At the start of this month, a 22-year-old boy named Karan Kataria highlighted that Hinduphobia is very prevalent in the colleges of the United Kingdom (UK). Pursuing a Masters in Law at the London School of Economics, he took to Twitter and informed followers about the same. He claimed that he was disqualified from elections for the post of General Secretary for being a “Hindu nationalist”.
He further alleged that there is widespread discrimination on the basis of religion and anti-India rhetoric prevalent on the campus. Before that, the first female Indian President-elect of the Oxford University Student’s Union, Rashmi Samant was vilified for her religious beliefs. She was forced to resign from her post.
However, she was later vindicated by an internal investigation conducted by Oxford University. Now, a UK-based think tank has released an alarming report that suggests that Hinduphobia is not limited to colleges alone. Rather, it is all pervasive in schools in the UK as well.
Is Hinduphobia institutionalised in UK?
A UK-based counter-terrorism think tank, the Henry Jackson Society, released a new report on April 19th. The report highlights that Hinduphobia is quite prevalent in British schools. The report, titled ‘Anti-Hindu Hate in Schools’ comes at a time when a Hindu, Rishi Sunak, is heading the UK government. Many identity-based politicians and their followers hailed his oath as a major achievement for Hindus, but the developments after that speak for themselves.
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The only thing that is debatable is whether the hatred against Hindus has increased or remained virtually the same. The report has mentioned the incidents where Hindu students were being bullied. In a few cases, Hindu students were bullied into converting to Islam. In another case, beef was thrown at another Hindu student. However, these are just a few examples of blatant Hinduphobia that have been recorded and faced by Hindu students in schools in the UK.
The crucial information about the report
So, before we move ahead, let’s understand who has prepared this report and how many parents were surveyed for its creation. The author of the report is Charlotte Littlewood. She is a PhD candidate in Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter. She took five months to prepare this report. During this time, she herself encountered one case where a Hindu student in East London was forced to change schools three times on account of Hinduphobia and bullying.
Charlotte stated that her focus on this issue developed when she analysed the anti-Hindu violence in Leicester last year. Her report noted that some of the discrimination exhibited in the classroom showed similarities to the manifestations of hate witnessed during the anti-Hindu violence in Leicester. The report further highlights that there were numerous instances of derogatory references made towards Hindus, such as mocking their vegetarianism and belittling their deities.
In fact, these same derogatory remarks were hurled at Hindus by the Islamist extremists rallying in Leicester. The report added that around twenty Hindus were being held responsible for politics and social issues in India, which reminds me of the treatment of Jews with regard to Israel and of Muslims in the post-9/11 climate. Charlotte added that if we are to be an equal Britain moving forward, then we have to tackle all forms of hate in our classrooms.
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It is important to note that religious Education (RE) is compulsory in schools in England up to the age of 16. Now, the reports add that while teaching Hinduism, several teachers were also fostering religious discrimination towards Hindu. Charlotte also stated that what we found was that teachers were playing into the problem, including covering reductive and, in some places, prejudiced views of Hinduism. The report’s analysis is based on freedom of information (FOI) requests from 1,000 schools around the country.
In addition to that, they surveyed 988 Hindu parents about bullying and Hinduphobia their kids faced in these schools. Terming the report as damning, Conservative MP, Ben Everitt said, “The findings in this report are damning and shed light on the varying themes and forms in which anti-Hindu discrimination materialises in the classroom.”
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The report highlights the fact that 51 percent of Hindu parents reported that their child had suffered anti-Hindu hate at school. The report makes a series of recommendations for the UK government. This includes the need to record all types of hate-based bullying, reporting such incidents, provide specialist demographic and faith-based training for schools, and engage more with the Hindu community.
This first-of-its-kind report about blatant Hinduphobia in UK schools will be sent to the Education Secretary along with its recommendations. Now, it will be seen whether UK PM Rishi Sunak practises dharma in a real sense and tames radical elements within their society, and curbs Hinduphobia.
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