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In this book, we examine the impact on Indian American children from school textbook narratives about Hinduism and ancient India, highlighting their alignment with colonial-racist discourse. This discourse causes psychological effects similar to those caused by racism: shame, inferiority, embarrassment, identity confusion, assimilation, and a detachment from their cultural heritage. The book represents four years of rigorous research and academic peer review, underscoring Hindupedia's dedication to challenging the portrayal of Hindu Dharma in academia.

Talk:Martha C. Nussbaum

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Sachi Anjunkar

Martha C. Nussbaum is the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, appointed in the Department of Philosophy and the Law School at the University of Chicago[1] [2] as of August 2022. She is an Associate in the Classics Department, the Divinity School, and the Political Science Department and a Member of the Committee on Southern Asian Studies. According to her profile, her research works are focused on Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, feminist philosophy, political philosophy, and philosophy and the arts.

In 2021, she endorsed the "Dismantling Global Hindutva" conference and made an unsubstantiated statement

"the current government of India [in 2021] has instituted discriminatory policies including beef bans, restrictions on religious conversion and interfaith weddings, and the introduction of religious discrimination into India’s citizenship laws. The result has been a horrifying rise in religious and caste-based violence, including hate crimes, lynchings, and rapes directed against Muslims, non-conforming Dalits, Sikhs, Christians, adivasis and other dissident Hindus. Women of these communities are especially targeted. Meanwhile, the government has used every tool of harassment and intimidation to muzzle dissent. Dozens of student activists and human rights defenders are currently languishing in jail indefinitely without due process under repressive anti-terrorism laws." [3]

On November 5, 2017, she signed the letter submitted by the South Asia Faculty Group (SAFG) to the California State Board of Education[4] where she:

  • Misrepresented scholarship stating "Mythological terms substitute for historical ones for example the 'Indus Valley Civilization' (a fact-based geographic term) appears to be replaced with a religiously-motivated and ideologically charged term 'Indus-Saraswati/Sarasvati Civilization'. The Saraswati is a mythical river"[5][6][7]
  • Implied that Christians and Muslims existed in Ancient India, prior to the founding of these religions

In 2016, she signed a letter endorsing a letter submitted by the South Asia Faculty Group[8][9] where it addressed the State Board of Education, California Department of Education, dated May 17, 2016. In this letter they requested removing the word India from textbooks. In addition, they falsely[10] stated:

  1. "There is no established connection between Hinduism and the Indus Civilization."
  2. "It is inappropriate to remove mention of the connection of caste to Hinduism."


Publications related to India[edit]

  1. Nussbaum, Martha C. Personal Laws and Equality: The Case of India. University of Chicago Law School, 2009. [1](https://www.law.uchicago.edu).
    In this article, Martha accuses Hindus of making India, a Hindu nation and manipulating Democracy. According to Martha, the laws within the Democratic India are made to benefit only the Hindus and support Patriarchy.
    The author presents her personal anti-Hindu perspectives as objective truths, often conflating subjective opinions with factual assertions:
    • "If Indian men could not control their destinies in politics or the economy, at least they could govern their own families as they pleased, meaning, in particular, that they could continue to exert control over women, resisting demands for reform by appealing to traditional religious authorities."
    • She uses an example from a colonial-era case and goes on to say that, it represents how Hindus has shaped their religious beliefs into the constitution of India,
    "The British judge, Wilson, chose to accept the husband’s version that they had slept together consensually many times, so that he would have had no reason to fear bad consequences on this occasion – ignoring medical evidence that she had died of forcible penetration. Wilson said that he had to obey the strict letter of the law, despite the fact that family and reformers were entirely on the other side. The judge alluded to “the supreme importance of his marriage rules to the Hindu, and the inadvisability of external interference with them.” He then continued: “[O]ur native fellow subjects must be allowed the fullest possible freedom in deciding when their children should be ceremonially married. That, in the constitution of Hindu society, is a matter with which no Government could meddle and no Government ought to meddle.”"
    • The author believes that the rules formulated by the British, were in for only the benefit of Hindus, putting the freedom of other communities at stake.
    "For the majority Hindu community, little seemed at stake, because acts of Parliament passed under the Raj to govern the Hindu community could simply be replaced (or validated) by new acts of the Hindu-majority Indian Parliament. "
    • "Moreover, the violence of Partition was fresh in people’s minds, and it seemed quite evident to Muslims who remained in India that they risked remaining second-class citizens.
    • The author spreads misinformation that M.K. Gandhi ji was assasinated by V.D. Savarkar.
    • "In 1948, a member of this party, and a devoted follower of its charismatic leader V. D. Savarkar, shot Gandhi at point-blank range."
    • Martha oversimplifies the legislative process and makes a misleading generalization and says that the laws in India are inherently biased simply because the majority of Parliament members are Hindu.
    "Typically the religious authorities consult with the Law Minister, a committee is formed, and eventually legislation is drafted, which then, after much delay and discussion, may eventually be passed by Parliament, meaning by a majority vote of Parliament, which always means a majority vote of an overwhelmingly Hindu body. Thus, laws for the tiny Christian community are passed, like all other laws, by a Parliament consisting of roughly 85 percent Hindus."
    • "When the BJP was in the ascendancy, it seemed possible that, winning an outright majority, the party might try to move India toward a one-religion form of establishment, declaring India a Hindu nation. "
    • "They limit the equal freedom of minorities to carry on their own religious life, and they compromise the equality of status of citizens as they enter the public square. Even when the majority religion is tolerant and behaves impeccably to minorities, tax money will be spent on it that limits the money people have to fund their own religions."

