Christian schools balk at Hinduism directive - CathNews India

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CathNews India
Church officials in Mumbai are hotly disputing a new directive that Christian schools should follow Hindu traditions and culture more closely. ...

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[Ramakrishna]

I don't see anything wrong with giving holidays to Hindu religious festivals and allowing girls to wear bangles and traditional bindi on their foreheads in public schools in India, but the article said those rules would apply to Christian schools. I am assuming that they are privately owned and operated. If they are, then I believe they should be free to set their own rules on holidays and what students may wear. However, if those Christian schools receive government funds, they should definitely abide by the rules and give holidays to Hindu religious festivals and allow girls to wear bangles and bindi. I am coming at this from an American point of view, so somebody please correct me if I'm mistaken.

[sanjaya]

I feel that really, the larger problem here is that most middle class Indians seem to be relying on these Catholic schools to educate their children. Are the Hindus really in such a dire state of affairs that no one can make the public schools better? Or better yet, why has no one begun founding Hindu schools? Even here in America, Hindu temples offer religious education classes for the children as well as Sunday schools, and the public schools are good enough that Hindus can entrust their children to them for academic education. I feel like the problem is that no one in India cares enough to do anything about the issue of education. Perhaps that's why people rely on Catholic schools for giving their children a basic education, and why all the smart people come to America for their undergrad and graduate education.

So we've put ourselves in a position of being reliant on the Catholic schools. Thus it's hard to complain that they're imposing their religious beliefs on the children. After all, who is forcing parents to send their kids to these schools?

[BryonMorrigan]

Christian schools in India complaining about Hinduism, huh?

http://i734.photobucket.com/albums/ww347/fast_notch/Junk/mrtlol.gif

Of course, I equate Christian missionary activity as being akin to the Ku Klux Klan conducting "missionary activity" in other countries...so yeah, I am crying tears of sadness that the poor wittle Chwistians have to deal with the kinds of laws that they would implement in their favor as soon as they gained the majority.

[Ramakrishna]

I feel that really, the larger problem here is that most middle class Indians seem to be relying on these Catholic schools to educate their children. Are the Hindus really in such a dire state of affairs that no one can make the public schools better? Or better yet, why has no one begun founding Hindu schools? Even here in America, Hindu temples offer religious education classes for the children as well as Sunday schools, and the public schools are good enough that Hindus can entrust their children to them for academic education. I feel like the problem is that no one in India cares enough to do anything about the issue of education. Perhaps that's why people rely on Catholic schools for giving their children a basic education, and why all the smart people come to America for their undergrad and graduate education.

So we've put ourselves in a position of being reliant on the Catholic schools. Thus it's hard to complain that they're imposing their religious beliefs on the children. After all, who is forcing parents to send their kids to these schools?

That is an excellent point. I don't know much about economics and such, but I keep hearing on the news how India is an emerging superpower and right behind China. Yet, poverty is still a great problem in India. I guess India may end up like the United States: an extremely rich country, but most of the wealth is concentrated in a small percentage of the population. India cannot let capitalism ruin it. I also keep hearing how these Maoist rebels are supposedly fighting for the poor, yet they do that by killing thousands of people? It seems that India is trying to keep itself safe from Islamic terrorism from Pakistan and other countries, and it also has to deal with these communist rebels who are terrorists themselves. That leaves little resources to fight poverty.

[sanjaya]

That is an excellent point. I don't know much about economics and such, but I keep hearing on the news how India is an emerging superpower and right behind China. Yet, poverty is still a great problem in India. I guess India may end up like the United States: an extremely rich country, but most of the wealth is concentrated in a small percentage of the population. India cannot let capitalism ruin it. I also keep hearing how these Maoist rebels are supposedly fighting for the poor, yet they do that by killing thousands of people? It seems that India is trying to keep itself safe from Islamic terrorism from Pakistan and other countries, and it also has to deal with these communist rebels who are terrorists themselves. That leaves little resources to fight poverty.

Yes, suffice it to say there is a long list of things that are wrong with India. On the one hand I can't blame people for moving to America to be educated and start families. Even my parents moved here from India before having any kids. However, if all educated people do this, then the situation isn't going to get any better. I'm told that the state of education in India is getting better. But since I've never lived there I can't competently attest to that.

But hey, given the direction America is moving in, maybe immigration will be a less attractive option for Indians. While a very large proportion of Americans graduate from high school and college, the education systems here are poor enough that the pieces of paper they receive don't mean very much. Actually I've even toyed with the possibility of doing a postdoc in India due to the scarcity of decent jobs over here.