US texts portray India ‘negatively’

Washington, May 20: Indian-Americans have expressed anguish over the negative portrayal of Hinduism and India in the proposed California school textbooks.

“It is disappointing to see that even after a decade of building awareness by the HinduAmerican community, textbooks especially by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill, Discovery and National Geographic continue to use orientalist narratives to portray Indian civilisation,” said Shantharam Nekkar, director of Hindu Education Foundation USA. For the past several years, the Indian-American community has been battling to remove several inaccuracies and myths about Hinduism from the textbooks. The state of California mandates that the textbooks to be based on the framework laid down by the department of education.

Hindu groups pointed out that many of these changes have not reflected in the textbook drafts.

“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,” said Sharat Joshi, a parent from San Jose. — PTI