Who you calling a donkey?

Indian women force education board to change textbook comparing them to "loyal" animals.

Published April 4, 2006 7:30PM (EDT)

It sounds like the kind of lame remark someone's crusty old uncle would make at a family gathering -- something about a donkey making a better companion than a wife. But in the Indian state of Rajasthan, some genius put it in a textbook. And now Reuters reports that the women's wing of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government is demanding in a very un-donkey-like way that it be removed.

Heres the entry from the Hindi-language primer for 14-year-olds: "A donkey is like a housewife ... In fact, the donkey is a shade better, for while the housewife may sometimes complain and walk off to her parents' home, you'll never catch the donkey being disloyal to his master."

State education official A.R. Khan in Rajasthan defended the comparison as "made in good humor" but added that it is being removed.

Yeah, it's so funny, I almost forgot to laugh.


By Sarah Elizabeth Richards

Sarah Elizabeth Richards is a journalist based in New York. She can be reached at sarah@saraherichards.com.

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