By Tarushi Aswani
On August 19, a Class 10 student was stabbed inside the premises of their school in Ahmedabad. The two students allegedly involved were Hindu and Muslim, respectively. The religious identity of the latter was quickly weaponised by Hindutva organisations in the state.
The next day, the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad mobilised hundreds outside the premises of the Seventh Day Adventist Higher Secondary School at Maninagar which had transformed into a site of chaos and vandalism.
Among those assembled were students’ guardians who protested outside the school gates, demanding that “no Muslim student” be admitted to the school.
The incident is not an isolated one.
Across Gujarat, schoolyard disputes – from scuffles during playing hours to fights in classrooms – are being painted in communal colours. When the children involved have been from two different religious communities, Hindutva groups have rushed in to declare the fights as part of a broader Hindu-Muslim confrontation; as always, viewing Muslims as part of conspiracies.
Patterns of polarisation
“Burn this school, burn the teachers with it, it is their fault,” Bipinbhai Gadhvi heard protestors at the Ahmedabad school yell such slogans. Gadhvi, a political activist and eyewitness to the violence outside the Ahmedabad school also said that the police had been onlookers, hesitant to intervene.
Several locals, parents, bystanders, and Hindutva organisations yelled such slogans outside the school turning the educational space into a new theatre of polarisation. By recasting interpersonal violence as communal violence, Hindutva organisations seek not only to deepen divides but also to target minority-run schools, like Christian institutions. At the Ahmedabad school, angered mobs had demanded that ‘school leaving certificates’ must be issued to all Muslim students.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
