Controversy erupts in Kashmir after Muslim students ‘Forced’ to sing Hindu hymns

J&K’s main regional parties, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and National Conference (NC), on Monday took exception to the Lieutenant Governor’s move to make Muslim students allegedly sing Hindu hymns in government-run educational institutes ahead of Gandhi Jayanti.

“Jailing religious scholars, shutting down Jama Masjid and directing school kids here to sing Hindu hymns exposes the real Hindutva agenda of GOI (Government of India) in Kashmir. Refusing these rabid dictates invites Public Safety Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). It is the cost that we are paying for this so called “Badalta J&K”,” Mehbooba Mufti said.

Her remarks came after students in several schools in the Kashmir valley were seen singing Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram in classes as part of the preparation for the upcoming Gandhi Jayanti. One video from a school in south Kashmir went viral on social media.

The former Chief Minister also posted the video on Twitter. “India is a democracy and every community lives with rights. The Constitution allows all communities to follow their religion. This precisely was the reason that J&K, despite being a Muslim majority, decided to be part of India and not Pakistan in 1947. Our religion too is a target now. Kashmir is being made laboratory of rabid Hindutva agenda,” Ms. Mufti said.

NC spokesman Imran Nabi Dar also criticised the government’s move. “Children are being made to sing Hindu devotional songs. Have our education institutions been turned into a political tool?” Mr. Dar asked.

Meanwhile, An amalgam of religious organisations in Kashmir on Tuesday objected to the singing of a bhajan at a school in Kulgam alleging it was aimed to speed up “the so-called integration of younger generation with the Hindutva idea of India”. A video of students singing the bhajan went viral.

“Deliberate interference in this by the government, education department or any other agency will neither be accepted nor tolerated,” Muttahida Majlis-e-Ulema (MMU), a representative body of around 30 organisations, said in a statement.

MMU, which is led by Hurriyat Conference chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, said the “enforcement” of singing Hindu hymns in schools in Kashmir is a cause of great concern and an attempt to undermine the region’s religious identity. It added protection of their religion and Islamic identity as Muslims is their fundamental religious responsibility.

“….there seems to be a deliberate plan to push our young generation through state-run educational institutions towards apostasy, to wean them away from Islamic beliefs and… to speed their so-called ‘integration’ with the Hindutva idea of India. This is a very serious matter,” the MMU said.

Former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti earlier on Monday attacked the government over the bhajan singing and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of pushing its Hindutva agenda in Jammu & Kashmir.

She posted a video on Twitter showing school students in Kulgam singing the bhajan “Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram.”

National Conference spokesman Imran Nabi Dar also shared a part of the video questioning whether “our education institutions been turned into a political tool?”

MMU alleged there were attempts to “browbeat” Muslim scholars and weaken their influence citing the arrest of religious leaders. “Yet despite all odds and pressures, MMU will try to convene a meeting of its members to discuss and deliberate upon this serious matter and formulate a unified strategy in this regard,” it said.