Subject: [Fwd: [world-vedic] Urgent: Plans to derail California Hindu textbooks revision] From: jan Date: Fri, 02 Dec 2005 20:15:48 +0100 To: lal.krishna.sdg@pamho.net Subject: [world-vedic] Urgent: Plans to derail California Hindu textbooks revision From: Vrndavan Parker Date: Fri, 02 Dec 2005 02:42:20 +0100 (CET) To: vediculture@yahoogroups.com Vikram wrote: Date: Thu, 1 Dec 2005 16:36:23 -0800 (PST) From: Vikram Subject: Re: Urgent: Plans to derail California Hindu textbooks revision To: viji , vrnparker@yahoo.com, ks.kasturirangan@gmail.com, kaustubh.deshpande@gmail.com, jitmajumder212@yahoo.co.in, devishaktiindia@gmail.com, ravi7640@vsnl.net, Vprasad@ewi.tudelft.nl Fwding an essay on the AIT menace and steps to counter it. Most points have been covered on IndCiv - just thought this was a tidy compilation of many points raised previously. Regards, Vikram The AIT menace: AIT as we all know, in its purest, unadulterated format assumes that "Aryans" were white invaders in a black Indian sub-continent. In addition, the caste system and the Dalit issue has been linked to this theory where the Dalits are assumed to be the trampled upon "blacks". Thus the infamous racial experiences of the west have been transplanted onto Indian history in this manner. For an overview of this controversy and associated literature, refer to the link: http://www.svabhinava.org/AITvsOIT/default.htm. The links and articles on this page circumscribe the debate and provide viewpoints from most of the interested parties. What is interesting however is the gradual watering down of this theory from 1960s to present – it was initially billed as a massive and destructive invasion. Then when archaeological proof was not forthcoming, it was termed a gradual migration. Now, many espousing AIT previously, talk of replacement of just societal elites without a major population change. Thus, we see that the theory has slowly been bent out of shape to account for the lack of hard evidence while maintaining Euro-centric concepts about west-to-east transmission of cultural and linguistic ideas. When one examines the collaborators in this debate, the confetti of motivations behind maintaining AIT’s validity is unraveled - Indologists like Witzel, Farmer and Co., Missionaries/Evangelicals such as John Dayal, and Marxists. I have tried to state below what each of these groups actually stand to achieve by partnering for pushing AIT/AMT and the associated version of India’s history: 1. Weaken Indian society and encourage Balkanization or the breakup of India: AIT allows ‘divide and rule’ because it pits non-Dalits against Dalits, North Indians against South Indians, etc. Possible forces behind such an attempt are western think-tanks/intelligence agencies who seek to further weaken/soften the Indian state, Proselytization forces - which can then play off one segment of the population against the other to create a feeling of perpetual persecution, leading to more conversions fueled by insecurity and hate, and surprise! – Marxists, who see a culturally more united India as detrimental to vote-bank, class-based politics. 2. Preserve status quo with respect to the cultural history of Europe: This is an interesting topic to explore as some have suggested that a significant chunk of their imagined cultural history would be wiped clean without help from the ‘Vedic Aryans’ and associated literature. Here the main actors again seem to be history/linguistics departments in the west – one of who’s tasks surely has to be ensuring and maintaining the ‘superiority’ of the west in terms of cultural/linguistic innovations. Church leaders will no doubt view this agenda favorably – by ensuring that the west is continued to be viewed as a superior culture, the traditional association of Christianity with the West can therefore be used to imply the superiority of Christianity itself. 3. Paint cultural achievements in Ancient India as borrowings and portray earlier social practices negatively as irrational, nonsensical and discriminatory: Marxists and Missionaries have taken a lead on this front as this leads to a loathing of one’s own culture making conversion (in the case of missionaries) and acceptance of western “enlightenment” concepts easier (in the case of Marxists). For western forces, this agenda is used to restrict the growth of Hindu philosophy, Yoga and associated traditions in the west by spreading the seeds of doubt and confusion in the minds of prospective followers. Also, “Enlightenment”-era philosophy and leftist ideology meshes well with modern-day Christianity – both strive for an irrational totality and certainty in workings of the world around them. So as a first step, by painting Hinduism as a non-authentic belief-system filled with superstition, Indologists have set discarding of Hinduism as the initial requirement that needs to be met for India to become an “enlightened” society. Marxists have innocently lapped up these inherently racist western constructs and in a display of total lack of originality and wisdom, seek to dutifully satisfy this requirement so they can be counted among the “enlightened”. Another ingenious display of how natives are used by imperialistic powers to perform their bidding. 