A study conducted by the UK-based think tank, Henry Jackson Society, has found that Hindu students in the country are being subjected to bullying and racial discrimination in classrooms.
It was carried out by a research fellow named Charlotte Littlewood, who interviewed 988 Hindu parents and surveyed more than 1000 schools in the United Kingdom.
As per a report by The Telegraph, Littlewood noted that Hindu students were being bullied by their Muslim classmates and repeatedly asked to convert to Islam.
“51% of Hindu parents surveyed reported that their child had experienced anti-Hindu hate in schools, while less than 1% of schools surveyed reported any anti-Hindu related incidents in the last 5 years,” the study found.
“8 physical assaults were detailed. One female Hindu pupil had beef thrown on her, a male student was reported to have to change East London schools three times on account of anti-Hindu bullying and concerns have been risen around a problematic approach to teaching Hinduism that is directly leading to bullying in the classroom,” it further added.
Charlotte Littlewood noted that several Hindu students were mocked for their vegetarianism in classrooms and that their deities were belittled in a manner reminiscent of the radical Islamists that attacked the Hindu community in Leicester.
She also found that Hindus were verbally abused by White students using xenophobic slurs and held responsible for political and social events, which take place in India.
According to the study by the Henry Jackson Society, Hindus have faced threats for virtue of their Faith at the hands of Muslim pupils. In one case, a Hindu student was told that his life will become ‘easier’ if he converted to Islam.
“You aren’t going to survive very long… If you want to go to paradise, you’ll have to come to Islam… Hindus are the herbivores at the bottom of the food chain, we will eat you up,” the victim was told by his Muslim classmates.
In another case, Hindu students were told to watch videos of Islamic preachers and convert since their religion ‘made no sense’. Derogatory slurs such as ‘Kaffir’ were also hurled at them.
They also braced discrimination from Christian students who told them that Hindu deities would be sent to Hell by Jesus Christ.
Religious education fostering discrimination against Hindus: Think-tank
The study also found that inappropriate religious education, which amplified misconceptions surrounding the Indian caste system and Hindu deities, added to the mockery of Hindu pupils in the UK’s classrooms.
It came to light that Hindu students were not being given a holiday on Diwali although off-days were given to adherents of other religions during their festivals. Charlotte Littlewood also observed that anti-Hindu hate incidents in the country’s schools were poorly reported.
While speaking about the matter to The Telegraph, Conservative Party MP Ben Everitt said, “The findings in this report are damning and shed light on the varying themes and forms which anti-Hindu discrimination materialises in the classroom.”
He acknowledged the problematic approach in which Hinduism was taught in UK’s schools. “If we want to make real, sustained, long-term progress in reducing discrimination towards those of minority faiths in our schools, then we need to make sure that young people are receiving the best possible education about the many faiths which are woven into the fabric of our diverse United Kingdom,” Ben Everitt emphasised.