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Clarence High School in B’luru forces Christianity on children, media tries to buttress school’s claims

The Commune

On April 25, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) issued an order to the Deputy Commissioner of Bengaluru to inquiry into the matter of forceful imposition of Christianity on minor students by Clarence High School located in the city.

The application form for class 11 issued by the school asks parents to declare that they accept to imparting Bible to their children.

“We understand that our (sic) child requires sound moral and spiritual instruction, in addition to the academic knowledge, in order to become a good and useful citizen of India and the world. We understand that in Clarence High School, such instruction is given through a study of the Bible, and we have no objection to this.”, the declaration given at the end of the form reads.

It is to be noted that the school in its website also declares that their vision is to provide a holistic education in an enjoyable, secure, inclusive and Christ-centric environment.

The matter had come to light through social media following which Legal Rights Protection Forum (LRPF), a legal activism collective and other organization had filed complaints with different government authorities.

Some parents took to social media, tagging the Karnataka Chief Minister and the Minister for Primary and Secondary Education to seek their intervention.

Taking cognizance of the matter, the NCPCR issued orders to the Bengaluru Deputy Commissioner to take necessary action and file an action taken report within 7 days.

Working President of LRPF, AS Santhosh has said that the school by imposing Christian religious views on minor children violates Article 28(3) of the Indian Constitution and section 14 of the United Nations Convention on Child Rights.

Clarence High School is a private, Anglo-Indian and Christian Minority Institution running under the aegis of Clarence Educational Trust based in Bangalore. The trust is registered with the Ministry of Home Affairs under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.

It has been found that Gospel Missions of India Inc, a US-based Christian missionary organization is a major foreign donor to Clarence High School, Bangalore. The organization’s mission as per its disclosure to the US government’s Internal Revenue System (IRS) is “to Support Christian Workers and Ministries in India”.

AS Santhosh points out that while the amount being received by Clarence High School from Gospel Missions of India (US) is for “Education” as per its FC4 Returns, the project details of foreign amount being spent by Clarence High School are not mentioned properly in its FC4 Returns submitted to the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs.

However, several mainstream news outlets have been trying to give a clean chit to the school citing the school’s argument that ‘it is not a new practice’.

Leftist portal The New Minute (TNM), carried a story headlined ‘It’s not a new practice’: Alumni of Bengaluru Clarence school condemn Bible row‘ in which it tries to make a case for the school side with quotes from its alumni’s social media posts, while trying to shift the blame on Hindu organizations for ‘communalizing the issue’. Other articles by the outlet made similar observations.

When the bias in the coverage was pointed out by author and activist Shefali Vaidya to the Editor-in-Chief of TNM, the latter responded saying that it is a news report where what someone says is reported.

“Similarly, there is another report on what your friends said”, Dhanya Rajendran, the Editor-in-Chief of TNM added in her tweet.

 

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