By Jehangir Ali
Srinagar: The administration in Jammu and Kashmir’s Doda district has directed all schools to recite the national song ‘Vande Mataram’ during morning assemblies, prompting outrage from religious leaders and clerics.
J&K’s Grand Mufti Nasir-ul-Islam and Kashmir’s chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who also heads the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference, termed it a “direct attack” on the religious beliefs of Muslims while calling on the administration to roll back the “blasphemous” order.
The order was issued in a circular released by Doda’s chief education officer on Saturday (November 1), which directed the heads of all schools in the district to ensure the recitation of the national song during the morning assembly session every Monday.
The circular, which was marked to Doda’s deputy commissioner Harvinder Singh and Jammu’s director of school education Naseen Javaid Chowdhary, called on school heads to consult “experts who are well versed with Vande Mataram/YouTube, so that the students may recite it currently without any embarrassing position during any event”.
The circular has been issued at a time when the mandatory recitation of the national song is being viewed by some as an attempt to impose the cultural agenda of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological fountainhead of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, on the country’s Muslim population.
The Wire has reached out to Singh and Chowdhary for comment. This story will be updated as and when any response is received.
The recitation of ‘Vande Mataram’ is considered blasphemous or idolatrous by monotheistic religions such as Islam and Sikhism due to its lyrics, which call for bowing before the country which is described as “mother” in the song.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
