Banglar Mati, Banglar Jal
Nationwide pattern: A steady drumbeat
Jai Jai Maharashtra Maza
belonging
Bijoe Emmanuel
Why the pushback persists: Symbolism, power, and more
“Let us begin each day together”
“Comply, or it will be marked against you.”
Bijoe Emmanuel
Belonging, not uniformity: The lesson Darjeeling schools hold up to India
When the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education told every government and aided school to open assembly with the state anthem, the Hills read a larger message: Uniform ritual, uniform identity. The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) pushed back, saying the order won’t apply to Darjeeling schools. In a letter to the District Inspectors of Schools in Darjeeling and Kalimpong, the GTA secretary clarified that institutions in the GTA area already conduct morning assemblies with their customary anthem and prayers in Nepali. The note said that these schools will continue their existing practice, keeping in view their distinct cultural traditions and language of instruction.This decision is being read, in some quarters, as a small administrative accommodation. It is not. It tells us how daily rituals in schools — the most ordinary of spaces — become the stage upon which questi
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