Sangh dominates Orissa's schools


BHUBANESWAR, [PRASHANTI,] JUNE 25 2010-06-25

Radical Hindu groups in the Indian state of Orissa may have stolen a march on Christians by developing a large network of schools in rural areas of the state neglected by the Church, an education expert fears.

Since 1978, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS, national volunteer corps) has built a network of 793 schools in the eastern state with a faculty of 12,000 teachers, local reports say.

“The RSS has spearheaded the movement, successfully penetrating into the educational systems of both the grassroots and centralized regulatory commissions,” Angana Chatterji is a professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, USA.

“A whole new generation is being grown indoctrinated in Hindutva (Hindu ideology). It is a devious strategy to teach hate to the young,” the paper claims, with as many as 55 of the top 100 10th grade students now coming from these schools.

“The RSS made it clear that the schools, called Shishu Mandirs, together with the Ekal Vidyalayas (single-teacher primary schools in villages), were set up to counter the influence of the schools run by the Church,” John Dayal, secretary general of the All India Christian Council, said.

He lamented that Christian schools, which are mostly located in metropolitan cities and towns, have earned the reputation of being elite English language institutions for the rich and powerful.
Barring a few exceptions, there are hardly any Christian schools in rural areas, Dayal added, and the RSS-run schools fill the vacuum, providing high quality education without the elitism. “The Church needs to do a rethinking in this regard,” he warned.

Father Anselm Biswal, former director of social work, agreed. “The schools that we have are no match for the RSS schools,” he said. “What we require today is a commitment and direction to the issue of education”.

In this year’s annual examinations for the tenth class, children of the RSS schools, many of them sons and daughters of government officials, took the top positions across Orissa.