After allegations of a school in Bengaluru “imposing” the Bible on students, the management of Clarence High School maintained that no student was forced to study the Bible in the school. Addressing a press conference on Thursday, April 28, Principal Jerry George Mathew said that the institution does not teach the Bible as a subject, but rather teaches a “moral education” class using stories from the Bible. “From our inception, Clarence High School has taught moral values from stories from Christian texts. We were convinced that it was an essential component of a person’s wholesome development. Clarence High School has imparted education first to Christians and then members of other religions since 1914. About 75% of our students are from Christian families. We admit students of other faiths at their request, with the full understanding that they are coming to a Christian school,” he clarified.
Claiming that the teaching of the weekly moral values class had invited more admissions to the school, he reiterated that every student who wanted to join was told about the school’s “moral ethos” beforehand. “Any declaration that is sought at the time of admission is only as per the law,” he said, adding that the school is in conformity with every law of the land. On Wednesday, April 27, the state government had issued a show-cause notice to the school over the issue. Referring to this, the principal said that they would follow the advice of their legal counsel over the future actions of the school, and may even consider withdrawing the clause about carrying the Bible from their application form.
Earlier, a controversy erupted when the Hindu Janajagriti Samiti found an application form for Class 11 admission in Clarence school, which stated, "You affirm that your child will attend all classes including Morning Assembly Scripture Class and Clubs for his/her own moral and spiritual welfare and will not object to carry the Bible and Hymn Book during his/her stay at Clarence High School (sic)." The group claimed that the school “violated and misused” Article 25 of the Constitution, which deals with freedom of religion.
However, alumni from the school backed the institution and said that it was a practice followed by the school for years, and also pointed out that the school was explicitly set up as a Christian minority institution. The Principal pointed out that the moral education class was not compulsory for non-Christian students and while there was an exam conducted for this class, it was not compulsory and would not affect students’ final grade.
Speaking about the allegations, Archbishop Father Peter Machado said, “These allegations hurt us. When this school was started 100 years ago, it was a completely Christian school. At that time, this rule of carrying the Bible came into force. Now, 75% of the student population is Christian. Asking Christian students to carry the Bible is not wrong, And it is not even compulsory for them to carry it. We even conduct an exam on these values but if students choose not to write it, it is not a problem for us. Further, in the previous academic year’s application form, we did not mention anything about the Bible.”
The Karnataka government had previously announced that the Bhagavad Gita will be introduced in the state syllabus from next year. Amid the Bible row, on Wednesday, April 27, Education Minister BC Nagesh had claimed that the “Bible and Quran are religious texts but the Bhagavad Gita is a book which speaks about values needed to lead life.”
Responding to the same, the Archbishop said, “You can’t make a difference between religion and morality. I think what the education minister wants to say is that he wants to implement more principles of the Bhagavad Gita (in the syllabus), we have no problem with that. But if a textbook is made on moral science, include principles from the Bible as well.” He dismissed allegations of forceful conversion of students saying the government could inquire about conversion in the last 100 years and fail to find a single instance.
Asked about the pressure facing the Christian community in Karnataka, the Archbishop said, “I can’t say that we are under fire because we have a strong government. If it does its job, why should we fear? The government is the caretaker of the state. It should look after everyone, not just the strong. Being a minority institution, the work we do for the state and the country is considerable. I believe the government is good, but these problems we are facing are because of extra-constitutional groups.”