i reiterate, the only solution is some hissing and posturing and carrying on. meekness just doesn't cut it. that sketch of a woman wrapped in a white sheet is totally mischievous: it actually looks like a shroud. in the last hindu wedding i saw (in kerala), the man and woman (woman in a red sari, man in an offwhite mundu and white shirt) stood up and faced each other and exchanged rings and garlands. it was pretty darn egalitarian.
heck, you could say the kerala men should complain since they are -- in virginal white -- saying they are virgins, while their brides in red or blue or whatever are under no such compulsions :-)
compare this to the white worn by christist brides, signifying (hahaha, ROTFL!) virginity! yes, these days in america! i remember the woman in NY making a song and dance about how she was the 'last virgin in nyc'.
or the jewish custom of breaking a glass, signifying (hahaha, ROTFL!) the tearing of the virgin bride's hymen.
pretty darn paternalistic, wouldnt you say? a certain assumption that christist and jewish *brides* would be virgins, with no corresponding onus of virginity on the *grooms*? why isn't this highlighted and laughed at in the textbooks? answer: jews and christists have power.
contrast the demeaning of hindu (and sikh) sentiment to the way whites go out of their way to *not* depict the mohammedan prophet in defeence to mohammedan sentiment.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mona Vijaykar <indiainclassrooms@yahoo.com>
Date: Dec 5, 2005 11:46 AM
Subject: Textbook Review
To: indiainclassrooms@yahoo.com
Namaste!
Please see article at www.indiawest.com for the offending visual.
India in Classroom is not affiliated to any religious groups but does support their petition for changes in the textbooks.
Mona
Hindus and Sikhs Protest Curriculum Changes in Calif. Textbooks
News Report, Viji Sundaram,
India West, Dec 02, 2005
Some Hindu and Sikh activists in the U.S. who have been trying in
recent months to persuade the California Board of Education to adopt
curriculum revisions in textbooks for elementary and middle school
students say they are unhappy over the direction their efforts seem
to have taken while on the home stretch.
A clutch of academics and historians, who have just recently joined
the debate, seems to have neutralized the gains the activists
believe they had made. The academics weighed in with their views
Nov. 8, which collectively dismiss many of the curriculum changes
suggested over the past year by individual Hindus, as well as such
organizations as the Vedic Foundation and the Hindu Education
Society.
For example, one of the statements Hindu activists want deleted from
a social science book is that Aryans were a "part of a larger group
of people historians refer to as the Indo-Europeans."
The activists assert Aryans were not a race, but a term for persons
of noble intellect. The academics have urged that this statement not
be removed.
In that same book, Hindu activists want the statement, "Men had many
more rights than women," replaced with, "Men had different duties
(dharma) as well as rights than women. Many women were among the
sages to whom the Vedas were revealed."
The response from the academics? "Do not change original text."
Writing on behalf of the academics, Michael Witzel, a Sanskrit
professor at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., asserted that
the groups proposing the changes have a hidden agenda.
"The proposed revisions are not of a scholarly but of a religious-
political nature, and are primarily promoted by Hindutva supporters
and non-specialist academics writing about issues far outside their
area of expertise," Witzel wrote to CBE president Ruth Green in the
letter.
Among the 45 or so signatories to his letter are Stanley Wolpert,
professor of history at UCLA, and Romila Thapar, India's well-known
historian.
Witzel also said that in the last two years, Indian educators
themselves have "soundly repudiated" similar revisions in Indian
history textbooks suggested by Hindu groups.
The CBE has included the recommendations by Witzel and other
academics who have co-signed his letter, under the heading, "Final
Recommendations," which seems to suggest that its vote later this
week would more than likely favor the academics.
"I think the (December) meeting is a mere formality," noted
Princeton , N.J., resident Rajiv Malhotra, who participated in the
push for reforms. "I think the deck is stacked against Hindus," he
told India-West.
Even so, supporters and opponents of reforms are planning to show up
in large numbers at the Board of Education office in Sacramento Dec.
1 and 2, when the curriculum commission is slated to vote on the
suggested changes.
Supporters are hoping to make a last ditch effort to have their
voices heard. They say it is crucial that the CBE accepts their
suggestions if students are to get a proper perspective of Indian
culture and history.
