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Joint
Letter by Friends of South Asia
and Coalition Against
Communalism (CAC) to Ruth Green (President, California State Board of
Education) and Tom Adams (Director, Curriculum Framework and
Instructional Resources Division.)
January 5,
2006
Ms. Ruth E. Green
President
California State Board of Education
1430 N Street, Room 5111
Sacramento, California 95814
Dr. Tom Adams
Director
Curriculum Framework and Instructional Resources Division
California State Board of Education
1430 N Street, Room 3207
Sacramento, California 95814
Subject:
Grade 6
Curriculum Changes on ancient Indian history and Hinduism
Dear Ms. Green and Mr. Adams,
We write to you as concerned Californians of South Asian origin to
express our alarm at the decisions made during the December 1-2, 2005
hearings of the Curriculum Commission concerning Grade 6 History and
Social Studies course sections on Ancient India and Hinduism.
We
respectfully urge you to reject the changes proposed by Hindu
supremacist groups such as the Vedic Foundation and the Hindu Education
Foundation; and support the adoption of changes recommended by the
Content Review Panel of Profs. Heitzman, Witzel and Wolpert appointed
by the Board.
We see two overarching problems with the changes proposed by the two
groups in question: First, while these groups at best
represent
only one religious tradition, namely Hinduism, they nonetheless have
arrogated to themselves the right to speak as authorities on ancient
Indian history as a whole, which in fact was home to a plurality of
religions, cultures and peoples. The second problem concerns
the
validity of their claim to speak for "all Hindus" in America, as well
as Hindus elsewhere. A brief review of these groups'
background
reveals their consistent promotion of a sectarian, political agenda,
and their current effort is an attempt to hijack the revision
process. This appears to be a clear violation of Title 1,
Sec.
60044 (2004) of the California Education Code.
An additional major problem with arguments put forth by these groups
concerns their claim that only the opinions of "practicing Hindus"
should be allowed to count in determining the appropriate content for
the school textbooks. This is like saying that only White Anglo-Saxon
Protestants can be involved in setting the curriculum on American
History! Their argument is further flawed in several ways: First, it
presumes that even respected scholars who are not "practicing Hindus"
are inherently ignorant and prejudiced against Hinduism. We
reject this argument. We feel that "non-practicing Hindus" as well as
non-Hindus also have a stake in ensuring a fair and non-fundamentalist
representation of Hinduism and Indian history. Second, the
Vedic
Foundation or the Hindu Education Foundation cannot reserve to
themselves the right to define who such "practicing Hindus" might be.
We reject the right of any such group to impose their highly sectarian
definitions of faith on all Hindus. In our view, the Vedic
Foundation cannot legitimately claim to speak for the Hindu community;
and its reactionary ideology does not represent the larger Hindu
community any more than white supremacist groups like the "Aryan
Nation" represent the views of all White Americans.
Unfortunately, by means of misrepresenting their true agenda, these
groups have managed to have their biased recommendations accepted by
the Curriculum Commission. Nevertheless, bona fide scholars
of
the field have shown their recommendations to be seriously flawed, and
we strongly believe that when it comes to the content of textbooks,
lobbying by politically motivated interest groups and non-specialist
academics should not be allowed to overweigh recommendations by trained
academics and scholars of the field.
It is also of relevance to note that the Vedic Foundation's self-styled
"devotion to Hinduism" is actually an expression of a narrow and
exclusivist vision of the religion that negates great pluralism within
Hindu practice, as well as the religious diversity within Indian
society. This brand of Hindu chauvinist history is based on a silencing
of minority voices and their place in Indian society. We
would
also like to bring to your attention that many such Hindu groups have
been shown to be linked both ideologically and operationally to the
Hindutva extremist forces in India, whom they also fund. These
connections have been documented in publications such as "A Foreign
Exchange of Hate" which is documented in http://stopfundinghate.org/sacw/index.html.
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. Denying the history of
oppression suffered by the lower castes ("the Dalits") in Indian
society is akin to denying the historical role of the institution of
slavery in American history, and we fail to see how this kind of
selective amnesia will help students in California to better understand
history.
Our shock and dismay regarding the acceptance by the Curriculum
Commission of the edits by the Vedic Foundation and the Hindu Education
Foundation are shared by many eminent scholars and citizens of India,
who have sent a letter of protest to the United States Ambassador in
India, Dr. David Mulford, a copy of which we are enclosing in the
accompanying package.
We also enclose in the package: more background information on the
Vedic Foundation and the Hindu Education Foundation; letters from
scholars in India familiar with the ill-fated effort to distort history
in NCERT books; reports from the U.S. State Department's International
Religious Freedom Reports on the same subject; recent genetic research
that question the basis upon which the Curriculum Commission agreed to
some of the edits regarding the origin of Aryans; and letters of
protest from numerous Dalit and Adivasi (indigenous people) groups from
India about attempts to rewrite ancient Indian history… in
California.
In sum, we wholeheartedly agree that, regarding the textbook
representation of Indian history, any inaccuracies or biased statements
should be promptly corrected. However, such changes should be
made with the reasoned input of knowledgeable scholars in the field,
and not provide an opportunity for interested groups to introduce their
own biased claims. There is an instructive parallel here with
the
recent decision by a federal judge rejecting the attempts of a
Pennsylvania school district to inject what his decision called "a
particular version of Christianity" into the curriculum, in the form of
"Intelligent Design" theory. 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. Students would be better served by the
provision
of a balanced curriculum that does justice to the magnificent variety
of Indian experiences, societies and cultures.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Signed,
Friends of South Asia (FOSA)
mai[at]friendsofsouthasia.org
Coalition Against Communalism (CAC)
communal_harmony[at]yahoo.com
Other
Endorsing Organizations:
Dharma Megha, Michigan
EKTA, Berkeley
Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America (FeTNA), Chicago
http://www.FeTNA.org
Non-Resident Indians for Secular and Harmonious India (NRI-SAHI),
Chicago
NRI Coalition for Justice, New York, New York
Seva International, Michigan
Vedanta Society of East Lansing, Michigan
Vaishnava Center of Enlightenment, Okemos, Michigan
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