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Textbook Controversies: In South Asia and for South Asians
Sponsored by South Asia Council
Organizer: Durba Ghosh, Cornell University
Discussant: Nita Kumar, Claremont McKenna College
Recent public controversies over school history and social studies textbooks have highlighted the centrality of education in constituting a liberal civil society. In the United States and South Asia, disputes over teaching children about Hinduism, history, and social life on the Indian subcontinent have provoked vociferous responses. Concerned parents, citizens, scholars, and state-appointed officials have become embroiled over what constitutes a fair representation of the history of South Asian origins, religions, and society. These debates demonstrate that education is at the heart of civil engagement and show the ways in which modern nation-states depend on educated citizens but are unable to address the citizens’ concerns and pain.
This panel brings together scholars from South Asia and the United States who analyze the production of textbooks for school-age children. In particular, we put the question of textbook controversies in various national contexts into conversation with one another. For instance, the controversy over what sorts of historical narratives are considered appropriate in textbooks for children in India is compared with a parallel controversy in the United States where the majority of students are not of South Asian descent and background. The papers address some of the following questions: What sorts of education are considered beneficial for young minds? Is it possible for educators to teach critical thinking while simultaneously producing national subjects and citizens? How might we engage some of these larger questions about the relationship between education and civil society and particularize them to local demands and concerns?
Good Citizens: The Indian Supreme Court and Teaching of Religion
Ronojoy Sen, Independent Scholar
My paper asks: How has the Indian Supreme Court interpreted Article 28 of the Indian Constitution which prohibits religious instruction in state-run educational institutions? The crucial ruling in this area is Aruna Roy v. Union of India where a public interest litigation challenged the National Council of Educational Research and Training’s national curriculum framework for school education on the ground that it violated the constitutional principles of secularism among other things. I examine the Aruna Roy judgment and an earlier case, DAV College v Punjab, to lay out what the Supreme Court views as permissible with regard to religion in school texts and curriculum. The court makes a critical distinction between ‘religious instruction’ and ‘religious education’, with the latter being permitted in school curriculum. I interrogate this distinction by looking at the Constituent Assembly debates on Article 28. I also look at reports by state-appointed commissions and committees in independent India such as the Radhakrishnan Commission, Kothari Commission, Central Advisory Board of Education Committee on Policy, Planning Commission Core Group on Value Orientation of Education and Chavan Committee and how they have dealt with the issue of religion in school textbooks and curriculum. I am interested in particular in how the court and the state frames the question of teaching religion to schoolchildren in terms of certain universal values, which are seen as integral to citizenship and nationality. By examining the discourse on teaching religion I also analyse the nature of constitutional secularism in India and its contradictions.
Multiculturalism and School Curricula: The California Textbook Controversy
Prema Kurien, Syracuse University
As a scholar who has done some research on Hindus in the U.S. I come to this issue as someone whose area of interest is in multicultural policy in a democratic civil society and how the question of religious and cultural identity is addressed in political debates. My presentation will be on the textbook controversy in California, which materialized over sixth-grade textbooks in the fall of 2005 and spring of 2006, and follows some of the judicial disputes that ensued. In California, community groups, educators, state educational officials, academic experts and the legal system became embroiled over what should be considered appropriate for social studies textbooks. I will focus on 1) how the two sides were speaking past each other but more importantly on the larger issues of 2) who should decide the content of school textbooks, what kind of input community members and religious groups should have, 3) who represents the 'authentic' community voice and who decides who represents the authentic community voice etc and 4) school textbooks and multicultural policies and procedures.