Books[edit]

  1. Nussbaum, Martha C. Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach. Cambridge University Press, 2000. [2](https://www.cambridge.org).
  2. Nussbaum, Martha C. The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future. Harvard University Press, 2007.

Journal Articles[edit]

  1. Nussbaum, Martha C. "Capabilities as Fundamental Entitlements: Sen and Social Justice." Feminist Economics, vol. 9, no. 2-3, 2003, pp. 33-59. [3](https://academic.oup.com).
  2. Nussbaum, Martha C. "Body of the Nation: Why Women Were Mutilated in Gujarat." Boston Review, vol. 28, no. 3, 2003, pp. 11-18.

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Martha C. Nussbaum page on the University of Chicago accessed on August 15, 2022
  2. ↑ Martha C. Nussbaum page on the Department of Philosophy, University of Chicago accessed on August 15, 2022
  3. ↑ "Letter of Support", Dismantling Global Hindutva Conference website, accessed August 7, 2022
  4. ↑ 2017 South Asia Faculty Group (SAFG) Letter to the California State Board of Education
  5. ↑ Chakrabarti, Dilip, and Sukhdev Saini. The Problem of the Sarasvati River and Notes on the Archaeological Geography of Haryana and Indian Punjab. Aryan Books International, 2009.
  6. ↑ Danino, Michel. The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati. Penguin Books, 2010.
  7. ↑ McIntosh, Jane R. A Peaceful Realm: The Rise and Fall of the Indus Civilization. Westview Press, 2002, p. 24. ​where she stated "Suddenly it became apparent that the “Indus” Civilization was a misnomer—although the Indus had played a major role in the development of the civilization, the “lost Saraswati” River, judging by the density of settlement along its banks, had contributed an equal or greater part to its prosperity. Many people today refer to this early state as the “Indus-Saraswati Civilization” and continuing references to the “Indus Civilization” should be an abbreviation in which the “Saraswati” is implied. There are some fifty sites known along the Indus whereas the Saraswati has almost 1,000. This is misleading figure because erosion and alluviation has between them destroyed or deeply buried the greater part of settlements in the Indus Valley itself, but there can be no doubt that the Saraswati system did yield a high proportion of the Indus people’s agricultural produce"
  8. ↑ 5-17 Prof. S. Shankar et al support letter
  9. ↑ 5-17 Kamala Visweswaran South Asian Faculty Group
  10. ↑ Gupta, S. P. 'The Dawn of Civilization.' In History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization: Volume I: Part 1, edited by G. C. Pandey and D. P. Chattopadhyaya. New Delhi: Centre for Studies in Civilizations, 1999.
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