Professor Hansen in 'The New York Times' on Debate over Teaching Indian History

Thomas Hansen, Faculty Director of the Center for South Asia, weighs-in on the passionate debate over how Indian history is taught in California.

Professor Hansen has butted heads with the Hindu American Foundation for more than a decade over how Indian history is taught in California.

“The issue is when you can use the term Indian and when you can use Hinduism,” he said, as opposed to South Asia. “This group has a lot of interest in calling everything Hindu and Indian so that it can equate modern-day India with historic roots. But it’s absurd. It would be like calling Ancient Rome Italy.”
 
He said that the caste system was an integral part of Indian society even today with roots in the Hindu religion.
 
“It distorts reality,” Mr. Hansen said. “This is important for children to understand. Our duty is to make sure that the history is keeping with the scholarly research rather than give in to what a particular group wants.”