Author:
Publication: The New Indian Express
Date: December 22, 2005
URL: http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEP20051220053916&Page=P&Title=Nation&Topic=0
(HPI note: Christian schools in India receive
government funding for teacher's salaries and textbooks. Most of the students
are not Christians.)
A Christian missionary school here is in the
throes of a controversy after it sacked a Hindu teacher for wearing sandalwood
paste on her forehead. Activists of the radical Hindu organization Bajrang
Dal have taken up the case of the teacher and are up in arms against the school.
Jyoti Sahasrabuddhe, 40, a computer science teacher at Saint Jones School
in the Govindpura area of the city for the last 14 years, went to school on
Monday with sandalwood paste smeared on her forehead. The principal, Suman
Martin, allegedly objected to the paste and asked Sahasrabuddhe to wipe it
off but she refused. This led to a heated argument between the two and the
teacher tendered her resignation.
She later filed a complaint at the Govindpura
police station against Martin's behavior. In her complaint Sahasrabuddhe said
no teacher at the school was allowed to wear 'bindi' on her forehead. "Students
are forcibly taught from the Bible in the name of prayers," she said
in the complaint. Sahasrabuddhe has also accused the school authorities of
carrying out religious conversions. Bajrang Dal activists took up the matter
after learning of the incident. "We have got complaints against this
school earlier too. We were told that the Bible was read out to the students
against their wishes. The students were also forced to read the Bible in the
name of morning prayers," said Devendra Rawat, an office-bearer of the
Bajranj Dal. "We want that the teacher should be reinstated and the Bible
should not be read out to the students. If the school management fails to
do these two things, we will take action against them," Rawat said. Martin
could not be immediately contacted for comments. However, another teacher
at the school said on the condition of anonymity that the school management
had rejected Sahasrabuddhe's resignation and she would be reinstated. "We
are investigating the matter," a police official at the Govindpura police
station said.