4. Questioning the authenticity of native religions and associated historical figures: Proving the supposed fictional nature of these figures is tantamount to proving the uniquely authentic nature of Christian beliefs in the mind of the missionary. This is equivalent to the practice of first targeting the leader(s) of an army during war. Similarly, current leaders of these religions will also be targeted for the same reason. 5. Paint the caste system and Dalit issue as one of race, equivalent to the situation of African Americans in the US: The irony here is that the supremely racist, 19th century, Eurocentric viewpoint of supposed Indo-Europeans riding down the Hindukush, trampling upon peaceful, black natives and imposing social inequalities is used by the closet-racist AIT-touting Indologist crowd to paint themselves as the liberators of “India’s blacks” all while implicitly preserving the assumed notions of European cultural superiority!!! Their sincere hope is that this will make it difficult for Indians to get support from any quarter in the US or elsewhere in the fight to correct distorted versions of history. In fact, recent efforts to enlist the support of African and African-American organizations in this regard have come to attention. By doing this, the responsibility of the west in propagating false concepts of racial superiority is diminished and in the process, they are actively trying to plant seeds of conflict among non-western societies/peoples. While it is always difficult to suppress the truth for too long, in this case, the lack of unified and concrete evidence supporting AIT or indigenist arguments has made this a propaganda ball-game. Given the funds available to sources trying to push AIT (western institutions and missionaries), it is imperative to act to counter these untruths. Listed below are some steps to address this menace: 1. Further research: Archaeologically, it has been sufficiently proven that there was NO invasion or large-scale displacement of the Indian gene pool as posited by AIT. Similarly, there are no references to such a phenomenon in historical literature. It is now up to Indian linguistic departments to rebuff traditional IE linguistics arguments by patiently working out alternative possibilities, while also tirelessly questioning established assumptions about the supposed IE migration. In addition, further research should be carried out on the origins of Mitannis - Vedic kings who ruled the Middle East in the 2nd millennium BC. 2. Correction of historical/current inaccuracies wherever they may occur: Like the BBC initiative, Indians should pro-actively confront AIT wherever it appears and shoot down these racist assumptions with ground realities – i.e., that AIT has no archaeological/philological basis, that the caste system has nothing to do with skin color, that discrimination of minorities has never been an Indian trait, that affirmative action policies in India are unparalleled in terms of coverage and consequence (how many women/minority heads of state/political leaders does one see in the west? – Contrast this with the sea of backward class/Dalit/women political leaders in India!!). 3. Education of the public: While there are already many websites which seek to correct such historical inaccuracies, it is important to for an institution with established credentials to also take up such information dissemination activities. In addition, popular media such as cartoons and movies should be used to further reinforce accurate versions of India’s history. 4. Expose forces behind the AIT: This should include 1. Uncovering the racist biases of many of these scholars, 2. Uncovering the clandestine collaboration of these forces, namely, the Indologist-Missionary-Marxist nexus. 3. Exposing the racist biases of enlightenment authors and other 19th century European scholars who helped construct the IE framework. 4. Exposing the “harvest mania” behind missionary activity and the simplistic, irrational assumptions of these folk such as anti-evolutionism, crusading/jihadist mindset, and anti-environmentalism. Attempts should also be made to relate this to the East Asian situation where such tactics have led significant conversions in countries such as S Korea, China, etc. It is no co-incidence that East Asians have also taken to consumerism and other western influences as a fish takes to water. 5. Form a meaningful partnership with Dalit leadership and work hard to assuage their concerns: This is of primal importance – not just because the enemy camp is baiting a significant portion of India’s population constantly by offering violent, anti-national, disruptive strategies (Maoists, Naxalites, etc.). This is going to be one of the toughest steps to take because of mutual suspicions, involvement of foreign agencies, Hindu orthodoxy, Evangelists and interested parties who will suffer politically with a break-down of this schism in Indian society. viji wrote: Dear Friends As you all know plans are underway to have portrayal of Hinduism in California textbooks and it has come under extreme attack from anti Hindu forces. A hearing will be held today and decision tomorrow - Dec 02, 2005. I came across the game plan of the anti Hindu