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Showing posts from November 29, 2007


Britain’s First State-funded Hindu School’s Definition of Practising Hindu too rigid

Britain ’s first state-funded Hindu School , the Krishna-Avanti school in Harrow , has come under criticism from Hindu organizations over its definition of ‘practising Hindu.’ The school is set to open in Harrow , north London , in September 2008 and the ‘practising Hindu’ definition is outlined in the admission policy of the school. According to the admissions policy document, the Krishna-Avanti school defines practising Hindus as those who follow a version of Hinduism requiring daily practice of deity worship and prayer either in the temple or at home; undertake weekly temple-related charity work; participate fortnightly in temple programmes; accept and put into practice the teachings of the Vedic scriptures, in particular the teachings of the Bhagavad-Gita; and abstain from meat, fish, eggs, alcohol and smoking. The admissions policy also allows for available places to be filled by children from families ‘broadly following’ the tenets of Hinduism. But even this requires them