According to a London-based think tank, Hinduphobia is propelled by Muslim students in the United Kingdom against Hindu pupils in the classroom by bullying and racially discriminating. Muslim students force Hindu students to convert to Islam.
As per the report by The Telegraph, Muslim pupils call Hindu students ‘kafirs’ and threaten them for being non-believers to pressure them to convert to Islam repeatedly.
According to the study, inappropriate religious education contributed to ridiculing Hindu students adding to Hinduphobia in UK classrooms by amplifying misconceptions about the Hindu deities and the Indian caste system.
A research fellow named Charlotte Littlewood conducted this study by surveying more than 1000 British schools and speaking with 988 Hindu parents.
The report was published on April 19 by the Henery Jackson Society. The study found that “51 per cent of Hindu parents surveyed reported that their child had experienced Hinduphobia in schools, while less than 1 per cent of schools surveyed reported any anti-Hindu related incidents in the last 5 years”.
It further added that “8 physical assaults were detailed. One female Hindu pupil had beef thrown on her, a male student was reported to have to change East London schools three times on account of anti-Hindu bullying and concerns have been risen around a problematic approach to teaching Hinduism that is directly leading to bullying in the classroom”.
Charlotte Littlewood observed that a few Hindu students were made fun of in class for being vegetarians and that their deities were disparaged in a way that was reminiscent of the extreme Islamists who attacked the Hindu community in Leicester.
Additionally, she discovered that Hindus were subjected to xenophobic remarks by White students and blamed them for social and political events that occurred in India.
According to a report by the Henry Jackson Society, Muslim students have threatened Hindus for practising their religion virtuously. The survey found that a student “was harassed and told that if they convert to Islam, their life will become so much easier”.
A Hindu victim was told by their classmates, “You aren’t going to survive very long… If you want to go to paradise, you’ll have to come to Islam… Hindus are the herbivores at the bottom of the food chain, we will eat you up”.
Another parent reported that Hindu children were instructed to view Islamic preacher videos and to “convert because Hinduism makes no sense”. Hindu students also faced prejudice from Christian students who warned them that Jesus Christ would send Hindu deities to Hell.
The think tank claimed that misconceptions about the worship of deities and inappropriate references to the Indian caste system in religious education “fostered discrimination” and Hinduphobia towards Hindus, which students felt made “a mockery of them”.
It was discovered that other non-hindu religious festivals were celebrated and given off-days, while Hindu pupils were not granted even one day off for Diwali. Charlotte Littlewood also noted that the country’s schools did a terrible job of reporting instances of anti-Hindu hatred.
While taking to The Telegraph, Conservative Party MP Ben Everitt said, “The findings in this report are damning and shed light on the varying themes and forms which anti-Hindu discrimination materialises in the classroom”.
Ben Everitt recognised the problematic way Hinduism was being taught in UK schools and emphasised, “If we want to make real, sustained, long-term progress in reducing discrimination towards those of minority faiths in our schools, then we need to make sure that young people are receiving the best possible education about the many faiths which are woven into the fabric of our diverse United Kingdom”.
