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:Rita P. Wright

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Sachi Anjunkar


Rita P. Wright is a Professor Emerita of Anthropology at New York University University[1] as of April 2024. According to her university profile, his research interests include Urbanism; state formation; gender relations; the ancient Near East, and South Asia.

In 2016, she signed a letter[2] 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. The Rg Veda contains numerous mentions of horses and chariots but there is no conclusive material or fossil evidence for either at any Indus valley archeological site."
  2. "It is inappropriate to remove mention of the connection of caste to Hinduism."

Publications related to India[edit]

  1. Wright, Rita, et al. Water Supply and History: Harappa and the Beas Regional Survey. Antiquity, vol. 82, 2008, doi:10.1017/S0003598X00096423.
  2. Wright, Rita, and Zenobie Garrett. Engineering Feats and Consequences: Workers in the Night and the Indus Civilization. 2017, doi:10.5876/9781607326786.c014.
  3. Wright, Rita. Perspectives from the Indus: Contexts of Interaction in the Late Harappan/Post-Urban Period. 2016.
  4. Wright, Rita. Cognitive Codes and Collective Action at Mari and the Indus. 2016, doi:10.5876/9781607325338.c010.
  5. Wright, Rita. A Comparative Perspective on Gender in Specialized Economies: Craft Specialization, Kinship, and Technology. 2016, doi:10.5876/9781607324836.c012.
  6. Wright, Rita. Vasant Shinde, Teresa P. Raczek & Gregory L. Possehl (Eds.). Excavations at Gilund: The Artifacts and Other Studies. Antiquity, vol. 89, 2015, pp. 1006-1008, doi:10.15184/aqy.2015.73.
  7. Bolger, Diane, and Rita Wright. Gender in Southwest Asian Prehistory. A Companion to Gender Prehistory, 2014, pp. 372-394, doi:10.1002/9781118294291.ch18.
  8. Wright, Rita. Commodities and Things: The Kulli in Context. 2013.
  9. Wright, Rita, et al. New Evidence for Jute (Corchorus capsularis L.) in the Indus Civilization. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, vol. 4, 2012, doi:10.1007/s12520-012-0088-1.
  10. Wright, Rita. Third Millennium Changing Times. Archaeological Dialogues, vol. 16, 2009, pp. 142-148, doi:10.1017/S1380203809990067.
  11. Wright, Rita. The Ancient Indus: Urbanism, Economy, and Society, 2009.
  12. Schuldenrein, Joseph, et al. Harappan Geoarchaeology Reconsidered: Holocene Landscapes and Environments of the Greater Indus Plain. 2007, doi:10.2307/j.ctvdjrqjp.10.
  13. Schuldenrein, Joseph, et al. Landscapes, Soils, and Mound Histories of the Upper Indus Valley, Pakistan: New Insights on the Holocene Environments near Ancient Harappa. Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 31, 2004, pp. 777-797, doi:10.1016/j.jas.2003.10.015.
  14. Wright, Rita. Revisiting Interaction Spheres - Social Boundaries and Technologies on Inner and Outermost Frontiers. Iranica Antiqua, vol. 37, 2002, pp. 403-417.
  15. Kramer, Carol, et al. Craft and Social Identity. American Antiquity, vol. 66, 2001, p. 167, doi:10.2307/2694328.
  16. Hudecek-Cuffe, Caroline, and Rita Wright. Gender and Archaeology. American Antiquity, vol. 63, 1998, p. 174, doi:10.2307/2694786.
  17. Wright, Rita. New Tracks on Ancient Frontiers: Ceramic Technology on the Indo-Iranian Borderlands. Archaeological Thought in America, 1989, pp. 268-279, doi:10.1017/CBO9780511558221.017.
  18. Blackman, M., et al. Production and Exchange of Ceramics on the Oman Peninsula from the Perspective of Hili. Journal of Field Archaeology, vol. 16, 1989, pp. 61-77, doi:10.1179/jfa.1989.16.1.61.
  19. Wright, Rita. Technology, Style and Craft Specialization: Spheres of Interaction and Exchange in the Indo-Iranian Borderlands, Third Millenium BC. 1984.
  20. Kohl, Philip, and Rita Wright. Stateless Cities: The Differentiation of Societies in the Near Eastern Neolithic. Dialectical Anthropology, vol. 2, 1977, pp. 271-283, doi:10.1007/BF00249490.

References[edit]