Women and Hinduism in U.S. Textbooks

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UNITED STATES, February 5, 2003: In a recent article on Sulekha, Sankrant Sanu examined Microsoft Encarta’s treatment of Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. He concluded that Encarta’s portrayal of Hinduism was biased and negative in comparison to the more evenhanded and sophisticated treatments granted Islam and Christianity. Sanu’s article prompted a closer at a world religions textbook, Mary Pat Fisher’s “Living Religions” (5th ed., Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002), published by one of the largest textbook publishers in the U.S. and is an often-used text in American colleges, universities and prep schools. It was found to contain biases and misrepresentations on how women are portrayed within Hindu society. The author believes “It is clear that religion and theology can be and is often used to sustain and reinforce patriarchal attitudes in societies, whether they be Hindu, Christian or Muslim. It is also clear that religion and theology can and have been used in ways to challenge, break down and replace patriarchal attitudes in these same societies.”