Hindustan Time Reports on CA textbook...well sort of

[Guest guest]

Hindustan Time Reports on CA textbook...well sort of

Notice, they still never report that the hindus won.

Stop this anti-Hindu tirade!

 

HindustanTimes.com

 

New Delhi, December 9, 2005

 

First the article in question.

 

We at HindustanTimes.com carried an article called 'Saffronisation

reaches US shores' on December 7. It spoke of the debate in the US

over some corrections sought by Hindu groups into the representation

of Hindus in US textbooks from the California Board of Education

(CBE).

 

Purportedly their anger was against the presumptuous nature of

reporting giving 'secularists' an upper hand without bothering to get

to the bottom of the issue.

 

Our surfers have also raised issues about what constitutes being 'pro-

Hindutva' and 'secular'.

 

Here's what pissed them off completely.

 

"The controversy over Indian history textbooks has travelled to the

US. So much so, California is currently witnessing a raging battle

between pro-Hindutva groups and 'secular' academics over textbooks on

Indian history presented to 'impressionable minds' in the US."

 

The secular academics included Michael Witzel, an American professor

of Sanskrit at Harvard University who has the support of a number of

academicians including Indian historians Romilla Thapar, DN Jha and

Shereen Ratnagar.

 

The pro-Hindutva brigade is led by Ved Chaudhary, president of the

Educators' Society for the Heritage of India (ESHI), Texas-based

Vedic Foundation and New Jersey-based Hindu Education Foundation.

 

Most of our surfers are of the opinion that deep biases exist within

sections of Indian intelligentsia with regard to this topic.

 

Mysore Madhwa from Chicago wrote, "I am surprised by the headline for

this 'report'. While calling the sincere efforts by Hindus to correct

the factual errors is termed 'saffron', the last-minute effort by

Indian Leftists and their white masters does not carry any adjectives

except being dubbed 'secular'."

 

"Your use of the word 'saffronisation' shows your sick mindset. Can

Hindus in the USA ask for parity with other religions? Can they

demand that Hinduism in textbooks be taught using the same yardstick

applied to Islam and Christianity?" asks Sadanjan from Hyderabad.

 

Jagan Mohan from Pondicherry asks, "Is asking for a review of the

decision to include Aryan invasions in fact 'pro-Hindutva'? India has

always been portrayed as a land of snake charmers, sati, maharajas

and cows.

 

The Witzel group is trying to maintain the status quo by showing

India as a backward, cultural inferior civilisation by taking refuge

behind the anti-Hindutva facade.

 

And the amazing thing is that the Hindustan Times is also taking

sides blindly by calling the activists who are trying to set right

the distorted image as 'pro-Hindutva' fundamentalists.

 

What's next? Call them terrorists?" he asks.

 

Raunak from San Francisco says, "I have not read a more ill-informed

article that this! I am a resident of California and I see no

saffronisation in the campaign taken up by some Hindus against the

misrepresentations made in the proposed text. Does a secular Hindu

have a right to make a representation or not? Are you going to label

all of them as RSS followers? I am a proud Hindu and not a supporter

of RSS. You must be ashamed of being a Hindu and hence the title."

 

Many have outrightly denigrated the Harvard scholar.

 

Sadanjan adds, "Witzel has made many derogatory remarks about Hindus.

He has made fun of Hindu immigrants to America and ridiculed their

practice of cremating their dead. He has called them 'lost'

or 'abandoned' people. He has ridiculously claimed that American

Hindus do not invest in their children's higher education. What

motivates him to make such disparaging remarks? What motivates other

academics to follow him and sign on the petition?"

 

Making the case stronger, Anjali from San Francisco writes in to say

how the Witzel group's was countered and which recommendations were

chosen.

 

These include the use of upper case "G" for Hindus gods, replacing

the use of word statue with deity and one sentence be changed from

saying, "Modern Hindus continue to visit temples to express their

love of the gods" to "...visit temples to worship and express their

love for God".