The US media approached people from different walks of life seeking their reaction and the majority of respondents disapproved of the incident. The so-called “polytheistic” prayer objected to was a Vedic hymn — Asato ma sadgamayam tamaso ma jyotirgamaya, mmrityoma amritam gamaya. Twelve years after defending an Indian prayer on a foreign land, I am confronted with a similar incident in our country. The headmaster of a school in district Pilibhit of Uttar Pradesh allowed his students to sing a traditional Urdu prayer in their morning assembly. In view of Urdu being widely understood and spoken in the country, does it really need a prolonged inquiry to discover that the Urdu prayer, for allowing which the poor teacher is facing punishment, is conspicuously non-religious?

Source: Indian Express October 21, 2019 23:15 UTC