187.
  7. Visweswaran, Kamala. "The Seditious Nature of Difference." The State of Race, edited by K. Kumar and A. Kalra, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, pp. 96-108.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Kamala Visweswaran University Bio accessed May 2023
  2. ↑ Kamala Visweswaran CV PDF accessed May 2023.
  3. ↑ "Letter of Support", Dismantling Global Hindutva Conference website, accessed August 7, 2022
  4. ↑ 5-17 Kamala Visweswaran South Asian Faculty Group
  5. ↑ 11-18 Kamala Visweswaran CBE Final Report
  6. ↑ Bryant, Edwin. The Quest for the Origins of the Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan, Migration Debate. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
  7. ↑ Elst, Koenraad. Indigenous Indians: Agastya to Ambedkar. New Delhi: Voice of India, 1993.
  8. ↑ Feuerstein, Georg, Subhash Kak, and David Frawley. In Search for the Cradle of Civilization. Wheaton: Quest Books, 2001.
  9. ↑ Frawley, David. Gods, Sages, and Kings: Vedic Secrets of Ancient Civilization. New Delhi: Motilal Banarasi Dass, 1993.
  10. ↑ Frawley, David. The Rig Veda and the History of India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, 2001.
  11. ↑ Lal, B. B. How Deep are the Roots of Indian Civilization? Archaeology Answers. New Delhi: Aryan Books International, 2009.
  12. ↑ Lal, B. B. “Aryan Invasion of India: Perpetuation of a Myth.” In The Indo-Aryan Controversy: Evidence and Inference in Indian History, edited by Edwin F. Bryant and Laurie L. Patton, 50–74. New York: Routledge, 2005.
  13. ↑ Shaffer, J. G., and Diane A. Litchenstein. “South-Asian Archeology and the Myth of Indo-Aryan Invasions.” In The Indo-Aryan Controversy: Evidence and Inference in Indian History, edited by Edwin F. Bryant and Laurie L. Patton, 75–104. New York: Routledge, 2005.
  14. ↑ Talageri, Shrikant. The Rigveda: A Historical Analysis. Rev. ed. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, 2004.
  15. ↑ Talageri, Shrikant. The AryanInvasion Theory: A Re-appraisal. Rev. ed. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, 2006.
  16. ↑ Possehl, Gregory L. The Indus Civilization. Walnut Creek, CA: Alta Mira Press, 2002
  17. ↑ Robb, Peter, ed. The Concept of Race in South Asia. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995.
  18. ↑ Trautmann, Thomas R. The Aryan Debate. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2005.
  19. ↑ "Problems in Identifying Hinduism with Ancient India: Hinduism is a plural tradition" ... "whereas most of the traditions that went into the making of what we know as Hinduism today emerged in the centuries immediately before and after the onset of the Common Era (C.E.). “Hinduism” does not even emerge as a term of reference until the colonial period in the 19th century... "
  20. ↑ of “Ancient India” with Hinduism means that other texts, which are not strictly about “Hinduism”, but important to South Asia’s intellectual heritage, such as the Sanskrit grammar by Panini or the Tolkappiyam of classical Tamil, are completely sidelined.
  21. ↑ "Problems identifying Ancient India with Sanskrit: Dual classical traditions"
  22. ↑ Sanskritic Hindu laws describe women as impure and unfit for scholarship, as lacking judgment and capability, of being the carriers of caste purity, as being entitled to lesser property and inheritance than men, etc. we recommend that they be given more information both of the strictures against women’s participation in public and religious life
  23. ↑ While the Upanishads make mention of the notion of ahimsa, it does not become important to Hinduism until after Buddhism and Jainism make it central to their conception of life. In other words, there was no prior ‘Hindu’ support for ahimsa; it is only when Hinduism became more like the Hinduism we know today that it took over ahimsa from Jainism and Buddhism
Retrieved from "https://hindupedia.com/index.php?title=Talk:Kamala_Visweswaran&oldid=146691"