UK-based counter-terrorism think-tank Henry Jackson Society released a report on the study on Wednesday (April 19).
A UK-based counterterrorism thinks tank organisation named The Henry Jackson Organisation, released a report study on Wednesday (April 19). According to the research, 51% of Hindu parents who were surveyed said that their child has experienced anti-Hindu discrimination at school.
The report titled ‘Anti-Hindu Hate in Schools’ becomes so relevant as Rishi Sunak, a Hindu, is the prime minister of the nation.
The report also finds that teaching Hinduism encouraged religious prejudice towards Hindu students, as some participants reported it.
The study discovered that despite less than 1% of schools examined reporting any anti-Hindu related occurrences in the previous five years, 51% of Hindu parents said that their child has encountered anti-Hindu hatred at schools. Only 19% of the Hindu parents polled think that schools can spot anti-Hindu prejudice.
There were eight physical attacks listed. A male student reportedly had to switch schools three times in East London due to anti-Hindu abuse, and concerns have been raised about a problematic method of teaching Hinduism that is directly causing bullying in the classroom.
The study included information on events affecting young people up to the age of 22 at UK colleges. In March, Indian student Karan Kataria, who is pursuing a master’s degree in law at the London School of Economics, said that he had experienced discrimination while running for general secretary of the institution.
It was noted that events including beef being thrown at another student and Hindu students being harassed into becoming Muslims are only a few examples of what has been reported and experienced by Hindu students.
This report highlights the prevalence of discrimination against Hindus in British schools, with 51% of Hindu parents surveyed reporting that their child has experienced anti-Hindu hate at school, according to the survey, which included 988 Hindu parents and more than 1,000 schools across the nation.
This is the first nationwide investigation of the discrimination that Hindu youngsters in the UK experience.
CONVERT TO ISLAM
The report’s author, Charlotte Littlewood, claimed that the violence between the Hindu and Muslim communities in Leicester last year, which followed an India-Pakistan cricket match in the Asia Cup held in Dubai at the end of August, led her to focus on schools.
The article goes so far as to describe Muslim students encouraging their Indian peers to become Muslims because it would make their lives “so much easier.” The part on Islamist extremism included allusions to Islamic dominance, exhortations to convert Hindus, and warnings about torment for atheists.
The article details incidents in which Muslim students referred to their Hindu peers as “kaffirs,” and the parents of the students even claimed that their children were being persuaded to convert to Islam.
RESPONSES
It emphasises the need for more detailed and accurate reporting processes to document these instances’, said Charlotte Littlewood
Only 15% of parents questioned said that schools appropriately address events connected to anti-Hindu prejudice.
The Milton Keynes-based Conservative MP Ben Everitt termed the findings “damning” and demanded immediate changes to religious instruction in a statement to The Telegraph.
The Independent Schools Council, a group in the UK that acts as an umbrella organisation for different schools, was unable to comment on the report’s findings.