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Textbooks and Hinduism -- Why Accuracy Matters

 

By Viji Sundaram, New America Media

 

The subject of world religions and how they are depicted in California textbooks is no longer a distant issue. Earlier this month, Hindu groups faced off with prominent U.S. religious scholars over what many Hindus felt were inaccurate portrayals of their community. Accuracy matters, the writer contends, especially when the faith being discussed is not just lodged in history, but also being practiced by some of the children in today's California classrooms.

 

FREMONT, Calif. - Jan 10, 2006 - Earlier this month, the arm of California's Board of Education that decides what will and won't go into the history textbooks of millions of students was persuaded by followers of Hinduism and Judaism to correct what the groups felt were historical inaccuracies pertaining to their religion and culture.

What the Hindus and Jews were demanding had nothing to do with evolution or intelligent design. They were asking that the books accurately and fairly portray their religions and histories. But the request to make the changes was met with antagonism by a group of prominent religious scholars. The group, led by Harvard Sanskrit scholar Michael Witzel, filed a petition against the changes, claiming they had more to do with religious fanaticism on the part of the groups than with accuracy.

Many Hindu groups and parents in California were understandably upset -- Witzel unfairly branded them as extremists. But he doesn't have to worry about his child coming home from school and declaring that he no longer wants to be a Hindu because his classmates ridiculed him about something taught in class that day. That recently happened to one Milpitas, Calif., parent of an 11-year-old.

Parents are justified in being upset when textbooks claim that such Hindu rituals as walking on a bed of hot coals or lying on a bed of nails to gain spiritual mastery are still practiced in India. In fact they are rarely practiced; when they are, it's mostly to entertain tourists.

A similar argument was raised by the Jewish community at a December meeting of the Curriculum Commission, which was charged by the California Board of Education with democratically deciding what should and should not be included in the social studies and history textbooks of California's half a million sixth-graders. Why, asked Jackie Berman, a representative of the Jewish Community Relations Council, should the story of the crucifixion of Jesus be told in sixth-grade textbooks in a manner that blames the Jews for being responsible for it when, in fact, it was the Romans who crucified him?

In 1987, California mandated the study of world religions in its public schools. Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity and Buddhism would be studied in sixth grade, while seventh graders would learn about Islam. Every six years, textbook publishers offer the California Board of Education drafts of textbooks they plan to bring out, hoping to make California, the nation's largest textbook purchaser, their customer. California often sets the tone for what is adopted by other states. Public hearings form a vital part of the review process.

The fact that Witzel's unsolicited petition had a scholarly consensus backing it must have influenced the Board of Education when they decided that the edits and corrections suggested by the Hindus, and largely adopted in September by an ad hoc committee, might benefit from another round of scrutiny -- this one by the Curriculum Commission.

Everyone will agree that history must be told as truthfully as possible. Glossing over unpleasant issues, whether of the past or the present, maintains a country's status quo and can promote cultural exclusivity. To say that the Holocaust did not happen could mean repeating the mistakes of history. Ditto for slavery in the United States.

One of the most contentious issues the Hindu groups and Witzel and his supporters locked horns over was whether there was any truth to the Aryan invasion theory, which maintains that a group of people from Central Asia who called themselves Aryans invaded India around 1,500 B.C., and that Hinduism grew out of the beliefs and practices of the Aryans. Witzel and his group support the theory; the Hindu groups do not. The Hindu groups say that more recent archeological and DNA findings debunk the theory and suggest that the Aryans were an indigenous people who did not invade. Moreover, say the Hindu groups, plenty of linguistic and other evidence indicates that Hinduism existed in India long before 1,500 B.C.

At a special meeting held by the Board of Education on Jan. 6, to which Witzel and Prof. Shiva Bajpai, whose views the Hindu groups support, were invited, a compromise was hammered out and accepted by both sides. The textbooks would reflect both views, and the word "invasion" would be replaced by migration.

Witzel, however, was right in objecting to a correction suggested by the Hindu groups that would have changed a sentence in an upcoming textbook that read, "Men had many more rights than women," to "Men had different duties, as well as rights, than women." India has long been a patriarchal society, with women treated as the inferior sex. The two groups finally agreed to replace the sentence with "men had more property rights than women."

The Board of Education will finalize its decision over some 131 corrections in early February.

Understanding the many facets of Hinduism and India's cultural mores is not easy. Hopefully, middle school teachers can be thoroughly educated on the subject. The correction of inaccuracies in history textbooks, however, is an important first step.

 

PNS contributor Viji Sundaram is a reporter for India-West, a weekly Indian newspaper based in the United States.

Pacific News Service

Copyright by Pacific News Service and New American Media.  All rights reserved.

Founded in 1969, Pacific News Service is a nonprofit media organization dedicated to bringing the seldom heard, often most misunderstood or ignored voices and ideas into the public forum. PNS produces a daily news syndicate and sponsors magazine articles, books, TV segments and films.

New American Media (formerly New California Media) is a nationwide association of over 700 ethnic media organizations representing the development of a more inclusive journalism. Founded in 1996 by Pacific News Service, NAM promotes ethnic media through events such as the Ethnic Media Expo and Ethnic Media Awards, a National Directory of Ethnic Media, and such initiatives as the online feature Exchange Headlines from Ethnic Media, offering top headlines digested from ethnic media worldwide, updated five days a week.

IMDiversity.com is committed to presenting diverse points of view. However, the viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at IMD.

 

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