"The social science and history textbooks do not give as generous a
portrayal of Indian culture as they do of Islamic, Jewish and
Christian cultures," asserted Malhotra, founder of Infinity
Foundation, an organization that is trying to give a "fair"
portrayal of India in the U.S. "The Board of Education needs to have
a standard that should be applied to all religions."
"There's a Euro-centric slant to what's being taught in California
classrooms," noted San Francisco Bay Area resident Mona Vijaykar to
India-West. "I'm upset that India's contribution to modern
civilization is not highlighted, and presented like European
civilization is."
Vijaykar runs the "India in Classrooms" program she launched two
years ago in the San Francisco Bay Area to set right misconceptions
teachers and students have about Indian history and culture.
And Prof. Onkar S. Bindra, who teaches Indian studies at the
Renaissance Society, a retirement learning facility at California
State University in Sacramento , complained that most of the social
science and history books have no mention about the contributions
Sikhs have made in their homeland or in their adopted country.
"There are 200,000 Sikhs in California, a significant enough number
to deserve mention in California textbooks," Bindra told India-West.
One reason the protests of Hindu and Sikh activists may well be
brushed off by the CBE is the fact that there is little sign that
these demands have resonated either within the broader Indian
American community in California, or the substantial number of
humanities experts of Indian descent in U.S. academia.
With several hundred thousand Indian Americans in the state, none of
the major community organizations has expressed any support.
Witzel's letter, on the other hand, includes signatories like
Harvard professor Homi Bhabha, University of Michigan professor
Madhav Deshpande, in addition to Thapar, arguably one of the world's
most respected experts in ancient Indian history.
Every six years, the CBE meets with textbook publishers for possible
revisions.
The books are then sent to all the educational institutions in the
50 counties in the state so educators and parents can offer
suggestions.
The CBE began the elaborate revision process about one year ago.
Since then, it has been reviewing the suggested changes, including
those it received at public hearings it held.
At one of those hearings in November, for nearly five hours the 13-
member CBE board heard members of the Hindu and Sikh communities put
forth their arguments for changes. Most said they felt slighted by
the materials in the textbooks.
Vijaykar told India-West that a social science textbook depicted a
Hindu bride as sitting with a white sheet pulled over her head in
front of a sacred fire, as if "she was weighed down by the sheet."
And brides in India don't wear white, only widows do, she said.
"Hinduism is not treated with the same respect as Christianity or
Judaism," Dr. Mihir Meghani, president of the Hindu American
Foundation, told the board. Unlike in those faiths, "the sacred
scriptures of Hinduism are referred to as legends or myths."
Bindra, among other Sikh speakers that day, told the board that the
existing textbooks will not help elementary and middle school
students in identifying with and respecting the Sikh culture,
something that is so important, especially after 9/11.
"Students need to know that almost everyone who wears turbans in
America are Sikhs from Punjab in India, and they have nothing to do
with the Taliban or Osama bin Laden," he said.
Among the Hindu groups trying to push for curriculum changes are the
Vedic Foundation and the Hindu Education Foundation.
Trying to get more Hindus involved in what it called the "Curriculum
Reform Initiative," the Vedic Foundation cited a passage in one of
the existing textbooks that spoke of Hanuman in a frivolous manner.
The foundation pointed out that "teachings such as these promote the
rejection of a valuable spiritual and cultural tradition by Hindu
youth."
But the issue has also pitted one group of Indian Americans against
some others. Leftist and political activist Angana Chatterji, who
teaches at the San Francisco-based California Institute of Integral
Studies, told India-West that like Witzel and his supporters, she
believes that those pushing for curriculum changes in the history
books are "Hindu nationalists," and the changes they are proposing
are "not ethical."
For example, she said, those pushing for reforms want India to be
portrayed as a former "Hindu state."
"I agree some parts of the curriculum require re-representation,"
Chatterji said, but quickly noted: "History isn't about how good we
feel about ourselves. There's a difference between history and
nationalism."
Former deputy superintendent of the San Mateo and Foster City school
districts Dr. Rajendra Prasad, who once served on a math textbook
evaluation committee, felt that some of the demands of the Hindu
organizations were a stretch -- asking that the history textbooks
say that Ram Rajya lasted for 1.8 million years, for one.
