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We examine the impact of the current colonial-racist discourse around Hindu Dharma on Indians across the world and prove that this discourse causes psychological effects similar to those caused by racism: shame, inferiority, embarrassment, identity confusion, assimilation, and a detachment from our cultural heritage.

Talk:Rachel Fell McDermott

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Sachi Anjunkar


Rachel Fell McDermott is a Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures at the Barnard College, University of Columbia[1] as of June 2023. According to her university profile her research interests focus on Bengal, in eastern India and Bangladesh; she has published extensively on the Hindu-goddess-centered religious traditions.

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."[2]

On November 5, 2017, she signed the letter submitted by the South Asia Faculty Group (SAFG) to the California State Board of Education[3] where she:

  • She misrepresented scholarship stating "Mythological terms substitute for historical ones for example the 'Indus Valley Civilization' (a fact-based geographic term) appears to be replaced with a religiously-motivated and ideologically charged term 'Indus-Saraswati/Sarasvati Civilization'. The Saraswati is a mythical river"[4][5][6]
  • Implied that Christians and Muslims existed in Ancient India, prior to the founding of these religions ​

Publications Related to India[edit]

Journal Articles[edit]

Comparative Studies in Hindu-Jewish Philosophy, Culture, and Religion[edit]

  1. McDermott, Rachel. "Image Worship and Sacrifice: Legitimacy, Illegitimacy, and Theological Debate." Dharma and Halacha: Comparative Studies in Hindu-Jewish Philosophy, Culture and Religion, edited by Ithamar Theodor and Yudit Kornberg Greenberg, Lexington Books, 2014.

Bangladesh and Indian Traditions[edit]

  1. McDermott, Rachel. "Bangladesh." The Sources of Indian Traditions, vol. 2, 3rd edition, Columbia University Press, 2014.

Goddess Worship and Rituals in South Asian Religions[edit]

  1. McDermott, Rachel. "Playing with Durga: Ritual Levity in Bengali Goddess Religion." Sacred Play: Ritual Levity and Humor in South Asian Religions, edited by Selva J. Raj and Corinne Dempsey, University of New York Press, 2010, pp. 143–159.
  2. McDermott, Rachel. "The Pujas in Historical and Political Controversy: Colonial and Post-Colonial Goddesses." Religions of South Asia, vol. 2, 2009.
  3. McDermott, Rachel. "Introduction and A Festival for Jagaddhatri and the Power of Localized Religion in Bengal." Breaking Boundaries with the Goddess: New Directions in the Study of Saktism, edited by Cynthia Ann Humes, Manohar, 2009, pp. xvii–xxxiv and 201–222.
  4. McDermott, Rachel. "Evil, Motherhood, and the Hindu Goddess Kali." Deliver Us from Evil, edited by M. David Eckel and Bradley L. Herling, Continuum, 2008, pp. 44–56.
  5. McDermott, Rachel. "Kali's New Frontiers: A Hindu Goddess on the Internet." Encountering Kali: At the Margins, At the Center, In the West, edited by Jeffrey J. Kripal and Rachel Fell McDermott, University of California Press, 2003, pp. 273–295.
  6. McDermott, Rachel. "Meeting ‘the Mother Who Takes Across': Christian Encounters with the Fierce Goddesses of Hinduism." The Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, vol. 16, 2003, pp. 48–57.
  7. McDermott, Rachel. "Popular Attitudes towards Kali and Her Poetry Tradition: Interviewing Saktas in Bengal." Wild Goddesses in India and Nepal, edited by Axel Michaels, Cornelia Vogelsanger, and Annette Wilke, Studia Religiosa Helvetica, vol. 2, 1996, pp. 383–415.
  8. McDermott, Rachel. "The Western Kali." Devi: Goddess in India, edited by John Stratton Hawley and Donna M. Wulff, University of California Press, 1996, pp. 281–313.

Indian Diaspora and Christianity[edit]

  1. McDermott, Rachel. "From Hinduism to Christianity, from India to New York: Bondage and Exodus Experiences in the Lives of Indian Dalit Christians in the American Diaspora." South Asian Christian Diaspora: Invisible Diaspora in Europe and North America, edited by Knut Axel Jacobsen and Selva J. Raj, Ashgate Press, 2009, pp. 223–248.
  2. McDermott, Rachel. "Gifts to an Anglican from Krishna’s Council." Song Divine: Christian Commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita, edited by Catherine Cornille, Peeters Press, 2006, pp. 131–144.

Other Topics[edit]

  1. McDermott, Rachel. "The Vedanta Society." Religion and American Cultures: An Encyclopedia of Traditions, Diversity, and Popular Expressions, edited by Gary Laderman and Luis Leon, ABC-CLIO, 2003, vol. 1, pp. 120–122.
  2. McDermott, Rachel. "Raising Snakes in Bengal: The Use of Tantric Imagery in Sakta Poetry Contexts." Tantra in Practice, edited by David G. White, Princeton University Press, 2000, pp. 167–183.
  3. McDermott, Rachel. "New Age Hinduism, New Age Orientalism, and the Second-Generation South Asian." The Journal of the American Academy of Religion, vol. 68, no. 4, 2000, pp. 721–731.

Books Published[edit]

  1. McDermott, Rachel, managing editor. The Sources of Indian Traditions. Vol. 2, 3rd edition, Columbia University Press, 2014.
  2. McDermott, Rachel. Revelry, Rivalry, and Longing for the Goddesses of Bengal: The Fortunes of Hindu Festivals. Columbia University Press, 2011.
  3. McDermott, Rachel, and Cynthia Ann Humes, editors. Breaking Boundaries with the Goddess: New Directions in the Study of Saktism. Manohar, 2009.
  4. McDermott, Rachel, and Jeffrey J. Kripal, editors. Encountering Kali: In the Margins, At the Center, In the West. University of California Press, 2003.
  5. McDermott, Rachel. Mother of My Heart, Daughter of My Dreams: Kali and Uma in the Devotional Poetry of Bengal. Oxford University Press, 2001.
  6. McDermott, Rachel. Singing to the Goddess: Poems to Kali and Uma from Bengal. Oxford University Press, 2001.

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Rachel Fell McDermott University Page, accessed June 10, 2023
  2. ↑ "Letter of Support", Dismantling Global Hindutva Conference website, accessed August 7, 2022
  3. ↑ 2017 South Asia Faculty Group (SAFG) Letter to the California State Board of Education
  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"
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