The Hindu American Foundation has filed a lawsuit against the California state board of education for its failure to change excerpts in middle school history textbooks that the group believes demean Hinduism.
The group, based in Tampa, Fla., had recommended hundreds of changes to the textbooks adopted by the state board last fall.
In the March 16 lawsuit, filed in state superior court in Sacramento, the group and three parents of public school students also named as plaintiffs push for changes to the books’ portrayal of women’s roles in ancient India, the caste system, and the roots of Hinduism.
State education officials named in the lawsuit could not comment, according to a spokeswoman for the California Department of Education.