The Terrifying (?) Kali, and the Diversity of Hinduism. : A Critical Discourse Analysis of Colonial Power Dynamics in three Religion Textbooks for UpperSecondary School

Several studies within the RE didactics field have shown that there is a lack of considerationwhen writing and teaching about religion, in particular Islam and eastern religions, resulting inrisks of strengthening colonial power dynamics in both education and textbooks. The purposeof this essay is to apply postcolonial theory on three Swedish textbooks made for RE educationin upper secondary school to see the extent of post-colonial power dynamics in the textbooks,the study covered the chapters in which Hinduism was depicted. The study is conducted withthe help of critical discourse analysis which was used to analyze images and texts to see ifcolonial power dynamics as well as if us vs them thinking was present in the material. Theanalysis is divided into three parts to study each textbook separately in which each textbookanalysis is divided into two parts with one text analysis and one image analysis. The studydiscovered that the textbooks did contain colonial power dynamics to some extent in bothimages and text through strengthening ideas of the west as a contrast to the east and the orientand the tendency to create a distance between the west and the east resulting in an us vs themthinking when portraying Hinduism