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.

Brahmāṇḍa-dāna

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Brahmāṇḍa-dāna literally means ‘gift of brahmāṇḍa or egg of Brahman’.

Giving gifts has always been considered as a sacred act. It helps the donor to destroy his sins or to attain higher worlds after death or to get any other result he desires. The dharmaśāstras have listed certain gifts as mahādānas or great gifts. They may be ten as per some works and sixteen as per others.

Brahmāṇda-dāna is one of them. It consists of gifting to a worthy brāhmaṇa the following:

  1. Two pans of gold to represent the dome of heaven above and the earth below of specified dimensions
  2. The figures of eight diggajas (mythical elephants guarding the eight quarters)
  3. The lokapālas (rulers of the various worlds and of Brahmā in the middle of them)

References[edit]

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

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