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.

Anavasthā

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Anavasthā literally means ‘instability,’ ‘non-finality’.

This is a technical term specially used in logic. When the cause and effect series becomes infinite and does not serve as a proof, it is called anavasthā (infinite regress) and hence rejected.

This anavasthā is sometimes divided into two varieties :

  1. Prāmāṇikī - valid
  2. Aprāmāṇikī - invalid

For instance, in the series of bīja (seed) and vṛkṣa (tree) the infinite regress is valid and natural. Hence it is prāmāṇikī. On the other hand, while trying to prove the existence of a cause for this world, if that cause (called Brahman) is accepted to have been caused by something else, it leads to anavasthā, infinite regress, and hence has no definite conclusion. This anavasthā is aprāmāṇikī or invalid. To avoid this, Vedānta accepts Brahman as the uncaused cause.


References[edit]

  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore