A three-act tragedy unfolding in the Government Senior Secondary School in Rajasthan’s Kota, where a sarva dharma sadbhav natak, a registration error and an interfaith elopement by a former student have snowballed into familiar fear-mongering over “love jihad” and religious conversion, shows, yet again, the dangers of bringing divisive politics into classrooms. The events have led to the suspension of the school’s three Muslim teachers on charges of abetment. Clips of the play held on Republic Day have been circulated as evidence of the school’s allegedly nefarious intent.
The state’s school education minister, who ordered the suspension, has promised stricter action if the charges are proven true. In recent days, minister Madan Dilawar has also made controversial statements on Mughal emperor Akbar and his place in Indian history.
The heavy-handed response of the state machinery shows that when the system becomes complicit, by commission or omission, in conspiracy theories or rumour-mongering, it makes vulnerable the precious space of the classroom. Last year, the minority-run Ganga Jamuna Higher Secondary School in Madhya Pradesh’s Damoh faced the government’s wrath for the Iqbal song, ‘Bachche ki Dua’, sung in its morning prayer, and for a poster that celebrated the academic success of its students — a majority of them from disadvantaged backgrounds — in which they were shown wearing head scarves.
The school was derecognised, its principal arrested, throwing into jeopardy the future of its nearly 1,200 students. Such actions cede ground to the bigotry of individuals: The video of a teacher from a school in UP’s Muzaffarnagar instructing students to hit a Muslim classmate as punishment for academic shortcoming or a Muslim teacher in a government higher secondary school in Kathua assaulting a student for writing “Jai Shri Ram” on the blackboard show the pernicious reach of prejudice.
There is a reason why classrooms are held sacrosanct across cultures. These are spaces where the inequities of the world can be diminished and the jagged edges of political and communal schisms softened through debates and discussions. A large part of the learning in classrooms relies not merely on the curriculum but on the inclusivity that these spaces foster. At a time of heightened political polarisation, these are spaces that need to be kept safe and open. It is heartening that after the suspensions, students of the school have organised protests demanding the return of their teachers.
The school administration and the local Education Department officials have refuted the accusations. They need to be heard. It’s also incumbent on civil society to offer a pushback and the responsibility of the political leadership to send out a message that prejudice has no place in the classroom.