"A scientific mind is not going to accept that," Prasad said,
pointing out, however, that depicting brides in the manner described
by Vijaykar needs to be corrected.
He defended the CBE's curriculum revision modus operandi as "fair
and just."
"They are not prejudiced people," Prasad told India-West, noting
that CBE members take their responsibilities very seriously
because "they realize that if they screw up in California , the rest
of the nation will be screwed."
California is the largest purchaser of textbooks and, therefore,
educational publishers are careful to win approval from the CBE.
"The trend has always been that whatever California adopts, most of
the rest of the nation adopts," Prasad said.
http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?
article_id=1b63d3d5a0a0b090f2681949b840f93f
News Report, Viji Sundaram,
India West, Dec 02, 2005
Some Hindu and Sikh activists in the U.S. who have been trying in
recent months to persuade the California Board of Education to adopt
curriculum revisions in textbooks for elementary and middle school
students say they are unhappy over the direction their efforts seem
to have taken while on the home stretch.
A clutch of academics and historians, who have just recently joined
the debate, seems to have neutralized the gains the activists
believe they had made. The academics weighed in with their views
Nov. 8, which collectively dismiss many of the curriculum changes
suggested over the past year by individual Hindus, as well as such
organizations as the Vedic Foundation and the Hindu Education
Society.
For example, one of the statements Hindu activists want deleted from
a social science book is that Aryans were a "part of a larger group
of people historians refer to as the Indo-Europeans."
The activists assert Aryans were not a race, but a term for persons
of noble intellect. The academics have urged that this statement not
be removed.
In that same book, Hindu activists want the statement, "Men had many
more rights than women," replaced with, "Men had different duties
(dharma) as well as rights than women. Many women were among the
sages to whom the Vedas were revealed."
The response from the academics? "Do not change original text."
Writing on behalf of the academics, Michael Witzel, a Sanskrit
professor at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., asserted that
the groups proposing the changes have a hidden agenda.
"The proposed revisions are not of a scholarly but of a religious-
political nature, and are primarily promoted by Hindutva supporters
and non-specialist academics writing about issues far outside their
area of expertise," Witzel wrote to CBE president Ruth Green in the
letter.
Among the 45 or so signatories to his letter are Stanley Wolpert,
professor of history at UCLA, and Romila Thapar, India's well-known
historian.
Witzel also said that in the last two years, Indian educators
themselves have "soundly repudiated" similar revisions in Indian
history textbooks suggested by Hindu groups.
The CBE has included the recommendations by Witzel and other
academics who have co-signed his letter, under the heading, "Final
Recommendations," which seems to suggest that its vote later this
week would more than likely favor the academics.
"I think the (December) meeting is a mere formality," noted
Princeton , N.J., resident Rajiv Malhotra, who participated in the
push for reforms. "I think the deck is stacked against Hindus," he
told India-West.
Even so, supporters and opponents of reforms are planning to show up
in large numbers at the Board of Education office in Sacramento Dec.
1 and 2, when the curriculum commission is slated to vote on the
suggested changes.
Supporters are hoping to make a last ditch effort to have their
voices heard. They say it is crucial that the CBE accepts their
suggestions if students are to get a proper perspective of Indian
culture and history.
"The social science and history textbooks do not give as generous a
portrayal of Indian culture as they do of Islamic, Jewish and
Christian cultures," asserted Malhotra, founder of Infinity
Foundation, an organization that is trying to give a "fair"
portrayal of India in the U.S. "The Board of Education needs to have
a standard that should be applied to all religions."
"There's a Euro-centric slant to what's being taught in California
classrooms," noted San Francisco Bay Area resident Mona Vijaykar to
India-West. "I'm upset that India's contribution to modern
civilization is not highlighted, and presented like European
civilization is."
Vijaykar runs the "India in Classrooms" program she launched two
years ago in the San Francisco Bay Area to set right misconceptions
teachers and students have about Indian history and culture.
And Prof. Onkar S. Bindra, who teaches Indian studies at the
Renaissance Society, a retirement learning facility at California
State University in Sacramento , complained that most of the social
science and history books have no mention about the contributions
Sikhs have made in their homeland or in their adopted country.
