By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi: The United Christian Forum has urged the administration and the Directorate of Education of Daman to immediately withdraw a circular making veneration of goddess Saraswati compulsory in all schools under the Union Territory in western India.
“The Christian community in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu are at pain and in anguish with the directive of Directorate of Education, Daman, for making the celebration of Vasant Panchami mandatory by venerating Goddess Saraswati,” the forum, an ecumenical body said in a statement.
The Vasanth Panchami, also called Saraswati Puja, fell on February 16 this year. The festival marks the preparation for the arrival of spring. It also marks the start of preparation for Holika and Holi, which take place forty days later. The Vasant Utsava (festival) on Panchami is celebrated forty days before Spring.
The ‘Daman Administration’s official circular has directed all government, government- aided and private school principals to conduct the following programs and submit compliance report along with photographs by February 17.
The February 11 directive wanted the schools to place goddess Saraswati’s statue at their entrances, and conduct prayers venerating the deity and worship her. The administration has asked the schools to briefly explain to children about the significance of the festival, chant Saraswati mantra in groups, seek the deity’s blessing.
The circular asked schools to organize Sanksrit song competition, conduct competition on Om, Swastika and other auspicious signs, decorate their buildings with yellow color and distribute prasadam.
The Christian forum recalled that the same administration had tried to cancel Good Friday as a public holiday two years ago.
The Christian community had approached the Bombay High Court and succeeded in reversing the order. “The community sees this present order as yet another way of restricting the practice of their faith, as well as the right to administer their institutions,” the forum statement asserts.
It says the administration’s conduct “gravely impinges on the constitutional Freedom of Religion and Freedom to Establish and Administer Educational Institutions of Their Choice as guaranteed and protected in the Constitution of India to all minorities.”
The forum also points out that India is secular country that places a constitutional embargo on the government from giving preferential treatment to a particular religion. It cited a 1984 Supreme Court landmark judgment that noted that “religious tolerance and equal treatment of all religious groups and protections of their life and property and the places of worship are an essential part of secularism enshrined in our constitution…”
“While the patriotic contributions of the Indian Christian community during the freedom struggle are well documented, post-independence Christians have played a major role in Nation building with their contributions in the Armed Forces, the railways, rural healthcare and school and college education, to name a few,” says the forum press note issued by its secretary A C Michael.
Dadra and Nagar Haveli is a district of the Union Territory. It is composed of two separate geographical entities: Nagar Haveli, wedged between Maharashtra and Gujarat and 1 km to the northwest, the smaller enclave of Dadra, which is surrounded by Gujarat. Silvassa is the administrative headquarters of Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
Daman and Diu are geographically separated by the Gulf of Khambhat. The state of Gujarat and the Arabian Sea borders the territory. Daman and Diu were administered as part of the union territory of Goa between 1961 and 1987, when they became a separate union territory. In 2019, legislation was passed to merge the union territory of Daman and Diu with its neighboring union territory, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, to form the new union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu with effect from January 26,2020.