ABCDlady Magazine - for the American Born Confident Desi

Feature

By Mayank S. Bubna

Hinduism in School Textbooks: From East Coast to West Coast

In a certain sense all men are historians – Thomas Carlyle

Controversies over material printed in school textbooks have been around for decades. In recent times several media-worthy controversies have occurred—during the Iraq war in 2003, the Coalition Provisional Authority ordered that all of Saddam Hussein’s propaganda be removed from Iraqi children’s history books, and in 1999 there was huge public debate on the role of science, with states such as Kansas deleting evolution theories from all school textbooks. The most recent controversy, however, hits the Hindu South Asian community at the core, because the concerns revolve around the denigration of Hinduism in California textbooks. This is a topic that has attracted much media coverage for the South Asian community lately.

Photo by Camilo Morales

For several months, Hindu parents in the state of California have raised concerns about misconstrued historical information about Hindus in American school history textbooks—which they believe should be amended. This follows on the tail of the issues raised in Fairfax County, Virginia when Dr. Rakesh Bahadur, a Hindu parent and forerunner in taking the debate to the school board in Fairfax, compiled a list of inaccuracies published in various middle and high-school textbooks. Most of the misconceptions revolve around the caste-structure, the place of women in Indian society, cultural practices and historical facts.

One fifth grade book titled “The World,” published in 2005, states “Many members of the highest castes are vegetarians.” Bahadur’s response, “The Hindu view is that humans are the greatest of all living beings and their greatness should be reflected in doing good to all other living beings. Hindus believe that animals have a soul in the same way as humans do, and that is why vegetarianism is popular among Hindus. The protection of animals is an old Hindu tradition. Moreover, cow was a part of the family and treated like one too, just like a dog in Western society. How many people eat their dog in the Western society?” However, he also points out that a very small percentage of Hindus in India are actually vegetarian.

Another textbook, “Journey Across Time: Early Ages,” published by Glencoe/McGraw-Hill in 2005, references “sati”—when a man from high caste died, his wife was expected to leap into the flames—and says that the lives of Indian men were considered more important than the lives of Indian women. Bahadur points out that there are no scriptural or other religious references to Sati. The practice of sacrificing a woman during her husband’s funeral was customary even among other world communities such as the Egyptians, Greeks, Goths, Scythians, Chinese and Scandinavians.

The suggestions of Hindu parents and other supporters have by now been written into several lengthy dissertations, discrediting the western-centric stance on many theological and cultural issues. Most recently, the case has left the east coast and traveled westward—where Hindu parents in California have raised a commotion about changing inaccurate textbook material. When proposed changes of the Hindu community were presented to the California Board of Education, the Curriculum Commission authorized most of the edits. Soon after, the California Board of Education received strong protests from a group of scholars led by Michael Witzel, Wales Professor of Sanskrit at Harvard University.

Two Hindu organizations, the Vedic Foundation and the Hindu Education Society became involved in the California issue to try to speed up the resolution process and provide sufficient evidence for the California Board of Education to amend the textbook material. There is little agreement between Witzel, the Vedic Foundation and the Hindu Education Society. Witzel presented reasons for his belief that the proposed amendments on Indian history reflected a promotion of fundamentalist Hindu ideology, which in turn could lead to an immediate international uproar. Apparently this was something he realized after reading a letter from an anonymous person who stated the possibility of such a scandal. So great would this hubbub be that the outcome would be similar to the promotion of such ideology in Gujarat “in which Hindutva power remained firm, resulting in those regions in ‘the politicized inculcation of Hindu religious and cultural norms.” Witzel referenced Narendra Modi’s (BJP Party Chief Minister of the Indian state of Gujarat) campaign in state elections some years ago. Modi’s nationalist campaign was believed by many to be built on sectarian and religious violence.

