VII SUPPORTING LETTERS BY ACADEMICS AND SCHOLARS » Dr Ved Nanda
November 29, 2005
Mr. Jack O’Connell, State Superintendent of Public Instruction and Director of Education
Mr. Gavin Payne, Chief Deputy Superintendent
Ms. Sue Stickel, Deputy Superintendent Curriculum & Instruction Branch
Mr. Thomas Adams, Executive Director, CFIR Division
Dr. Deborah Keys, Vice-Chair Curriculum Commission
Ms. Ruth Green, President, State Board of Education
Ms. Glee Johnson, State Board Vice President
Mr. Alan Bersin
Ms. Ruth Bloom
Ms. Yvonne Chan
Mr. Donald G. Fisher
Mr. Kenneth Noonan
Mr. Joe Nunez
Ms. Bonnie Reiss
Mr. Jonathan Xavier Williams
Mr. Paul Gardner III
Respected Ms. Green, Mr. O’Connell, and Members:
As a practicing Hindu who makes his living in higher education, I have been following with considerable interest and concern the ongoing deliberations for review of sixth grade social studies textbooks by the California State Board of Education (CSBE). Although I do not teach Indian history, Hindu religion, or South Asian studies, I have spent my life studying Hindu scriptures.
The California Department of Education (CDE) will be shortly deciding on the issues raised by several Hindu organizations and individuals, that is, material they consider to be biased and stereotyped in portraying Indian history and the Hindu religion, which is a minority in this country. In this context, I would submit for your kind considreation the following:
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The CSBE had earlier given tentative approval to 93 of the 117 changes the Hindu Education Foundation (HEF) and other groups had recommended to it. These recommended changes met the state criteria for evaluating instructuional materials in the social sciences which, in short, require that materials on religious subject matter remain neutral. After that tentative approval, apparently relying on the advice of Professors Witzel and Wolpert, the Board is having second thoughts about those changes. I would respectfully request that the CDE and the CSBE adopt the recommendations they had earlier approved.
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The reason for my suggestion is that Professors Witzel and Wolpert did not challenge the fact that the recommendations approved did squarely meet the criteria mentioned above. If the CSBE will be using any other criteria besides its own religion-neutral criteria, it has an obligation to explain why it is doing so and give the HEF and other parties an opportunity to respond. Please know, as you obviously do, that if the criteria are changed midstream the HEF and other groups might wish to pursue legal avenues challenging the process.
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As you have heard from concerned parents, California Hindu children feel humiliated and are often ridiculed as they read the current textbooks.
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If there are issues on which there are competing viewpoints presented by scholars, as pertaining to the Aryan migration/invasion theories, it seems appropriate simply to state in a text that the issue is unsettled.
I very much hope that the CDE and the CSBE will adopt the textbooks free of biases and stereotypes.
Cordially,
Ved P. Nanda
Vice Provost,
Evans University Professor,
Thompson G. Marsh
Professor of Law, and Director, International Legal Studies Program, University of Denver