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FOSA/CAC to participate in California State Board of Education Public Hearing
Board staff rejects many contentious textbook changes proposed by the Hindu Nationalist groups
Special committee to decide on controversial textbook changes on February 27th 2006
Sacramento, California, Feb 24th 2006: A
special committee constituted by the California State Board of
Education has announced a public hearing on February 27th 2006 to
review the proposed textbooks changes (edits) for the upcoming 6th, 7th
and 8th grade history-social science textbooks, and to allow the
scholars and community groups to present their concerns about them. The
focus of this meeting is expected to be the ongoing discussion of the
controversial edits on ancient India initially proposed by two
organizations, the Vedic Foundation (VF) and the Hindu Education
Foundation (HEF), who are accused by several South Asian community
groups of pushing sectarian agendas. In preparation for the
meeting, the staff of the California Department of Education (CDE) and
the State Board of Education (SBE) have taken an unprecedented step of
releasing their own recommendations on these controversial edits,
rejecting many of those proposed by the HEF/VF. All these edits
will be reviewed by the special committee of the State Board of
Education at the upcoming meeting.
Two civil rights advocacy groups, the Friends of South Asia (FOSA) and
the Coalition Against Communalism (CAC) will be among the many
community groups from South Asia participating in this hearing to
ensure that a broad representation of views is heard and to urge that
disputes over the content of the textbooks be deferred to South Asian
scholars for resolution. The original edits proposed by VF/HEF purged
all non-Vedic representation of Hinduism from the texts and introduced
suspect theories on the origin of Aryans that are not supported by
contemporary scholarship. These groups also sought to erase all
mention of the caste system, Dalits (formerly known as
“untouchables”) and patriarchy in Ancient India,
effectively denying the histories of the vast majority of Indians.
Due to the intervention of many academic scholars and community groups
who opposed these sectarian edits, the staff of the CDE and SBE have
re-evaluated the original edits proposed by the VF/HEF and have
rejected many of them. Instead, the staff of the SBE/CDE have issued an
interim list of edits which will be the subject of discussion of the
Feb 27th hearing. Over sixty of the VF/HEF original changes that
pertained to the origins of the Aryans, the characterization of the
caste system and the exclusion of Dalit history from the texts, as well
as the censoring of all non-Vedic concepts and histories related to
Hinduism have now been rejected by the staff.
“The HEF and VF submitted edits claiming to only remove
inaccuracies and negative stereotypes of Hinduism from the textbooks,
but instead they introduced highly contentious and ideological content
in these texts,” explains Sanjeev Mahajan of FOSA.
“We are happy to note that with this set of recommendations of
the CDE/SBE Staff, many of the inaccuracies and stereotypes have been
removed, while little of the controversial text reflecting sectarian
ideology of the VF/HEF has been accepted.” Mahajan plans to
attend the hearing next week to ensure that the controversial text
stays out.
Girish Agrawal of CAC injects a note of caution with the reminder that
some of the proposed staff edits relating to Dalits are still
problematic. Agrawal, author of the book “Dalits and the
Law” elaborates, “In one of the books, the HEF proposed
deleting all references to untouchability in India. The staff
recommendation overrules the HEF edit but introduces language that
suggests that untouchability was practiced because untouchables
performed dirty work like handling dead bodies. This introduction of a
false cause and effect relationship is potentially extremely dangerous
and needs to be brought to the attention of the Board.”
The attempted erasure of caste system from the history of India by
HEF/VF has drawn the ire of many community groups, especially those
with substantial membership across diverse castes.
“Teaching narrow, parochial and sanitized histories to our
children is no way of making them broad-minded” comments Thillai
Kumaran, a parent and representative for the Federation of Tamil
Sangams of North America (FETNA) – which is opposed to these
VF/HEF changes.
Purnima Bose, another concerned parent and scholar, agreed with
Kumaran, “The HEF/VF’s attempts to present Hinduism as a
monotheistic religion in the textbooks reduce a complex and rich
tradition in order to make Hinduism more palatable for western
religious sensibilities. Children can only benefit from being exposed
to diverse world views, and will be better equipped to face the
challenges of an increasingly intricate world.”
The
coalition issuing this alert includes Friends of South Asia (FOSA), an
organization working toward a multicultural, pluralistic, and hate-free
South Asia, and Coalition Against Communalism (CAC), an Indian American
organization which promotes religious tolerance in the Indian diaspora.
For further information on this press release, please contact mail[at]friendsofsouthasia.org
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