Source: People's Democracy

http://pd.cpim.org/2006/0101/01012006_nalini.htm

On January 1, 2006 People's Democracy ran an opinion piece by Nalini Taneja on recent changes to the portrayal of Hinduism in California textbooks. Taneja writes, "The kinds of debates over history textbooks we are familiar with in India are now raging in the California state of the US. The RSS linked organisations in the US have been trying to get school textbooks for young children saffronised in much the same way as they did in India... the RSS linked organisations like The Vedic Foundation and The Hindu Education Foundation have managed to get most of the changes that they wanted incorporated into the chapters dealing with ancient Indian history and culture in the book under revision (currently the book for Grade 6). Despite a controversy and strong opposition from well known indologists and about a 100 scholars and teachers of South Asian studies, not to speak of letters opposing these revisions from Indian historians (D N Jha, Irfan Habib, Shereen Ratnagar, Shireen Moosvi and KM Shrimali to name a few), the Curriculum Commission of the Board of Education has accepted the RSS sponsored vision of history and culture. Of the total of 156 edits requested by these organisations, the Commission accepted 97 edits that conformed to what the Hindutva organisations had recommended at a meeting on December 2, 2005. This was when the matter had already become a public issue and the State Board of education had already been alerted of the perniciousness of the RSS agenda of falsification of history for political purposes."