south asia in american classrooms

[Anonymous]

Interesting. They seem to be rewriting history not by winning the war but by winning the legal battle. I wonder if they are trying to ignore history or just trying to avoid guilt by means of semantics. It reminds me of the fact that until recently Western literature was populated mainly by "dead white guys" with little or no attention given to the various ethnic groups and women...among others.

[clay dube]

Tricia's observation about the politicization of the teaching of the past has merit. At the same time, as the Christian Science Monitor today pointed out, some textbooks are plagued with serious errors. According to the reporter, one described Hindi as using Arabic script. Here's the article:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0124/p01s03-wosc.html?s=hns

[Anonymous]

The important thing to remember about history is perspective. I'm not surprised that books are "getting it wrong." I took an American History class in London, England as a junior in college. From there perspective the American Revolution was an insignificant little speedbump and that Great Britain actually could have cared less about the American colonies. At that time their eyes were more on India. Also, history changes based on who is doing the writing and what type of hidden propaganda they may want to sneak in the text.

[Anonymous]

I am excited to begin teaching about Asia in my world literature class. This is my fist time teaching 9th graders. I am a new teacher and last year I taught American Literature. I am excited because I learned so much at the Asian Seminar. I can use much of it in my own literature class. I can teach Japanese, Chinese and Korean folktales and poetry and connect it to some of the powerpoint presentations I received in class, about the people and their culture. I intend to incorporate videos in my lessons as well.

[Anonymous]

I just saw this post. I had been following the developments as it was happening. Being of Indian background who did BA/MA/LAW in India, it was quite interesting to note what the history books in America were portraying about India. I thought that it was indulging in a myopic approach while writing about India and not reflecting it in its entirety. At this time, what is available to the students in history books in the U. S. has been mostly taken from the British version and as we are aware that history is written by the victors and the British had been ruling India for two and a half centuries. In this context, it is interesting to note that Francis Drake was felicitated by the British with a knighthood and gave him a title of 'Sir' but the Spaniards call him a 'pirate' because he had been preying on the Spanish galleons taking mostly silver from South America. So there is/are varying perspectives on the same issue in history. I give due credits to HEF and VF in their efforts to give a balanced perspective on the subject and hope they have backed it up with historical evidences.

[clay dube]

There's been some discussion here of how Japanese and Chinese textbooks deal with 20th century history. Recently, an article published on an Indian diaspora news website argued that Hindu nationalists are working to change what California schoolchildren learn about India.

Angana Chatterji, writing in Sulekha (http://www.sulekha.com) on Jan. 8, 2006, described the efforts of two groups, Hindu Education Foundation (HEF) and Vedic Foundation (VF), to push a Hindu nationalist agenda. Chatterji wrote that the California Curriculum Commission accepted 131 of the 153 curriculum revisions proposed by the two groups.

Now, Hindu Nationalists Rewriting California Textbooks [India West]

Here is what Chatterji wrote of a couple of the changes:
"On page 238 [the specific document cited is not identified], the Ad Hoc Committee proposed, and the Curriculum Commission accepted, that the current text, 'The Aryans created a caste system…', be replaced with: 'During Vedic times, people were divided into different social groups (varnas) based on their capacity to undertake a particular profession.' Such storying dissociates the caste system from Hinduism, and discounts and neutralizes the oppressive structure and politics via which the caste system was constituted. It presents the caste system as a fluid arrangement, not restricted by ancestry. On page 245, the Ad Hoc Committee proposed, and the Curriculum Commission accepted, that the current text, 'Men had many more rights than women', be 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 inequity of women's rights is legitimated and discoursed as 'different rights', invisibilizing women's subordinated role in a patriarchal society, and the Vedas posed as 'revealed' doctrines."

[Anonymous]

This topic has really enlightenend me, especially in knowing that there are alot of issues and topics that are being left out about Indian and Asian cultures in our classrooms and textbooks. I think what the Hindu nationalisits are trying to enforce is great and should be enforced because we as well as our students have the right to know the truth and teachers should have the ability to expand their perceptions on different cultures.

[Author]

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