‘Follow Christianity to Get Good Marks’ : Missionaries targeting TN students

Thirteen-year-old Rajan (name changed), a student of Class 8 in a school in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli, recalls how he was told during an extra class that if he needs good marks and wishes to perform academically better than his peers, he must pray to no other God but Jesus. Not doing so will bring “failure in life and deformities to his body,” Rajan tells News18 in the wake of recent incidents of religious conversions reported from the state.

Rajan’s father transferred him to a different school after he came to know about the incident. “School is not a place where we send our children to learn how one religion is better than others. This creates hatred. Many other parents were outraged on learning about it. We took the matter up with the school administration but only to see that no serious action was taken,” the father said.

Earlier this month, a video of a Class 6 student from a school in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, was widely shared on social media where she was seen complaining to the administration of her government school about how one of her teachers was telling her and other classmates to read a Bible and that all other deities are Satans.

A News18 team was present in the school at the time of incident along with the girl’s parents. As the incident became the headline in the media across country, two days later, the schoolteacher was suspended.

Two months ahead of this incident, in January this year, 17-year-old Lavanya, a Class 12 student in Tamil Nadu’s Thanjavur, had allegedly ended her life due to alleged torture by two nuns of her school, who, as the girl had reportedly said in her dying declaration, were forcing her to turn to Christianity. Almost a month later, the Madras High Court had directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to take up the probe into the matter.

In the wake of Lavanya’s case, as the special investigation team of News18 travelled extensively across south Tamil Nadu and visited various government as well as private-run schools, testimonies of students, parents, activists and educationists were recorded that claimed how religious conversion in this part of the state is rampant. They also raise questions on how the lack of action on the state administration’s part is only fuelling such practices.

The News18 team also met another student from the area, whose father did not wish her to be identified. The 14-year-old narrated how her teacher had told her and her classmates in one of the classes during school hours that “Hindus are Satans. You will only get misery if you do not pray to Jesus. One must use a Bible while praying if they wish to be successful in life”.

Her father said when he along with some other student’s parents had raised the matter with the school administration, it was not taken seriously and they were assured that it will not be repeated.

News18 has also found that not only in schools, but in tuition centres, too, some students encountered similar religious preaching.

Aarthi (name changed), a Class 3 student, said she was asked by her tuition teacher to come for prayers. “I said my parents will not allow but they insisted that I must. One boy in my tuition was also told that if he needs good marks he must come for prayer,” the girl said.

Locals and activists in the area say such incidents are becoming “more common and brazen day by day”.

Talking about the “modus operandi” of these religious groups, Theiva Prakash, who runs a school in Nagarcoil, said mostly these people enter a school premise posing as educationists. “They would offer the school administration to give students lectures on ‘uses of cell phones’ or ‘misuses of technology’ or on moral science. But as we have been told by students, these lectures slowly graduate to become preaching on prayers, importance of one particular religion and how to pray to God and on how other religions are bad. This is complete brainwashing of a child as young as 8-9 years old,” Prakash said.

Activists and educationists in south Tamil Nadu also stressed that despite raising the matter, nothing significant has so far been done by the administration.

Umayoru Bhagan, an educationist and retired professor from Kanyakumari, said the problem of religious conversion based on allurements is not new in the area.

“Over the past two decades, the demography of Kanyakumari and nearby villages has changed dramatically and quite evidently. Since targets for conversion are selected as per one’s needs, the allurements by the groups that approach these people are so strong that one easily falls prey to them. In the recent past we have seen that more and more schools are being approached. Students can’t be told they will do better academically if they follow one particular religion. Playing with the future of children is criminal,” Bhagan said.

Laxmi Manivannan, who often writes on similar issues in Kanyakumari, also said conversion rate in the area is unusually high. “If children are being lured with marks, for adults and those running a house, financial help is used as a trap. As per my studies, 50% of the residents of Kanyakumari and nearby areas are crypto Christians that means they are Hindu in government records but in practice they are Christians, only to be able to benefit from both government schemes as well as missionary groups,” Manivannan added.

While the incidents of religious conversion, as the locals say, are rampant, there are activists who say they have now joined hands to timely reach out to those who have converted or to those who complain of being forced or being offered allurements for religious conversion.

Bhaskar, one of such activists, said he receives two to three complaints every week. “I am a field worker. It is true that we are associated with some Hindu outfits but that is because alone no one can fight these groups. I work independently. There are many others like us. We keep in touch and whenever we get any such call, we reunite and visit the family, school or wherever such complaint has been made. We try to bring these people back to their religion and also help them file a complaint with the police if they wish to,” Bhaskar said.

In many cases, these activists claim they have also written to the police or have made emergency calls but allege that they do not act timely.

When News18 reached out to one of the police officers present at the spot during one such complaint being made by the parents of a Class 6 girl at a government school in Kanyakumari, he declined to comment. “We will let the school administration handle the issue for now,” he said.

News18 also wrote to some of the missionaries and groups, which run schools in south Tamil Nadu asking them to comment on such allegations but no response was received.

Source : News18