California Educators Hear Pleas to reject the Views of Hindu Supremacist Groups

http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/

*California Educators Hear Impassioned Pleas from Concerned
Indians/South Asians to reject the Views of Hindu Supremacist Groups
in History Books

State Board Announces Formation of a Sub-Committee to Investigate the
Curriculum Commission’s Recommendations*

A broad coalition of Indians and other South Asians representing Friends
of South Asia, Coalition Against Communalism, Tamil Sangams of North
America, and various groups representing Dalits were present in force at
the California State Board of Education meeting in Sacramento on January
12, 2006. They were there to express their strong objections to some of
the politically motivated edits to Grade 6 History books adopted by the
Curriculum Commission on December 2, 2005, under intense lobbying from
organizations such as the Vedic Foundation (VF) and the Hindu Education
Foundation (HEF). Speaker after speaker went to the podium to express
their views on the controversy, as members of the Board listened intently.

Earlier, prior to public comments, the chair acknowledged that they were
just beginning to appreciate the complexity of the issue -- the Board
passed a motion to appoint a five-member sub-committee to look into
whether the Curriculum Commission had violated the directives given to
it at the November 9th Board meeting. This decision was welcomed by the
many scholars of South Asia, as well as community groups such as FOSA
and CAC, who had written to the Board pointing out that the Curriculum
Commission had not followed the State Board’s directions, and had
accepted many of the recommendations from the HEF and VF,
recommendations that are historically inaccurate and promote sectarian
ideologies.

Some of the public comments heard at the meeting:

* Egregious errors and stereotypes in the textbooks must be
corrected. By the same token, sectarian doctrines posing as
history must also be rejected. These are History books, not books
on religion. Factual and scientific basis should be followed.
* Parallels were drawn with recent attempts in some states to
introduce creationism in the guise of "Intelligent Design" into
Science classes.
* Many practicing and moderate Hindus emphasized that VF/HEF do not
represent them or, for that matter, most Hindus and Indians.
* Attempts to replace "gods and goddesses" with references to a
God were offensive and patriarchal; and sanitizing the status of
women by suggesting that they had "different rights" not lesser
ones, was deplorable.
* 70 to 80 % of Tamils do not consider themselves to be Vedic
people, and for a shudra, the mere act of listening to the Vedas
was considered a sacrilege punishable by death
* Crude attempts to reinvent Hinduism as monotheistic or to
"semiticize" it should be rejected since the worship of local
village gods is common practice even today, and one of the things
that gives Hinduism much of its richness.
* Dalit groups expressed shock at having their status obscured in
the edits and being denied their self-identity. They also decried
attempts to whitewash the caste system, the worst hierarchical
system ever invented by humans. History should speak the truth,
they said.
* The argument that Dalits and the evils of the caste system should
not be talked about because the Indian Constitution guarantees
equality is the same as denying the existence of African Americans
and continuing racism in the U.S. because the U.S. Constitution
guarantees equality.
* Contrary to VF/HEF's assertions, the Aryan migration theory is
still the prevalent view of historians. The VF/HEF’s anxiety to
reinvent Aryans as indigenous people is not a scholarly debate;
and the effort to conflate Indus Valley civilization with
Vedic/Hindu civilization is aimed at labeling everyone but Hindus
as foreigners in India.
* The links between VF/HEF and the Hindu supremacist ideologies of
the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Vishwa Hindu
Parishad (VHP) – who were responsible for the genocidal
anti-minority violence in Gujarat in 2002 – have been well
documented, including the involvement of RSS affiliates as
advisors and activists for VF/HEF. An RSS activist from
California, attending a RSS meeting in Gujarat, bragged about
RSS's success in California through HEF.
* Rewriting Indian history in California is an effort to revive the
ill-fated effort to rewrite NCERT books in India and must be
rejected. What the VF/HEF are trying to do here in California is
being projected by them as an experiment to be repeated elsewhere
in the world by the Hindu-supremacists RSS and its affiliates.
Therefore, the Board's decision in California is very significant
and could head off a dangerous precedence. The Curriculum
Commission may have violated the California Education Code Section
60044 against the inclusion of sectarian doctrines in educational
materials.
* Speaker after speaker called for rejecting the sectarian edits
adopted by the Curriculum Commission and the adoption of the edits
suggested by the Content Review Panel of scholars.
* VF/HEF wearing the mantle of an aggrieved minority is ironic,
given that their ideological parent in India scoffs at the very
notion of minority rights guaranteed by the Indian constitution.
* The Board was advised of the deplorable tactics of VF/HEF
supporters, such as the vicious slander campaign against Harvard
Professor Witzel, and their previous attempts to smear well
known historian Romila Thapar when she was nominated to the Kluge
Chair at the Library of Congress.

This was the first time the Board had heard from a broad group of
Indian-Americans and others of South Asian heritage. We are confident
that it was a wake-up call to them about the deeper significance of the
RSS project in California and gave them a better appreciation for the
enormous diversity of Indian and South Asian communities. We are very
hopeful that truth and scholarly approach will prevail; that obvious
errors and egregious stereotypes will be removed; and that supremacist
doctrines adopted by the Curriculum Commission will be rejected. In the
end, children in California will be the ultimate victors in this
controversy.

The Board will announce its final recommendations for edits to the
history textbook once the Sub-committee has completed its inquiry.
While the timeline for the final changes is not clear at this point, it
is obvious that the Board understands the urgency of the issue and is
moving as rapidly on this as possible.

If you feel as strongly about this issue as we do, it is of utmost
importance to make your views known to the Board as they deliberate over
the final resolution of this matter.

Please write or fax to the Board at:

* President Glee Johnson-- (916) 319-0827. Fax: (916) 319-0176.
Email: Jack O'Connell joconnell@cde.ca.gov, Tom
Adams tadams@cde.ca.gov
* Deputy Superintendent Sue Stickel, Curriculum & Instruction Branch
-- Phone: (916) 319-0806. Fax: (916) 319- 0103 Email:
sstickel@cde.ca.gov
* Assembly Member Jackie Goldberg; Chair of the Education Committee
-- Fax: (916) 319-2145 Goldberg@asm.ca.gov
* Secretary Alan Bersin -- Fax: (916) 323-3753; kheinrich@ose.ca.gov
* Chief Counsel Karen Steentofte -- Fax: (916) 319-0176
ksteento@cde.ca.gov

And please write to the Indian-American media that it is their job to
present the diverse views of the community and to not act as a
mouthpiece for the RSS and its affiliates here.

* India Abroad: editorial@indiaabroad.com, Fax: 212-727-9730
* India West: news@indiawest.com, Fax: (510) 383-1155
* Indian Express, North America: info@iexpressusa.com Fax. (212)
594-8848

Thank you for caring,
Volunteers at Friends of South Asia (FOSA) and Coalition Against
Communalism (CAC)
mail[at]friendsofsouthasia.org
communal_harmony[at]yahoo.com