Indian identity in American schools: C. Alex Alexander

[ From: N.S. Rajaram
[ Date: 28.01.06

[ Subject: Indian identity in American schools: C. Alex Alexander
[ From: Srinivasan Kalyanaraman
[ Date: Saturday, January 28, 2006

Dec 27 2005 3:11PM

Indian Identity in American Schools

C. Alex Alexander

Though I have been in the US since 1962, I seem to have
remained unaware of how American schools are imprinting
concepts of Indian identity and Hinduism on the minds of
American youth including children born to Indian parents.
It was probably because I never had children of my own.
My recent inquiries of Indian parents about this issue
revealed that not many Indian parents are fully cognizant
of the extent of misinformation that is being parlayed to
young Americans, not just about India but about most non-
European civilizations.

After availing of an early retirement from our
professional lives, my wife and I spent a year studying
Art History after which we became volunteer docents at a
local art museum. In our roles as Docents we came in
contact with elementary and high school students who
visited the museum to augment their knowledge of world
history and ancient civilizations. After a year's
experience of interacting with school kids I have become
convinced that something needs to be done, especially
with regard to the way non-Judeo Christian communities
are being portrayed in the text books that our students
use and the manner in which their teachers are trained to
deal with Asian, African, Latino and Native American
traditions.

India, in my opinion receives the worst treatment of all
at the hands of our teachers of world history. China and
Japan fare a lot better. My African-American colleagues
with whom I often talk about India's image in the US
greet me with their "welcome to the club" slogan. They
remind me that Indians "have to fight the battles like
they themselves had to struggle with in order to make the
white Americans concede at least partly that Africa is
more than a mere continent that sent them their slaves".
Those of you who have resided in the US since the early
1960s may recall the debates we had here when the US
Nobel Laureate William Shockley and his friend, Professor
Arthur Jensen began to popularize their (now-discredited)
theories of racial inferiority of African-Americans. It
took nearly four decades of systematic challenges by the
black community to correct the distorted stereotyping of
blacks, some of which continue even today in a subtle
fashion.

Likewise, during the last three or four decades, the
negative images of India and Hinduism in particular have
been promoted by our movies and talk show pundits
(Indiana Jones, Oprah Winfrey, 60 Minutes et al). These
have contributed to the inability of many of our
schoolteachers to present a balanced portrayal of the
Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh traditions to their
students. Hinduism seems to fare the worst at the hands
of our school systems. The average American teacher's
knowledge of Hinduism, which is the core component of
India's cultural heritage, is often stilted by the
sensational portrayals of that faith by our mass media.
Though a few inquiring Indian parents seem to be aware of
these problems, I am unaware of organized efforts in most
states of our land (except in Virginia and California)
undertaken by the Indian community to address this issue.
I also realize that the extent of such prejudiced
portrayals of India may vary from state to state, the
worst being in our Bible belt in the South.

This issue was recently highlighted at the 5th
International Conference of the World Association of
Vedic Studies (WAVES) held on July 9-11, 2004 at the
Shady Grove Campus of the University of Maryland by a
paper presented by Yvette C. Rosser of the University of
Texas at Austin and titled "Stereotypes in Schooling:
Negative Pressures in the American Educational System on
Hindu Identity Formation". That study found that
"stereotypes about India and Hinduism when taught as
facts in American classrooms may negatively impact
students of South Asian origin who are struggling to work
out their identities in a multicultural, and
predominantly Anglo-Christian environment". Rosser's work
is based on surveys of both teachers who teach world
history in our classrooms and Indian students who are
being taught by these teachers. The study found that the
teachers devoted only 7% of their preparation time to
Asia of which most of it was consumed by Japan and China.
Latin America received 6%, Middle East 4% and Africa 3%.
Eighty percent of their learning time was devoted to
European history! The amount of time spent in class
instruction of these cultures reflected a similar
distribution of effort. The students who were interviewed
by Rosser were all of Indian descent. They were often
befuddled by the contradictions that resulted from what
they learnt about Indian culture and Hinduism through
their teachers vs. what they derived from interacting
with their Indian parents and Indian friends of non-Hindu
faiths. This is a serious issue with implications for the
formation of both identity and character of not only the
Indian youth but also of their non-Indian counterparts
with whom they will have to interact socially and live
with for the remainder of their lives. Aren't we after
all "one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for
all"? Our Great Seal proclaims " e Pluribus Unum", "out
of many, one"! Neither American's cultural identity nor
his/her roots should be demeaned owing to the ignorance
of our teachers, especially when we the taxpayers are
paying their salaries!

