An outrage broke, as hundreds of teachers, school students and parents of Indian kids in American schools protested against the recommendations to remove word India from the California state textbooks from Grades VI to X, due to which crucial historical references to India could be eliminated. Over 20,000 people have signed off on a petition or letter protesting the suggestions.

Dr Vamsee Juluri, who teaches media studies at the University of San Francisco, called this as the “largest civil rights movement of Indian Americans in the last 40 years.”

“the struggle here is for all Indian Americans who represent the last remaining legally and professionally sanctioned victims of racism,” he said.

Petitioning the California Board of Education, Juluri writes: “You seem to have been taken for a ride! You cannot seriously expect California’s educational system to be respected anywhere in the world if you go ahead with your recent decision to delete all references to “India” in middle school history lessons and replace this word with the geo-politically motivated  Cold War era relic of a phrase “South Asia." Would you presume to deny the reality of India’s existence and history, and its deep significance to Indian American students in California, simply because a few misinformed professors of 'South Asia Studies' wrote you a letter recommending you re-educate California’s children in this bizarre manner?”

Suggested changes could appear in the sixth to tenth grade textbooks in California at the beginning in 2017. But the education board is showing signs of backing off as the war cry is getting louder, says Juluri.

Here are few themes making rounds on the online petition include “absurd”, “Shocking”, “Let India be India, just like you are not changing America’s name”.

Here is the Petition

Also read: Stop replacing word India with South Asia in California syllabus!

- Sumana