Do you know the names of chaar Sahibzaade (four sons of Guru Gobind Singh) who sacrificed their lives to uphold Dharma? No? It’s not your fault, not even your teacher’s fault. So, whose fault is it anyway? It has everything to do with the education curriculum designed especially by so-called liberal historians who have always shown Hindu rulers as inferior or less important compared to their contemporary Muslim invaders.
California textbook controversy
The California Education Board teaches middle school kids about all the major religions of the world which is an amazing venture. However, the only problem with it is that they portrayed Hinduism in a light which isn’t very appealing.
In 2005, a controversy cropped up in the California state of the USA. The Texas-based Vedic Foundation (VF) and the American Hindu Education Foundation (HEF) took up the cause to rectify the misconceptions of the poor portrayal of Hindus and their deities. For example, Lord Hanuman was referred to as the monkey king. Also, the horrible practice of Sati which was a curse on Indian society a few centuries ago was taught as a common practice still prevalent in India. Moreover, Indo Aryan invasion theory was still being taught when it had been debunked already.
The California Department of Education (CDE) appointed Shiva Bajpai, Professor Emeritus at California State University Northridge, as a one-man committee to review revisions proposed by the groups. A Harvard University Professor Michael Witzel, being a Sanskrit professor since 1972 and an expert Indologist himself opposed all the review requests. To protest changes of a "religious-political nature”, he sent a letter to the CDE having fifty signatories in favor of him.
Hindu American Foundation, a prominent group working for the welfare of Hindus in the USA, fought a long battle for revision in the textbooks.
Due to their decade long battle,
They were able to get rid of the inaccurate, stereotyped, and exoticized images and captions about Hinduism.
They also made it very clear that there are still debates going on across the globe regarding the origins of Indians, hence the Indo-Aryan invasion theory is completely baseless.
They also helped better understand the core concepts of Hinduism and Jainism that can now form part of the curriculum.
The societal structures of India were described with greater accuracy, historical context, and nuance.
Painting Hindus as anti-woman and generalization anti-women practices
The stereotypes about India and Hinduism do not allow narrow-minded people to actually see how wonderful and dynamic Hinduism is. It is one of the oldest surviving religions which embraces polytheism, paganism, and the only religion where the god is not just “He” but also a “She”. However, Hindus are still painted as oppressors of women.
Let’s talk about Sati practice. Women in those centuries were scared, scared of Islamic invasion and falling into their hands or worse, into their harem. In order to escape fate, self-immolation practice began. Sati practice was a horrible act and we condemn it with all our heart but it has been more than 200 years since it was practiced last. The historians are quick to take reference to Hindu scriptures to suit their narrative but quick to declare their mythologies. It is all about convenience.
For decades, the Indian education system has been busy painting Islamic invaders as noble kings and warriors. Students are being taught how secular the “Great Akbar” was. But they are never taught how brutally he slaughtered thousands of Hindus, enslaved hundreds of Hindu women. They are never taught about his harem made especially for Hindu sex slaves.
Hindu women warriors and leaders find no place
While these historians would marginalize Hindu women, they won’t discuss Hindu queens and warriors who defeated Muslim and European invaders and fought bravely. Talk about women's empowerment as they didn’t cry about it but practiced in a true sense. Chalukyan Queen Naiki Devi, Rani Abbakka Chowta, Rampyari Gurjar, Rani Karnavati, Ahilya Bai Holkar have not been mentioned in history books.
Hindu kings and warriors ignored
As far as Indian liberal historians are concerned, the Hindu rulers for them were only chieftains Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in history textbook of Class VII is a perfect example of that) We were barely taught about Shivaji’s leadership skills and how kind he was. Unlike Islamic invaders, he always respected women and children. Our historians would barely talk about the Vijayanagar Empire and its 200+ years of rule in South India. Not only this, they won’t dare to talk about Ahoms in Assam who defeated Mughals 17 times. No Muslim invader could defeat them but did you read this in your History textbooks? No, absolutely not.
The only endeavor of these so-called historians has been to teach us a distorted history full of Hindu bashing to show how fragile, orthodox and uncivilized Hindus were. Many of these scholars offering alterations focusing on Hinduism, ironically include specialists in Islamic studies, such as Asad Q. Ahmad, Shahzad Bashir, and Chris Chekuri, as well as prominent Indian Americans of the Indian left, such as Kamala Viswesaran, amongst others.