"There are 200,000 Sikhs in California, a significant enough number
to deserve mention in California textbooks," Bindra told India-West.
One reason the protests of Hindu and Sikh activists may well be
brushed off by the CBE is the fact that there is little sign that
these demands have resonated either within the broader Indian
American community in California, or the substantial number of
humanities experts of Indian descent in U.S. academia.
With several hundred thousand Indian Americans in the state, none of
the major community organizations has expressed any support.
Witzel's letter, on the other hand, includes signatories like
Harvard professor Homi Bhabha, University of Michigan professor
Madhav Deshpande, in addition to Thapar, arguably one of the world's
most respected experts in ancient Indian history.
Every six years, the CBE meets with textbook publishers for possible
revisions.
The books are then sent to all the educational institutions in the
50 counties in the state so educators and parents can offer
suggestions.
The CBE began the elaborate revision process about one year ago.
Since then, it has been reviewing the suggested changes, including
those it received at public hearings it held.
At one of those hearings in November, for nearly five hours the 13-
member CBE board heard members of the Hindu and Sikh communities put
forth their arguments for changes. Most said they felt slighted by
the materials in the textbooks.
Vijaykar told India-West that a social science textbook depicted a
Hindu bride as sitting with a white sheet pulled over her head in
front of a sacred fire, as if "she was weighed down by the sheet."
And brides in India don't wear white, only widows do, she said.
"Hinduism is not treated with the same respect as Christianity or
Judaism," Dr. Mihir Meghani, president of the Hindu American
Foundation, told the board. Unlike in those faiths, "the sacred
scriptures of Hinduism are referred to as legends or myths."
Bindra, among other Sikh speakers that day, told the board that the
existing textbooks will not help elementary and middle school
students in identifying with and respecting the Sikh culture,
something that is so important, especially after 9/11.
"Students need to know that almost everyone who wears turbans in
America are Sikhs from Punjab in India, and they have nothing to do
with the Taliban or Osama bin Laden," he said.
Among the Hindu groups trying to push for curriculum changes are the
Vedic Foundation and the Hindu Education Foundation.
Trying to get more Hindus involved in what it called the "Curriculum
Reform Initiative," the Vedic Foundation cited a passage in one of
the existing textbooks that spoke of Hanuman in a frivolous manner.
The foundation pointed out that "teachings such as these promote the
rejection of a valuable spiritual and cultural tradition by Hindu
youth."
But the issue has also pitted one group of Indian Americans against
some others. Leftist and political activist Angana Chatterji, who
teaches at the San Francisco-based California Institute of Integral
Studies, told India-West that like Witzel and his supporters, she
believes that those pushing for curriculum changes in the history
books are "Hindu nationalists," and the changes they are proposing
are "not ethical."
For example, she said, those pushing for reforms want India to be
portrayed as a former "Hindu state."
"I agree some parts of the curriculum require re-representation,"
Chatterji said, but quickly noted: "History isn't about how good we
feel about ourselves. There's a difference between history and
nationalism."
Former deputy superintendent of the San Mateo and Foster City school
districts Dr. Rajendra Prasad, who once served on a math textbook
evaluation committee, felt that some of the demands of the Hindu
organizations were a stretch -- asking that the history textbooks
say that Ram Rajya lasted for 1.8 million years, for one.
"A scientific mind is not going to accept that," Prasad said,
pointing out, however, that depicting brides in the manner described
by Vijaykar needs to be corrected.
He defended the CBE's curriculum revision modus operandi as "fair
and just."
"They are not prejudiced people," Prasad told India-West, noting
that CBE members take their responsibilities very seriously
because "they realize that if they screw up in California , the rest
of the nation will be screwed."
California is the largest purchaser of textbooks and, therefore,
educational publishers are careful to win approval from the CBE.
"The trend has always been that whatever California adopts, most of
the rest of the nation adopts," Prasad said.
http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?
article_id=1b63d3d5a0a0b090f2681949b840f93f
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1 comment:
NCERT's communal agenda:
http://haindavakeralam.org/PageModule.aspx?PageID=303&SKIN=B
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