A group claiming to represent 2 million American Hindus has sued the California State Board of Education to block publication of sixth-grade textbooks that "demean, stereotype and reflect adversely upon Hindus."
In superior court in Sacramento, the Hindu American Foundation is seeking a temporary restraining order to keep the proposed textbooks from going to press. In a lawsuit filed Friday (March 17), the HAF claims the board failed to hold sufficient deliberations after a public hearing on the textbook and failed to abide by a state open meetings law.
"Today Hindu Americans have taken a stand against not only the illegal machinations of the SBE and unfair treatment Hindus received during the textbook adoption process, but also the inaccurate and unequal portrayal of their religious tradition in school textbooks," said Nikhil Joshi, a member of the HAF Board of Directors. "This is about treating Hindus in America and their religion with the same level of sensitivity and balance afforded to other religious traditions and their practitioners."
The California State Board of Education declined to comment.
At issue in the case is the text's portrayal of ancient Hinduism. Harvard University Sanskrit scholar Michael Witzel intervened in the editorial process last year, he said, to make sure the textbook didn't "whitewash" the history of ancient Hinduism. The state school board last month voted to adopt most of his recommendations, which included linking Hinduism to women's inferior social status and to India's caste system.
HAF said it is concerned that "Hinduism not be unfavorably compared with other religions or made to appear as a more regressive or archaic belief system," according to a statement released Friday.
But Witzel says the integrity of history is at stake.
