California Textbook Debate: A Closer Look

[Guest guest]

In the interest of balance, it's worth noting that Hindu Indians

were themselves divided over whether the California textbooks

[mentioned toward the end of the editorial I just posted] actually

did "defame" Hinduism. The issue is complicated, but in general was

framed as a confrontation between "right-wing" or "nationalist"

Hindu groups, who opposed the textbooks, and more "moderate" groups

who did not.

 

Who's right? It's hard to say; you'll have to decide for yourself.

In order to help you decide, here are three brief news items that

shed considerable light on the debate. The first was published a

month ago, when a California Superior Court upheld the textbooks,

while admitting that they contained significant factual flaws. The

second is a statement by a coalition of U.S. Hindu groups who

considered that decision a victory. The third and last is

a "nationalist" rebuttal, arguing that the decision was certainly

*not* a victory.

 

**********

 

1. HINDU TEXTBOOKS FLAWED BUT RETAINED

 

WASHINGTON (Sept. 6, 2006 [iANS]): A California court has accepted a

Hindu body's contention that some textbooks with a flawed

presentation of Hinduism were approved improperly, but refused to

throw them out of schools for now.

 

A flawed approval process had resulted in textbooks that presented

the debunked Aryan Migration Theory as fact, misrepresented caste as

central to Hinduism and left the impression that Hinduism devalued

the role of women, the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) said in a

press release.

 

The California Superior Court last week upheld HAF's claim that the

state School Board of Education (SBE) had followed a flawed and

illegal approval process for sixth grade textbooks. But the court

denied its demand that SBE be required to throw out the currently

approved textbooks and revisit the entire textbook adoption process,

it said.

 

In his ruling, Judge Patrick Marlette wrote the California SBE has

been conducting its textbook approval process under

invalid "underground regulations', but said the rejection of

textbooks would be disruptive not only to affected sixth graders,

but potentially every California public school student using any and

every textbooks.

 

The judge decided against a sweeping ruling that could open the door

to other lawsuits discarding textbooks in the most populous state

in the US, the release said.

 

SOURCE: DNA India

URL: http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1051433

 

*********

 

And now here is a response to the California court decision

(actually a response to the state educational board decision, which

the court was upholding in its decision).

 

2. VICTORY OVER HINDU NATIONALISTS IN TEXTBOOK CASE

 

SACRAMENTO (---, 2006): The intense struggle over the content of

Indian history in California textbooks ended yesterday with the

special committee of the California State Board of Education [sBE]

voting unanimously to overturn a majority of contentious changes

proposed by Hindu right-wing groups to California school textbooks.

 

This decision is a victory for community organizations such as

Friends of South Asia (FOSA), the Ambedkar Center for Peace and

Justice, the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America, and the

Coalition Against Communalism (CAC), who have worked diligently to

ensure that ahistorical and sectarian content proposed by Hindu

right-wing groups is removed from California textbooks.

 

Hundreds of South Asian scholars from across the United States and

nearly fifty internationally renowned Indologists had repeatedly

written to the Board as well, protesting the changes proposed by the

Hindu nationalist groups.

 

SOURCE: Friends of South Asia (Press Release)

URL (for full statement): http://tinyurl.com/ryqus

 

**********

 

And here is a "nationalist" rebuttal:

 

3. PYRRHIC VICTORY FOR U.S. HINDUS

 

NEW DELHI (September 17, 2006): Hindus received unfair and unequal

treatment in the matter of how sixth-grade students in the public

education system would be taught about the Hindu religion. Why

should Hindu children be taught that "Hindus worship talking monkeys

and throw widows into fires?" Why should the primordial stories of

the Hindu scriptures be branded as "myths," when the scriptures of

the monotheistic traditions are said to come from Only One (mutually

exclusive) God(s)?

 

It is a sad and undeniable truth that the California Hindu community

has failed to win a substantive victory in the US courts in the

matter of the shoddy depiction of Hindu faith and culture in school

textbooks. The substance of the so-called "success" is [akin to] the

judge accepting that rape was committed, but refusing to redress the

victim's grievance. Injustice has thus been perpetuated against the

Hindu community -- and it is a measure of the moral weakness of the

Hindu American Foundation (HAF) that its leaders are claiming legal

triumph.

 

[...] The school board allowed [the textbook approval process] to be

hijacked by a group of known Hindu-baiters, including proponents of

the discredited Aryan Invasion Theory. [...] [Focusing on the need

to reform] the adoption process for textbooks [...] misses the point

entirely. What is at stake is the content of the books; the flawed

and biased adoption process only underlines this mischief.

 

When the process of textbook revision began last year, the

Curriculum Commission accepted the changes mooted by representatives

of Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups, but posted changes desired

by Hindus for re-review by Hindu-baiting academics! The Jews, for

instance, sought removal of references portraying Christianity as

an "improvement" upon Judaism. Many changes desired by Hindus simply

rectified obvious errors, such as the claim that "Hindi is written

with the Arabic alphabet, which uses 18 letters that stand for

sounds," when in fact Hindi is written in the Devanagari script and

has 52 characters.

 

[...] The judge's refusal to order revisions in the textbooks has

had the effect of officially promoting a negative projection of the

Hindu faith as compared to other religions. This deprives Hindu

students of an educational experience at par with that of their

peers, and thus violates their rights under the Equal Protection

Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution.

 

SOURCE: The Organiser, New Delhi

URL: (for full statement) http://tinyurl.com/olx3n

 

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Okay, so those are the facts from several points of view, for any of

you who may be interested in this debate. I hope it was helpful.

Now: What is your position? Please share it with us!

 

Thank you

 

DB