league. Please read through the entire text. Please remove my email address while forwarding this email. You can forward it to interiit if you wish -- do remove my email though. If possible you can contact the below thru phone due to urgency and let them of the email. Hindu Education Foundation Contacts * For information : info@hindueducation.org * To join the efforts: join_us@hindueducation.org * For media: media@hindueducation.org * For Organizations: media@hindueducation.org For California Initiative contact California Coordinator Anjali Patel join_us@hindueducation.org 7930 McClellan Rd. Ste # 1 Cupertino, CA 95014 Phone: 408-257-1394 _________ Next step: California Comm. vote on Hindutva changes Dear Amarjit Singh and John Dayal! I would like to turn your attention to the matter discussed in the attached letter from Prof. Michael Witzel at Harvard and in the letter below. As you will see, Hindutva forces in California have been active trying to change the contents of Californian school books so that they reflect the views held by Hindutvavadins on Indian society and history. Witzel and a number of other scholars have reacted to this in the manner expressed by the letter. Notice particularly the following paragraphs below: ****** "This is not a public hearing. But all that means is that there is no official published time for the public to speak before the commissioners take action. Nonetheless, each meeting has a time for “public comment” and people will be allowed to come up and speak. (Thus, we have to be present). If they follow the order of the published agenda, public comment comes after the actual vote. They will only hear Tom Adam's (CA Dept. of Education) report on the earlier (Hindutva-inspired) and our (Wolpert, Heitzman, Witzel) findings. But if they see the huge Hindutva crowd expected and decide to let them speak first, it is possible votes will be swayed back the other way simply because no political person likes to say no, in public, to an unhappy minority group seeking redress of grievances." ****** We feel that support from other Indians - not Hindutvavadins - would be needed to counteract the initiative from the Hindutva people. It would probably be an advantage if Dalits were present and could demonstrate that the Hindutvavadins do not speak for all Indians. I have been reluctant to announce this on the Dalit lists because we don't know if they are infiltrated, we therefore turn to you for advice and help. Is there a way to (discretely) mobilize Dalits in California and elsewhere in this matter? Could you get some support from Afro-American organizations here? We don't want to create the impression that only a few outsiders are against the Hindutva version of history. Best regards, Lars Martin Fosse From: Dr.art. Lars Martin Fosse Haugerudvn. 76, Leil. 114, 0674 Oslo - Norway Phone: +47 22 32 12 19 Fax: +47 850 21 250 Mobile phone: +47 90 91 91 45 E-mail: lmfosse@chello.no http://www.linguistfinder.com/translators.asp?id=2164 FW: Next step: California Comm. vote on Hindutva changes amarjit@... Send Email Dear List Members Please publicise the contents below so that we may have our opinions heard. Regards Amarjit Singh -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lars Martin Fosse [mailto:lmfosse@chello.no] Sent: 27 November 2005 15:12 To: 'Amarjit Singh' Cc: 'John Dayal' Subject: VS: Next step: California Comm. vote on Hindutva changes Dear Amarjit Singh and John Dayal! I would like to turn your attention to the matter discussed in the attached letter from Prof. Michael Witzel at Harvard and in the letter below. As you will see, Hindutva forces in California have been active trying to change the contents of Californian school books so that they reflect the views held by Hindutvavadins on Indian society and history. Witzel and a number of other scholars have reacted to this in the manner expressed by the letter. Notice particularly the following paragraphs below: ****** "This is not a public hearing. But all that means is that there is no official published time for the public to speak before the commissioners take action. Nonetheless, each meeting has a time for “public comment” and people will be allowed to come up and speak. (Thus, we have to be present). If they follow the order of the published agenda, public comment comes after the actual vote. They will only hear Tom Adam's (CA Dept. of Education) report on the earlier (Hindutva-inspired) and our (Wolpert, Heitzman, Witzel) findings. But if they see the huge Hindutva crowd expected and decide to let them speak first, it is possible votes will be swayed back the other way simply because no political person likes to say no, in public, to an unhappy minority group seeking redress of grievances." ****** We feel that support from other Indians - not Hindutvavadins - would be needed to counteract the initiative from the Hindutva people. It would probably be an advantage if Dalits were present and could demonstrate that the Hindutvavadins do not speak for all Indians. I have been reluctant to announce this on the Dalit lists because we don't know if they are infiltrated, we therefore turn to you for advice and help. Is there a way to (discretely) mobilize Dalits in California and elsewhere in this matter? Could you get some support from Afro-American organizations here? We don't want to create the impression that only a few outsiders are against the Hindutva version of history. Best regards, Lars Martin Fosse From: Dr.art. Lars Martin Fosse Haugerudvn. 