UNITED STATES, August 12, 2025 (RNS): For Hindu parents, the exclusion of parents from their children’s curriculum is part of a long-festering issue that some have had for decades — that the portrayal of Hinduism and India in American public schools is inaccurate. Hindu Parents Network, a project of the Hindu advocacy organization Coalition of Hindus of North America, offers virtual workshops on Hinduism for grade-school kids, as well as support groups for first- and second-generation Indian American parents who object to what their kids are absorbing about the faith at school, from ideas about worshipping idols to stereotypes about sacred cows. Foremost on these Hindu parents’ minds is the explanation of caste, the hierarchical social structure in India and other places that divides people by language, culture and class. For decades, Hindu parents have complained about a “caste pyramid” visual aid commonly used by teachers, with Brahmins at the top and Shudras, or “untouchables,” at the bottom, that they say simplifies the ancient system to a harmful degree. “There is a wrong understanding here, and it is based on the colonial understanding of Hinduism,” said Patel. “It is coming all the way from 18th and 19th century scholarship by colonizers. We want to correct this understanding.”

In the early 2000s, the Hindu American Foundation, another Hindu advocacy organization, proposed changes to middle school social studies textbooks: notably, to change mentions of caste to either “varna” or “class.” In 2017, a California court rejected two textbooks that were deemed problematic and accepted HAF’s edits to others. At the time, educationist James Andrew LaSpina recommended that educators become “prudently aware” of the Hindu American community’s concerns over the portrayal of their history, religion and culture. Caste has long been a contentious topic among Hindu immigrants. In 2023 in California, a bill adding caste to anti-discrimination laws led to protests and ultimately a veto by Gov. Gavin Newsom, but some colleges and universities have instituted caste discrimination bans. To Smitha Raj, a parent of a teenager in an area in New Jersey with a large South Asian population, Hinduism teaches karma: that the “choices we make, our nature and the discipline we have molds us into the person we can grow up to, not some random, birth-based order.”

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https://religionnews.com/2025/08/12/school-year-in-sight-hindu-parents-raise-faiths-problematic-depiction-in-classrooms/

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