01-16-06

Dr. Ruth Green
President,
State Board of Education (California)
Fax: 916-319-0176

Honourable Doctor Green,
Let me first apologize, as a layman with no title, for wasting your precious time with this fax which I'll try to keep as short as possible.

I've been trying to follow the controversy going on about the California 6th grade textbooks, as someone interested in Indian culture and pained at the way it is generally depicted in the West, but also as a French parent of an eleven years old schoolgirl.

In my daughter's History textbooks, following the French secular policy to avoid religious subjects at school, I didn’t find a word on Indian traditions and import to world culture and civilization. There is at least no chance in this context that Indian traditions and history could be unfairly treated, though children get taught about Christianity and Judaism as historical components of world ancient history.

Anyway, there have been recent signs that more 'religious' studies would be included in the French Curriculum too, so what is going on in California might have somehow an impact on the French future textbooks.

It would be a positive development of the current controversy if it shows the urgent need to change the treatment of Indian traditions in the West, and the responsibility of your edition process could be a stepping stone, not only locally but as a first international move.

Unfortunately, it seems the issue has unnecessarily been made political, and this too by a Harvard professor who should have shown more evenness in the matter. In my humble understanding the insistence on a statu quo is merely a sign of difficulties to get rid of 19th century based colonial representations in the guise of progressive or liberal claims.

I sincerely hope your final decisions will reflect the complexity of Indian traditions and not the political agendas of the various parties interested. From what I read, most of the American Hindu groups’ editions were quite reasonable, whether or not these groups are politically considered representative of American Hindus or called ‘Hindutwa” by upset Harvard professors whose agenda is not very easy to understand.

Best regards,
D.A (Paris, France)
[Real name withheld at the author’s request]