Editorial: Preach the Preamble

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) earlier this week came up with excellent guidelines for schools run by the church in India. Chief among these was the advice to schools not to force Christian traditions on students of other religions, and to instil in both staff and pupils respect for India’s religious and cultural diversity. The bishops’ guidance also advocated setting up inter-religious prayer rooms in schools and recital of the Preamble to the Constitution in the morning assembly. Christian educational institutions have been advised to display the Preamble and photographs of freedom struggle heroes at the entrance of their building.

While the need for any religious education at all on school campuses might be debatable, the 13-page instruction document issued by the CBCI tips its hat to the need for inclusivity and diversity in our schools and deftly addresses the right-wing propaganda that Christian schools serve as cover for proselytising activity. Reading between the lines, one can discern that the bishops are responding to the “emerging challenges due to the current sociocultural, religious, and political situation in the country”. This is a diplomatic allusion to attacks on Christian educational institutions reported across the country from time to time, including one bizarre litigation in Assam questioning the habit worn by Catholic school masters.

The bishops’ guidelines are meant to be followed by the 14,000 schools run by Catholic institutions in India but are worthy of adoption by all schools whatever their denomination, faith or creed. While the suggestion for inter-religious prayer rooms in schools might not be to the liking of rationalists, it might serve as a much-needed early introduction to the rich variety of faiths practiced in India, including animism and tribal religions. Familiarity with other forms of worship at school would do much to curb the prejudices taught to children by society at large.

The soundness of the suggestion for recital of the Preamble at morning assembly can hardly be overstated, especially in the context of the current assault by the right wing on the foundations of our democracy. The morning routine of school is when our notion of nationhood and the values of liberty, equality and fraternity are best planted in the minds of our young. Apart from being beautifully worded, the Preamble brings home the stirring realisation that the republic is a creation of our own will and not the gift of a king or strongman. Early introduction to the values enshrined in the Preamble is the best insurance against any tyrant trifling with the rights of the people.

The CBCI guidelines should encourage other organisations running educational institutions to conduct a diversity audit within their portals. Inexplicably, our classrooms are more monochromatic today than ever before. It’s common to see children go through their entire schooling without having friends from a different socioeconomic class or religious identity than their own. Although the Right to Education mandates that 25 per cent of the seats in any class be given to students from underprivileged backgrounds, school companies—which is what they are—contrive to sidestep it. This is breeding a generation of privileged Indians that can only be described as the Marie Antoinette class, ignorant of how privilege disguises itself as merit and struts about as social conscience.