My own interactions with my adult American friends lead
me to conclude that most of them appear to have gotten
their entire education about India and Hinduism either
from the television and newspapers, or magazines like the
National Geographic and Readers Digest or through visits
to museums. This is particularly so with regard to their
knowledge of Hinduism. Most of them know about India's 3
Cs: Caste, Curry and Cows and the 3 Ps: Polytheism,
Poverty and Population! They know little or nothing about
the distinctions between polytheism and panentheism. The
more "sophisticated" ones know a little about Gandhi,
mostly through Richard Attenborough's movie. They are
also the ones who are more likely to ask you about
"suttee", "bride-burning" and "the Kashmir" problem. With
more than a million practicing Hindus now in the US and
with nearly 800 Hindu temples and Ashrams here, there is
no reason why Hindu temples in each state (a la the
African-American Churches) cannot take leadership roles
in systematically examining the high school textbooks
that the children of their worshippers use in schools.
Should they find factually incorrect and or demeaning
characterizations of India and its Hindu, Jain, Buddhist
or Sikh religious traditions in these textbooks, they
should bring them to the attention of their local school
boards with requests to rectify them. Not doing so will
surely affect the identity and character formation of
both Indian and non-Indian youth who are the future
citizens of this nation. In order to do all that, there
needs to be a united voice of Indians of non-Abrahamic
traditions in every community. I believe that the temples
of the Hindu, Jain, Sikh and Buddhist faiths are uniquely
suited to perform such functions. It is indeed both sad
and surprising that Hindu, Jain, Sikh and Buddhist
temples in the US have not yet formed at least a web-
linked and non-dues paying National Council or
Association or Consortium to discuss and resolve problems
that affect the identity of future generation of Indians
here who want to remain as adherents of their faiths into
which they were born. The monotheistic faiths (Judeo-
Christian=AD & Islamic) in the US have their own separate
linkages that inform each other of important issues
facing their respective faith communities. They do so
with lightning speed whenever they suspect that their
images or reputations are being distorted. I believe that
the Hindu temples (due to their large numbers) are
uniquely suited to take a lead in the development of such
a Consortium, Council or Association to tackle issues
concerning representations of their religious traditions
in our school systems.

Not too long ago, there were many articles in the US and
Indian media about the denigration of Ganesha,
Ramakrishna Paramahams, Shivaji etc by the sophomoric
writings of Eurocentric American Professors associated
with US Schools of Divinity. Complaints about such
writings were lodged by both Indian scholars in India as
well as scholars from among the NRI communities here in
the US and UK. But the latter (critics) were often
unfairly caricatured by a few Judeo-Christian as well as
Indian "intellectuals" characterizing the critics as
Hindu fundamentalists or ignoramuses who are unfamiliar
with our Bill of Rights, which guarantees freedom of
expression. It was even more baffling for me to learn
that some of these American (Judeo-Christian) professors
who routinely defame Hinduism and its deities and heroes
through their writings are frequently invited by Hindu
groups and even given honoraria and garlanded and feted
for their "contributions". Most Hindu hosts seem to be
unaware of the fact that their "distinguished lecturers"
who often identify themselves primarily as professors of
"Eastern religions" at reputable universities are in
actuality serving as principal faculty of their
respective Schools of Divinity. These Schools of Divinity
have ulterior motives in offering degrading
interpretations of non-Abrahamic faiths. They have no
interest what so ever in teaching any student the virtues
of India or its predominant Hindu civilization, which has
contributed, to the evolution of Buddhism, Jainism and
Sikhism. Hinduism's core value of pluralism and its
tolerance of all faiths are seldom highlighted, nor
discussed as more conducive to the preservation of world
peace than our monotheistic Abrahamic faiths can ever
hope to be if the latter remain wedded to its exclusivist
religious philosophy steeped in their respective beliefs
of infallibility.

You should not be surprised if you had heard from your
children that they had not heard anything good about
India or its many religious traditions from any of their
teachers. I wonder how many of them were told by their
teachers that India is the largest democracy in the world
with a secular form of government, that it is a country
that has never had a military coup, never invaded another
country, allowed Christianity to thrive even before it
spread to Europe, gave haven to Jews, Christians and
Zoroastrians when they fled from the onslaughts of Islam,
and gave birth to Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. They
also may not have heard from their teachers that India is
the seventh most industrialized country in the world, and
that it contributed a great deal to ancient mathematics,
astronomy, bronze casting, surgery, and vaccination,
Yoga, Ayurveda etc. But, your children may have been
asked inane questions by their classmates based on a
sensational TV or magazine account of some weird practice
going on somewhere in India as it happens everywhere,
even in our own, viz., the United States of America.

