This must have caught us napping!

[cathol...@gmail.com]

Sangh dominates Orissa's schools


BHUBANESWAR, [PRASHANTI,] JUNE 25 2010-06-25

Radical Hindu groups in the Indian state of Orissa may have stolen a
march on Christians by developing a large network of schools in rural
areas of the state neglected by the Church, an education expert fears.

Since 1978, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS, national volunteer
corps) has built a network of 793 schools in the eastern state with a
faculty of 12,000 teachers, local reports say.

“The RSS has spearheaded the movement, successfully penetrating into
the educational systems of both the grassroots and centralized
regulatory commissions,” Angana Chatterji is a professor of Social and
Cultural Anthropology at the California Institute of Integral
Studies, USA.

“A whole new generation is being grown indoctrinated in Hindutva
(Hindu ideology). It is a devious strategy to teach hate to the
young,” the paper claims, with as many as 55 of the top 100 10th grade
students now coming from these schools.

“The RSS made it clear that the schools, called Shishu Mandirs,
together with the Ekal Vidyalayas (single-teacher primary schools in
villages), were set up to counter the influence of the schools run by
the Church,” John Dayal, secretary general of the All India Christian
Council, said.

He lamented that Christian schools, which are mostly located in
metropolitan cities and towns, have earned the reputation of being
elite English language institutions for the rich and powerful.
Barring a few exceptions, there are hardly any Christian schools in
rural areas, Dayal added, and the RSS-run schools fill the vacuum,
providing high quality education without the elitism. “The Church
needs to do a rethinking in this regard,” he warned.

Father Anselm Biswal, former director of social work, agreed. “The
schools that we have are no match for the RSS schools,” he said. “What
we require today is a commitment and direction to the issue of
education”.

In this year’s annual examinations for the tenth class, children of
the RSS schools, many of them sons and daughters of government
officials, took the top positions across Orissa.