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Written by: Jessica Snyder
Published: 01/27/2006 Religion in History Books: Who Should Control the Text?
Religious groups are growing increasingly aggressive in their efforts to re-write mentions of their faith in school textbooks. According to the Wall Street Journal, for the past fifteen years, Islamic groups have monitored history books, battling for their faith to be cast in a better light. In the past three years, they have been joined by Jewish, Hindu and Sikh groups, with the main battleground in California.
Hindu groups in particular have swamped California authorities with revisions, to delete mentions of polytheism, the caste system and the inferior status of women in ancient India. The Hindu Education Foundation, for example, proposed replacing a statement that “men had many more rights than women” with “Men had different duties … as well as rights than women. Many women were among the sages to whom the Vedas [sacred texts] were revealed.”
This new issue raises the question: does the pressure from religious groups support a more accurate version of history, or is history really at the service of the loudest voice? The issue has been felt by textbook publishers, who, in Fairfax County, VA, one of the nation’s largest school districts, saw their 10th grade text dropped from the district’s recommended list after complaints from Hindu parents.
Most changes are usually accepted by the board of education, but recently a Harvard professor, Michael Witzel, led a group of U.S. scholars to protest the changes, accusing the Hindu-backed changes of being “unscholarly [and] politically and religiously motivated.” This letter, sent the day before a Nov. 9 meeting at which approval of the Hindu-backed changes was expected, led state officials to invite Mr. Witzel and like-minded scholars to further critique the recommendations. After a lengthy battle, the Curriculum Commission decided to support the changes sought by the Hindu foundations, in order to “err on the side of sensitivity toward religion.”
But then an advocacy group for untouchables, the Dalit Freedom Network, added pressure and opposed the Hindu foundations, saying they reflect “a view of Indian history that softens...the violent truth of caste-based discrimination in India… Do not allow politically-minded revisionists to change Indian history.” After being caught in the cross-fire, the board of education eventually summoned two opponents on the issue, including Mr. Witzel, to a private session on January 6. They reached consensus on some changes, including the statement that men had “more right” to “more property right than women. On January 12, the state board of education created a subcommittee to reconsider the matter and prepare for the increasing religious pressure.
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