ERODE (UCAN): St. Joseph Higher Secondary School in Erode district, southern Tamil Nadu, India, started a programme to train students to promote inter-religious harmony amid reports of increasing intolerance in the country.
The idea is to train students as peace builders to “spread the message of harmony among their friends, families and neighbourhood,” Father Mark Monfort, the school principal explained.
Two other Catholic schools in the district joined hands with St. Joseph school. Already, 30 students from Christian, Hindu and Muslim backgrounds have been trained, Father Montfort added.
After training, they attended a gathering of 500 students at St. Joseph school on October 25 for a programme titled, Empowering the Young as Peace Builders which began with readings from Christian, Muslim and Hindu holy books.
Kevin, a peace builder, told the gathering that religious discrimination was “harming the growth of people in India as one nation.”
“We as Indians are one and no religion should divide us,” he asserted.
Christians and Muslims in India have accused pro-Hindu groups of violently curtailing religious freedom since the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] of prime minister, Narendra Mod,i came to power in 2014. Modi is seeking a consecutive third term with the polls next year. Hindu groups that support the BJP want to make India a theocracy, though the Indian constitution envisages a secular nation.
We as Indians are one and no religion should divide us
Right-wing Hindu groups have accused Christians, who only account for 2.3 per cent of India’s population of 1.4 billion, of mass-scale religious conversion. Eleven Indian states, most ruled by the BJP, have enacted a draconian anti-conversion law, which is often used to target Christians in the country. Muslims, who make up more than 14 per cent of the population, are often attacked and killed by right-wing Hindu mobs for eating beef and for conducting loud prayers.
During a hearing on ‘Advancing Religious Freedom within the US–India Bilateral Relationship’ on September 20, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom said yet again that “religious freedom conditions in India have notably declined in recent years.”
Sister Stella Balthazar, provincial of the Ooty province of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, who was the chief guest at the gathering of peace builders, asked students to learn India’s constitution and its basic tenets of democracy, secularism and fraternity.
“We see a rise in hostility and intolerance in many parts of the country,” Sister Balthazar lamented.
Kruthiharini G. C, a Hindu peace builder, wanted to eliminate the urban-rural divide in the country.
“Unless we remove this, there is little chance for peace and harmony,” Kruthiharini explained.
Father Monfort said the school was planning to organise similar programmes.
