{"id":22329,"date":"2025-08-15T03:07:02","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T03:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/?p=22329"},"modified":"2025-08-15T03:07:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T03:07:02","slug":"hindu-parents-raise-concerns-about-faiths-problematic-depiction-in-classrooms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2025\/08\/15\/hindu-parents-raise-concerns-about-faiths-problematic-depiction-in-classrooms\/","title":{"rendered":"Hindu Parents Raise Concerns About Faith’s Problematic Depiction in Classrooms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

UNITED STATES, August 12, 2025 (RNS): For Hindu parents, the exclusion of parents from their children\u2019s curriculum is part of a long-festering issue that some have had for decades \u2014 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\u2019 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 \u201ccaste pyramid\u201d visual aid commonly used by teachers, with Brahmins at the top and Shudras, or \u201cuntouchables,\u201d at the bottom, that they say simplifies the ancient system to a harmful degree. \u201cThere is a wrong understanding here, and it is based on the colonial understanding of Hinduism,\u201d said Patel. \u201cIt is coming all the way from 18th and 19th century scholarship by colonizers. We want to correct this understanding.\u201d

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 \u201cvarna\u201d or \u201cclass.\u201d In 2017, a California court rejected two textbooks that were deemed problematic and accepted HAF\u2019s edits to others. At the time, educationist James Andrew LaSpina recommended that educators become \u201cprudently aware\u201d of the Hindu American community\u2019s 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 \u201cchoices 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.\u201d

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