|
|
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. |