Hindutva defeated again in CA courts

[Michael Witzel]

                                        Sacramento, April 21, 2006

HINDUTVA DEFEATED AGAIN CALIFORNIA COURT
Preliminary injunction against schoolbooks not accepted by judge

As expected, the California court at Sacramento  has not accepted  the  
preliminary injunction demanded by the so-called Hindu America  
Foundation (HAF) against the unanimous decision made by the California  
Board of Education(SBE) on March 8.

In that vote the SBE  had thrown out all serious distortions of ancient  
Indian history that had been demanded by two Hindutva foundations (the  
RSS-founded, chauvinistic Vedic Education Foundation and the the  
sub-sectarian Vedic Foundation) last Fall.

In a move to capture the attention of the c. 800,000 Hindus in the US,  
the HAF had then started a large publicity and fundraising campaign and  
had filed a lawsuit on March 16.

In today’s court meeting the judge decided, after long arguments, to  
turn down the preliminary injunction, as the petitioner (HAF) had not  
demonstrated to be able to win the case on merits, and especially so in  
relation to the substance issues involved (i.e. the depiction of  
history and Hinduism).

An earlier challenge by HAF, the demand for a Temporary Restraining  
Order, that demanded to stop the publication of the textbooks (as voted  
on and okayed  by the SBE on March 8),  had been thrown by another  
judge at Sacramento on March 21. At that time, the demand of the HAF to  
attend the so-called corrections meetings between  the Department of  
Education and the publishers, that took place late in March,  was also  
thrown out by the judge.

In sum, all legal challenges mounted by HAF so far have been defeated,  
time and time again, and the publication of the textbooks will now  
proceed unhindered.


Three cheers for historically correct textbooks!
May Sarasvati bless us all.

Michael
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Michael Witzel
Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University
1 Bow Street , 3rd floor, Cambridge MA 02138
1-617-495 3295           Fax: 496 8571
direct line:       496 2990
<http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm>
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Indo-Eurasian_research/>
< http://users.primushost.com/~india/ejvs/>