Indian Schools: Religion



Figure 1.-- India has a Hindu majority, but the country at independence continued the the secular approach to education. We do note meditations in schools. I'm not sure how common this was. Here we see meditation time in a primary school in Ananda Shila, Jharkhand State. In additions, religious groups are allowed to found schools.

India is a highly religious country where religion plays an important role in the lives of many people. There are several important religions in India. Two of the world's great religions (Buddhism and Hinduism) originated in India as well as several other smaller religions. India also has the largest Muslim community in the world. While there was a horrifying explosion of religious hatred at the independence of the country (1948-49) and there have been scattered terrorist attacks, the various religious communities have for the most part managed to live in exceptionl harmony. The country's Muslim minority has for the most part found the country's democratic institutions offered adequate protections. It is unclear how rising Islamic fundamentalism and resort to violence will affect India. The country has a Hindu majority, but the state schools are secular. The Indian Constitution enshrines the right to practice, preach, and propagate any religion. No religious instruction is imparted or permitted in state schools or schools receiving state funding. We do note meditations in schools. I'm not sure how common this was. A reader writes, "The Indian state schools are secular. I am not sure if these meditations occur in state schools. There are, however, many private and religious schools in the country. Perhaps this is a Hindu school. Also some Christians in India have yoga meditation, so the school could be a Christian school."

Religion

India is a highly spiritual country where religion plays an important role in the lives of many people. There are several important religions in India. Two of the world's great religions (Buddhism and Hinduism) originated in India as well as several other smaller religions. India also has the largest Muslim community in the world. While there was a horrifying explosion of religious hatred at the independence of the country (1948-49) and there have been scattered terrorist attacks, the various religious communities have for the most part managed to live in exceptionl harmony. The country's Muslim minority has for the most part found the country's democratic institutions offered adequate protections. It is unclear how rising Islamic fundamentalism and resort to violence will affect India.

Debate Over Hindism

India is the home and birthplace of four major religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism as well as having the world's largest Muslim population. Christianity has played an important role, in part becayse of the British RAj. Most people see India as being strongly influenced by Hinduism, as it is a belief system held by a large majority of the popultion. It is a question as to if Hinduism is a religion. Many Indians see Hinduism as more of a philosophy. We are not sure how widely held this view is. We think it may be more of a Muslim view. They tend to see 'Hindu'as a geographical and cultural concept defined as the land next to the Indus River. [Punja] Ironiclly the Indus Vlley is now an area controlled by Muslim Paklistan. This is part of the reason that at independence there was a substabtial cross-cultural mix of Hindu and Muslim ideas and practices.

Mediation

We do note meditations in schools. I'm not sure how common this was. Nor do we know if it is precrived as having religious content in the same way that prayer is viewed. A reader writes, "The Indian state schools are secular. I am not sure if these meditations occur in state schools. There are, however, many private and religious schools in the country. Perhaps this is a Hindu school. Also some Christians in India have yoga meditation, so the school could be a Christian school."

Indian Law

The preamble to the Constitution of India proclaimed India a 'sovereign socialist democratic republic'. The word 'secular' was inserted into the Preamble by the Forty-second Amendment Act (1976). The term 'socialist' reflects the degree to which socialism influences the many European colonies which became indepedent after World War II. The result was policies which retarded economic growth for many years until the free market reforms of the 1990s. This commitment to socialism did not, however, affect the country's religious traditions. The Constitution mandates equal treatment and tolerance of all religious faiths. This is complicated by the fact that India has fought several wars with Muslim Pakistan which now has nuclear weapons. India has a large Hindu majority, but there is no official state religion. This is in contrast to Muslim majority countries which do establish Islam as a state religion. This reflects the political nature of Islam as relected in the Koran. The Indian Constitution enshrines the right to practice, preach, and propagate any religion. The public school system is, however, structly secular. No religious instruction is imparted or permitted in state schools or schools receiving state funding. An exception here are university level institutions associated with religious groups. This secular approach to education has been tested in the courts. The Supreme Court of India found in S.R. Bommai vs. Union of India that secularism was an integral tenet of the Constitution. Religious groups, mostly Christian and Muslim, founded schools during the Raj. With independence, relgions groups continue to be permitted to found schools and teach religious beliefs in those schools. We re not sure at this time to what extent the Indian Government controls and regulates the curriculum in those schools.

Educational Curriuculum

Religion has a range of educational impacts. Religion can affect a family's appreciation of religion and type of education parents want for their children. It can also set gender expectations and priorities. With independence education and religion has become a volitile issue. While the Constitution gurantees freedom of religion, there have arisen charges that political parties have used their authority within govrnment to set educatioinal coontent and curriculum to advance their ideological vision. This was importnt as Undiua at indeopendence plced a major emphasis on expanding the public education system to provide schools for all children. The Congress governments that controlled India for several decades after indepndence inserted Socialist-Marxist ideas into Indian textbooks. This was consistennt with the Constitution that the Congress Party fashionef which identified India as a socialist nation. These ideas were ideologically aligned to the policies of Nehru-Gandhi family which dominated Congress. The Congress Governments was also accused of being too sympathetic to the Muslim viewpoint. For example, the Muslim invaders who created the Mogol Empire were described as great heroes. The rich Hindu legacy of Indian Civillisation was seen as being marginalised. The failure of socialist policies led many Indians to question the Marxist ideas that were so widely accepted at Indeopendence. The BJP-led NDA government launched an iniative to standardise school textbooks and remove Marxist-Islamist ideological biases. India's leftist media and Congress party spokesmen referred to it as the 'saffronisation' of textbooks. Saffron is seen as color associated with Indian religions. The appeal of socialist ideas, despite the clear record of ecionoimic failure, continues to attract appeal to many Indians. The next government, formed by the UPA and led by the Congress Party, pledged to de-saffronise textbooks. [Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour] Hindu groups alleged that the UPA promoted Marxist and pro-Muslim biases in school curricula. This continues to be a heated political debate in India. [Upadhyay]

Religious Schools

We are also not sure about Indian laws concerning schools operated by religious groups. They are clealy permitted. I am not sure to what extent they are regulated by the Government as to curciculum and extremist involvement. Religions are permitted to found schools. The largest religious school system are the thousands of Mslamic medrassas. I an not sure how the mrdrassas are financed. There is a security concern as a result of the wars with Muslim Pakistan and Islamic terrorism. Another issue is that the educational achievement and literacy rate among Muslims is far below that of the majority Hindus. A key factor here is a reluctance of some Muslims to educate girls. There are also Hindu schools, but they are much smaller in number. There are also Christian schools some of which receive finding from Western churches.

Sources

Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour. U.S. State Department. "International religious freedom report 2005" (November 8, 2005).

Punja, Shobita. "Teaching comparative religions in India through heritages," ATLA. No 2. Material Religion 6 (2010), pp.: 156–65.

Upadhyay, R. "The politics of education in India: the need for a national debate," South Asia Analysis Group (August 21, 2001).








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