The Gujarat government has sought an explanation from a missionary school in Gandhinagar over the allegations of a teacher cutting off Rakhis from the students’ wrist.
As reported by Hindustan Times, few parents of students studying in Mount Carmel High School, complained to the education department, that a teacher cut off the Rakhis tied on to the wrists of students studying in Class V, a day after Rakshabandhan, which was celebrated on 26th August 2018.
Gujarat Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama on Wednesday said that a notice has been issued to the school.
“The incident was unwarranted. We will not tolerate any act which hurts religious sentiments. My department has issued a notice to the school sought an explanation about who did it and who ordered it. We will take a further decision after getting the reply,” Chudasama told reporters.
Agitated with the entire incident, activists of BJP’s student wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad protested outside the school on Wednesday, reported Times of India. The report says, “ABVP leader Rishikesh Mandalia claimed that when the protesters confronted the school management, they denied that such an incident happened”.
The occurrence of such incidents tell an unsettling story of the systematic way of humiliating Hindu students in Christian Schools and making them feel disgraced by targeting their religious and cultural customs and traditions.
In one such incident recently a Christian Convent school in Bharuch, Gujarat had barred girl students from entering school, if they were found to be wearing henna (mehendi) on their hands. It is reported that the school principal made around 40 girls stand outside the classroom for four hours as a punishment for applying the henna on the hands. Later the school management apologised after a protest by parents.
Various such incidents have been reported in the past forcing one to believe that as the yoke of British regime was overthrown, the agents from the Vatican did not have the authority to abolish Hindu traditions and cultural values forcefully. Thus they were left with only one way to inculcate the disrespect for Hinduism in the minds of Hindus- that was through their education system.
We had earlier reported that in a similar incident that occurred in Kerala, the principal of a government school in Pallakad had issued a diktat, threatening the students with expulsion if they are found to be using religious symbols like kumkum on their foreheads or sacred threads on their wrists. Earlier, a government school run by an evangelical Christian affected an order on girl students not to wear flowers and bindi.
In February 2015, an 11-year old girl of St. Ann School in Secunderabad, Telangana was forced to stand outside Principal Sally Joseph’s room for two hours as punishment for wearing a Tilak on her forehead.
In September 2015, some girl students of St Mary’s Convent School in Kanpur were forced to stand in the sun as punishment for wearing Rakhi and Mehendi. One girl was forced to rub her hands on a rock to remove the Mehendi and thus, her hand was injured.
In June 2016, another regressive anti-Hindu incident took place when St Vincent Pallotti School of Bengaluru had expelled an LKG student for having a Sikha or Tiki (ponytail).
Similarly, In January 2017, the authorities of St. Joseph School in Rameswaram had suspended two boys for having sandalwood paste (Vibhooti) on their forehead. And the same year-end it was also reported how in Keezhapudur, a convent school was punishing some Hindu students for bursting crackers during Diwali and giving appreciation letter to those who did not.
