Indian prelate denies claims of conversion at Christian school

Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore says Karnataka government is targeting Christian institutions
A Catholic archbishop in Karnataka state in southern India has denied allegations of forced religious conversion at a prestigious Christian school.
“These allegations are false and misleading,” said Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore after allegations of forced religious conversion against Clarence High School, Bangalore (now Bengaluru), capital of Karnataka state.
The school, recognised as a Christian minority institution, was founded in 1914 by British missionaries Alfred and Walter Redwood, and named after their own school in Somerset, England.
The school came under attack from Hindu Janajagriti Samiti, a right-wing Hindu organization, after it found in the admission form for class 11 students that they will have “no objection to attending classes including morning assembly scripture class for his/her own moral and spiritual welfare and will not object to carrying the Bible and hymn book during his/her stay at Clarence High School.”
The state government took note of the complaint against the school and served a notice to the management on April 26 seeking its response to the allegations.
“The school will reply to the government notice,” J.A. Kanthraja, public relations officer of the archdiocese, told UCA News on April 27.
“The school is more than 100 years old and no complaint of conversion was made any time against this school. The school has justified that moral education, based on the examples of the Bible, cannot be considered as forced religious education. The institutions run by other religious sects also give religious instruction based on their sacred books. It is extremely unfair to target only Christian institutions, and whatever good is being done is labeled as forced conversion,” Archbishop Machado said in a statement on April 26.
The prelate also clarified that “such a practice was there in the past and since last year no child is required to bring a Bible to the school or asked to read it by force.”
“Being a Christian minority school, it is within the rights of the management to conduct Bible or religion classes for Christians outside of the school hours,” he explained.
The pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in Karnataka is mulling introducing portions of the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu holy text, as part of the school curriculum.
Gujarat, in the west of the country, has already announced its decision to impart religious education using portions from the Bhagavad Gita in classes 6-12 across the state for the new academic semester.
Karnataka has also shown interest in including the Hindu religious text in state schools, but has yet to finalize a decision.