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'They should have kept
students out of this'

A Ganesh Nadar in Chennai

The closure of over 3000 Christian schools and colleges and a few Muslim institutions across Tamil Nadu on Thursday in protest against a recent ordinance banning forced religious conversions does not seem to have gone down well with the common people.

A cross-section of parents this correspondent spoke to said the educational institutions should have kept students away from the protest. If fact, one angry response was: "This [the closure of schools and colleges] proves beyond doubt that they were running the institutions to proselytise."

Even if that could be classified as an extremist view, most parents seemed disappointed that their children were being used as pawns in a game of religion and politics.

"I studied in a convent school. So does my son. When I was in school no attempt, covert or overt, was made to proselytize. My son too has never had any such problem," said Chennai housewife Jaya.

"We did pray. The prayers began with 'dear Lord'. The Lord could have been a Hindu God for all we cared. I could have repeated the same prayer in Tamil in any Hindu temple. But that is not the point. The point is: where was the need to shut the schools. Can't we keep our children out of such things," she asked.

Her son, of course, couldn't have asked for more. He enjoyed the day off mostly outdoors with his friends.

Suresh, a real-estate broker, believes the ordinance was a step in the right direction. "The ordinance is good. All their [Christians'] social work is aimed at [religious] conversion...and all this is done with foreign funds. If foreign funds don't come into India, terrorism will stop immediately. Christian conversions will stop immediately," he said.

Idroos Bhai, a businessman, agrees with Suresh but believes that shutting educational institutions was not such a good idea. "I send my son to a Hindu school. Does that make me a Hindu. Even if it does, I don't care. As long as my son studies, I am happy. As for the Christians they can protest all they want. I will never agree that what they did was right. They said students would not be involved in protests. If they didn't want to involve students, why did they close the schools then. When students ask in school tomorrow why the schools were closed, what would they tell them?" he asked

Kanagraj, a villager, is of the same view. "Involving students and schools was not a right thing to do. It will give out wrong signals," he said.

A Christian girl, a graduate in nutrition and health from the Madras University, however, said everyone should have the freedom chose his/her religion.

"When I was in college a lot of my friends liked Christianity and wanted to convert. Who is the government to decide what people want to do with their lives. Religion is personal choice. Closing the schools was a show of strength. It was a signal to the government that the Christians are united," she said.

Shankar, an auto driver, however, did not make much of the strike. "They will shut schools and they will shut colleges. Who cares. See the students playing on the streets. Does it make any difference to them. Tomorrow they will shut schools for something else. There is very little work anyway. This is a stupid state," he said.

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