VII SUPPORTING LETTERS BY ACADEMICS AND SCHOLARS » Dr Yvette Rosser
Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2005 04:51:25 -0800 (PST)
From: Yvette Rosser, yvetterosser@yahoo.com
Subject: Academic advisors on Hinduism for California textbooks
To: “Dr. Rebecca Parker” RParker@cde.ca.gov, “Dr, Tom Adams” tadams@cde.ca.gov
Greetings Dr. Parker and Dr. Adams,
On the telephone yesterday, Dr. Parker and I discussed the fact that the SBE has retained an academic adviser, a professor of Indian Studies who can review the sections on Hinduism and give scholarly advice to approve or reject the suggested edits. Of course, this has to happen quickly in order for the new textbooks to be in the classrooms in the fall.
I that context, I would like to point out that there is a tremendous divergence in approach to the study of India, as this recent adoption process of social studies textbooks made obvious. Please be certain that the professor you retained in an advisory role, is not adversarial to Hindu ethos.
A good litmus of this imperative is that you please be sure that his or her name does not appear on the petition circulated by Professor Witzel. As Dr. Parker and I discussed, the petition is mean-spirited name-calling and has no substance, it does not engage the academic issues concerning th! e edits, it is a blanket condemnation written sight-unseen.
I was actually a bit shocked to see that some well-known professors such as Dr. Stanley Wolpert and Dr. Fred Smith, signed such an unsubstantiated petition. I suppose it was worded so sensationally that they signed as a political point. The professors must have assumed that Dr. Witzel had reviewed the suggested edits and THEN sent out the strongly worded petition. They must have trusted the petition was based on academic overview of the materials… or else why would they sign something without first reviewing the materials in question?
I would strongly suggest that the scholar whom you retain to review the section on Hinduism is NOT one of the signatories. If they signed the petition, that would be a conflict of interest. They would be predisposed in the case and their judgments would be compromised.
During the curriculum review process, Shiva Bajpai, Director of Asian Studies at Califor! nia State University, Northridge and specialist on ancient Indian history consulted with the groups who proposed the edits. His understanding of the textual references are more in line with the sensibilities of practicing Hindus. I suggest you retain his services. Definitely do not depend on one of the professors who signed the petition—such prejudicial pre-assumptions would appear very strange and taint the process.
As we noted, in the OUP textbook was this unprofessional statement: “The monkey king Hanuman loved Rama so much that it is said that he is present every time the Ramayana is told. So look around—see any monkeys?”
This made me wonder, what if textbooks in India while, explaining Christianity, wrote “Christ says ‘Whenever two are gathered together in my name, I am there also.’ See Jesus around?” That would NEVER happen in India. They are very sensitive of their minority communities and Christians make up about 2.3% of India’s population.
I have also wondered what a child in India would think of the USA if America was presented to children in India in the same sensational manner that India is presented to children in the USA. In U.S. textbooks, India is frozen in time and a mostly negative approach to the past is stressed. After studying about India, American students think they burn their widows, starve girl babies, and worship rats.
Using this same negative approach, children in India, after studying about the USA, would think that women were often accused of witchcraft and that they still had to march in the streets to get rights and that African-Americans were slaves. Luckily, textbooks in India don’t do this. Let us be sure that our textbooks don’t fall into the trap of using old models and narrations with subtle biases.
Thank you for your attention. I apologize for the long letters, but I hope they have been informative and useful. I look forward to hearing from you.
All the best,
Yvette C. Rosser