Teachers in a play school teaches Hindu children Namaz in the name of Eid event, Hindu parents complain saying school trying to convert their children to Islam
Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India 
9 April, 2024
Case Summary
On April 10, 2024, a play school in Roorkee, Uttarakhand, organised an event for Eid al-Fitr, where children were shown a demonstration of reading namaz. Videos of the event went viral, prompting parents to file a police complaint, and accusing the school of influencing young minds. The Learning Ladder Play School in Civil Lines, Roorkee, was at the centre of the controversy, with footage showing teachers wearing hijabs and teaching how to read namaz to the children. Parents expressed concern about their Hindu children being taught Islamic practices and demanded action from the school administration. Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad members also protested, accusing the school of hatching a conspiracy to convert Hindu children to Islam. However, the school's principal, Ruchi Handa, claimed that the event was an Eid celebration, and promised to handle such matters sensitively in the future. The school removed the video and provided a clarification to address the concerns raised. The police confirmed receiving a complaint and initiated an investigation into the matter.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
Religious brainwashing essentially means the often subtle and forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up their religious beliefs to accept contrasting regimented ideas. Religious brainwashing also involves propaganda and manipulation. It involves the systematic effort, driven by religious malice and indoctrination, to persuade “non-believers’ to accept allegiance, command, or doctrine to and of a contrasting faith. Cases of such brainwashing are far more nuanced than direct threats, coercion, inducement and violence. In such cases, it is often seen that there is repeated, subtle and continual manipulation of the victim to induce disaffection towards their own faith and acceptance of the contrasting faith of the perpetrator. While subtle indoctrination is widely acknowledged as predatory, an element which is often understated in such conversions or the attempts of such conversion is the role of loyalty and trust which might develop between the perpetrator and the victim. Fiduciary relationships are often abused to affect such religious conversion. For example, an educator transmitting religious doctrine of a competing faith to a Hindu student. The Hindu student is likely to accept what the teacher is transmitting owing to existence of the fiduciary relationship. The exploitation of the fiduciary relationship to religiously indoctrinate victims would also be included in this category. Since the underlying animosity towards the victim’s faith forms the basis of predatory proselytization, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. In this case, the school teacher adopted the tactic of conditional brainwashing to alienate the young children from their faith and slowly bring them closer to the folds of Islam. Children, who are particularly vulnerable due to their developing cognitive and emotional states, were being taught to read Namaz in this case. Since the underlying offence in this case is against children of a specific faith and involves subtle tactics of indoctrination, which obviously stems from a bias against the Hindu faith, this case has been documented as a hate crime.
Case Status
Complaint registered
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
Unknown
Perpetrators Gender
female
Sources 
