HPI
CALIFORNIA, USA, January 24, 2006: HPI note: After the Wall Street Journal article of yesterday, two more articles have appeared in major US papers, one the Christian Science Monitor, which was posted on CBS news website, and the other in the Sacramento Bee. We’re providing excerpts of these articles to inform Hindus that this reporting is being done. It is probably the most widespread reporting on any issue which Hindus have faced in the US to date.
In all cases the reports contain inaccuracies and a decided bias against the Hindu position. They tend to favor the Western academics involved. The key issue — equal representation of religions — is hardly addressed in any of them. See our earlier reports, here, here and here. Also, here, one can download PDF files of the proposed edits and corrections, sample pages from lessons and Hinduism Today’s own submission to the Board of Education on the matter.
The main issues for Hindus at this point is equal treatment to other religions being presented in these books, something not yet achieved. Other religions are presented in a positive light and Hinduism is not. The theology of other religions is explained at some length and Hindu theology is not. In the present round of editing, objections to the texts by other religions have been accepted while similar objections by Hindus are being rejected.
The first article is from the Christian Science Monitor, here.
Some excerpts:
In the halls of Sacramento, a special commission is rewriting Indian history: debating whether Aryan invaders conquered the subcontinent, whether Brahman priests had more rights than untouchables, and even whether ancient Indians ate beef. That this seemingly arcane Indian debate has spilled over into California’s board of education is a sign of the growing political muscle of Indian immigrants and the rising American interest in Asia. The foes — who include established historians and Hindu nationalist revisionists — are familiar to each other in India. But America may increasingly become their new battlefield as other U.S. states follow California in rewriting their own textbooks to bone up on Asian history. At stake, say scholars who include some of the most elite historians on India, may be a truthful picture of one of the world’s emerging powers — one arrived at by academic standards of proof rather than assertions of national or religious pride.
“Textbooks must mention that none of the [ancient] texts, nor any Indian tradition, has a recollection of any Aryan invasion or migration,” writes S. Kalyanaraman, an engineer and prominent pro-Hindu activist, in an e-mail to this reporter. He and other revisionists refer to recent studies that don’t support an Aryan migration, including skeletal anthropology research that claims to show a continuity of record from Neolithic times. Such research has not convinced top Indologists to abandon the Aryan theory, however.
The second report is from the Sacramento Bee, here.
Some excerpts:
For the first time, Hindu organizations are pushing to change the way their religious history is taught in California schools. While Jewish, Muslim and Christian groups have long spoken up during the Department of Education’s textbook revision process, Hindus are new on the scene. Their efforts to alter sixth-grade textbooks about ancient history have inspired vitriolic, all-too-personal debates among scholars and community groups vying to see their versions of history in print. The debate is noteworthy not just for its contentiousness, but for its far-reaching effects. Many states follow California’s lead in textbook adoptions, so any decision about what children learn here will likely affect public schools across the country. The state education board is now faced with questions that are difficult to answer: Who gets to tell the story of a civilization? What happens when even the scholars don’t agree? “History is probably one of the most emotional and difficult subjects to sort out,” said Glee Johnson, president of the California Board of Education. “People care about these issues. It’s their blood. But it’s not always easy to tell what’s factual in this arena, and when you’re trying to distill world history to sixth-graders you need to be really careful.”
Hindus who support the proposed changes say they have no agenda beyond fair representation of their culture, pointing out that the textbooks don’t always mention discrimination in other ancient civilizations. They also say that detailing a culture’s failings may not be appropriate in a textbook designed for children. “We’re talking about sixth-graders, who are very impressionable,” said Suhag Shukla, legal counsel for the Hindu American Foundation, which has thrown its support behind the Hindu Education Foundation and the Vedic Foundation. “There are so many positives to every world religion. Sixth grade is not the right arena to pull out all the garbage.” Further, while the California guidelines state that content standards should “instill in each child a sense of pride in his or her heritage,” some Hindus say the current textbooks make their children ashamed. “My son came home from school one day and told me he didn’t want to be a Hindu anymore,” said Milpitas resident Madhulika Singh. “There were comments in the playground about men beating up their wives and he was very distraught.”