For example, Rosser reported in her study that one Indian
student said that he was asked in a class discussion why
Indians always worshipped rats, fed them and allowed them
to multiply when it is well-known that it can harbor
vectors capable of spreading bubonic plague. This
occurred after a TV show aired an item concerning
veneration of rats in a temple in Rajasthan. I too recall
someone asking me whether that practice was typical of
Hinduism. My response was that it was no more typical of
Hinduism than it is of Christianity if we were to infer
that all Christians handled rattlesnakes in their Sunday
worship as some congregations in West Virginia or the
Boot Heel of Missouri still do in order to test and
affirm their own "sinless" lives since their last worship
in that church!

The Judeo-Christian, African-American and Latino parents
(Latinos less vigorously than the former two groups)
exercise constant vigilance to ensure that the facts
about their respective cultures are not degraded or
slandered by any teacher. If they do, their
representatives on the School Boards promptly take them
to task. Now, it is the turn of Asian-Indian parent's
here, particularly Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Buddhist parents
to find out from their children what they are learning
about India and its many religions and their traditions.
And, if they find that their schools are not offering a
balanced account of India's history, its achievements and
its religious traditions, I do believe that the parents
have an obligation to seek remedial action from the
administrators of their schools. At least for posterity's
sake, they must act. If they do not, they are in my
humble opinion, short-changing their own commitment to
Sanatan Dharm. They are also missing a golden
opportunity to highlight the ancient wisdom of the Hindu
traditions as codified in Sanatan Dharm, which
celebrates religious pluralism and diversity. I know of
no other faith other than Hinduism or an ancient land
other than the pre-Mughal and the pre-Colonial Indian
subcontinent which permitted the thriving of multiple
faiths and demonstrated its hospitality to all those who
came to its shores seeking refuge from religious
persecution or trading opportunities. Even in recent
times, India has provided refuge to Tibetans fleeing from
persecution in their own homeland. More than two thousand
years before our Founding Fathers in this Nation
envisaged a country which shall become that "shining city
on the Hill" where religious pluralism and diversity
shall thrive so that we can remain an example for the
rest of the world, the Indian subcontinent was practicing
it! India continues to remain as that "shining" land mass
of religious tolerance even despite the relentless
provocations of the arrogant factions of the monotheistic
faiths.

It is not a well-appreciated fact here in this country
that India's Sanatan Dharm had always espoused such a
pluralistic tradition as befitting the peoples who
inhabited that subcontinent. Middle East too was a haven
for pluralism with its pre-Christian Semitic and African
cultures as well as the very early Christian churches of
the first four centuries of the Common Era. They were all
destroyed consequent to the bastardization of the ancient
eastern Judeo-Christian faiths when these essentially
"eastern Jewish and Orthodox Eastern Christian faiths"
were hijacked nearly 1700 years ago by the Western
imperialist powers to convert them into exclusivist
creeds and make them become tools in their quests for
world domination. Unfortunately, the same fervor for co-
opting religion in the service of expanding political
power was embraced by the Islamic rulers as well. The
follies of all such perversions, past and present are now
becoming more obvious in recent years with the resurgence
of militancy among the ignorant minorities of the
Abrahamic faiths who are either willing to maim and kill
for proving their exclusivist superiority and nearness to
God or belittle and ridicule those who perceive God
differently. In that context, the parents of our Indian-
American children have a stellar opportunity to show
their neighbors of Abrahamic faiths the redeeming values
and traditions of Sanatan Dharm and the latter's
intrinsic nearness to the true tenet of the American
Creed, E PLURIBUS UNUM!

(Dr. Alexander is a naturalized US citizen, and a recent
retiree from the medical profession. He has held several
executive medical positions in both the US Department of
Affairs and the US Department of Defense,US Army Medical
Corps, Reserve Components, and has held professorial
appointments at several medical schools during his 40
years of medical career in the United States. An earlier
version of this article was first published in INDIA FEST
- 04, Indian American Associations, National Capital
Region & subsequently in the Souvenir or Dharma Summit
2005, Aug 13-15,2005, Rutgers University, New Brunswick,
NJ)

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After availing of an early retirement from our
professional lives, my wife and I spent a year studying
Art History after which we became volunteer docents at a
local art museum. In our roles as Docents we came in
contact with elementary and high school students who
visited the museum to augment their knowledge of world
history and ancient civilizations. After a year's
experience of interacting with school kids I have become
convinced that something needs to be done, especially
with regard to the way non-Judeo Christian communities
are being portrayed in the text books that our students
use

India, in my opinion receives the worst treatment of all
at the hands of our teachers of world history. China and
Japan fare a lot better.