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Some School Textbooks Misrepresent and Stereotype Hinduism

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, urged the United States Department of Education to form a committee of Hindu leaders and scholars to go through the Hinduism part of the content before publishers bring out the book.

"It is not healthy to feed highly impressionable minds of teenagers with biased views of the oldest and third largest religion of the world," Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, argued. Moreover, it could hurt the feelings of devotees, he added.

Rajan Zed further says that one such book, elaborating a "Cooperative Learning Activity" suggests the teacher form a "Role Play" by organizing the class into the four varnas and the "untouchables." It also wants each group to discuss how its members should react to the following hypothetical situation: In ancient India, a cow from a small herd dies in a crowded street in front of a Hindu temple or shrine.

Zed points to another textbook, which (talking about Hindu Beliefs) says: Many Hindu shrines are literally covered with stone sculptures of nymphs, dwarfs, serpents, and demons. Sometimes these figures represent one of the principal gods, often Vishnu or Siva.