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Indian-Americans Decry Attempts by
Hindu Supremacist Groups to Rewrite India’s
History…in California
Palo Alto,
CA, January 10, 2006 --
A coalition of American groups representing the immigrant communities
from the Indian subcontinent, led by Friends of South Asia (FOSA),
has taken strong exception to numerous misrepresentations of
India’s ancient history and of Hinduism recently put forward
by
the Vedic Foundation (VF) and the Hindu Education Foundation (HEF) for
incorporation into Grade 6 History/Social Sciences text books in
California.
In a strongly worded letter addressed to the California State Board of
Education (SBE), dated January 5, 2006, on behalf of Hindus as well as
people of other faiths and beliefs who have a stake in the narrative
history of the region, the coalition has urged the Board to reject the
VF’s/HEF’s reactionary ideologies, which they say
“negates great pluralism within Hindu practice, as well as
the
religious diversity within Indian society,” and
“does not
represent the larger Hindu community any more than white supremacist
groups like the ‘Aryan Nation’ represent the views
of all
White Americans.”
“As members of the South Asian diaspora, many of us
immigrants
ourselves, we and our children live with the experiences of
marginalization, and understand well the harm that can be caused to
young minds by distortions and errors in text books regarding their
religious and socio-cultural heritage. But, we are also very clear that
misrepresenting Hinduism so as to ‘boost the self-esteem of
Hindu
students’ is entirely the wrong solution,” the
letter
states.
Among the edits recently accepted by the Curriculum Commission (an
advisory body to SBE) which the coalition finds objectionable:
- Recasting
Hinduism as a monotheistic religion in a vain attempt to force it into
a “Semitic mold,” contrary to the way it has been
practiced
for centuries.
- Claiming
that the Aryans were indigenous to India, based on questionable and
fraudulent research, in an attempt to blur the distinction between
Aryans and the Indus-Valley Civilization.
- White-washing
the legacy of caste and gender to the point that it bears little or no
resemblance to either history or to contemporary realities. The VF even
claims that the caste system is a thing of the past rather than
acknowledge the ongoing human rights violations against individuals of
the lower castes.
- The
term Dalit,
which identifies 160 million Indians who were previously
called ‘untouchables,’ has been edited out on the
specious
ground that the Indian Constitution guarantees right to equality.
The
coalition has also forwarded to SBE a strong letter of protest
addressed to the U.S. Ambassador to India, Dr. Mulford, by many notable
Indians who are dismayed at the developments in California, and who
wish to prevent the repetition of recent attempts in India to inject
sectarian doctrines into NCERT history books. In addition, the
coalition has received several letters by Dalit groups in India
expressing their shock and dismay at the edits recommended by VF/HEF.
The coalition believes that both VF and HEF have strong ties to the
supremacist ideologies of the Hindutva movement in India: HEF has
recently admitted that it is run by HSS, the U.S. arm of Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh, RSS; and VF has links to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad,
VHP. Both RSS and VHP were largely responsible for the massive pogroms
against religious minorities in the state of Gujarat in 2002 in which
over 2,000 Muslims were killed and thousands made homeless. It is
therefore an irony that these groups are now trying to don the mantle
of minority victimhood in a multicultural U.S. society and are
complaining about “discrimination against Hindus”
in
California.
“As a concerned Indian-American and as a Hindu, of course, I
want
our children to grow up with a better appreciation for other nations
and other cultures,” noted Raju Rajagopal, an activist from
the
community who works on rural development issues in India and on
initiatives promoting religious tolerance. “But the pride of
a
small cross-section of Hindu ‘creamy layers’
can’t be
the sole basis of determining how we introduce Indian history to our
future generations. In my view, scholarship must take precedence over
petitions and ideologies.”
“VF’s/HEF’s effort to meddle in
California history
text books is akin to recent ill-fated attempts to inject
‘Intelligent Design’ into the science curriculum,
which has
been rejected by a federal judge as ‘a particular version of
Christianity,’ says Anu Mandavilli, who volunteers for
Friends of
South Asia and is a doctoral candidate at University of Southern
California. “Similarly, an academically valid and
constitutionally sound policy for California schools should reject the
attempt to impose ‘a particular version of
Hinduism’ upon
the study of Indian history.”
For further information on this press release, please contact
mail[at]friendsofsouthasia.org
Released by:
Friends of South Asia (FOSA), California
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org
EKTA, California
http://www.ektaonline.org
Coalition Against Communalism (CAC), California
http://www.ektaonline.org/cac
Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America (FeTNA), Chicago
http://www.fetna.org
NRIs for a Secular and Harmonious India (NRI-SAHI), Chicago and New York
Vaishnava Center of Enlightenment, Michigan
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