(San Francisco Chronicle
Monday, March 6, 2006
Page B - 7)
HOW DOES CALIFORNIA TEACH ABOUT HINDUISM?
A DIFFERENT AGENDA
by Romila Thapar, Michael Witzel
The California Board of Education is discussing a very controversial
issue. The board has to ask the community for suggestions in regard to
the updating of school textbooks. Ominously unscientific,
religious-based materials thus received may now be presented as
historical facts. Remarkably, in this case, the religious
fundamentalists are not Christian but Hindu.
Initially, the goals of these pressure groups seem benign, and even
righteous. They aim to rectify culturally biased and insensitive
depictions of India and Hinduism, and they would like Hinduism to be
treated with the same respect as Christianity, Judaism and Islam. They
indeed managed to obtain a few thousand signatures from the 1.6 million
South Asians by circulating petitions through Hindu temples across the
United States. If such reasonable changes comprised the full extent of
the desired amendments, there would be no controversy.
There are, however, other agendas being pushed that are oddly familiar:
the first Indian civilization is 1,900 million years old, the Ramayana
and Mahabharata are historical texts to be understood literally, and
ancient Hindu scriptures contain precise calculations of the speed of
light and exact distances between planets in the solar system. Not only
were many of the suggested revisions factually incorrect, but they also
explain away those aspects of traditional Indian society that are now a
matter of critical concern to Indians in India. The textbook revisions
whitewash the plight of women and the so-called lower castes. Women's
history was reduced to "different" rights while the caste system, which
subjugated millions of Indians as virtual slaves in the untouchable
caste, was simply a division of labor. By spelling God with a capital
letter they are trying to position Hinduism as monotheistic, making it
look more "modern."
The American Hindutva lobby is very closely allied to its parent in
India, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, that has a chauvinistic,
often violent agenda. However, the Hindutva lobby disguises its divisive
political agenda in the language of inclusion, while in India it is
predicated on the subjugation of minorities and pluralism in society.
Modest political victories in the United States translate into donations
and huge political capital at home. California has a large
Indian-American population and one of the largest school systems in the
country. Changes made in California have immediate repercussions for
school systems across the whole country.
When the California textbooks came up for review, a former California
history professor and Hindutva sympathizer, Shiva Bajpai, was approached
by a Hindutva foundation and later was appointed to an expert advisory
panel serving the state school board. He did not disclose his Hindutva
relationships nor was the tie of one of the Hindutva lobby groups to the
American branch of the RSS disclosed.
Our American academic colleagues, many of whom are Indian American, and
those in India, strongly objected to the historical inaccuracies
championed by the Hindutva lobby. Approximately 150 South Asian
specialists from leading U.S. universities sent a letter to the
California Board of Education, which paused to reconsider its course of
action.
Last month, the board members asked one of us, Michael Witzel, to debate
the issue with Shiva Bajpai. The historical inaccuracies were debunked
in face-to-face debate but the state school board put off a final
decision on the texts until early March -- after still another public
debate on Feb. 27, during which the board's subcommittee voted to throw
out the historically incorrect Hindutva edits.
Our letter and actions have provoked a furious but predictable response.
Contradictory slurs such as "Nazi," "Hitler," "racist," "Marxist,"
"Communist," "Hindu hater," "race traitor," "missionary" and
"creationist" have been directed toward us. We had to contact
law-enforcement agencies.
The Hindutva lobby will undoubtedly persist, even if it is stopped in
California. Hindu nationalists have a legitimate right to pursue their
political agenda in India. Hindu Americans have a legitimate right to a
fair and culturally sensitive representation in public-school curricula.
However, no one has a right to distort the truth and push their own
political agenda at the expense of schoolchildren.
For the Hindutva lobby to successfully introduce academically
irresponsible material into textbooks would be a dishonor to the rich
cultural and religious heritage it claims to cherish. Once we accept one
religious group's agenda and beliefs to be taught in the public schools,
it opens the door for every other group to do the same thing. As
educators, we should stick to teaching the facts, and allow the teaching
of religion to be handled by the real experts: the parents, pastors and
priests.
Romila Thapar is India's best known historian, professor emerita of
Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, and the first Kluge Chair at
the Library of Congress. Michael Witzel is Wales professor of Sanskrit
at Harvard University.
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