Mughals rebuilt temples? Evidence suggests otherwise
Recently, Shivank Verma filed an RTI to see evidence regarding “temple building by Akbar” information as mentioned in the book ‘Themes of Indian History (Part II)’ for class XII. RTI revealed that information in NCERT books read by students all over India has no source of information. These History books are written mostly by Hindu hating or left-liberals intelligentsia including Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib, DN Jha, Ira Mukhoty among others who have always painted Hindu as uncivilized and anti-women which is anything but true.
What mattered to them the most was how to show Islamic invaders in a good light ignoring all the plunder, loot, rapes, and destruction of temples. They would never talk about how brutally Islamic invaders slaughtered Sikh Gurus and four children of Guru Gobind Singh - Ajit Singh, Jujhar Singh, Jorawar Singh, and Fateh Singh, and millions of others. In the name of secularism, Hindus have always been kept bereft of their actual history.
UPSC aspirants reading NCERT books bereft of pieces of evidence
What’s more shocking is that the books written by these so-called Historians are taken as a reference for the preparation of the Civil services exam in India. So what kind of administrator will we have who read these bogus histories? Not only this, the widely contested theory of Aryan Invasion theory has been a part of the UPSC curriculum for a long time despite having no solid evidence. Why do we see a deliberate attempt to demonize Hindus? It is a continuous attempt to create a rift between Hindus dividing them into various castes. It is a well-established fact that the Indian social system was based on Varna (occupation).
Deleted the records of numerous revolutionaries
All the textbooks were written in the Congress regime. These revolutionaries other than Gandhi, Nehru, Ambedkar, Bose, and Sardar, thousands of others who gave their life to India's independence didn’t find themselves in history books. Is there a direct connection between the anti-Hindu and pro-Congress mindset? Or is it just a coincidence? How many of you know Kartar Singh Sarabha was only 19 when he was hanged till death. Similarly, we don’t get to know much about Chandrashekhar Aazad, Bhagwati Charan Vohra, his wife Durga Devi, Vir Savarkar, Khudiram Bose, Madan Lal Dhingra, Roshan Singh, Ramprasad Bismil, and many others.
Hindu hating curriculum in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia
Textbooks in Pakistani schools promote prejudice and intolerance of Hindus and other religious minorities. There are systematic negative portrayals of Hindus. Religious minorities are often portrayed as inferior or second-class citizens. According to the Pakistani curriculum, Hindus and other minorities have been granted limited rights and privileges by generous Pakistani Muslims. They believe minorities should be grateful. Hindus are seen as extremists and enemies of Islam and the culture of Hindus is based on injustice and cruelty. On the other hand, Islam is taught as a religion of peace and brotherhood.
Islamic teachings and references are found in abundance in compulsory textbooks. Pakistan's Christians, Hindus, and other minorities are taught Islamic content forcefully. Pakistan converted many Hindu temples and Jain temples in the district of Balochistan and Multan into Madrassas.
The curriculum of religious studies in Saudi Arabia encourages violence towards others. The curriculum in Saudi Arabia divides the world into true believers of Islam (the "monotheists") and unbelievers (the "polytheists" and "infidels"). Hindu hate begins all the way from first grade for kids. The curriculum also teaches them to wage Jihad against polytheists (Hindus).
Positive news from the Netherlands
The good news is not all countries are anti-Hindus, there are some that have adopted Hinduism to teach students how cohesive and tolerant the teachings of Hinduism are. European countries such as the Netherlands and Denmark have Hinduism schools for students where all students are welcome irrespective of their race or ethnicity and they learn about basic tenets of Hinduism, rituals, yoga, deities, Hindu scriptures, etc.
Positive steps taken by India
PM Narendra Modi made a 14-member committee in 2018 to revise the education curriculum and give our revolutionaries and Hindu warriors their due respect. The committee is meant to use evidence such as archaeological finds and DNA to prove that today’s Hindus are directly descended from the land’s first inhabitants many thousands of years ago. This will help to prove that Indo-Aryan invasion theory is completely bogus which was conceptualized to create a rift by Britishers in the name of natives and Eurasians. Also, the committee has to work on evidence proving ancient Hindu scriptures are fact, not a myth.
In a major welcome move, UP CM Yogi Adityanath launched the Global Encyclopaedia of Ramayana in March 2021. This will help people learn more deeply about the different characters of Ramayana and their righteousness. Apart from this, he announced in December 2020 that Sikh Gurus' history will be a part of the school syllabus in UP. We hardly find much information about Sikh Gurus, considering this is a praiseworthy step taken by him.
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