Colonial Discourse and the Suffering of Indian American Children - Book Review

by Kundan Singh and Krishna Maheshwari

The Butterfly Effect refers to the idea that a tiny butterfly flapping its wings could cause a typhoon somewhere. In other words, a small action can influence a much larger complex system since the world is deeply interconnected.

When an obscure Scotsman, James Mill, wrote "The History of British India" in 1817, it set in motion the institutionalization of a highly racist and colonial discourse on India and the Hindus for which our children are paying the price even today.

We know there's a problem with history textbooks because our children are taught that caste, misogyny, and oppression form the core of Hinduism. We realize now that there is a source from where it all springs. That fount is James Mill and his 3-volume History of British India. In his arrogance, James Hill said his objectivity toward India is guaranteed because he has never visited India! He has no hesitation in saying that his work is a "critical, judging" history. The McGraw Hill textbooks on world history are based on James Mill's History, and this "history" is what our children are being taught today. 

In "Colonial Discourse and the Suffering of Indian American Children," the authors show how McGraw Hill textbooks are a sanitized version (without words like savage, rude, and barbaric) of James Hill's opinions about India and Hindus. In the USA, these textbooks are taught in Grade 6, when children start to form their identities. Hindu society, law, and cosmology are represented through the lens of hierarchy and oppression. A cursory reading is sufficient to understand that history textbooks teach the same view of India and Hindus even within India.

Everything that our children learn about their heritage, about India and Hindus, has been filtered through the mind of James Mill - the man who never visited India, the man who projected all ills in British society onto India, the man who reiterated in every chapter of his book that Hinduism was only about caste, hierarchy, and oppression and that Hindus are savage and primitive.

It is James Mill's warped vision of India and Hindus that is being taught in textbooks worldwide, and his twisted version that we have internalized because, as the book says, "at the core of the colonial project…the knowledge of the colonized is destroyed, and an alternative knowledge on the colonized is generated by the colonizer, which is permeated with falsehoods and projections."

Indeed, falsifying history and erasing memory is the colonizer's central preoccupation. Knowing the facts will help us identify the problem in all its complexity rather than resorting to fighting unseen windmills. 

A thorough reading of "Colonial Discourse and the Suffering of Indian American Children" will also help us be compassionate with ourselves. "The colonizer implodes the colonized from within" and "the colonized become fragmented, uprooted and atomized," which is precisely the effect we see on Indians, especially Hindus. 

If we see Indians behaving like self-loathing zombies today, we need to understand that it is the result of a craftily planned colonial project. Sometimes, we don't know any better because of what we have been taught - the colonizer's history and worldview. We must realize that "political independence is only the beginning of decolonization." Much work needs to happen within India, and we hope this discussion leads to solid work within Indian universities that will soon enable us to use our lens to look at ourselves.

The book also posits that much of James Mill's opinion on India and Hindus was a projection of the then-present ills of British society onto India. In fact, "What Europeans think they know of India tells us more about Europe than it does about India." 

Today, much of what we recognize as fake history can be traced to James Mill's History of British India. We must realize that "though the political colonization for most of the world has ended, racism has not," leading to damaging psychological consequences on Indian-American and Indian (Hindu) children. Children develop an inferiority complex and shame, which "makes them disconnect from their culture, ethnicity and tradition." It results in a lack of self-esteem and confidence while leading to self-hatred. 

Drawing on the work of Francophone Postcolonial thinkers on colonialism's ravaging effects, this book explains our situation today due to the institutionalization of the colonial discourse based on James Mill's canonical work, "The History of British India."

Indian parents also must rethink sending their children to "international" schools following the IGCSE or Cambridge syllabus. The growing popularity of foreign textbooks and syllabi will tie us yet again to the colonial project of making us look down on ourselves. If you send your child to a school following the Cambridge O, A, or AS levels, carefully scrutinize the history and geography taught. Let us not internalize their worldview through the social sciences and continue the racist, colonial project that was started over 200 years ago.

We must study this book deeply. In future blogs, we will explore the topic from multiple perspectives.

Meanwhile, is there anything we can do? We started by recognizing that James Mill's flapping of wings led to complex dystopian changes in how we view ourselves. Each of us is like a butterfly that can set the colonial discourse right. If a billion of us flap our wings now, it will result in complex positive changes that will echo across the future. We can set in motion another Butterfly Effect, this time with results that favor us!

The book "Colonial Discourse and the Suffering of Indian American Children" is open access.

You can download it for free at this link.

(https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-57627-0)

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