Primary school teacher in Palanpur threatened by local Muslims to stop prayer session
Palanpur, Gujarat, India 
22 January, 2023
Case Summary
In N Kothari Primary School, located in Dhondiawadi Palanpur, Gujarat, a primary school teacher filed a complaint regarding threats he received from a mob of 10-12 local Muslims to stop the 20-minute prayers in school. Video of the incident went viral on social media. Music teacher Maheshbhai Solanki said that each day, students recite mantras and prayers during the 20-minute time allotted for the same. At the time of the prayer, the mob created a ruckus, abused teachers and demanded to stop the prayers. The principal has given a written complaint to the division primary education officer.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case is being added to two primary categories of the Hinduphobia Tracker. The first primary category is Restriction/Ban on Hindu practices under the sub-category Restriction on Expression of Hindu identity. An example of the state-affected prejudicial and targeted orders against the Hindu community would be a government denying the right of a Hindu or a group of Hindus to hold a religious procession owing to the animosity of non-Hindu groups. Denial of the religious right of the Hindus to assuage the non-Hindu group which harbours animosity to a point where it could lead to violence against Hindus is not only a failure of law and order but is a prejudicial order against Hindus, denying them their fundamental rights to express their religious identity. An example of a hate crime against Hindus by a non-Hindu would be a non-Hindu institution forcing its Hindu employees to abandon religious symbols that a Hindu would wear as an expression of faith owing to inherent prejudice against the faith professed by the victim or a non-Hindu group of people restricting a Hindu group from constructing a place of worship simply because the demography of the area in which the temple is being built is dominated by non-Hindus. Such actions are driven by religious animosity and/or prejudice against Hindus and their faith and would therefore be categorized as a hate crime. The second primary category is 'hate speech against Hindus' under the secondary category 'violent threats'. Violent threats, explicit, implicit or implied, is the most dangerous form of hate speech since it goes beyond discriminatory and prejudicial language to express the intent of causing harm to an individual or a group of people based on their religious identity and faith. There could be several different kinds of threats that are issued to Hindus based on religious animosity. An explicit threat would mean the direct threat of violence towards an individual Hindu, a group of Hindus or Hindus at large. Physical violence, death threats, threats of destruction of property belonging to Hindus and threats of genocide would mean explicit threats against Hindus for their religious identity. Implicit threats may not be a direct threat but implied through the use of symbols of actions – for example – in the Nupur Sharma case, other than explicit threats, there were also implicit threats when Islamists took to the streets to burn and beat her effigies. It implies that they want to do the same to Nupur Sharma – thereby is considered an implicit threat. Violent threats can be delivered in person, through letters, phone calls, graffiti, or increasingly through social media and other online platforms. It would be important to understand that a threat – explicit or implicit, online or offline – to an individual who happens to be a Hindu does not qualify as a religiously motivated threat. Such a threat, while vile and dangerous, could be owing to non-religious reasons and/or personal animosity. To qualify as a religiously motivated threat, it would need to exhibit an indication that the individual is being targeted for religious reasons and/or owing to his/her religious identity as a Hindu. The school teacher was conducting prayers in her school with the students. The Muslim mob which threatened her essentially did not like Hindu prayers being conducted by the teacher. Their assault and threats against the teacher were owing to the religious hate they harbour towards Hindu prayers, which are an essential part of Hindus' faith. Since the threats to the teacher were given by those belonging to a specific religious group and the threats issued were because of religious chanting, this can be classified as a religiously motivated hate crime.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 1
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 5 to 10
Sources 
