Hindu activists protests in California to reject suggestions to replace 'India' with 'South Asia'

California Department of Education (CDE) has planned to remove a word "India" and replace it with "South Asia" and the word "Hinduism" by referring it as a "religion of ancient India." These changes will take place for 6th and 7th grade, history-social sciences textbooks. There are many such instances observed in proposed changes that can mislead children to understand the meaning and importance of words such as India, Hindu, Hinduism and Vedas.

Incorrect and conflicting choices of words can impart misinformation to over half a million school children, who learn from these textbooks. Also, CDE textbooks and syllabus get adopted by most of the states' education departments. Hence it is a matter of concern.

A group of professors including Sheldon Pollock, Robert Goldman, Lawrence Cohen and Kamala Visweswaran, under the name of ‘South Asia Faculty Group’ had written to the Department of Education, suggesting that most references to ‘India’ before 1947 be replaced with “South Asia”. The suggestions had created a huge uproar in the Indian-American community based in California. Earlier this week a petition by a group of scholars named ‘Scholars for People’ and signed by over 18,000 people had asked the commission “Would you presume to deny the reality of India’s existence and history, and its deep significance to Indian American students in California, simply because a few misinformed professors of “South Asia Studies” wrote you a letter recommending you re-educate California’s children in this bizarre manner?”

A large number of students and parents testified at the public hearing of the commission held in Sacramento on March 24th seeking the rejection of these changes.

Bill Honig, the Chair of the Subject Matter Committee of the Commission said at the public hearing that they reject the suggestion for removal of India but agreed to add “South Asia” in parenthesis after most mentions to ancient India. The new recommendations will be forwarded to the State Board of Education for their consideration and the final draft of the framework is to be accepted later this year.

The recommendations will come up for consideration at the California’s State Board of Education’s (SBE) meeting in May.

Dr. Manmohan Vaidya, RSS Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramuk tweeted, “The leftist scholars' bid to undermine India's glorious identity was foiled by young Hindu activists and HEF in California, USA. Congrats to Hindu activists to successfully oppose & contest the suggestion to replace 'India' by 'South Asia' in text books in USA”.  Dr Vaidya.