{"id":4274,"date":"2016-03-30T06:29:42","date_gmt":"2016-03-30T06:29:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globalpress.hinduismnow.org?p=4271&preview_id=4271"},"modified":"2016-03-30T06:29:42","modified_gmt":"2016-03-30T06:29:42","slug":"students-protest-forces-california-commission-to-reject-suggestions-to-replace-india-with-south-asia-in-textbooks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/?p=4274","title":{"rendered":"Students\u2019 protest forces California commission to reject suggestions to replace \u2018India\u2019 with \u2018South Asia\u2019 in textbooks \u2013 HEF"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

After protests from students and parents, the California Department of Education\u2019s Instructional Quality Commission (IQC) has rejected suggestions by a group of professors to replace the word \u201cIndia\u201d with \u201cSouth Asia\u201d in California textbooks.<\/p>\n

A group of professors including Sheldon Pollock, Robert Goldman, Lawrence Cohen and Kamala Visweswaran, under the name of \u2018South Asia Faculty Group\u2019 had written to the Department of Education, suggesting that most references to \u2018India\u2019 before 1947 be replaced with \u201cSouth Asia\u201d. The suggestions had created a huge uproar in the Indian-American community based in California. Earlier this week a petition by a group of scholars named \u2018Scholars for People\u2019 and signed by over 18,000 people had asked the commission \u201cWould you presume to deny the reality of India\u2019s existence and history, and its deep significance to Indian American students in California, simply because a few misinformed professors of \u201cSouth Asia Studies\u201d wrote you a letter recommending you re-educate California\u2019s children in this bizarre manner?\u201d<\/p>\n

A large number of students and parents testified at the public hearing of the commission held in Sacramento on March 24th seeking the rejection of these changes. \u201cIndia is not just a landmass but a living civilization. By removing the mention of India as a civilization, my identity as an Indian-American is sought to be erased\u201c Vidhima Shetty, a student studying in 9th grade in San Ramon, said during her testimony at the Department of Education. Narrating different incidents of stereotypes they encounter, the students demanded that Hinduism and India be portrayed in proper light. The students also demanded that the suggestions that Vedas belong to \u201cancient Indian religions\u201d and not to Hinduism amounted to stripping them of their Hindu identity. \u201cIf Vedas do not belong to the Hindus, who do they belong to?\u201d Himanshu Wagh, a 10th grader from Fremont sought to know. \u00a0\u201cWhat we are seeking is dignity and not glorification. We are dismayed and anguished at attempts at negative portrayal of India and Hindus in textbooks.\u201d said Lamitr Dhir, an 8th grader from Sunnyvale.<\/p>\n

Bill Honig, the Chair of the Subject Matter Committee of the Commission said at the public hearing that they reject the suggestion for removal of India but agreed to add \u201cSouth Asia\u201d in parenthesis after most mentions to ancient India. The new recommendations will be forwarded to the State Board of Education for their consideration and the final draft of the framework is to be accepted later this year.<\/p>\n

Indian-American groups based in California and also a number of scholars raised serious concerns of transparency in the process of making the textbooks. The Hindu Education Foundation (HEF), which has been working with the commission for the past many years, in a statement said \u201cWe question the move to insert a large number of adverse edits on India and Hinduism at the last minute at the instance of a few Leftist scholars.\u201d \u00a0\u201cWhile some important inaccuracies have been rolled back, a large number of adverse edits these academics submitted have still found their way into the recommendations and need to be scrutinized\u201d it added. It also protested the removal of the mention of non-Brahmin sages like Valmiki and Vyasa from the textbooks at the suggestion of these academics. \u201cIt is strange that while claiming to represent the underprivileged, the Leftist professors of South Asian faculty group have sought the removal of the mention that these sages came from lower castes which had specifically been added at the suggestion of Hindu groups to give fair representation to all communities\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

The recommendations will come up for consideration at the California\u2019s State Board of Education\u2019s (SBE) meeting in May.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After protests from students and parents, the California Department of Education\u2019s Instructional Quality Commission (IQC) has rejected suggestions by a group of professors to replace the word \u201cIndia\u201d with \u201cSouth Asia\u201d in California textbooks. A group of professors including Sheldon Pollock, Robert Goldman, Lawrence Cohen and Kamala Visweswaran, under the name of \u2018South Asia Faculty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4274"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4274\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}