COMMENTARY juLY 16, 2016 vol lI no 29 EPW Economic & Political Weekly 18 Chinnaiah Jangam (chinnaiahjangam@cunet. carleton.ca) teaches at the Department of History, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. What Is at Stake in Rewriting California School Textbooks? Chinnaiah Jangam For several months, the Instructional Quality Commission of California, which advises the State Board of Education on matters of curriculum and instruction in schools, has been overwhelmed by petitions and counter petitions from the South Asian diaspora. At the centre of this controversy is the way in which the Indian subcontinent’s history, culture and people are represented in school textbooks. The controversy reflects an interesting anxiety of the caste Hindu diaspora surrounding its own identity as well as that around its history and culture. M ore than half of the immi- grants to the United States (US) from South Asia—and in particular those from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka—re- side in Silicon Valley and elsewhere in California. Among them, a major propor- tion of Indian-origin immigrants are suc- cessful professionals and technocrats and wield considerable political power due to their economic success. Notably, a majority of successful Indians immi- grants are caste Hindus. The multiple organisations they have established in the US, especially Hindu temples and other religious foundations, point to their privileged caste and religious back- ground. Along with religious organisa- tions, there are many private founda- tions and institutions such as the Uberoi Foundation for Religious Studies and the Infinity Foundation which are using their dollar power to intervene in deci- sion-making and also to buy political clout in influencing policy decisions affecting larger South Asian diaspora. At first glance, the activities of Indian American and Hindu American organi- sations (used interchangeably) may res- emble charitable activities and humani- tarian initiatives. The campaign against bullying in schools and advocacy of human rights are two examples of huma- nitarian activities. In reality, however, these campaigns often camouflage poli- tical and ideological links to the extrem- ist, right-wing Hindu political outfits in India, notably the Vishva Hindu Pari- shad (VHP) and the Rashtriya Swayam- sevak Sangh ( RSS). Some of these organ- isations are responsible for mass mur- ders and violence against Muslims, Christians, marginalised castes and women in India. The caste Hindu dias- pora in the US uses the West’s obsession of eastern spirituality, which has its origin in colonial discourses, and the atmos- phere of anti-Islam in the West and North America to project itself as vege- tarian and spiritual. In contrast, the roots of Hinduism, which the caste Hindu diaspora is trying to resurrect as a sane and spiritual order, historically stand for inegalitarian birth-based caste hier- archies/inequality, as well as exclusion of and violence against marginalised castes and women. This tension between the uncomfortable past and the purport- ed image is showing up in the debate over the content of California’s social science curriculum. Caste and the Indian Diaspora Historically, the Indian diaspora across the Caribbean and Atlantic is closely tied to the colonial and imperial process- es of the 19th century and the history of decolonisation after World War II. There are three historical waves in the rise and development of the Indian diaspora. The first relates to the British imperial pro- ject. The abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1833 necessitated the replace- ment of African slaves with Indian in- dentured labourers in plantations across the Caribbean and Guyana. Indentured labourers who were uprooted from vil- lages and brought across the Atlantic were mostly young adults with little education. Over time, Indian labourers recreated their lives based on memory and the extended networks of travellers. In later years, newspapers and, subse- quently, television (notably Bollywood cinema) also influenced the diaspora’s construction of identity. Though not much has been written about the exist- ence of caste hierarchy within the dias- pora, the very idea of reproduction of Hinduism leads to a caste system, though, perhaps, not as rigid as that in India. The second wave of immigration started with the crumbling of the British Empire and the onset of decolonisation in South Asia. The post-1947 partition of the Indian subcontinent and the accompanying violence led to the displacement of mil- lions of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Parsees, Christians and Anglo-Indians. Mass migration followed, not only between India and Pakistan but also to North America and the United Kingdom. As a continuum to that process from the 1950s to 1980s there was a gradual