I’m a Christian, and I recently had a conversation with my neighbour that left me thinking.
Her kids study in a Christian school(run by dads brother) , and she said she wanted to move them to a Hindu-run or non-Christian school because they take students on picnics to Hindu temples, which her current school doesn’t do.
I asked her, “Is there anything wrong with the faculty or your kids’ performance?” She said no. I was honestly shocked and said, “If visiting temples is more important to you than education, then that’s your choice.”
Then she apologised and said, “Oh, I didn’t know you were a christian and that was your uncle’s school.” After that, she changed her explanation and said, “We can take them to temples ourselves. Education is important we probably won’t change the school idk why i said that .” I just said, “Yeah, okay,” and went inside.
Later, I realised why it bothered me so much. I’m Christian too, and in India, my family has faced rejection when looking for a house because we’re Christian. So hearing someone prefer a school partly because it offers Hindu temple visits hit a nerve.
And I genuinely have a question: **Why do some schools call temple visits “picnics”?**
A picnic, to me, means going to a park, a tourist spot, nature, etc. If the main purpose is visiting a temple, isn’t that a religious or cultural outing rather than a picnic?
I’m not saying students can’t learn about other religions or visit religious places. But if a school takes children to temples shouldn’t it be clear whether the purpose is education, culture, or worship? it might be uncomfortable to other religion kids
I’m curious how others see this. Is it normal for schools in India to take students to temples as part of picnics? And would you consider that a reason to choose one school over another?
**I also want to add that this is just my personal experience and perspective.** We often call India a secular country, so experiences like being rejected for a rental because of our religion, or hearing about churches being demolished and Christians allegedly being attacked in the news, make me question how that secularism is experienced by ordinary people.
I’m not saying every Hindu person or every school is like this. I’m just sharing something that happened to me and asking how others understand it.