Monday, June 30, 2025

An Obnoxious Practice

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 27 June 2025 A primary school in West Bengal’s Purba Bardhaman district has been cooking and serving midday meals separately to students of different religions for years — a practice now under official scrutiny. At Kishoriganj Manmohanpur Primary School, located in Purbasthali, block about 150 km from Kolkata, meals are prepared by two separate cooks. The school uses separate utensils and kitchens, though on a single gas connection, and meals are served to students in separate classrooms based on their religion. Courtesy, NAI news This is obnoxious, to say the least. Now the government has woken up from its deep slumber. Why didn't it take a stern action years ago as this abominable practice has been going on for years? The school is in West Bengal, not somewhere in the rain forests of Amazon. Children are getting religiously indoctrinated right from their school days when they realise that a Muslim is different from a Hindu, not just in faith but also in food. This is worse than apartheid. When these kids will grow up, won't they be full of zealotry and hatred for other faiths? We often read in newspapers that in the states like Rajasthan, MP, Bihar and UP, kids belonging to the lower castes are treated pejoratively by their teachers and peers. Muslim kids are openly abused and even beaten. A couple of years ago, a lady teacher, Tripta Tyagi, in UP was booked for asking Hindu kids to slap their Muslim classmate. Now even meals are separately cooked for children of different religions and castes. There have been instances when kids have refused to eat food cooked by a Muslim cook or a person from a lower caste. We're envenoming the minds of kids and creating rifts on the basis of religion and caste. It's really ironic that when the deeply ingrained religion and caste must be extirpated from our psyche, the government is encouraging this by including caste, sub-caste and religion in the forthcoming census. Shame on this current political dispensation and also shame on the government of West Bengal for not taking any action against the school management for serving meals as per students' faiths. We talk of Space travel, Bullet trains, Rafael, Vishwa Guru (World Leader) and what not, but our collective mindset is still so primitive and pathological. Lastly, it's my humble request to the readers to refrain from mentioning their castes, religions and sub-castes when they're asked to fill out the Census forms. We're all humans and our common faith is humanity. Don't degrade yourself by writing your religion and caste. You're not a cheap commodity in the government's official records. ----- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/obnoxious-practice/d/136000 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism

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