They Cannot Decide On History
ROMILA THAPAR and MICHAEL WITZEL
Timesofindia.com
The California State Board of Education (CSBE) is currently discussing a very controversial issue. The CSBE has to ask the community for suggestions in regard to the updating of school textbooks.
Ominously unscientific, religious-based materials thus received may now be presented as historical facts. Remarkably, in this case, the religious fundamentalists are not Christian but Hindu.
Initially, the goals of these pressure groups seem benign and even righteous. They aim to rectify culturally biased and insensitive depictions of India and Hinduism and they would like Hinduism to be treated with the same respect as Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
They indeed managed to obtain a few thousand signatures from the 1.6 million South Asians at Hindu temples across the United States.
However, the other agendas being pushed are oddly fami-liar: The first Indian civilisation is 1,900 million years old, the Ramayana and Mahabharata are historical texts to be understood literally, and ancient Hindu scriptures contain precise calculations of the speed of light and exact distances between planets in the solar system.
Further, the American Hindutva lobby is very closely allied to its parent, the RSS, but disguises its divisive political agenda in the language of inclusion, while in India it is predicated on the subjugation of minorities and pluralism in society.
Modest political victories in the US translate into donations and huge political capital at home. California has a large Indian American population and one of the largest school systems in the country.
Changes made there have immediate repercussions for school systems across the whole country. When the California textbooks came up for review, a former (largely unknown) California professor of history and Hindutva sympathiser was approached by a Hindutva foundation and later was appointed to an expert advisory panel serving the CSBE.
He did not disclose his previous Hindutva relationships. One of the Hindutva lobby groups was founded by the American branch of the RSS and the other is owned by a sub-sectarian Hindu temple group out of Austin (Texas) also tied to the American RSS group.
Neither of these facts was disclosed to the CSBE either. When word leaked out to the wider academic community last November, our American academic colleagues, many of whom are Indian American, and those in India, strongly objected to historical inaccuracies championed by the Hindutva lobby.
Not only were many of the suggested revisions factually incorrect but they also explain away those aspects of traditional Indian society that are now a matter of critical concern to Indians in India.
The textbook revisions whitewash the plight of women and the so-called lower castes. Women's history was reduced to "different" rights while the caste system was simply a division of labour.
Approximately 150 South Asian specialists from leading US universities sent a letter to the CSBE, which paused to reconsider their course of action.
Last month they asked one of us (Michael Witzel) to debate the issue with their in-house Hindutva leaning expert, Shiva Bajpai.
The historical inaccuracies were debunked in face-to-face debate but the CSBE put off a final decision to early March â after still another public debate on February 27.
Our letter and actions have provoked a furious but predictable response. Contradictory slurs such as "Nazi", "Hitler", "Racist", "Marxist", "Communist", "Hindu hater", "Race Traitor", "Missionary" and "Creationist" have been directed at us and we had to contact law enforcement agencies.
When the political nature of their campaign was revealed, the American Hindutva lobbyists hurriedly removed information about their links to the RSS from their websites.
The lobbyists will undoubtedly persist even if they are stopped in California. In order to counteract this threat, an international council of scholars, called The Academic Indology Advisory Council now offers its expertise to school boards and publishers.
Hindu nationalists have a legitimate right to pursue their political agenda in India. Hindu Americans have a legitimate right to a fair and culturally sensitive representation in public school curricula.
However, no one has a right to distort the truth and push their own political agendas at the expense of schoolchildren.
For the Hindutva lobby to successfully introduce academically irresponsible, false material into textbooks would be a dishonour to the rich cultural and religious heritage it claims to cherish.
Once we accept one religious group's agenda and beliefs to be taught in public schools, it opens the doors for every other group to do the same thing.
As educators, we should stick to teaching the facts, and allow the teaching of religion to be handled by the real experts: Parents, pastors and priests.