76, Leil. 114, 0674 Oslo - Norway Phone: +47 22 32 12 19 Fax: +47 850 21 250 Mobile phone: +47 90 91 91 45 E-mail: lmfosse@chello.no http://www.linguistfinder.com/translators.asp?id=2164 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fra: Michael Witzel [mailto:witzel@fas.harvard.edu] Sendt: 26. november 2005 17:26 Til: Peter Zoller; Garrett G. Fagan; Alexander Vovin; Patrick Olivelle; Boris Oguibenine; Phyllis K Herman; carendreyer Dreyer; Frederick Smith; Lars Martin Fosse; Rajesh Kochhar; Richard Meadow; Stanley Wolpert; Dwijendra Jha; Georg von Simson; Madhav Deshpande; Frank Southworth; Hiroshi Marui; Sudha Shenoy; Asko Parpola; Mohammad Mughal; Don Ringe; S. Palaniappan; Wim van Binsbergen; Homi Bhabha; huang9; David Stampe; Hideaki Nakatani; Jonathan Mark Kenoyer; Stefan Zimmer; Romila Thapar; Muneo Tokunaga; Shereen Ratnagar; Michael Witzel; Sheldon Pollock; Dominik Wujastyk; Parimal G. Patil; Steve Farmer; Robert Goldman; falk Falk; jkirk Kirkpatrick; agnes korn; Scharfe; Kalpana Desai; maurizio.tosi@tiscali.it; Patricia Donegan; Shingo Einoo Kopi: Arlo Griffiths; Raka Ray; Leonard van der Kuijp; Michael Witzel; John Brockington Emne: Next step: California Comm. vote on Hindutva changes Dear All, Many thanks again for your support! Today I report on the next step (and some harassment mails) It seems that all 50 signers of our letter have got the same kind of letter, actually sometimes from 2 people, with virtually the same text. (Satya Shekhar's is shorter): From: satya shekhar From: Ratnendra Pandey (see text below) ---- More importantly: Please alert your friends in CA to attend the Dec. 1/2 meetings: (1) The Curriculum Commission (one step higher up from last time) will be meeting Dec. 1 and 2 and will review the proposed edits and corrections and it is open to the public. The Edits and Corrections proposed by the Hindu Education Foundation and the Vedic Foundation and our own California Dept. of Education-appointed committee (Wolpert, Heitzman, Witzel) will be reviewed by the commission. (2) FYI: There will be a meeting with California Dept. of Education staff and the publishers to finalize the edits and corrections approved by the Commission on Dec. 14 and 15. Usually there are two Commissioners and a scholar(s) plus the CA Dept's staff present. Here is a link to the actual meeting agenda of Dec. 1/2: http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/cc/cd/ccagenda120105.asp Please note that on Dec. 1/2 a higher body than last time, the Curriculum Commission, is scheduled to take up this issue in the morning on December 2 (note all times are tentative—if they move through the agenda faster than expected, things will happen earlier). This is not a public hearing. But all that means is that there is no official published time for the public to speak before the commissioners take action. Nonetheless, each meeting has a time for “public comment” and people will be allowed to come up and speak. (Thus, we have to be present). If they follow the order of the published agenda, public comment comes after the actual vote. They will only hear Tom Adam's (CA Dept. of Education) report on the earlier (Hindutva-inspired) and our (Wolpert, Heitzman, Witzel) findings. But if they see the huge Hindutva crowd expected and decide to let them speak first, it is possible votes will be swayed back the other way simply because no political person likes to say no, in public, to an unhappy minority group seeking redress of grievances. It also appears that in the afternoon of December 1, the day before the vote, the History-Social Science subcommittee will hear reports about recent events in the adoption of the text books. This should not involve any discussion of the "Hindu" issue. But the Hindu groups might show up for that discussion too. Public comment is allowed and it will give them a chance to speak to some of the commissioners before the vote the next day. SO PLEASE TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION: Alert your friends in California to attend! Michael -------- Here Pandey's and Shekhar's letters: Dear Professor, I am writing to you in regards to your endorsement to a letter written by Prof. Witzel to California Department of Education (CDE). Prof. Witzel has written a letter to CDE - apparently with your endorsement - opposing recommendations to remove biases and stereotypes in portrayal of Hindu religion and Indian history in the social studies textbooks of California. This letter has caused serious outrage among many Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Sikh residents in the US, especially in California. Your endorsement seems to suggest that you belong to a group of people who support a racist theory causing potential discrimination to minorities. We hope that in this process your reputation as a scholar is not blemished. Sincerely, Ratnendra Pandey From: satya shekhar Dear Professor, Please attached is a copy of letter where