Academic Hinduphobia

Ref: http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20060210&fname=hinduphobia&sid=1




COUNTERPOINT

Academic
Hinduphobia

The sixth-grade classroom in America has become the battle ground for
geo-politically charged fights where the anti-Hindu biases of the academicians
are ruling the roost. Is the sixth-grade classroom the right place to prosecute
an American minority culture or a foreign nation?

RAJIV MALHOTRA AND VIDHI JHUNJHUNWALA

The recent
California Department of Education’s hearings on sixth-grade textbook
portrayals of religions and cultures have triggered conflicts between the Hindu
Diaspora and a group of academicians claiming to be “the experts” on
Hinduism. Every religion has good sides and bad sides, its “enemies” and its
“victims.” However, eleven-year olds are too young and naïve, and most of
their teachers are too ignorant, to be subject to incoherent scholarly
controversies on foreign politics. Most sixth graders are unlikely to study
these religions ever again in their lives. Hence, the impressions created by
these textbooks will have a lasting effect in shaping the future of American
society.  

The table below compares how California textbooks
treat Hinduism and other major religions. 

For example, take the current 'cartoon
controversy'. The Danish media claims to be exercising its "intellectual
freedom," but their cartoons, it could justifiably be argued, have hurt the
sentiments of Muslims worldwide. The sentiments and actual hurt have been
hijacked by cynical local and global politics and this has played into the hands
of Islamic radicals: violent world-wide protests are on, embassies have been
burnt and death threats given. All this has further exacerbated what many call
the "clash of civilizations " between Islam and the West. This is not
the first time it has happened either. But do the discussions on Islam, in these
sixth grade text-books, for example, talk about such violent deeds committed in
the name of Islam? No, and that is the way it should be.

Likewise, when Hindus' sentiments are routinely
hurt in far worse ways, especially as a part of America's formal education
system, it naturally adds fuel to religious politics. Since liberal
intellectuals - rightfully - respect Muslim sentiments and do not demand
“scientific proof” for Islamic beliefs, does it not follow that they should
apply the same approach towards Hinduism?

This article merely argues for equal treatment of
Hinduism, no more and no less, and shows that this is presently lacking due to a
double standard. 

Intellectual honesty demands that we ask whether
one religion's aggression against "idols" devastates another
religion's respect for its murtis. Does canonized condemnation of
"infidels" and "false religions" not then qualify as hate
speech? Surely it is reasonable to demand that the same standards be applied to
all religions when discussing textual references that are against women, persons
of lower socioeconomic strata, non-believers of the given faith, and other
faiths' symbols and practices as well? Either such textual references should be
included for all religions or none. Why should Hinduism be singled out?

Selective condemnations of religion X while
appeasing religion Y is a dangerous political game. One must courageously
confront the fashionable academic bandwagons and expose their facile politics

It is also
essential for all religions to be presented on an equal footing using the same
pedagogy and standards. Therefore, someone has to choose the information that is
to be taught to sixth-graders, and there must be transparent rules on how this
is to be achieved. 

California’s official educational standards
contain specific policies on this, which assert, 

“No religious belief or practice may be
held up to ridicule and no religious group may be portrayed as inferior,”
 

and that, 

"Textbooks should instill a sense of
pride in every child in his or her heritage."  

As the above table demonstrates, the
textbooks do not comply with the California standards in the case of
Hinduism.  

For instance, the textbooks say that Hinduism
considers women to be inferior to men, but ignore biases against women in Islam,
Christianity and Judaism. The textbooks focus on “Hindu atrocities” against
certain groups, but do not point out that Islamic, Christian and Jewish
societies have similar issues. The clergy in Islam, Christianity and Judaism are
treated as credible experts and their religious texts are assumed to be stating historical
facts, while Hindu texts are depicted through the pejorative lenses of
critics and called “myths.” 

 

The California Board of Education conducts a public review of its textbooks
every six years with a goal to remove unfair and biased representations.
Islamic, Christian, and Jewish groups have been successfully involved in this
review process for many years, constantly removing any negative portrayals of
their respective religions. Surprisingly, the recent involvement of Hindu
American groups to participate in the public hearings with the educational
authorities is being fiercely condemned by academicians who gracefully
accept the changes proposed by other religious groups. American academicians who
are known for their Hinduphobia have launched a vicious attack. They rallied
instant support from many Indian academicians to do the dirty work, in a manner
similar to the way in which British colonizers used Indian sepoys to shoot at
their fellow Indians. Interestingly, most of the academicians who joined are not
experts in the academic field of religion, and are not even members of the
Hinduism Unit of the American Academy of Religion, which is the official
academic body of Hinduism Studies. 

