Letter from a 14-year old Bharatiya-American schoolgirl: Image of Hindu

[Guest guest]

indicjournalists, "S. Kalyanaraman"

<kalyan97> wrote:

How can we answer Trisha Pasricha on Image of Hindu; how can we

become a part of the solution?

 

Kalyanaraman

 

BEGIN QUOTE:

 

It's 8:00 a.m., and students slowly trickle into Mr. West's 6th grade

history class. The majority of the people, including the teacher, are

white. One African-American, two Orientals, and myself, a second

generation Indian girl, make up the rest of the class.

On the blackboard is written "World Religions." As the rest of the

class prepares for a boring two hours, I can already feel my stomach

sink - what did I do to deserve this?

We are handed a fill-in-the-blank chart of major world religions and

are instructed to look in our books for the answers. Finishing

quickly, I hand in my chart to Mr. West at his desk, and turn to

leave. "Now wait a minute, you put 'monotheistic' down for

Hindooism," he remarks.

 

"I know," I reply, feeling my face burn as the class looks up.

"Hindoos are polytheistic."

"No, they're not,"

"Are you a Hindoo?"

"Yeah."

"Oh."

 

Scattered murmurs break out among my peers, whispering about how

freaky Hindus worship elephants and monkeys. Great.

 

"Well," Mr. West says standing up and going to the chalkboard, "from

what I understand, Hindoos are all about their caste system." And he

begins a long, irrelevant, and incorrect explanation, which he

memorized from our textbook. What does that have to do with being

monotheistic? I don't even bother correcting him, to save myself any

more embarrassment. I wanted to get out of there. Fast.

 

7th grade starts, and it's culture day in history. "Both of my

parents are Indian--" I begin when it's my turn. "Do you mean Native

American Indian, or Middle Eastern Indian?" my teacher asks. Sounds

like it's going to be another fun year in social studies.

 

When 8th grade starts, India and Hinduism are summed up in a few

short sentences by the teacher. India is described as filled with

pollution, cows, and poverty-stricken people. Hindus love to bathe in

rivers where they throw the ashes of their parents and yes, they do

worship elephants and monkeys.

 

"Do you speak Indian?" I'm asked at least two times a week. "I heard

there were two thousand gods and every full moon you had to give a

sacrifice to them. Do you do that?" No, I try to explain that all the

gods are really aspects of one almighty being. I've never sacrificed

anything except my dignity, which slowly dwindles with each question.

The release of popular award-winning books such as Homeless Bird,

which portrays the typical Indian girl who is forced to get married

at thirteen, didn't help Indians anywhere. And, who could have

guessed, the author hadn't even been to India! No kidding.

 

Six entire chapters in the textbook were devoted to Christianity,

whereas one page is given to the history of India and the teachings

of Hinduism. A second page is entirely about Lord Shiva, accompanied

by a rather unbecoming picture of an ancient dancing Shiva statue.

Buddhism gets one paragraph.

 

This doesn't make sense, as most of the school already knows so much

about Christianity, but hardly any even knew Buddhism or Hinduism

existed. Now that they did, we would be ridiculed publicly. Thank

you, Board of Education.

 

At last, high school starts. I almost die of shock when I see the 9th

grade textbook has devoted an entire 3 sentences to Sikhism and

Jainism. It claims Sikhism "combines the Muslim belief of one god

with the Hindu belief of reincarnation."

 

Christianity in India and the ever-popular "western influence" get

pages and pages of text. One of the main pictures which help

represent "typical life in India" is one my fellow students describe

as some sort of drag-queen in make-up doing an obscure peacock dance.

Out of all the dazzling pictures of Indian culture, that is the one

they have to stick in? They chose that one over a picture of, say,

the classic Taj Mahal?

 

But the fun just gets funnier -- the next picture of a sari earns a

whole two sentences. Oh, but it's not an exquisite silk or glittering

embroidered sari. Nope, it's a dirty yellow (perhaps once white)

cotton sari worn by an old woman bathing in the Ganges River. In

spite of its pollution, "Hindus readily drink and bathe in the

Ganges' water; people even come to die in the river." To further

prove their point, they stick in a picture of a filthy and trash

laden section of Ganges, not a clean part, which much of it is.

 

I kid you not, upon reading this and looking at the picture, a boy in

my class had to be excused to the nurse's office because his stomach

had become queasy.

 

Now we come to the sacred cow. They say entire streets are blocked

because Hindus don't want to run over our beloved cow. C'mon, even in

America, people aren't going to just run over a local cow; they'll

find a way to move it or get around it.

 

On an ending note, Indians are technologically behind. They fail to

mention that we have a space program, nuclear capabilities, and many

Indians, believe it or not, have heard of a computer.

 

Every day, young desi children and teenagers are unreasonably

tormented because of our perceived background. The school textbooks

are half the cause. The average American doesn't know squat about

India, and with the help of poorly researched textbooks, they learn

nonsense. The sheer embarrassment of the situation is enough to make

desi students everywhere wish we could have been "normal" by American

standards. Explaining to your peers that you don't worship a thousand

gods like the Greeks; your grandmother doesn't force you to bathe in

dead people's ashes every full moon; and even though you know how to

bhangra, kuchipudi, or whatever it may be, you've never danced with a

drag-queen, is not fun for any young desi.

 

But why do we put up with it? Jewish, African-American, and Orientals

all have organizations against defamation and they are represented

correctly in the textbooks. Why aren't we? If Christians can

effectively lobby to remove the theory of evolution from school

science textbooks, then certainly we should be able to at least

correct the blatant misinterpretation of our culture. Reading what

you or your child's Social Studies textbooks says on India and

Hinduism and writing a simple letter or e-mail to the editor can make

a world of difference for not only you but for thousands of others. A

letter to the Board of Education for your district can't hurt either,

since they decide which textbooks will be used. It only takes five

minutes of your time, but it can change how you, an Indian, are

viewed in society.

 

Desis are being ridiculed everywhere in America because of what

today's modern student is learning. It's not going to change unless

we become part of the solution.

 

END QUOTE

 

Letter was written by: Trisha Pasricha of Houston, TX, a 14-year old

schoolgirl, who writes an advice column for kids.

Source: http://sulekha.com/expressions/column.asp?cid=305890

 

 

 

 

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