'Anti-Hindu hatred in UK schools'; Jesus Christ’s cross for King Charles; British Gujaratis in focus

Note: This podcast was done on April 21, 2023What does a new report say about anti-Hindu hatred in British schools?What relic from Jesus Christ's crucifixion will be part of King Charles's coronation?What is the status of security for the India High Commssion in London, attacked by Khalistan supporters recently?Why is there controversy over a new all-party parliamentary group on British Gujaratis?In London Live, the buzz from the UK In this episode of London Live, we discuss a report on anti-Hindu hatred in British schools, King Charles getting a part of the cross used in the crucifixion of Christ, security for the indian high commission in London, and controversy over a new all-party parliamentary group on British Gujaratis. Anti-Hindu hatred in UK schools: ReportThe Henry Jackson Society report is the first of its kind to research anti-Hindu hatred in British schools. It was done by Charlotte Littlewood from the Henry Jackson Society, who is the same person who did the report looking at the Leicester unrest last year. She interviewed 988 Hindu parents anonymously, and she also sent surveys to 1,000 schools. The findings were a bit bizarre. Less than 1% of the schools said there'd been any anti-Hindu incident whereas 51% of the Hindu parents said their child had experienced anti-Hindu hate. Only 19% of them felt that schools were able to identify what anti-Hindu hate is. The report also says that a lot of the times the quality of the teaching of Hinduism is very very poor… And that because of this, It's fostering discrimination against Hindus.Often, the report says, they're getting bullied for their religious practices as well as sometimes issues in India. They're being held responsible for the caste system in India. or the revocation of Article 370, or anything that the Indian State might have done. The report says this is very similar to anti-Semitism when a Jewish person can be discriminated against because of something the State of Israel has done or anything to do with the Israel-Palestine conflict. The main findings of the report were that most such incidents don't even get reported. The Henry Jackson Society is a sort of think tank that has been described as neo liberal and neo conservative for its right of centre views. Relics from Jesus Christ's crucifixion for King Charles's coronationThe Pope has gifted King Charles some tiny shards of wood from what's said to be the actual cross that Jesus Christ was crucified on. They're around 1cm and 5mm in size and the tiny pieces of wood are in the shape of a cross. The True Cross is said to have been found by St Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great on a pilgrimage to the holy land in AD326 and apparently all these little pieces of the crust were since shared out amongst lots of different churches in Europe. These shards have come from the Vatican. There has been some scepticism about the True Cross. John Calvin once said that there were so many of them they could fill a ship but then apparently someone else said that that's not true and there isn't enough to even build one cross. Another response from the Church was that because Jesus Christ's blood was in this cross It's made the cross indestructible so that it could be divided indefinitely. Security for India High Commission in London Labour MP Navendu Mishra tabled a written question about the security of the India High Commission premises, which were attacked recently during a Khalistan protest. Tom Tugendhat, who's in the home office managing security, eplied that the government takes the protective security of the India High Commission extremely seriously. The government remains committed to protecting the security of missions throughout the UK, Including preventing and rapidly and robustly responding to incidents such as the criminal damage and assaults on staff from the India High Commission on the weekend of the 18th of March were unacceptable. He said the police have powers to deal with such acts. However, the use of these powers is an operational matter for the police. Decisions on criminal proceedings have to be made in conjunction with the crown prosecution service. He also said that it’s long-standing policy not to provide detailed information on diplomatic security arrangements, as to do so could compromise the integrity of those arrangements. All-party parliamentary group on British GujaratisThe British-Gujereti and wider Indian community have been firing off letters of objection about the newly formed All-party parliamentary group (APPG) on British Gujaratis to Gareth Thomas, who's the chair and who is from the Labour Party. He represents Harrow West, which has a large number of Gujaratis. The protesters say that they don't want this group to go ahead and the reason is that they feel that it undermines the unity of the Indian diaspora as well as even of India. The letter writers say they were worried that it will provoke and inspire other language groups states or provinces of India to set up their own APPGs and that the British-Indian community, which is quite small will lose its strength, its political voice. Gareth Thomas, who is launching teh group on 25 April in the Houses of Parliament, told The Times of India that he is sticking to his guns and going ahead with the group. He said he had planned it for several years. He feels there is a need for it because it can address specific concerns, say, that the elderly might need or and raise issues like direct flights between London and Ahmedabad.(For the full conversation, listen to the podcast)Host: Sumit BhattacharyaAudio production: Anil Chauhan