Indian Groups Contest California Textbook Content

[Akyeame Kwame]

http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_...5ffe78d068611\
2ba99ae75766

Indian Groups Contest California Textbook Content

India-West, News Report, Viji Sundaram, Feb 17, 2006

HAYWARD, Calif. – Even as the California Board of
Education (CBE) is trying to grapple with the
contentious and loudly debated issue of corrections
requested from Hindu groups in proposed textbooks for
sixth-graders, another group is trying to make its
voice heard over the din.

Some dalits (widely thought of in India as an
oppressed people) across the U.S. are demanding that
the term, dalit, used only in one of the nine proposed
textbooks currently being reviewed by the CBE, not be
elided (omitted), as the Hindu groups want, and that a
photo of a dalit cleaning a latrine be replaced with
one of a dalit engaged in a faith practice.

They also say that it would serve the dalits' cause
better if the textbooks said that "untouchability is a
living reality in India," instead of simply going by
the Hindu groups' suggestion that the books say that
it is illegal to treat someone as an untouchable,
Vikram Masson, co-founder of Navya Shastra, a
U.S.-based non-profit organization that speaks out
against caste-related issues, told India-West.

Acknowledging that "the Hinduism sections (in the
textbooks) are extremely poor to begin with" and need
to be corrected, Masson, who is himself not a dalit
and is a parent of a school-going child in New Jersey,
observed: "It is curious (the Hindu groups) would want
to elide the word, dalit. We believe the heritage of
Hinduism is positive enough, and there is no need to
cover up any inadequacies."

New Jersey resident Jebaroja Singh, whose dalit
grandparents converted to Christianity many years ago,
seemed to echo those sentiments.

"When there has been a history of discrimination
against dalits, why should we paint a rosy picture in
the textbooks?" asked Singh, who teaches racism and
sexism in the U.S. at William Patterson University in
Wayne, N.J. Masson is married to a Christian priest.

But others argue that since the textbooks primarily
deal with ancient India, a time when the word, dalit,
was not even coined, to not remove it would be
inappropriate.

For over a year now, two U.S.-based Hindu groups - the
Hindu Education Foundation and the Vedic Foundation -
as well as scores of Hindu parents, have been pushing
for corrections in the social studies and history
courses in the sixth-grade textbooks, saying that the
books not only do not accurately represent India's
ancient culture and history, they sometimes denigrate
it. Every six years, textbook publishers offer the CBE
drafts of textbooks they plan to bring out for the
board's acceptance. Public hearings form an integral
part of the review process.

At those hearings last year, the Hindu groups asserted
that the books were historically inaccurate in saying
such things as Hinduism evolved in India from the
Aryans who invaded the country in 1500 B.C.; that
Sanskrit was a dead language; that Hindi is written in
Arabic script; that the Aryan rulers had created a
caste system, under which the dalits were forced to
perform menial tasks.

According to many scholars, prior to 600 A.D., the
terms used in India to describe a so-called
untouchable were chandala and shudra, and only about
one percent of the population fell under that
category.

Citing from the book, "The Wonder That Was India," by
the late ancient history scholar A.L. Basham, southern
California resident and retired UCLA ancient history
professor Shiva Bajpai told India-West: "In fact, it
was not blood that made a group untouchable, but
conduct."

"So a Brahmin could be viewed as a chandala if he
behaved badly," Bajpai said.

Over the last several decades, the term dalit – a
Marathi word that means oppressed - has been gaining
more currency in India, with the rise of growing
activism among the approximately 150 million people at
the bottom of the caste system, who accuse members of
the upper caste of pervasive discrimination for
centuries.

The late Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the architect of the
Indian Constitution, struggled to win dalits like
himself equal rights. He renounced Hinduism in the
process, saying the religion perpetuated the caste
system. Mahatma Gandhi worked toward uplifting the
dalits' status, bestowing upon them the term, Harijan,
which means "children of God." However, many dalits
and activists do not like to be called that. "They say
if you are born from God, your parentage is
questionable," said Masson.

Even the group of historians and academics headed by
Harvard University Sanskrit professor Michael Witzel,
who is opposing many of the corrections the Hindu
groups have suggested, accusing them of attempting to
whitewash Indian history, has accepted the Hindu
groups' suggestion to delete negative references to
untouchability, said Santa Rosa, Calif., resident
Vishal Agarwal, who described himself as an
"independent scholar."