The Vedic Foundation and Hindu Education Society denied allegations and accused Witzel of defamation and ignorance. One Hindu group, the Hindu American Foundation, suggested that Witzel’s arguments lack any form of understanding of the material in question. As a result of the California Board of Education’s apparent favoritism of the Witzel camp, Hindu groups have allegedly been shut out of several hearing sessions in front of the California Board of Education. In response, the Hindu American Foundation recently announced that it has retained legal counsel to ensure that future proceedings regarding amendments of Hinduism in the textbooks with the California Board of Education, will be handled in a fair and non-biased manner.

Witzel acquired close to 50 signatures from many scholars of influence including Professor Madhav Deshpande of Michigan, and Indian historian Romila Thapar, to legitimize his arguments. (A recent article in the Harvard Crimson says Witzel is unpopular among most of his graduate students. The Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies in general is said to be “in disarray.”)

Among the critiques in discussions on internet sites such as Sepia Mutiny and list-serves such as the one maintained by the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA), a recurring comment is that non-Indian scholars are not qualified enough to really understand and explain Hinduism. A post on the SAJA listserve by a member named Vivek Wadhwa asks, “Why is [Witzel] the most qualified to judge India, its religion and its culture? Because he is at Harvard? Because he is a well educated Westerner? Who is he to decide whether Hinduism should be ‘rewritten’?” Wadhwa also told ABCDlady that he believes “Those that are relying on people like this to defend their positions are doing a big disservice to their own cause.”

Salil Tripathi, an Ivy League graduate himself, challenges Wadhwa’s belief: "I think Witzel's views on Hinduism matter because he has a chair at one of the better universities in the world, which implies he has certain intellectual rigor—for exactly the same reasons why de Tocqueville's timeless views on what makes the US the way it is matter, even though he came from France, a country that has produced more vocal anti-Americanism than most of US allies since the Iraq war."

When the two proposals were brought forward to the California State Board of Education, board members decided to err on the side of receptiveness towards religion. However, this hasn’t reduced the attacks that people have made on each other. Pressure from groups on both sides is expected to continue for several months.

It all started with a letter to Hinduism Today written by a 14-year-old...

Teaching about Hinduism and India in Texas
It's 8:00 a.m., and students slowly trickle into Mr. West's 6th grade history class. The majority of the people, including the teacher, are white. One African-American, two Orientals, and myself, a second generation Indian girl, make up the rest of the class.

On the blackboard is written "World Religions." As the rest of the class prepares for a boring two hours, I can already feel my stomach sink—what did I do to deserve this?

We are handed a fill-in-the-blank chart of major world religions and are instructed to look in our books for the answers.

Finishing quickly, I hand in my chart to Mr. West at his desk, and turn to leave. "Now wait a minute, you put 'monotheistic' down for Hindooism," he remarks.

"I know," I reply, feeling my face burn as the class looks up.
"Hindoos are polytheistic."
"No, they're not."
"Are you a Hindoo?"
"Yeah."
"Oh."

Scattered murmurs break out among my peers, whispering about how freaky Hindus worship elephants and monkeys. Great.

"Well," Mr. West says standing up and going to the chalkboard, "from what I understand, Hindoos are all about their caste system." And he begins a long, irrelevant, and incorrect explanation, which he memorized from our textbook.

What does that have to do with being monotheistic? I don't even bother correcting him, to save myself any more embarrassment. I wanted to get out of there. Fast.

7th grade starts, and it's culture day in history.

"Both of my parents are Indian—" I begin when it's my turn.

"Do you mean Native American Indian, or Middle Eastern Indian?" my teacher asks.

Sounds like it's going to be another fun year in social studies.

When 8th grade starts, India and Hinduism are summed up in a few short sentences by the teacher. India is described as filled with pollution, cows, and poverty-stricken people. Hindus love to bathe in rivers where they throw the ashes of their parents and yes, they do worship elephants and monkeys.

"Do you speak Indian?" I'm asked at least two times a week. "I heard there were two thousand gods and every full moon you had to give a sacrifice to them. Do you do that?"

