教科書つながりで

アメリカの歴史教科書でのインドの取り扱いについて、インド人コミュニティから異議申し立てが出ているとか。インドという言葉の代わりに「南アジア」を使うのはおかしい、カースト制度はヒンドゥー教の教義ではないと、言ったことを主張しているようです。自分の都合のいいことは前面に出して、都合の悪いことは関係がないと突き放す態度には政治性を強く感じでしまいます。

Debate Erupts in California Over Curriculum on India’s History
By JENNIFER MEDINA
MAY 4, 2016
LOS ANGELES — Victors are said to write history. But in California, history is being written by a committee that is at the center of a raging debate over how to tell the story of South Asia as it tries to update textbooks and revise curriculums for Grades 6 and 7.
The dispute centers on whether the region that includes modern-day India, Pakistan and Nepal should be referred to as India or as South Asia, to represent the plurality of cultures there — particularly because India was not a nation-state until 1947. It also touches on how the culture of the region is portrayed, including women’s role in society and the vestiges of the caste system.
It might seem somewhat arcane. But it has prompted petition drives, as well as a #DontEraseIndia social media campaign and a battle of opinion pieces.

この運動の背景にはインド人コミュニティが特にカリフォルニア州で人数が増え力をつけていることがあります。言葉の背景にはさまざまな力が働いているんですね。教科書問題の例としてthe portrayal of so-called comfort women in World War IIと日本への言及もさりげなくありますが、インドのケースはもっと根強くあるようです。

State educators have also heard debates about the portrayal of so-called comfort women in World War II, the Armenian genocide and discrimination against Sikhs in the United States. But none of the arguments have persisted as strongly as the fight over the Indian subcontinent. That is a reflection of the transformation in California’s population, where Asians, including South Asians, are the fastest-growing demographic.

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There are roughly 2.2 million immigrants from India living in the United States, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank. California, with its vibrant technology industry, has attracted the most in the nation, as many have settled in the Bay Area and in Southern California.
According to the foundation, nearly half of the 2.5 million Hindus in the United States live in California.

まあリンクで紹介されていた記事を読むと主張もごもっともな部分があります。

Should pre-1947 India be called S Asia? US academics lock horns over name
Chidanand Rajghatta, TNN | Mar 20, 2016, 04.59AM IST

The proposal has enraged academics on the right side of the debate who say attempts to delete references to India and replace it with the "geopolitically motivated Cold War-era phrase `South Asia".... is "misinformed and bizarre."

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"If this is indeed correct that `India' is not an accurate term for India before 1947, how is it possible that the word `India' has been in usage in some form or another from the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans? Did Columbus go sear ching for `South Asia'? Are the islands of the Caribbean Sea called the `West South Asianes' instead of the `West Indies'? Was it the British East `South Asia' Company that led colonial trade and exploitation?

Cold War-era phrase `South Asia"の部分、南アジアについてはわかりませんが、「西ヨーロッパ」「東ヨーロッパ」という区分は明らかに冷戦時に生まれた発想だというのを何かで読んだことがあります。

記事冒頭にあったVictors are said to write history.（勝者が歴史を書くと言われる）とありますが、先日取り上げたベトナムを舞台にした小説では“this was the first war where the losers would write history instead of the victors,”と書かれているそうです。確かにアメリカはベトナムについて饒舌に語っています。

Review: ‘The Sympathizer,’ a Novel About a Soldier, Spy and Film Consultant
Books of The Times
By SARAH LYALL AUG. 27, 2015

The great achievement of “The Sympathizer” is that it gives the Vietnamese a voice and demands that we pay attention. Until now, it’s been largely a one-sided conversation — or at least that’s how it seems in American popular culture. As the narrator explains, “this was the first war where the losers would write history instead of the victors,” and so it is that we’ve heard about the Vietnam War mostly from the point of view of American soldiers, American politicians and American journalists. We’ve never had a story quite like this one before.

Victors are said to write history.についてはHistory is written by the victors.と受動態で書かれることも多いようですね。