Hinduism is one of the most tolerant religions that are being practiced in the world as of now but it seems that people from other religions or society don’t want to understand it by carrying out proper research. Many authors have written about Hinduism but they seem to have overlooked the much-needed research and wrote whatever they felt was correct from their own perspective without even thinking about the consequences that it would have on the future generations.
Just recently, in the USA, a textbook has depicted Hinduism in negative light and Indian-Americans have decided to raise their voice against such irresponsible attitude. The director of Hindu Education Foundation USA (HEF), Shantharam Nekkar, said,
“It is disappointing to see that even after a decade of building awareness by the Hindu-American community, textbooks especially by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), McGraw-Hill, Discovery and National Geographic continue to use orientalist narratives to portray Indian civilisation.”
Shantharam made these comments at California Department of Education (CDE) at Sacrament during a public hearing on Thursday.
For many years now, the Indian-American community has been working hard to eradicate various myths and incorrect facts about Hinduism from textbooks. The textbooks used in the state of California are published on the basis of the framework, which is designed by Department of Education (DOE). The revision of the framework was done last year and many controversies cropped up at that time, including the attempts made by some groups to use “South Asia” instead of “India.”
In the last two years, DOE added many updates in the framework as per the inputs they received from students, community members and scholars, which resulted in the inclusion of Dharma, stories of sages like Valmiki and Vyasa, achievements made by Indians in fields of science as well as technology and Yoga. However, the Hindu groups in the USA are not happy with the fact that these updates are not added in the textbooks.
Here’s what a parent from San Jose, Sharat Joshi, stated,
“Some publishers continue to single out and denigrate Hinduism while ignoring new additions to the framework that can help present Indian civilisation on par with other civilisations and cultures. Negative portrayal of Hinduism has led to several instances of bullying of Hindu children in classrooms.”
The recommendations will be sent by DOE to State Board of Education (SBE) for approval later this year while the schools will be adopting textbooks recommended by the board next year.
We really hope that the misunderstandings about the Hinduism get clear and true picture is shown to everyone.