No. I try to explain that all the gods are really aspects of one almighty being. I've never sacrificed anything except my dignity, which slowly dwindles with each question. The release of popular award-winning books such as Homeless Bird, which portrays the typical Indian girl who is forced to get married at thirteen, didn't help Indians anywhere.

And, who could have guessed, the author hadn't even been to India! No kidding.

Six entire chapters in the textbook were devoted to Christianity, whereas one page is given to the history of India and the teachings of Hinduism. A second page is entirely about Lord Shiva, accompanied by a rather unbecoming picture of an ancient dancing Shiva statue. Buddhism gets one paragraph.

This doesn't make sense, as most of the school already knows so much about Christianity, but hardly any even knew Buddhism or Hinduism existed. Now that they did, we would be ridiculed publicly. Thank you, Board of Education.

At last, high school starts. I almost die of shock when I see the 9th grade textbook has devoted an entire 3 sentences to Sikhism and Jainism. It claims Sikhism "combines the Muslim belief of one god with the Hindu belief of reincarnation." Christianity in India and the ever-popular "western influence" get pages and pages of text.

One of the main pictures which help represent "typical life in India" is one my fellow students describe as some sort of drag-queen in make-up doing an obscure peacock dance. Out of all the dazzling pictures of Indian culture, that is the one they have to stick in? They chose that one over a picture of, say, the classic Taj Mahal?

But the fun just gets funnier—the next picture of a sari earns a whole two sentences. Oh, but it's not an exquisite silk or glittering embroidered sari. Nope, it's a dirty yellow (perhaps once white) cotton sari worn by an old woman bathing in the Ganges River.

In spite of its pollution, "Hindus readily drink and bathe in the Ganges' water people even come to die in the river." To further prove their point, they stick in a picture of a filth and trash laden section of Ganges, not a clean part, which much of it is.

I kid you not, upon reading this and looking at the picture, a boy in my class had to be excused to the nurse's office because his stomach had become queasy.

Now we come to the sacred cow. They say entire streets are blocked because Hindus don't want to run over our beloved cow. C'mon, even in America, people aren't going to just run over a local cow; they'll find a way to move it or get around it.

On an ending note, Indians are technologically behind. They fail to mention that we have a space program, nuclear capabilities, and many Indians, believe it or not, have heard of a computer. Every day, young Desi children and teenagers are unreasonably tormented because of our perceived background. The school textbooks are half the cause. The average American doesn't know squat about India, and with the help of poorly researched textbooks, they learn nonsense.

The sheer embarrassment of the situation is enough to make Desi students everywhere wish we could have been "normal" by American standards.

Explaining to your peers that you don't worship a thousand gods like the Greeks; your grandmother doesn't force you to bathe in dead people's ashes every full moon; and even though you know how to bhangra, kuchipudi, or whatever it may be, you've never danced with a drag-queen, is not fun for any young Desi.

But why do we put up with it? Jewish, African-American, and Orientals all have organizations against defamation and they are represented correctly in the textbooks. Why aren't we?

If Christians can effectively lobby to remove the theory of evolution from school science textbooks, then certainly we should be able to at least correct the blatant misinterpretation of our culture. Reading what you or your child's Social Studies textbooks says on India and Hinduism and writing a simple letter or e-mail to the editor can make a world of difference for not only you but for thousands of others.

A letter to the Board of Education for your district can't hurt either, since they decide which textbooks will be used. It only takes five minutes of your time, but it can change how you, an Indian, are viewed in society.

Desis are being ridiculed everywhere in America because of what today's modern student is learning.

It's not going to change unless we become part of the solution.

-Trisha Pasricha of Houston, TX has recently co-authored a children's novel with her mother and is now actively seeking a publisher. She currently writes a teenage advice column in her local newspaper.

Mayank S. Bubna is a grad student at NYU.