India brings in Hindutva ideology to schools in Kashmir, banning those run locally
Since the abrogation of the special status of Kashmir in 2019, the further colonization of important aspects of everyday life in the region has been carried out at a rapid pace. Be it the economy, journalism, or knowledge production, the continuous plotting of the colonizing state against Kashmir has meant that people have either been forced to self-censor or imprisoned for refusing to do so.
However, in a recent turn of events this censorship has been set to take a more pervasive turn. Education and research in Kashmir have been a target of the Indian state since 1947, and the syllabi in the state have always had to parrot Indian narratives of Kashmir’s history. Those who contested this have been dismissed or arrested over the years. Now, the Indian government is seeking to inject direct Hindutva ideology in primary schools in Kashmir, and also ban those schools that have been running locally by Muslim charitable trusts.
1. Banning of Local Muslim Organisation Run Schools
One of the main organizations to face the targeting of the Indian government’s attacks on Kashmir’s civil society was the Falah-e-Aam Trust (FAT). This trust ran a number of schools in the region. According to research by two PhD students in 2014, FAT schools had 75,313 students enrolled consisting of 33,102 girls and 42,211 boys. Among these 5000 orphans and 4000 other students were not only being provided free education but were also being given monetary help from the schools. These schools, that did not restrict admissions on the basis of religion, ethnicity, language, or any other discriminatory grounds, also had 403 non-Muslim students enrolled at the time.
While the Falah-e-Aam Trust was set up in 1972 by Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), a Muslim socio-political organisation that has been vocal about Kashmir’s right to self-determination, a ban order was also issued against it in 1990. After this order, with the intention of not undoing two decades worth of exemplary work in the education sector in Kashmir, the trust handed over all the schools to local Mohalla (neighbourhood) and village management committees. By doing this, these schools ended all affiliations with JeI as well as FAT.
However, the order issued in 2022 once again relied on the now non-existent links of these schools to JeI, which was banned in 2019, and thus, enforced the latest ban on all these schools. In a more recent unofficial survey, at the time of the ban, more than 100,000 students were enrolled in more than 350 schools spanning across Kashmir as well as Jammu.
2. What Did FAT Schools Mean for Kashmir and Kashmiris?
20-year-old Mohammad Umar (name changed), a student at one of the FAT schools in Srinagar, while talking to an Indian media outlet, shared that it followed the Board of School Education (BOSE) curriculum, similar to other state schools. “In addition to the standard subjects, we also study the Quran and Islamiat, which emphasize human moral values,” he said. Another student, Akram (name changed) explained “The Quran instils a respect for human values, while Islamiat involves learning about the Prophets and significant historical events in Islam. It’s incorrect to associate these subjects with “radical knowledge.”
24-year-old Uzain (name changed), who graduated from a FAT school, described these institutions as critical for supporting orphaned children. Uzain became an orphan at the age of six and received a no-cost education at a FAT-affiliated school. “My pursuit of a Doctorate…is solely because of the education I received at these schools. Without it, my circumstances would have been dire, possibly working in harsh conditions,” he shared. Uzain expressed his reluctance to engage in current disputes but emphasized the importance of these schools for orphaned children. Despite ideological conflicts, he argued that closing these schools would destroy the aspirations and careers of many orphans who rely on the education they provide.
The now banned FAT schools had a huge impact on the social and educational fabric of the Kashmiri society as whole. However, the colonizer issued a blanket ban on these schools, undoing five decades worth of hard work and legacy. At the same time, we are now seeing a new phenomenon where Hindutva ideology schools are being spread across the same region.
3. RSS Schools Creeping Up in Kashmir
In March 2024 this year, reports started coming of a mushroom growth of RSS ideology schools in Kashmir. RSS is the ideological party of the BJP which aims to make India a ‘Hindurashtra’ as well as openly boasts of its expansionist agenda to establish ‘Akhund Bharat’ (unified India) consisting of the present-day Pakistan and Bangladesh (and other parts) merged into India. Apart from this, RSS also routinely conducts anti-Muslim hate parades and speeches across India. According to these reports, the Sewa Bharti wing of the RSS has managed to establish about 1250 schools across Kashmir, that instil “Desh Prem” (Indian nationalism) in Kashmiri students. These schools, 180 of which are in district Baramulla alone, teach Kashmiri children about being a “Hindustani” (Indian), and lessons of “Bhartiyata” (Indianness). While these schools are not entirely novel and about 480 of them existed till 2020–21, since then the number has grown by 260% in less than 3 years.
It must be noted that while more than 350 schools of FAT were banned in 2022, the RSS has managed to establish 1250 schools between then and 2024. While the colonizing state tries to maintain the mirage of these being different stories, it is clear that the settler colonial project is at play here. As the Indian state colonizes all aspects of life in Kashmir, this seems to be the next step for them to takeover Kashmiri minds while they are still young, during their school year. The internet is fraught with reports of mainstream Indian school textbooks being loaded with communal, anti-Muslim, casteist, racist, and xenophobic content, so one can only imagine what these RSS schools have on their curriculum in the name of nationalism and patriotism.
Source: Source Stand with Kashmir