The attack has relied upon maligning Hindu groups
and branding them as “fascists,” “extremists,” “fundamentalists,”
“chauvinists,” etc. The attackers allege links between overseas violence and
Hindu Americans, and use sensationalized warnings that accepting the Hindus on
par with the Islamic and Christian groups would encourage international
terrorism. In an educational review the subject of discussion should be the
content of the textbooks, California’s published educational standards, and
the effects of religious representation on America’s next generation. But in
this case, an American religious minority is being labeled as a threat to
international security just because it wants an equitable depiction of its
religion. The scholars involved have failed both as defenders of intellectual
freedom and as practitioners of independent critical inquiry.  

Furthermore,
the California authorities, in a move which is now being challenged legally,
heard a parade of anti-Hindu voices as “expert witness,” while there were no
similar dissenting voices invited to criticize Islam, Christianity or Judaism.
The academicians fighting the Hindu Diaspora frantically arranged to fly in
witnesses from far away places to testify about the horrors of Hinduism, while
no similar witnesses were summoned to testify against the horrors of Islam,
Christianity or Judaism.- such as, for example, Kashmiri Pandits, Hindus raped
in Pakistan, Muslim women complaining against forced burqas, or the innocent
children who have been victims of pedophile Christian priests.

Only in the case of Hinduism was the politics
from the mother country dragged into the California proceedings What they
overlooked is that Hinduism is a world religion with followers in many parts of
the planet besides India. India’s social-political problems do not reflect on
the second-generation Indian Americans, the millions of Euro-Americans
practicing yoga/meditation who claim Hindu or quasi-Hindu identities, or on
millions of overseas Hindus living elsewhere. The scholars failed to decouple
Hinduism from Indian politics, while no other religion got coupled to
geopolitics.  

 

The
academicians should first confront the mandate of California’s Social Studies
Standards which requires that, "Textbooks should instill a sense of
pride in every child in his or her heritage." In this regard, textbooks
should also include Hinduism’s major contributions to America: yoga,
vegetarianism, the transcendentalist literary movement in the 19th century, and
the many positive influences on American pop music, cuisine, film, dance, etc. 

While attempts are being made to teach about
“Hindu horrors” against minorities, the same academicians are not lobbying
to add textbook sections on “Islamic genocides,” in South Asia, “Islamic
terrorism” worldwide, or “Christian holocausts” of Native Americans: The
non-Hindu religions are coddled with political correctness and
“sensitivity.” In order to be true to their field of study, academicians
should apply the same “human rights” criteria to all religions equally. 

The academicians are approaching Indian society
as a patient waiting to be cured of maladies in the hands of America. But they
have not addressed the following issues: Does America have a superior human
rights record? Are American institutions accountable as doctors and qualified to
“cure” Indian society? What is the past track record of American powers
intervening in third-world domestic issues and curing them of their societal
maladies? Are American agendas constructing categories of “cultural crimes”? 

The sixth-grade classroom has become the battle
ground for these geopolitically charged fights. Is the sixth-grade classroom the
right place to prosecute an American minority culture or a foreign nation? Among
these California children, less than one percent will pursue careers as
Christian evangelists slandering Hindus to convert, or as US government
officials using “human rights” as a weapon to gain leverage against India.
For this tiny number of potential specialists, there will be other opportunities
in higher studies to embark upon a comprehensive study of India’s positive and
negative social qualities. 

The political activism of a cartel of elitist
academicians is invading the psyche of innocent children: It harasses the Indian
students in class, making them feel embarrassed and ashamed of their ancestry.
Challenging history is one thing, but intentionally undermining self-respect at
an impressionable age is a form of psychological child abuse. It handicaps the
non-Indian students who will grow up to work in a world in which India must be
taken seriously and not dismissed as a patient to be exposed, subjected to
licensed condescension, or “cured” by the West. 

The controversy of the Mohammed cartoons should
compel concerned citizens everywhere to balance intellectual freedom with
intellectual responsibility. Whatever may be one’s position in this debate, it
must be equally applied to all religions or else it would be hypocrisy. 

Rajiv
Malhotra is a public intellectual living in Princeton, New Jersey, who runs
his own non-profit Infinity
Foundation on a full-time basis.  Some of his on-line writings
are available at Sulekha.com  

Vidhi
Jhunjhunwala is a student at Boston University:

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