your name has appears. Prof Witzel and Prof Farmer have sent the letter with your apparent endorsement. This letter has caused serious outrage among many Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Sikh residents in the US, especially in California. The letter has been interpreted by many as if you belong a group of people supporting a racist theory which may cause potential discrimination to minorities such as the Hindus. I hope that you are aware of this. Just your information. Regards Satya Shekhar ------here my older report, after the last comm. meeting---- Dear friends, success! It seems that we were successful; more details will follow as soon they become available. Here the initial, partial report from people present at the meeting of the California State Board of Education: This afternoon the California Board of Education voted to approve the school books for adoption in California schools; seven of eight publishers' programs were approved (Including the initially rejected Oxford U.P. one, it seems without adding in any of the Hindutva material). Below, I attach our joint letter for your reference. We had planned to send it to you earlier, but all the back and forth yesterday in preparing for today's (Wednesday's) meeting prevented me. Luckily, we had a California historian of india, Prof. J. Heitzman (UC Davis), present at the meeting who also used a letter written by Prof. Wolpert. Hence, some more detailed news about the meeting of the California State Board of Education: The meeting was to decide whether to adopt the changes that have already been suggested, collected in a book containing the massive number of changes. Comments from the audience: each one to speak for TWO MINUTES each. The first cohort of speakers included representatives of the Vedic Foundation, who all urged adoption of the changes. The next major group consisted of a number of Sikh speakers who urged non-adoption of the changes until after the insertion of additional material on Sikhism. Prof. Heitzman, speaking for us all, then alluded to the "Standards for Evaluating Instructional Materials for Social Content," section:" Religion; Indoctrination", urging the Board not to "encourage or discourage belief or indoctrinate the student in any particular religious belief." Pointing out that we represent thousands of high-level scholars from all religious backgrounds dedicated to the academic study of South Asian history and culture, he stated that we have two main objections to the current draft that cause us to oppose its adoption: (1) the consulting base, i.e. Dr. Bajpai, is too narrow for a problem of this complexity; and (2) we "impugn the credentials" of the Vedic Foundation and other Hindu groups to speak competently on issues of South Asian history and religion. These groups project, either overtly or subconsciously, policies known as Hindutva or "Hinduness" that portray South Asian and specifically Indian identity as Hindu. Their program has ravaged the social studies textbooks of India for the last ten years. He urged the Board not to allow a religious chauvinism of India to become the policy of the State of California, which would provoke an academic and international uproar. He volunteered the services of the university community specializing in the analysis of South Asia for evaluating the edits and additions proposed for the California textbooks: "We are ready to earn our pay; let us help you." Sincere thanks to Prof. Heitzman and to all of you ! This shows how concerted action, even if it comes as late as ours, can be successful. Incidentally, the next thing to tackle is the BBC website. Let us discuss how to go about it. Please see this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/history/index.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/history/history5.shtml Best wishes, Michael Michael Witzel Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University 1 Bow Street , 3rd floor, Cambridge MA 02138 1-617-495 3295 Fax: 496 8571 direct line: 496 2990 http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm Yahoo! Music Unlimited - Access over 1 million songs. Try it free. Yahoo! Personals Skip the bars and set-ups and start using Yahoo! Personals for free Yahoo! Personals Skip the bars and set-ups and start using Yahoo! Personals for free This is an information resource and discussion group for people interested in the World's Ancient Vedic Culture, with a focus on its historical, archeological and scientific aspects. Also topics about India, Hinduism, God, and other aspects of World Culture are welcome. Remember, Vedic Culture is not an artificial imposition, but is the natural state of a society that is in harmony with God and the environment.Om Shantih, Harih Om SPONSORED LINKS India calling card India phone card Vietnamese dating Learn vietnamese Vietnamese Vietnamese visa YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS * Visit your group "vediculture" on the web. * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: vediculture-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. [world-vedic] Urgent: Plans to derail California Hindu textbooks revision.eml Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Encoding: 8bit