<i>
Thapar is professor emerita of JNU. Witzel is professor of Sanskrit, Harvard University.</i>
ROMILA THAPAR and MICHAEL WITZEL
Timesofindia.com
The California State Board of Education (CSBE) is currently discussing a very controversial issue. The CSBE has to ask the community for suggestions in regard to the updating of school textbooks.
Ominously unscientific, religious-based materials thus received may now be presented as historical facts. Remarkably, in this case, the religious fundamentalists are not Christian but Hindu.
Initially, the goals of these pressure groups seem benign and even righteous. They aim to rectify culturally biased and insensitive depictions of India and Hinduism and they would like Hinduism to be treated with the same respect as Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
They indeed managed to obtain a few thousand signatures from the 1.6 million South Asians at Hindu temples across the United States.
However, the other agendas being pushed are oddly fami-liar: The first Indian civilisation is 1,900 million years old, the Ramayana and Mahabharata are historical texts to be understood literally, and ancient Hindu scriptures contain precise calculations of the speed of light and exact distances between planets in the solar system.
Further, the American Hindutva lobby is very closely allied to its parent, the RSS, but disguises its divisive political agenda in the language of inclusion, while in India it is predicated on the subjugation of minorities and pluralism in society.
Modest political victories in the US translate into donations and huge political capital at home. California has a large Indian American population and one of the largest school systems in the country.
Changes made there have immediate repercussions for school systems across the whole country. When the California textbooks came up for review, a former (largely unknown) California professor of history and Hindutva sympathiser was approached by a Hindutva foundation and later was appointed to an expert advisory panel serving the CSBE.
He did not disclose his previous Hindutva relationships. One of the Hindutva lobby groups was founded by the American branch of the RSS and the other is owned by a sub-sectarian Hindu temple group out of Austin (Texas) also tied to the American RSS group.
Neither of these facts was disclosed to the CSBE either. When word leaked out to the wider academic community last November, our American academic colleagues, many of whom are Indian American, and those in India, strongly objected to historical inaccuracies championed by the Hindutva lobby.
Not only were many of the suggested revisions factually incorrect but they also explain away those aspects of traditional Indian society that are now a matter of critical concern to Indians in India.
The textbook revisions whitewash the plight of women and the so-called lower castes. Women's history was reduced to "different" rights while the caste system was simply a division of labour.
Approximately 150 South Asian specialists from leading US universities sent a letter to the CSBE, which paused to reconsider their course of action.
Last month they asked one of us (Michael Witzel) to debate the issue with their in-house Hindutva leaning expert, Shiva Bajpai.
The historical inaccuracies were debunked in face-to-face debate but the CSBE put off a final decision to early March â after still another public debate on February 27.
Our letter and actions have provoked a furious but predictable response. Contradictory slurs such as "Nazi", "Hitler", "Racist", "Marxist", "Communist", "Hindu hater", "Race Traitor", "Missionary" and "Creationist" have been directed at us and we had to contact law enforcement agencies.
When the political nature of their campaign was revealed, the American Hindutva lobbyists hurriedly removed information about their links to the RSS from their websites.
The lobbyists will undoubtedly persist even if they are stopped in California. In order to counteract this threat, an international council of scholars, called The Academic Indology Advisory Council now offers its expertise to school boards and publishers.
Hindu nationalists have a legitimate right to pursue their political agenda in India. Hindu Americans have a legitimate right to a fair and culturally sensitive representation in public school curricula.
However, no one has a right to distort the truth and push their own political agendas at the expense of schoolchildren.
For the Hindutva lobby to successfully introduce academically irresponsible, false material into textbooks would be a dishonour to the rich cultural and religious heritage it claims to cherish.
Once we accept one religious group's agenda and beliefs to be taught in public schools, it opens the doors for every other group to do the same thing.
As educators, we should stick to teaching the facts, and allow the teaching of religion to be handled by the real experts: Parents, pastors and priests.
<i>
Thapar is professor emerita of JNU. Witzel is professor of Sanskrit, Harvard University.</i>