From FOSA - PLEASE ACT!
(for info: mail@friendsofsouthasia.org)
Dear all,
As many of you already know, we in California are facing a Hindutva
assault on school textbooks of the kind that went on a few years ago
in India. This is an issue of rising concern in the Californian
community, and something that progressive South Asian organizations
have been very quiet on, so far. This email has TWO parts—a brief
background, followed by an ALERT
Background: Very briefly, this is the story so far:
* CA state textbooks come up for review every six years. This year,
the sixth class texts relating to Ancient Indian history are under
review. We recognize that most of these textbooks are inadequate for
a number of reasons and have many errors on Indian history.
Taking advantage of this inadequacy, two groups --Vedic Foundation and
Hindu Education Foundation (VF and HEF), backed by the Hindu American
Foundation (HAF)—all with demonstrable links to Hindu rightwing
organizations have managed a strong mobilization in order to insert
some changes in the depiction of ancient Indian history and Hinduism
in CA text books. But instead of just making corrections to erroneous
texts, their proposed changes also reflect their supremacist political
agendas. For instance, a large number of their changes are about
Aryans being native to India and not migrating from central Asia, and
thus the depiction of Hinduism as a religion *truly* indigenous to
India—as opposed to all the other foreign religions (for those of you
familiar with the issue—this is the whole manufactured debate about
the Aryan Migration theory versus the Indigenous Aryan theory), and
also a complete white-washing of Hinduism especially concerning caste
and gender issues.
* As things stand now, these groups have managed to get the Curriculum
Commission to agree to most of their changes. The only opposition they
faced was a last minute organizing by the Indologists (M. Witzel from
Harvard, S. Wolpert from UCLA and J. Heitzman from UCDavis with around
50 other indologists supporting them,
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/witzelletter.pdf ) and a
faculty letter from over 100 South Asianists and South Asian profs at
universities. However, both these interventions were less than
successful, and many of the really problematic Hindutva changes got
accepted by the Curriculum Commission on Dec 2.
Some examples of ridiculous edits that got accepted by the CC are:
1. According to HEF, Sudras did not "perform services for members of
the three higher castes" but merely "performed services for all
classes and did more labor-intensive work."
2. The word "Dalit" has been removed from the text and the students
are merely told that treating someone as untouchable is against the
law in modern India. Sentences such as "The caste system is just one
example of how Hinduism was woven into the fabric of daily life in
India" and
"Hinduism…has affected how people worship, what jobs they do,… And it
has helped to determine the status of people in Indian society" have
been deleted. At one point, the Vedic Foundation insists that caste
only be spoken of in the past tense since it is no longer a reality
and "According to the Indian Constitution, under the section,
Fundamental Rights, the Right to Equality is guaranteed to all
citizens." This edit was also accepted.
3. References to patriarchy within Hinduism have been deleted.
Sentences such as "However, Hinduism also taught that women were
inferior to men." have been completely removed, while another, "Men
had many more rights than women" has been replaced with, "Men had
different duties (dharma) as well as rights than women. Many women
were among the sages to whom the Vedas were revealed." Not only does
"unequal" become "different", but note that Vedas are now *revealed*
texts. Hinduism-- like all other major religions of the world --has a
patriarchal basis, that must first be acknowledged in order to be
corrected. Also, Hinduism, unlike other major religions of the world,
has NO revealed text and one wonders at the intent of these groups in
removing this point of uniqueness.
4. Again, in their zeal to make Hinduism like another monotheistic,
revealed religion, the sentence,"Modern day Hinduism is very complex.
Many beliefs, many forms of worship, and many gods exist side by side"
was removed.
5.The sentence "Sanskrit is no longer spoken today" has been replaced
with "Sanskrit is no longer widely spoken today". The RSS shakhas
still propagate Sanskrit, we suppose? In another place, the edits
that got approved suggest that Sanskrit "to some extent" is the
language of India "even today".
6. That chariots and other similar technology was developed in India
(as opposed to being brought in from Central Asia). "People speaking
Indo-Aryan language" has been replaced merely by "Indians", so that
the differentiation between Harappans and those who spoke the
Indo-Aryan language has been reduced to that between Indians from
Harappa and "Indians from elsewhere or from the countryside." The
construct of India predates history itself!
* A more complete list of edits can be obtained from
http://friendsofsouthasia.org/textbook/CommissionAction12_2_05.doc .
We must also point out that similar changes to history texts were
tried in India by the nationalist BJP government, which are now being
undone. Read more about it at
http://friendsofsouthasia.org/textbook/NCERTdocs.doc
* While the acceptance of these "edits" by the Curriculum Commission
is really tragic, the State Board has yet to accept these changes.
What is equally alarming is the way in which the Indian-American press
has been covering this issue in its usual wishy-washy style,
presenting this as a debate between the faculty (some of them white,
all of them "anti-Hindu") and a monolithic, aggrieved Hindu community.
India Post, India West and India Abroad have given a whole lot of
play to this debate, but "our" side (secular Hindus/ Indians/ South
Asians) has been very poorly represented.
***ALERT***
India Abroad has run 3 stories on this in the recent issue:
(a) India Abroad, Dec 16 Cover story, giving an overview: California
Textbooks Spark Hinduism Row
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/Press_Coverage/IndiaAbroad1.pdf
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/Press_Coverage/IndiaAbroad1a.pdf
(b) India Abroad, Dec 16, Interview with Michael Witzel:
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/Press_Coverage/IndiaAbroad_MW_a.pdf
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/Press_Coverage/IndiaAbroad_MW_b.pdf
(c) India Abroad, Dec 16, Interview with Suhag Shukla, legal counsel
of the Hindu American Foundation:
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/Press_Coverage/IndiaAbroad_SS_a.pdf
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/Press_Coverage/IndiaAbroad_SS_b.pdf
India West ran 2 stories on this issue and one letter:
(d) India West, Dec 2 story: Hindus and Sikhs Protest Curriculum
Changes in Calif. Textbooks
http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=1b63d3d5a0a0b090f2681949b840f93f
(e) India West, Dec 9 story: Calif. state panel Agrees to make changes
in history course.
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/Press_Coverage/Textbook%20Row--India%20west.doc
(f) India West: Dec 22nd (?) Yvette Rosser's letter to the Editor:
Stereotypes, Errors In Calif. Textbooks
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/Press_Coverage/Indiawest_YRletter.htm
PLEASE WRITE TO THESE NEWSPAPERS EXPRESSING YOUR VIEWS ON THIS ISSUE:
We really need to make diverse voices heard on this issue.
The letters should be addressed to:
India Abroad: editorial@indiaabroad.com, Fax: 212-727-9730
India West: news@indiawest.com , Fax: (510) 383-1155 24
Please copy mail@friendsofsouthasia.org on these letters and also
write us if you have any questions or need more info.
Thanks,
-Friends of South Asia
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