A US court has upheld a Hindu organisation'scontention that the process of adopting textbooks containing flawed presentation of Hinduism was ?illegal?, but refused to ?toss? them out of schools saying it would be ?disruptive? for students.
The Hindu American Foundation had brought the lawsuit on behalf of Hindu parents from California against the State Board of Education arguing that the procedure through which SBE reviewed and approved revisions in sixth grade textbooks, especially as to the presentation of Hinduism, was not conducted under regulations required under the state Administrative Procedures Act.
?As a result, HAF held, anti-Hindu academics were illegally allowed to bias the process against Hindu parents and students in California resulting in textbooks that presented the debunked Aryan migration theory as fact, misrepresented caste as central to Hinduism and left the impression that Hinduism devalued the role of women,? HAF said in a release.
California Superior Court Judge Patrick Marlette a few days ago had ruled the textbook adoption process was ?flawed? and ?illegal?, but withheld an opinion on the violation of the open meeting act, deciding that since the entire process was already ?invalid? a specific ruling would be redundant.
HAF said, ?It would seem logical that if the process was illegal, then the resulting textbooks must be tossed out and the adoption process repeated.?
It also said that its attorneys are considering options for appeal to force revisions to the Hinduism sections in the contested textbooks.
